Damien turned, and found Dine still hovering there among the frost and the fallen — the only one left who hadn't gone still.
"So," he said. "What will you do now?"
Unlike the others, Dine wasn't bound to a body that could simply stop. She was a spirit — water given will — and that meant options none of the fallen heroes had ever had.
She was quiet for a moment, drifting slightly above the ground where Fulland's body lay.
"I... thought I'd want to die with him," she said finally. "He was my everything." Then she rose, fully upright, hovering with her small form drawn taut, her eyes carrying both grief and something sharper underneath it. "But now — I refuse to die. I will find another host. Someone worthy of my power. And I will avenge him. And everyone here."
Damien nodded slowly. "I understand. I can even recommend a couple of candidates, if you'd like. They won't be Fulland. But they won't disappoint you either."
"Please do, Lord Damien."
"Come on," he said. "Let's get out of here."
Shadow coiled up around his legs, pooling beneath his feet as he began to sink into the frozen ground, the garden's stone dissolving into darkness beneath him. But before the last of him vanished, he let his flame spill outward one final time.... dark purple fire rolling gently across the courtyard, across the hundred fallen, across the garden itself.
They had died honorably. He wouldn't leave them lying in the frost like discarded weapons.
He burned it all. heroes, garden, ice. and sent them on toward whatever waited after.
...
Back in Orario, Damien called for a small gathering. Finn. Ais. Riveria. Gareth came too, unbidden but expected, the four of them were as close to parents as Ais had ever had, and this was a conversation that concerned all of them. Loki sat in as well, arms crossed, watching everyone with the sharp attentiveness she rarely let show.
Dine floated quietly at Damien's side as he began the story of the Legion.
He'd debated, briefly, whether to keep it buried. Albert hadn't wanted his daughter to know, not at first. But in his final breath, he'd asked Damien to carry a message to her, and that changed everything. They deserved the truth. Riveria, as Celdia's successor in this era. Finn, the only current Knight of Fianna. And Ais, whose entire life's mystery was finally being laid open in front of her.
She learned, for the first time, why she existed at all.
Her mother, a Spirit, one who should have simply faded and reformed elsewhere, as spirits do, rather than truly dying, had chosen a harder path. She'd given up her entire existence as the Queen of Wind Spirits, sacrificed everything she was, to save her daughter and let her become something the world had never seen before: the Fairy Spirit of Wind. A wholly new kind of existence.
And her father... the Hero Albert, had loved her more than anything, had spent his whole life protecting a world he regretted not being able to share with her, carrying that regret to his second death and past it.
When the story ended, Damien watched Ais closely. He'd gathered this exact group deliberately, expecting she'd need them most. He braced for grief, for anger, for the particular kind of silence that came before someone broke.
Instead, a single tear slid down her cheek. She wiped it away and spoke, steady.
"I always knew my life was a gift." She paused, gathering the rest of the thought. "Now I understand exactly what kind."
"My mother's sacrifice gave me life," she went on. "My father's example is what I need to live up to."
"I'm happy," she said, "to finally know they never abandoned me. That they loved me. That's all I needed to hear. The rest doesn't matter. My father is who he is, and I admire him for it. My mother lives in my heart, and always will."
She lifted her chin.
"So all I can say is — in their honor, in their name, I will continue being Ais Wallenstein. Daughter of a great hero and a great spirit. And in their name, I will strive to be both."
Damien smiled, quiet relief settling in his chest. He'd feared this would break something in her. Instead, she'd taken it and stood taller.
"Aye, well said, lass," Gareth rumbled. "You were already the pride of the Loki Familia. Now you're the pride of your own family too."
"Indeed," Finn added. "Your father and mother must be very proud of you as well."
"I certainly am," Loki said, voice softer than her usual bravado. "Proud of you as your god, and as your family. Truly. You're my treasure."
"Our treasure," Riveria corrected gently. "We love you, Ais. And we're proud to see the hero you've become." Her tone firmed, though the warmth stayed underneath it. "But there's more ahead of you. Don't grow complacent now."
Damien exhaled. "I only wish I could've done more for the heroes back there. I..."
"Don't," Finn cut in. "If I were in their position, I'd want the same thing. They died with honor. Fighting like the heroes they were."
"If Celdia was even half what the legends say," Riveria added, "then I know she loved every second of facing someone like you. You did well, Damien."
"I see." Damien exhaled slowly. "Even still. Part of me won't rest easy over this. And I imagine none of you will either."
"Ah, this unknown fellow, eh?" Loki said, leaning back. "A human, they said. One not even the gods, the dragons, Ouranos, or the Lord of Light seem to know about. Powerful enough, hidden enough, to do that."
"That's what I don't understand," Damien said. "How does someone stay unknown even to the Lord of Light...and still manage to turn a hundred heroes into the Third Dungeon Rex, tasked with protecting him?"
"That is the real question," Riveria said. She turned to Dine. "What can you tell us about him? Appearance. Name. Any trace of his power?"
"Unfortunately, that's a dead end," Dine admitted. "He's called the Unknown for a reason. The only thing I know for certain about his power is this.... once he leaves your sight, everything about him goes with him. His name. His face. His power. All of it fades, as if it never existed. Unless he wants you to remember something specific." She paused. "The fact that I'm even able to tell you he exists at all... tells me he wanted that too."
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