Epilogue

     This is really different from the last wedding, Chieko thought to herself as she stood bathed in late-afternoon sunlight. The previous wedding she pondered had been Harata’s and Kat’s. Really different.

     Two months earlier she’d been standing in the front of an enormous crowd in the most lavish of the temples in Mianuus. The late spring day had been lovely and fair, a happy omen. So many people had arrived to witness the ceremony that they spilled out over the grounds of the gilded temple, even as far as the street. Most of the people that stood nearest her were Empirians- the politicians had a vested interest in the extremely famous couple. The Media had arrived in force and were jostling all over the place, vying for position.

     Kat had been radiant, dressed in a gown of white glittering with rhinestones and pearls. Harata looked unusually dignified in his tuxedo. The clothing had been donated by the wealthier and more powerful of the couple’s supporters. The two of them had not a penny to their names. Chieko had smiled to look at Kat, whose beaming countenance had shown no trace of the hardship they’d faced upon returning home.

     The eight Champions parted ways in Kinumi, after spending a nerve-wracking night at the beach house. None could predict what would become of all of them now that they’d returned to Diasminion- were they heroes or outlaws? Would their country accept them back? Did they face death, as Ayame so firmly believed?

     The Dauern left them tearfully, refusing to tell even Harata where it was she was going. She would run and hide, forever if she had to, but she was determined to survive. Mina was returning to her birthplace, having learned from Keisuke that all she’d ever owned in life had been reduced to ash. Blue and Takaeyama would go to Nira, while Kazuki was returning home to Kitaka’en. Chieko traveled with Harata and Kat back to Mianuus. The parting of the Champions had been sorrowful, strained even- they were unsure they’d ever meet again.

     For a time it seemed that they wouldn’t. While the terrible destruction that had occurred in Diasminion led many to believe the tale of the Champions, there were still quite a few people, many of them powerful, who saw the eight as dangerous criminals. Harata, with no friends, family, money or home, had been forced to take refuge wherever he could find it. There were several attempts made at his life.

     Kat had returned at first to the home of her furious parents, thinking she could convince them that her role as a Champion had been genuine. She hoped to enlist her father, in his powerful position, to aid in the cause of amnesty for herself and the others. This proved to be a mistake. Her parents placed her under house arrest immediately, and publicly announced plans to have her institutionalized. She lived out a few agonizing weeks under the watchful eyes of her father’s Angemal bodyguards, until she was finally able to escape with the help of some of the servants. She left by night, with nothing more to her name than the clothes upon her back. She joined Harata in hiding, but was quick to monopolize on her contacts in the government. She’d spent the last year tirelessly appealing to friends and acquaintances, trying to secure support for the Champions. It was due in no small part to her efforts that none of them had been arrested and executed. Kat had endured all this while living a life of abject poverty, relying on charity to survive, while nightly praying that the life of the man she loved be spared.

     Kat’s effort had begun to pay off. The couple became darlings of the Media, and their popularity rose to almost ridiculous heights. By the time of their wedding, Kat and Harata had powerful contacts in the government, and were lauded by the Lower Clans. Angemal volunteers watched over them, wealthy GelbFausts sponsored them, Empirians campaigned on their behalf. The Emperor himself acknowledged them, and was rumored to have appeared at the wedding, though not at the enormous and opulent celebration afterward.

     The newlyweds stood now in the sun, arm in arm, occasionally sharing a secret smile. Chieko’s attention was drawn away from them and back to the ceremony at hand, conducted by a man unfamiliar to her. It had been easy enough for Kat and Harata to find someone to consecrate their marriage- they’d merely asked Blue, who’d readily agreed. It hadn’t been nearly as easy for the Night’s Herald. He and Takaeyama were breaking far too many rules for their union to be sanctioned. They’d finally found a man who was willing- at a small price. The man had heard of Blue’s favor in Elysium while traveling the Plane. If Blue would agree to accept his young son as an apprentice when the boy became old enough, he would agree to perform the ceremony. The bargain was struck.

     The wedding itself was a quiet affair, attended by only Chieko, Harata, Kat, Mina, Kazuki and Kieran. It took place on the grounds of the temple in Nira, which had undergone a drastic transformation. Blue and Takaeyama rose early every morning and worked into the night restoring the buildings and clearing the grounds. The work, while by no means easy, proved to be a balm for both of their wounded spirits. While Blue fully regained that almost uncanny sense of peace that had surrounded him for most of his life, Takaeyama’s look of despair slowly faded. There were still dark days, in which Caiaphas’s threats to Blue and Takaeyama’s illness loomed large in their hearts, but the pair endured those times with patience and with hope. They stood now, hand in hand, before the unfamiliar Night’s Herald. Both wore the traditional garb of their Clans, clean but not elaborate.

