Soup tastes good when you’re smack dab in the middle of a wintry wonderland, with absolutely no form of heating besides a small hearth. Ren sips spoonful after spoonful, only flinching at the initial burns on his tongue and lips. This is wonderful stuff, made of herbs with names he cannot pronounce for the life of him, as well as some chunks of Bugbear meat.

The kids were kind enough to let the Gyldon villagers tap into their food and medicinal resources. The scent wafting from the Duskbells hung up around the temple should keep the plague away too. Apart from those, the children offered up their beds as well, to aid in the recovery of the injured.

And that is how Ren finds himself sitting beside one of these cots, thin beds made of leaves from various plants. Penny is still asleep, but her expression is more of serenity than of agony. Lady Gisella did prescribe a day or so of rest, without any vigorous activity, till all her pain is gone.

Ren slurps up the last of his soup, spoon scraping the rough surface of the bowl in want of more. He sighs—food’s limited, and whilst there’s plenty in the storeroom, they should certainly be frugal with it.

A sudden groan has him turning to the occupant on the bed. Penny stirs, blinking her bleary eyes, her dreamy expression looking like she’s woken up from a deep slumber. Which, honestly, she just has.

“R-Ren?” Her voice is groggy as well, rough as sandpaper.

“Morning, Sleeping Beauty,” Ren says flatly. “How’s your sleep?”

“Great. I totally slept like a baby.” Penny props herself up on her elbow, and she rubs her eye. “Anyway, what did I miss? Where the heck am I? And why do I have a bandage on my head?”

“Long story short, Berg clobbered you, left you out cold for, like, hours. I was getting tired of carrying you.”

Penny smirks. “Well, am I glad to have a friend like you.”

Three shapes appear at the door—two of which are faces that Ren recognises at first glance. Tiv and Zan, and another boy whom Ren has never seen before. Tiv and Zan race up to Penny’s bedside.

“You’re awake! Are you okay?” Tiv asks.

“Do you need us to call Lady Gisella?” Zan asks.

Penny shakes her head, chuckling. “Nope. I’m doing fine. Thanks for that, by the way.” She peers over at the new boy, who’s hiding behind Zan. “And who might you be?”

“He’s Wax, but he’s a bit of a scaredy-cat,” Zan says, slinging an arm around her friend. She seems to say that about all her compatriots, or just Wax and Tiv. “Say hi, Wax. Don’t be rude.”

Wax offers a shy wave.

Penny smiles. “Nice to meet you too, Wax.”

Wax ducks behind Zan, and Zan lets out a hearty laugh. Tiv grins.

“Oh yeah, Gridel asked me to tell you that we’re setting off the day after tomorrow,” Zan says, turning to Ren. “Uh… you, her, Vane, and Penny. We wanted to go, but…” She folds her arms, looking a little disgruntled. “Gridel wouldn’t let us.”

“Of course not. You’ve seen how fearsome the Horseman is,” Penny says. “You’ve seen just what he can do to Gyldon.”

Zan nods. “Yeah, so… that’s why she gave us another important task.”

Ren tilts his head in puzzlement. “And… that is…?”

A smile spreads across Zan’s face, from ear to ear. “She told us that we should stay back and protect this place. As the rightful inhabitants of this temple. If the Horseman ever comes looking for us, then it’s our duty to make sure that no one dies.”

“That’s a good goal,” Penny says, reaching over and ruffling their hair. Even Wax sticks his head out tentatively for the same gesture, which she accepts. “Make sure everyone gets along, all right? The children, and the villagers.”

“Yeah. Garciel and Ginger are already making friends with Bas and Jic,” Zan says. “And soon, Gust and Gummy will too. You know how Gummy’s really shy and everything.”

Ren has literally never heard of these names in his life either. “Then maybe they’d get along well with Wax too.”

Wax shakes his head vigorously, gaze cast down at the ground. Penny laughs.

“Well, we’ll see how it goes,” she says. A sudden growl has her peering from one face to another. “Um, you wouldn’t happen to have some soup left over, do you?”

“We have a lot!” Tiv says, eyes sparkling with excitement. “Oh, and Bas made more bread. Bas’ bread is the best in the world! I’m going to bring some over right now.”

With that, Tiv sprints out through the door, with Zan right on his heel, claiming that she’s the faster runner. Wax, confronted with the loss of his human shields, proceed to follow his friends out of the room, leaving just Penny and Ren alone with some of the other resting villagers.

“I guess I’m getting the special treatment,” Penny says, leaning back against the bed. “So, uh, we’re in the Horseman’s palace, I assume.”

“Yeah, and you heard what Zan said. We’re going to get rid of his heart the day after tomorrow,” Ren says. “Sylph told me that he’s holed up on top of Drasil Mountain, apparently.”

