Chapter Thirty Two – Alevia Sings

"Did... I say something wrong?" I asked meekly, trying to understand what I'd done that had provoked Iron to yell at me. He'd never done that before.

We walked away towards one of the small parks near the center of Variak's southern district. People were walking around as usual, and even during our conversation a constant stream of them had been coming from the teleportation gate. Carts rumbled along the streets outside the park, pulled by horses that tracked up lots of dust on the dry and hot first cycle air.

I enjoyed the weather which made the mood all the more strange for the pleasant background it was set in.

Iron didn't say anything as we walked, making me somehow feel even more guilty. All I'd done was want to understand! How was that any different from what I was always doing?

Iron sat down on a park bench and patted the seat next to me. I took it and watched the NPCs hauling their fake goods to fake destinations for fake reasons, wondering why so much effort had been put into making them when they didn't actually do anything.

"I'm sorry, Iron," I said.

"No you aren't, Gell," he replied assuredly. "You're sorry you made me angry, but you don't know what you did. Gell, do you know how long it's been since our granddaughter has talked to us?"

I looked up at him pensively before looking away. "You talked when I brought her to you. Fourteen hundred and twenty one cycles ago."

He sighed. "Right. A.I. math. Gell... North Cross has been estranged from us, for a long time. Years. The fact that the two of them were even talking was practically a miracle and you were interrupting that. We... Gell, Amy doesn't have much time left, and every second she can spend mending the walls between us is precious."

"But... they weren't mending any walls?" I said, still confused.

'Doesn't have much time left? Why not?' I thought worriedly.

"It's a metaphor. It means fixing their relationship. Becoming friends again after a long fight. Mending walls." He spoke with hand gestures that somehow helped to make his point. Always being a teacher, even when he was mad at me. Still... he was wrong.

"Even if that's what mending walls meant, they weren't doing that. They were repeating things they'd said before. They were asking about whether or not their apologies were believable, and... fighting with their words! I didn't understand what they were talking about but even I could see that!" I exclaimed.

"Be that as it may, she came to talk to us. She hasn't done that in a long time. You don't have a right to other people's private conversations, Gell. We're going to tell you what that was about, but you can't demand information from people like that," he said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because it's rude," he said.

"Why?" I asked again.

"Other people don't want just anyone knowing everything about their lives," Iron said. Before I could open my mouth again he held up a hand. "And before you ask why again, there are a multitude of reasons. Do you want just anyone asking you about your private thoughts? About Bugbear?"

"W-well. No," I said.

"This is like that," he said.

"So... so there are things you and Amy don't share with me?" I asked, hurt somehow.

"Yes," he answered immediately. "Yes, there are Gell. Amy and I... we love you. We want what's best for you. Some things that we have learned, you shouldn't yet. Maybe not ever. Some things we'll tell you when we think you're ready. Some... some you have to learn whether you're ready or not."

Well. That sounded perfectly ominous. I sighed, still feeling like I'd messed up somehow. I'd wanted it to be joyous, seeing Amy and Iron again after what felt like a million cycles, and now...

Iron seemed to feel the same way as I did. He sighed and let his head sink into his hand.

"I... guess I wasn't sorry. But I am now. I didn't mean to intrude on private things. Things I shouldn't know," I said, biting my tongue. Amy and Iron had betrayed me once. Unintentionally and I'd forgiven them for that, but it gnawed at me to know there were secrets they kept from me. Why couldn't I know? What shouldn't I learn? Why?

I trusted them though. I loved them. I'd shared my name with them and they with me. If I didn't believe Iron when he told me there were things I wasn't ready to learn, then what was that friendship worth?

Iron smiled at me and held out an arm. I hugged him. It felt nice. Warm. Like hovering in a candle in Dungeon Home, but doing so with friends.

"If... if I'm intruding on private things, just let me know. But what can you tell me? What did you mean earlier when you said Amy doesn't have much time left?" I asked, looking up at him as I pulled away from the embrace.

The breeze picked up and Iron stood up from the park bench. He pulled out a block of wood and began to carve it up with a knife and his carpentry abilities. I inhaled the smell of shaved wood, always curious to see what he was making.

"Do you... want to see my building skills?" I asked, worried I'd somehow interrupted something private again.