     Chieko’s attention was drawn to Mina, who stood a little apart from the others. The Sabian had faced hardships as well upon returning to Diasminion. Her own home and that of her parents had been completely destroyed, leaving her without a single possession. Her grants had lapsed, but fortunately she had quite a bit of money of her own. Though the local government in her hometown had wanted to turn her over to the authorities in Mianuus, the Angemal- with whom she’d always been popular- refused. They protected her, and in return she helped them to build upon the legend of their most beloved hero, Kurokawa Keisuke.

     Mina, who was now living in a trailer somewhere in the wooded northeast while awaiting the completion of her new home, found herself facing a very important decision. What did the future hold for her? She’d been approached by some of her former clients, offering grant money for research. She’d been forced to decline, having no laboratory in which to conduct her tests. But had that been the only reason? Much as she longed to regain that quiet life of experimentation, she felt unsure of herself. She had to admit that the times she’d spent laughing and chatting with Ayame and Keisuke had changed her. She wasn’t lonely- she might have been, but the person that she missed the most was dead and gone, relegated to memory. However, despite her unbending feelings toward solitude, she was uncertain she’d be able to continue with her work in weapons development. It was the testing- how could she unflinchingly murder people who would forever remind her of Ayame? The Dauern test subjects would no longer fill the places of the people who had caused her pain. She could not superimpose them upon the images of her revenge any longer. They were innocent, and had come to represent an entirely new set of memories and emotions.

     As a result, Mina was now thrown into contemplation of a new future, a new field. An idea had taken root in her fertile mind during their journey, and the time was approaching to decide whether or not to act on it.

     Chieko, however, knew nothing of this. To her, Mina seemed the same as she had always been. For a moment, the GelbFaust’s heart ached as she imagined the space around Mina had been left empty for the only two people who had ever seemed to know the Sabian. The once unfriendly Mina had become inseparable from Ayame and Keisuke by the end of their journey. One was gone forever… and the other? Chieko held forth hope that Ayame was out there somewhere, living in anonymity. The Media had not announced her capture, and the rest of them had done all right, living in the public eye.

     Chieko wondered if Ayame had heard anything about the work she’d been doing. At first, upon her return to Mianuus, Chi had been elated at her reunion with her family and friends, but her joy was short-lived. Despite her friends’ intentions to relate to her ordeal by giving vivid accounts of the disasters that swept across Diasminion while the Champions were in the Otherlands, she felt that a great divide had come between them. Their lives were so mundane, lacking in purpose. What was worse, everyone seemed to feel that returning to that pointless drudgery would help to lift her sagging spirits. After a few days of useless sulking, Chieko awoke one morning with a plan. The task of attempting to alter an entire country had seemed so daunting she’d soon become discouraged. It suddenly dawned on her that she could start by addressing her own fears and worries. She thought long and hard about what Blue had said about making her own choices. Determined, she sat down to breakfast with her father and without hesitation asked for his help in dealing with the fear in her heart that loomed the largest.

     Kazuki. He was smiling now, that broad, enormous grin that had enchanted Chieko from the start. Chi and her father had found jobs for Kazu and his wife, Marii at factories owned by family friends. Soon after, Chieko had begun her work, telling the tale of the workers, appealing to other GelbFausts to inspect their factories and construction sites. She campaigned endlessly for more rights for the Pantagruel- safer work environments, paid holidays, and end to 14-hour shifts. She was in constant contact with Kazuki, having bought him a phone and had it installed in his cramped little home in Kitaka’en. He kept her up to date with all the news of his family, and Chieko found she quite liked Marii, a loud and brash woman with a fantastic sense of humor. Riku and Natsuno were thriving- Chieko saw to it that they were taught to read and write, and showered them both with toys and picture books. Raiken remained unchanged, the only shadow in Kazuki’s otherwise sunny life.

     Chieko thought of the year she’d spent raising awareness about the plight of the Pantagruel, and more recently, the Dauern. She’d met a lot of resistance, despite her growing support. There had been threats, prompting her father to hire bodyguards for her. She was rarely seen without them. In fact, they were lodged in Nira at present. They’d wanted to accompany her to the ceremony, but Chieko had obstinately insisted on going alone. She got on quite well with the men- they reminded her a bit of Keisuke. Despite the threats and resistance, Chieko felt positive about the future, and felt she’d come a long way. She couldn’t have done it without Kieran.

