{-Llewel-}

He couldn’t recall anyone asking so many questions with such persistence since Myr saw one of the first year’s event NPCs. What felt like the only difference was that Myr had been focused on trying to see if Duuzlo knew how long she’d stay, or if she’d be able to leave the players for a little while; Jun, on the other hand, were hardly as specific to a particular person or place. Somehow she never grew tired of answering him, even while his parents tried to say he’d asked enough.

Phanes was waiting for them all when they returned. He gave them a wide smile. “I’ve gotten everything else prepared and ready. I was even able to borrow a phonograph and some records so you all had something to listen to.”

“You didn’t have to go through all that effort,” the woman remarked with a small smile of her own. “I’m sure you’ve already got a lot of things you need to take care of.”

“As long as I’m remembering correctly, you’re also going out of your way to help me,” Phanes pointed out. “It’s the least I could do.”

“Do you two always help him?” Myr prompted.

The man nodded. “We don’t need to, really, but we think of it as our way to give back to the priests who used to work here. They helped us when we were in a rough spot—even if, by then, this place was in hardly better shape than it is now.”

The woman frowned, carefully running her hand along a broken windowsill. “I can’t begin to understand why the people of Kehnore would just abandon this place. It’s like a little paradise compared to the world around us.”

“But Kehnore’s held the reputation it has for far longer than a couple of decades,” Phanes mused solemnly. “As much as I hate to admit it, I believe everything like this was doomed here from the beginning. We’re probably lucky that things aren’t worse.”

Jun didn’t seem to understand a single bit of what they were talking about. “When are we gonna be able to go inside? I wanna help! I can’t help if we’re all standing out here!” He mumbled some things before declaring, “And it wants to help, too!”

“Well, then, I won’t hold back such enthusiasm,” Phanes decided with a hint of amusement. He pushed open the doors to the temple, but none of them entered yet. “There’s several possible points you could work on. You don’t have to worry about knowing what you’re doing—I believe a group of players just stood there until it was ‘done.’ They made it a lot easier for players since, well, we can’t exactly expect them to know how to repair a temple.” He glanced at the twins. “That should apply to the two of you, too. It worked for Kaerio, anyway, when he stopped by to lend a hand…”

“So you’re not players?” the woman asked, glancing at the twins.

“You could say they have a rather personal reason for helping restore the temple,” he responded simply.

She understood exactly what he meant, and continued to give the twins disbelieving stares. They all wandered inside—where they could pretend no one would overhear them—before she made sure of her suspicions. “You’re Beithanas?”

They nodded in unison.

“Mama, what does that mean?” Jun prompted.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“It means these two are very important people,” the man said in a mix of disbelief and reverence. “Not only are they Emmyth’s descendants, but they also helped us be able to understand what’s going on around us.”

“Does this mean I get to become friends with heroes?” Jun gave them both excited looks. “Not just adventurers, but heroes?”

“I guess you could call us that,” Myr decided with a shrug.

“Casrane did most of the work,” Llewel remarked. “We were just as clueless as you were…”

Phanes, perhaps understanding this wasn’t really the kind of topic they were prepared to explain, said, “Players, why don’t you start over there? Twins, I’ll join you by that wall soon. Jun, there’s a box in my office full of snacks and refreshments, can you help your parents get them?”

They all nodded and went to their separate tasks. It wasn’t long before they all got familiar with the work they were doing; conversations popped up and faded out, the phonograph doing little to drown them out. Llewel listened but never participated in one himself.

“You know, this kinda reminds me of that Christmas play we had to put together one year.”

“The Christmas play you told no one you weren’t going to show up for until the day of?”

“That’s my brother’s fault.”

“So what could he have brought you to that was appropriate and worth missing the play for?”

“First of all, anything is worth missing hearing the same old story five thousand times. Second, he took me to his friend’s house where I wiped the floor with all of them in Alley Fighter.”

“Somehow I find it hard to believe an eight-year-old beat a group of teens ten years older than her…”

“He still has the records! I’ll make him take a picture and send them to you when we get off here.”

That faded, leading into something else.

“How many times have we done this, Phanes? Do you think we may actually be close to restoring the temple?”

“I’ve been holding my breath for the last couple that it might be the last, and it has yet to happen. Less and less players seem to even be coming in this area, much less deciding to speak with me. But… I can feel it this time. I know we’re close.”

“What do you plan on doing then?”

“Well, I suppose, it won’t change how important the people of Kehnore think Emmyth is. No matter what, though, I know it’s going to be here for all those who need it.” Phanes glanced at the twins. “Like Nafrius was for her, all those years ago.”

Myr, though after a moment of consideration, asked, “Exactly how long have you known Duuzlo, Phanes?”

He grew a wistful smile. “I believe it was around thirty years ago. I’d always lived in Kehnore, but I made frequent trips to Nafrius. We talked a bit then, though there never seemed much to talk about. When I found the pendants the two of you now wear, I went straight to him to find he’d befriended a descendant of Emmyth. I kept visiting them, even after her death, up until Duuzlo gave the necklaces to the two of you. After that, I had too much work of my own to visit, though we still kept in touch.”

Llewel had never intended on becoming a part of any kind of conversation; he just wanted to get the work done. Yet there was another question nagging him now, one he didn’t think about before asking. “Does she have a name? Our mother, I mean.”

Phanes shook his head. “They never gave her one. At least, not officially. One of the developers, given how Duuzlo wanted a name to go with the memories of her, said to call her Allisa.”

Now not only did they have an identity to the woman in the picture in Duuzlo’s office, but a name, too; though he couldn’t say it helped anything. That had never been the part of the discovery that kept him wondering about it… it was what could’ve led up to that moment.

Llewel couldn’t remember anything happening, but… he knew they hadn’t gotten far into Anseshara. Anything could’ve been possible between where their journey stopped and where the game was intended to end.

“Do you have more stories you could tell us?” Myr didn’t seem bothered by anything he was. Or, perhaps, this was her way of trying not to think about it.

Phanes smiled. “I’ve got plenty more I’d be willing to share. But you’ve got to remember to keep working—this place isn’t going to restore itself!”