“Seriously? I hate that place,” Penny mutters. She lets out a deep breath, nostrils flaring. “It’s filled with ghouls that could grab you from anywhere, and corpses that… yeah. I didn’t have the most fantastic time.”

Neither did Ren, but this is something that they have to do. To get one step closer to bringing peace to Zenthos, they must confront this Horseman. Frosgott has suffered enough, too. Beville, the kids, even Hal, and Gyldon…

“Ren.”

Ren faces Penny, suddenly on edge at the seriousness of her tone. His friend’s not looking at him, instead staring down at her hands on her blanket. She worries her lip between her teeth, as if wanting to say something, but not having the courage to.

“What is it?” Ren prompts.

“About that… that thing you saw in the forest,” Penny says. “You know, the portal.”

Right. That. Ren did mention something like that back when they were about to fight Berg. Guilt wells up in his chest. Well, now’s a good a time as any to get into the details.

“What was that about?” Penny asks. “I thought it was just a… a magical mirror or, like, some ancient artifact. But now you come and tell me that that thing is a portal that we can use to get home…”

“It’s just a rumour,” Ren says. Which he thinks is true. “Betty told me back when we were in that Selkie tribe place.”

“The Triclaw Isles?”

Ren nods. “There was this rumour floating around that there was a forest that would swallow people up. That people who go in would never come back out. And it was somewhere in Frosgott.”

Penny hums in acknowledgement. “You mean to say that…”

“That portal could very well be what caused them to disappear. Maybe we could have used it to get back to our own world.”

“And leave these people here? Suffering?”

“That’s why I didn’t say anything,” Ren says. “I wanted it to be our last resort. If, for some reason, the Sun’s Blessing prayer doesn’t work after we got rid of Pandora’s Citadel, then… at least, we have another plan.”

“It’s not failsafe, Ren, no matter how you look at it. We don’t even know whether that rumour’s real. We don’t even know whether that’s a portal or not. It’s just some strange thing that we found in the middle of a forest.”

That’s true. Ren cannot argue against that. The accounts were of people disappearing, but not of anyone ever making it anywhere. That said, whoever did wind up in another world, they probably wouldn’t have been able to write home about it either.

“It’s still our best shot at getting home, unless you want to stay here all your life? In this world where danger lurks behind every corner?” Ren counters.

Penny shakes her head. “You know, I don’t think that’s the worst idea. Look, Zenthos is only this dangerous because we’re caught in an apocalypse. If we can get rid of the Horseman and free the people—”

“Then it’s a better place to live than back in Britain? Is that it?”

Penny bites her lip, and she doesn’t speak, but her silence says all Ren needs to know. It’s true that Penny’s been more cheery than usual since she’s arrived in Zenthos. More so than she was at home, to the point where it almost sounded fake, like she was pretending. Ren chalked it up to the fact that she’s finally walked into a world she is so familiar with. The mythological creatures, the demons, the land of fantasies.

He also attributed her spiritedness to the novelty of it all, to Penny finally having something to do, unlike how it was back in their little, sleepy town. But to consider staying here for all eternity…

“What about our parents?” Ren presses. “And, like, our old life? You weren’t thinking of just leaving them behind, were you?”

Penny meets his gaze evenly. “Truth to be told, I—”

“We’re back!”

Ren stiffens, glancing over at the three children who have returned. Penny plasters on her award-winning smile as easily as an actress would. Being the mayoress’ daughter, she’s probably used to it. Schooling her expressions and appearing presentable, with the snap of a finger.

Zan carries a tray in her hands, large, fluffy buns bouncing and sliding about on it, and Tiv and Wax crowd around her. Ren finds himself on the receiving end of excited squealing, and buns bigger than his hands shoved towards him.

Amidst the cheering, Ren meets Penny’s gaze. This conversation is not done, and they’re continuing it later.

*

“Vane.”

Vane doesn’t even so much as flinch as Ren calls his name from the entrance of the archives. The musty room is even farther underground than the sacrificial chamber—behind a locked door that Hal apparently kept the key to in his chambers.

With Zan’s help, they managed to locate it and unlock the door, permitting their entrance into the space. Little did Ren know that the door opened up to an extensive library of books. Tomes fraying at the seams, their spines riddled with creases, pages yellowed and torn. This was all before Penny woke up, though. Ren came down with Vane whilst Gridel helped with the medic efforts on the topside.

Vane shuts his book, tucking it under his arm. He turns to face Ren. “How may I help you, Master Ren?”

“Um, I just wanted to ask what you found down here,” Ren says. “Like, I haven’t seen you anywhere else, so I figured you were reading here the whole time.”

“Indeed. I was.” Vane nods. “I have learned quite a bit about Frosgott’s history. More than I could from records in Gravelle or Iletchia.”