     She squeezed his hand and he smiled down at her. He’d been reluctant to aid her at first, when she’d approached him to request his help in drafting pamphlets. Eventually, he conceded. One evening, during one of her rare visits to his home, he’d confided to Chieko that it felt to him that his entire life had consisted of being pulled in opposite directions. When she asked him to elaborate, this is what he had to say:

     “Well, you see, it’s like this- take Taka, for example. I love him, but I find the things he does, the way he lives his life, morally repulsive. I agree with my parents, really… but because I love him, I don’t want to cause him pain. I can disagree, I can worry, but I can’t bring myself to hurt him. And you come here and ask me to help you shake up a system that’s existed for thousands of years. The way of the Clans is there for a reason… we have talents, and we have boundaries. Honestly, I think that if we do away with the structure entirely, society will fall apart. But I would like to see less cruelty- and if what you tell me about what they do to the Dauern is true, I cannot condone that. You want to redefine everything, but I- I want to refine it, not scrap it altogether. But I help you anyway. I find that I’m always making these decisions of compromise. I never agree with myself.”

     “Then how do you decide what to do?” Chieko had asked.

     “I follow my heart,” he’d answered softly. Reaching across the little table where they sat, he kissed her tentatively, gently at first, but with increasing passion as he felt her yield to him completely. Another compromise, another fall from grace was this love he had for the bright young woman of a different Clan.

     What the future held for any of them was a mystery. Each of the Champions clung tenaciously to their lives and their freedom, forever altered by their experience. Chieko found it disconcerting how the Task and all their trials had been such a wellspring of conflicting emotions- joy and sadness, guilt and pride, compassion and contempt. When she’d asked Blue what he thought about it at the party after Kat and Harata’s wedding, he’d answered her,

     “You’ve become aware of one of the fundamental principles of this life, Chieko- where there grow thorns, there are flowers. Where there grows bracken, there is nightshade.”

     There was a time when Chieko would have thought this unfair- what was the purpose of sorrow, when joy enriched so the lives of humanity? She still didn’t fully understand the answer to that question, but she knew that one existed. And that was something.

     The ceremony was over, and she and Kieran walked hand in hand behind the others to go and celebrate the union, and any other joy worth celebrating at the moment. Chieko was hit with the idea that all joys are worth celebrating, as all sorrows worth weeping over- even on the smallest of scales. She had little doubt that there would be plenty of both in the years to come.

     “Taka…”

     Takaeyama was struck by the unusual note in Blue’s voice. Shaking the sleep from his head, he rose and went to see what was the matter. They’d been married for two weeks, and the last of the guests having departed, life had turned back to its normal rhythm. Now, as he hurried out of the room where they slept, Takaeyama was gripped by worry.

     He found Blue standing in the entryway of their home on the temple grounds. He was holding something in his arms.

     “What’s that?”

     “Look,” Blue answered, holding the bundle out for inspection.

     “What the…”

     It was a child, merely a few months old. Asleep, it barely stirred.

     “It’s a girl,” Blue stated.

     “Yeah, but… what’s a baby doing here?”

     “These were with her.”

     Blue gestured to the pair of swords, hilts capped in onyx, that needed no identification. From the blade known as Dawn, there hung an amethyst pendant on a tarnished silver chain. Looking back at the baby girl, Takaeyama noted the cloud of black hair, the pale skin…

     “Why’d Ayame leave her with us? Why not Harata and Kat?”

     “Maybe Aya thought she’d be safer here.”

     Takaeyama shrugged. The girl woke and gave a cry. As Blue soothed her, Takaeyama noticed that her eyes were a deep shade of violet. She was a pretty baby, but what in the world were they supposed to do with her?

     “I wonder if she has a name,” Blue pondered aloud.

     “Wasn’t there a note or anything?”

     “Ayame can’t read or write. I guess she didn’t trust anyone enough to ask for help. She knew the swords and the pendant were enough to identify whose child she is.”

     Takaeyama was silent for a moment, thinking. Then a smile crept across his face.

     “You can name her,” he said with a smirk, “on one condition: you can’t decide to call her ‘Purple’ or anything like that. I don’t want my entire family named after the color spectrum.”

     Blue smiled back, and the two returned inside, the Night’s Herald carrying the girl that would become their daughter, Takaeyama bearing the swords and pendant that were her birthright.