56.3 Triumphant Return

General Summary

Day 1112

The night is just beginning when I the sense of warm, comforting darkness falls over me and I smell rain in the air.   For the first time in 2000 years, the Empress is on this side of the Barrier. And of course she has come with Catena and Shrouded Petrichor, carrying many of my family members with her. Alder smoothly detaches himself from Shrouded Petrichor’s shadow and careens into me. Miriam follows shortly afterwards, looking radiant. Behind her, an awkward young elvish girl hovers nearby…it seems that Miriam was successful across the barrier.   Then, Alwen gives me a smirk and kneels formally, with all the respect a stranger would give the Imperator. I bow in return and address him by his full title, with all the respect a stranger would give to my poor bureaucratically-ensnared apprentice. We laugh and embrace before he steps back, eager to examine my wings. He chatters about how strong I am, how much force it must have taken to rip off a wing when I fought a scion, and wondering at how I could possibly have more energy than him now. And indeed, I knew that I’d grown stronger than Alwen and his impressive energy reserve, but seeing it in comparison to my own is astounding.   Kadia, too, steps forward to greet me and it’s a sharp reminder that Hella is still asleep within their shared body.   And finally, Doraal. Hanging back, waiting for everyone else to have their turn. The power of being a Hand has settled well over him and he is more confident, more stable, stronger overall. But we weep freely as we hold one another.  

Are those wings of yours strong enough to carry me?

  I laugh — my wings are strong enough for everyone.   As the others settle in and have their reunions with everyone who stayed behind (and meet everyone who has joined us), Doraal and I remain at the top of the ziggurat together, quietly enjoying being together again. Mistress isn’t back yet — Uncle Red has his own ways across the mountains and so would not have been coordinating with anyone else to make the journey. When she arrives, I intend to ask both her and Doraal to become my Hands, not Kaide’s.   The twilight glow is just peeking over the Eastern horizon when he leans into me and asks if I need to stay here to host guests or if I could show him the orchard he’s heard so much about. Dreamfall might be home, but it is not *mine* to host. Andstella will be fine without me…   We race the sunrise and stay ahead of it, arriving in several hours at the orchard. It’s a journey that once would have taken many days on foot, and now it is an effortless few hours of flying. Elvish settlements have sprung up around the orchard in an ancient Imperial style, all of it coexisting peacefully. Several winged elves come out to greet us, led by Dal — now with wings. He tucks them back as though to hide them from me and make me guess. His wings are beautiful deep red with many many cells in his membranes — a pomegranate!   He and Doraal greet one another happily — it’s been even longer for them, I realize. Dal left him first and has been here ever since.   There are about 1500 winged elves here now, and still more in Urna’Low who might join in the summer. Some of the winged elves will go back to fetch them and persuade them to come to this new home — Avan’Vir. Song Fruit, a sister city to Avan’Al and Avan’El.   My little Orange has doubled in size and found several other elves to bring under her branches. Her spirit is no longer the young pre-teen elf I first met — she’s a teenager, energetic and bubbly. She babbles happily and proudly announces that she made a special fruit for me — a vision of hundreds of elves waking and discovering their wings. Dal is among them, unfurling his pomegranate wings for the first time.   A few minutes later, Doraal comes and finds me with his own set of wings — sugar apple. And a fruit that he is saving to have when we return to Dreamfall.  

Day 1113

We are heading back to Dreamfall when I remember that I need to pick up Jaeril from Samsara. Again, it’s a journey that would have once taken many days. Now, it’s a few hours before we are in sight and she flies up to meet me. I beat my wings once and scoop her up in a wind current.   She shows us around the Grove and I see all the incredible life springing up from what was once barren, but Doraal’s fresh eyes see the devastation of the enormous damaged tree at the centre. He looks to both me and Jaeril and touches the trunk gently, asking if he can offer it a song.   It’s an elvish song — one that the three of us used to sing with our Little Shadow as we sailed to our island. It’s a sweet, happy song. It seems like Doraal will be coming back here to help Jaeril tend to her Grove after this. After only a couple hours in Samsara, we take to the air again and my letterbox receives a missive from Andstella mid-flight. She sternly tells me that I am due back by breakfast to play host. Fortunately, breakfast for our night-dwelling family isn’t until noon. And so we choose to swing by Brighton on our way home to collect up Magdalena, Evismora, and Qing Chen.   Brighton looks nothing like it did before. The gladiator-fighting coliseum is in rubble, evidence of arson and fires abound, and I see guillotines throughout the city. But there is revelry throughout as well. This is clearly a place undergoing revolution.   I find Magdalena in a public square with Evismora perched over a pile of quivering, piggish-looking humans, snacking on their wickedness. The White Death makes a beeline for me, then notices Jaeril and greets her as ‘big brother’. Jaeril, of course, is shocked and delighted to have another member of the family back with us. And Evismora is set for a full decade now before she needs to feast again.   Poor Qing Chen looks very tired. At first, he told me that he was trying to save all the books that people were burning. Then he realized that the books had nothing of value — they were worth burning. Whole textbooks on the false science and lies of human superiority, the brightness of their gods, the innate stupidity of dwarves and wickedness of elves. He feels so beat down for having used restorative magic on a dissertation on the innate superiority of the human race. He’s been trying to figure out how to feel about the zephyr now that they are not Exalted Ones anymore. I think it’ll be good for him to talk to Nina and Elnora.   He’s been drinking, poor guy. But at least he’s found 17 casks of aged whisky as a gift for Liliales.