Ethan looked down at them all before bowing low himself, so that his hat-eye was level with all of them.

And it seemed, from the slight shrugging of his great shoulders, that he was being slightly bashful.

"You'd think that after giving such a lofty speech our gracious leader wouldn't be tongue-tied in front of his old friends."

Tara's cheeky words got a laugh from Klax. Ethan just shrugged again, lowering himself down even more before noticing Lamphrey in Fauna's hands.

And from the way he looked at her, the Hopla Magi knew exactly what he was thinking.

"She gave her life for Mara's," Fauna said simply, her hand still clutching Lamphrey's fingers tight. "For…for –"

"The future," Ethan finished.

He then bent down hold his hat-form against her head, closing his crimson eye tight. His blue threads creased around the eye socket as though he was an old man deep in thought.

Fauna couldn't tell what he was thinking. But she knew that he was in pain. He'd been in pain all this time.

She wanted nothing more to reach out and console him like she had tried to do when he'd left them at Haylock's castle. But as she moved her hand, he drew away.

"There's a lot I have to say," he admitted sheepishly (if a three-headed monster could truly ever look sheepish). "But it'll have to wait."

Fauna noticed that he was avoiding her gaze.

"Ethan," she said. "It's ok."

Klax and Tara looked to each other. Neither of them understood what Fauna was replying to. It was as though both she and the Archon had just shared some quiet moment neither of them had been privy to.

"It's ok," she said again – and this time she touched the cheek of Revok and drew the head towards her, so that Ethan finally looked at her sorrowful, but knowing, features.

"It's what she'd want. It's probably what she intended when the time came for her…to go."

From the way Ethan then looked up and nodded, it was clear to everyone except poor Fraxx what was going through both his and Fauna's heads.

But Tara was the first one to try and give voice to the thought:

"You don't mean…"

Klax's gaze met hers, silencing her. In response, Ethan once again closed his eyes and spent a moment in unbroken silence.

Then, he rose to his full height and lay down for the three of them to climb onto his back, signaling to Fauna that she bring Lamphrey's body with them.

"Come on," he said. "We've got a future to see."

***

Ethan Hawke Spirit Core total: 35565

Spirit Cores Gained from victory over [Artorious, Angel of Kaedmon]: 10,000

Just as many as the Bounty put on me, way back when.

You know you're allowed to celebrate a little, right?

Ethan flew over the streets of Sanctum, watching the Hybrids pick apart shards of their broken lives, trying to salvage what they could of their homes and loved ones.

He saw a pack of Lycae weeping by the fountain for one of their own – perhaps their sister – who they'd found by the side of the fixture. He saw another set of Minxit at the stage where the Hopla schoolchildren had enacted their performance with the fireworks back before he'd gone to the City of Illusions. Before this world had gotten so much more complicated.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

The Minxit were pawing at piles of ash that littered the stage, their faces blank as gravestones. It took Ethan and his companions a while before they realized that these tiny grey pyramids were all that remained of their friends after the Angel's light had vaporized them.

I'm not seeing much to celebrate here, Sys.

Fauna and the rest were quiet as they rode on his back. In the Hopla's hands was Lamphrey's still warm body. Tara and Klax were doing their best to try and avoid the Tialax's eyes. Even though they were closed, she still gave off the distinct sense that she was watching you.

You made the choice to come back here, Sys told him. In doing so, you saved the lives of those who'd have died with this place. It was the right call, Ethan. With Arty powered up the way he was, by the time you'd have made it to Mistbourne this place would be a tomb.

Ethan could tell that Sys was speaking out loud, now. Fauna, Tara, and Klax were all listening in.

I don't think you've realized what you've done. You've beaten him. And not just the Lightborn, but Kaedmon and His whole damn cycle! Now, all that's left is to take on the mantle of the God. Kick the old geezer while he's down.

