“Life behaves much like the cycle of seasons, for better days tend to follow after poor days like how Spring would arrive after Winter. Of course, at times you have hard winters instead.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

The very first thing Cal did when she arrived back at Paradise was to stuff herself full of delicious foods at Magnus’s restaurant, as well as desserts from a bakery Aideen introduced her to, which was run by an Unliving couple and baked the best breads and pastries she had ever tasted.

She met with Aideen again that night, and they traded tales of what had happened in the year and a half she had been away. Paradise itself was virtually unbothered by the unrest in Ezram, but then again, any cultist idiotic enough to have attempted to do anything there would have found themselves out of luck within very short order. By now, even if all the neighboring countries were to have united their armed forces, Paradise would have easily taken them all on its own, with the absurd multitude of Archmagus that resided there.

From Aideen she received the news that Ergan had adjusted to life quite well in Paradise, and that he had decided to stay at the city for a while, before he would later travel the world on his own terms in the future. When Cal relayed the fragments of the unusual dream she barely remembered to the Unliving woman, the answer she received was that what she saw was probably the so-called conclave of champions, where the champions of the gods had their seats, and the green figure she mentioned at the end might have been the deity Aistrofuri himself, which would have cemented that Ergan was indeed a Champion of said deity. What intrigued Cal more was that Aideen said that if some of the champions supposedly waved to her, then she might have met with them unawares during her travels.

Cal could not put a figure to the champions that probably knew of her, though, as hard as she tried.

As collaboration with Al-Shan went, Martha and Vernon had departed towards the Empire by ship earlier in the year, and they were scheduled to return together with the Al-Shan Empire’s delegation come spring, which was the main reason Cal returned promptly to Paradise. She had strongly suspected that many of said delegation would be old friends of hers after all, which would also be a convenient time to pass on the message king Utgard of Knallzog entrusted to her.

Time passed quickly as she waited, and in the first week of spring, Aideen brought Cal towards the grand building which contained the seven - now eight - teleportation gates of Paradise. The newest gate, the one that led to Al-Shan, had been built and readied in Paradise beforehand, and now just awaited activation of its paired gate on the Empire’s side, the construction and activation of which were the main reasons Martha personally went there. Vernon just went along wherever his wife went.

As the hour struck noontime, Cal saw the first signs of activity from the gate, as a vortex of magical energies started to form in the circular frame. The vortex seemed to have run wild for a while, before it stabilized, and eventually the surface stilled as the water on a lake. Ripples spread on the stilled surface shortly afterwards, as two young men dressed in the uniform of the empire’s royal guards emerged. Both men recognized Cal by sight and gave a salute before they stepped to the side to allow others to pass through the gate.

The precaution taken reminded Cal of Halmout, so she was quite certain she would be seeing the old coot again very soon.

To her surprise, the next person who stepped through the portal was Xain himself. The young boy had grown noticeably in the two years she had not seen him, and had started to grow a sparse mustache on his upper lip. He blinked half in disbelief and half in surprise when he saw her right across from himself, and soon launched himself into an embrace which Cal accepted warmly. The boy - and he would always remain a boy to her - buried his face into her chest as he made unintelligible noises, while she rubbed his back and patted his head fondly.

Right by the portal, Cal saw another familiar face who had just palmed her face when she saw how the young emperor behaved in front of foreign dignitaries.

“Hey there, Layla.” Cal greeted the young woman, who was Halmout’s granddaughter, four years older than Xain. Her twin brother Lakhsman had walked through the portal along with her, dressed like an officer who served in the imperial navy. “No worries, I doubt this’ll go out and get gossiped about much. Other than by some really old coots who can’t die, that is.”

“Greetings to you too, Cal.” Replied the young woman fondly, if her voice still sounded a little stressed out by the circumstances. “It pleases me to see you’re in good health.”

“Your grandpa is coming too?”

“Yes, Dame Ambervale.” Answered Lakhsman to her question. He was always a formal one, that boy. “The Prime Minister and General should be here- Ah, there they are.”

The next figures that crossed the gate were all old faces Cal was well and truly familiar with. Halmout, Mustafa. and Sada were all the highest leaders back when they were still loyalists fighting a civil war, and now they served as the highest ministers of the empire in support of their young liege. Halmout had his face covered by his palms much like his granddaughter when he saw how his emperor had acted, while Mustafa suppressed a polite chuckle. Sada had no such qualms and openly giggled instead at the scene.

Shortly after, another batch of figures crossed the gate, among whom were Samira, Halmout’s daughter and a royal court healer by now, accompanied by Martha and Vernon, as well as minor dignitaries Cal only remembered vaguely.