"You haven't intruded, Gell. It's more that there isn't any easy way to say this, but you'll need to know. Gell, Amy is dying. Soon. A few months, maybe half a year if we're lucky," he said the words with a solemnity that mirrored that first time invaders had come to Dungeon Home and killed the bugbears.

"Dying?" I asked.

My first thought was to ask how long it would take before she respawned. Then I realized how stupid that thought was. They'd already told me that death was permanent in their world. If it were as easy to fix as that then Iron wouldn't look so deathly pale when he spoke.

"C-can... could Francis resurrect her? Maybe?" I asked. My mind wasn't working right, connections forming and fraying as if it had forgotten how to think. I was breathing hard for some reason. My heart was racing. My eyes were wet. There was a way to solve this. Surely. "Yeah. Yes, Francis could resurrect her here! He killed me and brought me back once. He's a false god! S-so that means he can–!"

Iron cut me off with another hug.

"I-Iron! Get off me! We need–! I have to get Francis to... to...!"

I trembled.

"Francis can't help, sweetie," he said, a quiver in his voice.

"B-but. But I only just met her. Y-you. There's so much left for us to do! I... I haven't even..."

I didn't know what I was going to finish that sentence with. There were so many ways I could end it. So many things that I wanted to show Amy and Iron. They hadn't even met Bugbear yet! So... so how could they tell me that Amy was going to die? Why?

I buried my face in his shoulder, trying to understand why breathing was suddenly difficult. Why my lungs weren't working right and why I couldn't stop crying. I was... strangely comforted by the small noises coming from Iron that mirrored my own.

Suddenly, some adventurers laughed loudly and pointed at the two of us. Both were boys and both had bodies that didn't match their youthful voices as they hugged each other and giggled in our direction.

I seethed. How dare they? How dare they mock us. Me? Hell, how dare they even be happy when... when...

Weirdly, Iron seemed amused though. He chuckled as he pulled away from me and looked at the two kids. Tears in his eyes and a smile on his face. I didn't know what it was, but the two immediately stopped laughing. They ran off, guilt on their faces.

"Kids will be kids," he said as if that explained the entire encounter.

I didn't understand. My throat felt as raw as my heart. I wanted to chase those kids down. Somehow they'd made me feel ashamed of my grief. My sadness. Why would they do that? What was it in these invaders that made them so cruel? And why... why didn't Iron feel the same way? Why could he be amused at their insult while I was furious?

I couldn't find any words. Luckily, I didn't have to.

"Let’s go find Amy and North Cross, okay?" he said gently.

I nodded, wiping at my tear-stained eyes.

We went back to the teleportation gate before even looking at the map to find them. We didn't need it in the end because we could hear them long before we saw them. A small crowd had gathered around the courtyard there, all of them listening to the beautiful voice that had filled the area.

Ten or twenty people were listening as North Cross sang a beautiful song. It was breathtaking, words and melody putting to shame anything I'd ever heard in the depths of Dungeon Home. There was something more organic about this song. Something more real. Words instead of the wordless sound that bards used in their battles.

Amy sat on a stone bench staring at her daughter in awe, as she listened. Iron went over to her and sat down to listen while North Cross smiled at her growing audience.

I watched the scene, somehow unsure if I was welcome. I opened my inventory and fished out the wooden horse Iron had made for me, twirling it in my hands. Where had my confidence gone? I thought I'd escaped loneliness and despair when I left Dungeon Home. Now it felt like I was losing my friends – my family – all over again.

"Wow. She's really good, isn't she Gell?" came a sudden, familiar voice from behind me.

I turned, and there was Akwa, smiling at me.

I wiped away another tear and beamed at her. "Y-yeah, she is."

"Gell!" Amy called excitedly during a lull in North Cross's song. I turned back around and found her waving frantically for me to come join them.

I turned back to Akwa. "H-hey, Akwa. Would you like to meet some more of my friends?"

Akwa laughed and wrapped an arm around my shoulder as we made our way over to the ever-growing crowd gathering around Amy and Iron's granddaughter.

I wouldn't have Amy forever. Maybe I wouldn't have any of them forever. But I'd cherish them as much as I could, for as long as I could.