"That unusually chirpy bastard's right, y'know," Tara said. "With Arty gone, this whole world's practically ours now. To be honest, I never thought I'd see the day when we could say that the Lightborn was good and done."

"Though not dead and buried," Klax put in. "Ethan?"

"I have plans for him, don't worry," Ethan replied. "He doesn't get to live after what's happened here."

The party said nothing to that. Surprisingly, not even the normally bloodthirsty Tara gave a hoot or a holler of joy.

"I'd have thought you of all people would be more chipper," Ethan told her over his shoulder, fixing her with Baphomet's mad, wide eyes so that she cringed away slightly. "Remember what you told me last year? Just after we'd cleared the Festering Den? We were sitting right there." Ethan indicated a piece of collapsed roof where he and Tara had sat, drunk on power and booze in equal measure after his possession of Rachneros.

"Right there," Ethan murmured. "You told me that we'd either kill all the humans or they'd kill us. There was no other choice. Now, here we are. They're all ours, and you don't seem to care."

The others looked to Tara who regarded them quizzically, almost as if she was trying to assess how they saw her – almost like she was trying to look through their eyes. Slowly her gaze dipped down to the gleaming daggers that were still clenched in her hands, smeared with the silver blood of the boy she'd almost sliced apart.

"Yeah," she said. "Yeah, that was who I was, once."

"But not now? You telling me you went soft, Tara?"

"Maybe," the Minxit sighed, "I found something better."

For a moment that was briefer than a nanosecond, her eyes flitted towards Klax. The wolfman, however, seemed preoccupied himself.

"Everything is going to change now," he said, looking out at the warrens on the city perimeter where the returning Hybrids from beyond Sanctum city were being reunited with their families.

"I want to apologize to all of you."

The team looked at him. Ethan twisted Typhos' reptilian head right round to stare at him with unblinking amber eyes.

"You know, this might be your most powerful host, Ethan," Tara quipped. "But it's still goofy as fuck."

"I want to apologize," Klax continued. "When I said that I may as well leave this world behind, I was speaking like a mewling pup. It's our duty to carry on, no matter what it takes. For them, we must. For those who paved the way."

Everyone expected him to pat his back where Jun'Ei's ashes were interred. Instead, he turned to Fauna and laid a hand on Lamphrey's head.

"She held a great burden in her mind," he said. "A burden she shared with Jun. I know life was painful for her. And yet in her final moments, it seems she achieved a sense of peace."

He looked to Fauna for affirmation but did not find much there. Fauna had been so quiet during their flight. It was almost like the old her was resurfacing.

But Tara and Klax knew better. There was much she had to say. But such words were probably meant for Ethan alone.

Perhaps he sensed this, too. Because right then he whipped both his heads back round.

"We'll know soon enough," he said. "Fauna? Do you remember where Lamphrey's quarters were? The place where she practiced her magic."

Fauna nodded. "Northeast corner of the city, in the Canal district. She always said the flow of water helped her think, no matter how muddy it was."

Ethan nodded. "Then that's where we're headed."

"You're gonna possess her, right?"

"That's right."

The party did not quibble over this. After all, Ethan could have done so in the immediate aftermath of his victory over Haylock. Now he had the ability to possess all Hybrids as well as humans, dead or alive. The fact that he'd waited till now was simply because he didn't want to rip her skills away from her – an ally – without any care for how it might affect her.

She'd helped them all stay alive this long. No matter how shady she'd been, that was true. And so she deserved the dignity of at least being interred in a place she'd loved before Ethan took the rest that she could give him.

Possessing her meant access to not only her Oneiromancy skills, but her memories – memories not only of the past, but of the dreams she'd walked within that showed her what was coming for them. Dreams that, no matter how symbolic, twisted, or confusing, Ethan had to see. If he was truly going to create a better world, he needed to see what that world could look like.

So, without any further questions from anyone, he sped up and dove for Lamphrey's private residence, leaving the grieving city behind.

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