Of course, this is Frosgott’s archive, after all. It kind of makes Ren wonder why these books weren’t kept in Gyldon. There is a castle there, where Ren would have assumed that important documents were to be kept.

“Did they say anything of interest?”

Vane’s lips are pulled into a troubled frown. “Well… it did mention that Sylph used to be the queen of this kingdom, and that it was from upon Mount Gyldon that She ruled. And that the warrior who led the first attack against the Horseman of Pestilence was… Ifrit.”

The spirit in his staff, huh? The big, fire dragon. “Ifrit was one of the four warriors from the past, right? I think it was Triton who told us that? Along with Mira, Claymore, and Aerius.”

“Quite.” Vane nods. “Ifrit took charge of eliminating the Horseman from his area, but…”

The Horseman is still alive, and still enabling Minister Berg to commit all her heinous deeds, going so far as to strike a deal with her. What’s up with that anyway? Why does the Horseman want to ally with a mere mortal?

“It appears that he, like the other warriors, did not manage to free Frosgott from the Horseman’s influence,” Vane says. “However, it did say that Ignis dealt the Horseman a terrible blow before he perished.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Horseman’s power was severely weakened, and it retreated into its palace for two-hundred-and-fifty years, before it began spreading the plague once more.”

“But how did it…”

“That is where the records end.” Vane shrugs. “I cannot find any more texts relating to Ignis’ battle with the Horseman.”

From whatever Ren deduced, it is highly likely that the cause of the plague starting up again is, well, because of Genmiol’s interference. She must have made some sort of deal with the Horseman then, something that only she could offer.

“There is one more intriguing thing, though, that I found,” Vane says. His tone has turned grim, his frown growing deeper. “But I… I can’t tell it is truth or fiction. And I’m reluctant to share it, but…”

“But?”

“In one of the books here,” Vane says, gesturing at what looks to be a file on one of the higher shelves, “the names of the four rulers of Zenthos were mentioned.”

The four rulers—he must mean the four spirits, right? Ignis, Sylph, Aqua, and—

“Terra.”

Ren blinks. “Huh?”

“The last spirit is Terra, according to the book.” Vane looks away. “Not Gaia.”

“Wait, what?” Ren tilts his head. “What is that supposed to mean? Isn’t Gaia—”

“She is,” Vane says, cutting him off. “Gaia is the spirit who protected Gravelle for centuries. The archives must have gotten it wrong. We came from Gravelle, and we know who the spirit was.”

Ren nods. They did see the statue of the bear, the one with glowing emerald eyes when She speaks. Everyone called Her Gaia, and She never did correct them, did She?

But something tickles the back of his neck, the same kind of feeling that nags at him when he forgets a piece of homework. Or when he forgets that he’s on classroom-cleaning duty. It’s a bad feeling that pools at the pit of his gut, but Ren just has no idea what it entails.

“Well, it is of little matter,” Vane says. “For now, we must focus on defeating the Horseman of Pestilence.”

Then, Ren hears Gridel’s voice floating from the top of the stairs—it seems that dinner is ready. He jerks his chin at the door.

“Let’s go. They’re waiting for us.”

Together, he and Vane head out of the archives. As they trot up the stairs, Ren is acutely aware of his presence, but not in the way that he felt before. His heart used to beat faster when the man stood closer to him, or even walked beside him. But now? The feeling has faded.

The prince of Gravelle is now nothing more than a friend, a companion on this fateful journey to cleanse Zenthos. Not that Ren expected his little crush to get anywhere anyway. Speaking of which…

“How do you feel about Penny and I leaving?”

“Leaving?” Vane asks. “You mean, leaving Zenthos?”

“Yeah. We came here with the Sun’s Blessing, right? That might mean that… we can use that way to get home as well.”

“I’m not saying that it’s impossible. In fact, once the sky clears up, I’m sure that you will be able to use the prayer that transported you here to return,” Vane says. “And besides, you should go back to your world. It is where you belong, and I do believe that your families are worried about you.”

“But if we go back, I’m not sure we can return,” Ren says. “And if we can’t return…”

“That means your duty here is done. And all that remains is for you to go back to where you rightfully belong.”

“Will you be…” Now, this is an awkward question to ask, but Ren is curious about his answer. “Will you miss us?”

“It would be inhuman to not miss treasured companions.” Vane’s eyes glimmer. “Yet, if we are to keep you here, then it is pure selfishness on our part.”

Well, isn’t that the most selfless thing that Ren’s heard. A smile dances on his lips, hidden in the darkness of the unlit stairway. They should really go get some dinner, and after that, they’ll turn in for the night. Tomorrow, they’ll prepare to seek out the Horseman.

And the day after, get rid of that monstrosity once and for all.