I dared not awake fully as I knew that when I did everything would be different. The soft bed and coverings embraced me in the darkness of sleep and her precious scent.

My whole purpose of life had been destroyed by Alis and myself. Not that I could blame Alis. Nor could I blame myself. I had finally done what I set out to do: to make Aggard smile without restraint with a warmth I longed to see again.

Not that I would ever see it from her as she was now gone.

I could tell because the warmth that had nestled in my arms last night was gone. Only the memories of that night remained, held dear deep in my heart. The faint stirring of blessing that filled me, even when I was apart from her, was gone. In its place was a dense seed of divine blessing. This was the last gift and last blessing that she could ever bless me with.

She had told me that once I left this room, it would revert into nothingness. That she had brought me to her room for our final chat, and our first, and last, night together so that I would not dwell upon her too much when I shared my bed with my other loves.

Ever since the moment I first came into this world, she had been watching out for me. She had been there in those moments of intense grief as I came to accept that I could no longer go back to my old world, nor see my sister or my niece ever again. She had guided me and helped me understand this world.

Made it so that I felt at home here.

Now she was gone.

Everything she stood for, everything she wanted, was gone.

And as she laid in my arms, just before sleep took me, she freed me of everything.

Freed me from following what others wanted from me.

Freed me from following the goals and plans she had laid out.

Freed me from the responsibility of what was to happen to this world.

In place of all of those, she gave me a single command: to live with joy, to never be lonely, to laugh with joy, to cry with sadness, to live with love. Basically, I was to live my life fully and without restraint.

Though I loved her, and wanted to be in this place, which reminded me so much of her, I knew I could not spend my life here. That too she made me promise. It was my final promise to her. One I gave to her as we shared our final kiss and our farewells, before I fell asleep holding her tight to me.

As much as I would love to remain entombed within this soft tomb of Aggard’s I knew I was being selfish. But I wanted to be selfish for a while longer, so I lay in the depth of her scent and darkness. My mind relived my life in this world and how Aggard had impacted it all.

Though I was warm and filled with a desolate happiness, wrapped up in this soft tomb, I knew if I did not depart, the room would collapse, taking me with it into nothingness. Then Alis herself would be left alone.

With a slowness and an effort that bordered upon almost impossible, I forced my way through the softness of the tomb, allowing myself to be reborn. Unlike my sister’s child, I didn’t scream when I escaped the tomb. Behind me, the bed departed into a formless void. Only the small patch of ground I was on and the door remained.

Even the air was tainted by the void I found myself in. Despite that, there was nothing I could do. Laying on the floor, I felt as weak as my sister’s babe had been after it had just been born. Not being able to do much else, I lay there staring at the crack of light shining beneath the door.

Meaningless time passed with me just laying there staring at that single crack of light. That one bit of something that invaded this nothingness.

I finally built up the strength to crawl towards that crack of light.

No matter how far I seemed to crawl, that crack of light was always out there. Never within reach. Always mocking me with its promise of a new life, if only I could reach it. But I couldn’t.

I struggled to my feet.

Starting with uneasy waddling steps, I headed towards that crack of light which promised so much. Each step I took became stronger and more resolute than the one before. Finally, the crack started to crawl closer to me. With renewed effort, I forced myself to get faster. My stride lengthened. I started running.

Finally, the crack rushed towards me.

As we headed towards each other, both of us eager for the other, I heard a faint voice calling for me. At first I believed it to be Aggard’s voice calling for me or saying her farewells once more. But I knew she had gone. What was left remained only in two places. That single seed laying inside me, waiting for the time to sprout and grow into a wondrous sight. And within Alis.

After Aggard, it had been Alis who had stood with me the longest in this world. Only she was not jealous of the blessings that Aggard had granted me. Only she stood alongside me despite the immense pressures put upon her by the others who wished for me to turn my back upon Aggard because I was inconvenient to them.

Only she wholeheartedly supported me without anything else to gain.

Hallvard did so because Aggard told him so.

Celameth did so because I would bring Aggard’s plans to fruition.

Alis stood by my side, sheltering me, at other times being sheltered by me. We grew closer as the forces against us grew more incessant.

Yes, it was Alis and Alis alone who accepted all of who I was.

And it was to Alis whom I rushed.

And it was Alis whom I heard calling for me.

And it was to Alis whom my heart belonged now Aggard had gone.

As my legs started to feel weary after so much running, that crack finally caught me.

I burst through the crack and into the light.

There, in the light, was Alis. Her pretty freckled face, smiling as she saw me run towards her. Her hair was now longer framing that beautiful face of hers, easily reaching her shoulders. As I rushed towards her, into her open loving arms, I no longer cared I had nowhere to go. For I had reached what was important to me: Alis herself.

The pain of losing Aggard was still there, and would always be there, but for now I had someone else important to me: Alis.

And together we would… I didn’t know what we would do.

But I knew we would do it together.

†

Celameth awoke from the deep slumber that accompanied the removal of her Aggard’s blessing. She reached for the familiar feeling of Aggard she treasured deep inside for the past seven centuries and found it gone.

For the first time since long before the fall of the Sillenal Empire, Celameth felt alone.

Was alone.

She looked around her room. Even though she had slept in here for the last two hundred years, seeing the strange room with its otherworldly furniture and decoration was jarring. Especially now, as even the one thing which tied her to this world at large, Aggard’s blessing, had gone.

It was not Aggard’s fault that she had designed this room as she had. She had done it to welcome the hero who would help save Aggard’s legacy. And as such, Celameth was happy to sacrifice her comforting room for this strange one with its unwelcoming, plain white blocky furniture, which hid things away. Most of the furniture had no real reason for existing. Even after two centuries, she only used two draws to put all of her worldly goods in. That large, tall doorway unit which dominated the rest of the furniture was empty.

Only the bed was exception. It alone was not unwelcoming, or plain, or colourless. It was much softer than any other bed she had slept in. It was also covered with a thick covering which kept her warm on cold nights, and which she slept on during hot nights, as the heat would be insufferable otherwise. During the time both Klarric and Alis slept in this bed along with her, it had seemed slightly too small, but she welcomed the company. It made her feel part of something which she had long since forgotten existed.

Something she treasured.

Something she needed now, more than ever now that Aggard had gone.

As she lay in her bed, she listened out for the sounds she hoped to hear: that of Klarric and Alis in the small home atop her tower. But everything was as silent as it had always been. That made the missing blessing of Aggard feel even more lonely.

She longed for Klarric and Alis.

On the floor, next to the bed, were her clothes. Clothes she had placed there before she underwent the deblessing. She put them on. They felt strange. Too big in certain places and too tight in others. This was all down to her rejecting her blessed body.

In the stillness, she wandered through her small home. Dotted throughout the place, she saw little signs that Klarric and Alis had left before they departed. It both made her feel happy and sad that they were still there, in the same exact place as when she underwent the deblessing.

The two of them existed, but they were not here now.

They should’ve long since been here.

Celameth trudged up the stairs to where Alis had often stood in the weeks before she departed. As she opened the door from the enclosed glass room to the platform around the outside, a thick wall of acrid smoke forced its way down her throat and wet her eyes.

From up high, Celameth looked down at the ruined mess of the City of Rynstowe. Thick clouds of smoke rose from the burnt remnants of what had once been a thriving city, a city that she had mistakenly believed to be invulnerable.

The merciless sun shone down from a troubled grey sky upon a broken Celameth, and the ruins of what had once been her home.