“Nice to see you all again, in good health at that.” Cal said after Xain finally parted from her embrace. “If I may introduce, this is lady Aideen deVreys. She’s technically the one in charge here in Paradise, and this gentleman is Mayor Hans-Grell Zwergenbaum of Paradise.”

Aideen gave a wave and a smile, while Hans performed a polite bow of greetings as Cal introduced them.

“You might be more familiar with them as the Silver Maiden, and the Everlife Druid.” Cal added to the gasps of some of the Al-Shan delegation, and boggled eyes from Xain.

*******************************************

“So, tell it to me straight, how fares the empire nowadays?” Cal asked Halmout while they drank some good, hard liquor in private later that evening. Xain had been brought into a tour of Paradise by Aideen, and had most of the delegation with him, which allowed her some private time with her old comrade.

“Things went well, all considered.” Halmout admitted as he nibbled on some pastries and drank a thimble full of hard liquor to chase it down. “The reforms proceeded smoothly. A couple minor nobles had balked at them, and were made an example of, after which nobody went against the reforms. The people welcomed the peace, and the prosperity had started to flow again.”

“We are making the empire a better place for everyone, I believe, like the late emperor had wished for…” Added the old man in reminiscence. “I wish you were around to witness it with us, Celeysria.”

“Let it be, you old fart. As long as you all keep it going well, I’d be happy.” Cal replied, Her liquor, she drank out of a much larger glass mug. “Now that we have a gate set up, I can visit more often anyway.”

“A good point.” Halmout admitted. “By the way, you do realize that Xain is fifteen this year, right?”

“An age where most emperors wedded their first wives, I’m aware.” Cal responded with a more serious look. “I assume you all have already vetted and decided on a candidate for that?”

That Xain would marry early - and very likely marry many wives out of necessity, due to him being the last of his line - was well known to Cal, and she had accepted the fact that the little boy had grown. She just hoped that her old comrades had their heads screwed on straight and chose correctly for Xain’s future spouses. The late emperor was strongly against women that were forcefully inducted into the harem of nobles, and as far as she knew, Xain inherited that attitude.

“It would be Layla.” Halmout admitted bluntly. Under normal circumstances, for the Prime Minister of the empire to have made one of his own direct descendants the first wife of the emperor, would have been seen as utter nepotism, or an attempt to either curry the favor of the emperor or to control them via their spouse. In the Al-Shan Empire’s case though, Cal knew Layla well, as she had watched the girl as she grew up like sisters alongside Xain, and that they had been the best of friends since childhood. She knew Layla would not have wished any harm upon Xain. “In fact, Xain himself made the choice when we brought the matter to his attention, and Layla agreed to the proposal. The nuptials are planned to take place during the summer solstice.”

“It would please the emperor tremendously if you attended the wedding.” Halmout added almost like it was an afterthought.

“I will, for certain.” Cal said. She would have taken the long road back to the Empire if she needed to for that sort of event, much less now that they had a convenient way to travel from the Empire to the mainland. “I sense you still have another issue you want to bring up regarding this?”

“I cannot hide it from you.” Said the old prime minister resignedly. “To be honest, we had not dared to make a decision on this issue until we could consult you, since you are the person closest to a parent the emperor has.”

“Go on.”

“Well… Sada, Mustafa, and I had debated long and hard about who we should request to act as his majesty’s first nightly partner, in preparation for his marriage, but could not come to a decision.” He said, a slight blush on his old face. Halmout was always of a more conservative bent, and not one to speak too openly about matters such as sexual relations. “I wonder if you have any advice on the matter?”

“To be honest, had I not considered him like my own son, I might have volunteered for the task.” Cal bluntly admitted. “But that would not work, I would be a terrible teacher in matters of the bed to begin with. If you are not in a hurry, do you have any objections if I were to query the Silver Maiden on the matter? Someone of her age and experience might have better advice than you or I do.”

“That would be acceptable, yes.” Halmout said with a sigh. “And thank you again, Celeysria, for everything you had done for the empire. Even the trade offer the dwarven king gave us probably had been bettered by your presence there.”

“It just happened.” She replied nonchalantly. “Oh, and before I forgot, you might want to cross out Han Wen-Fu from the list.”

“Oh?”

“Apparently my coming to Knallgant spooked him out. Fucker got eaten by wyverns on his way out of town.” Said Cal. “Or at least, that’s how the official story went. I think Utgard might have done his research and removed him as a gesture of friendship.”