They could not tell when the light had dimmed, but gradually Sadoul, Ghaleon, and Kazyr became aware of their closeness. The light they surrounded had dwindled to the size of child's toy. The three men reached out to each other, finding the distance between them had decreased with the intensity of the light. They grasped wrists, tightening their bond. The light flickered gently with a bluish hue.
Below them lay the softness of the Blue Star's sky. The three mages still circled, drifting downward and they knew the axis of their movement lined with that of Lucia's tower. They could not recall what had taken them this far from their initial confrontation, but trusted the magic that protected them.
A red form swooped past them as they entered the atmosphere. Jeal pealed off into a sharp wingover to join them in their flight. The red dragon spread his wings wide and his eyes sparkled in greeting. Jia also appeared, diving through the heavens to circle around the three with Onyx on her tail. The blue dragon nodded in approval as the young black bugled a wordless cheer.
Sadoul caught Jeal's eye and opened his mouth to speak when a final dragon arced into view. The white fur of Crystan turned orange in the waning light of the setting sun, save where the hide of her left wing had been seared by a massive explosion. Her wings labored to hold her flight, but she still carried her rider, uninjured.
Solon waved to the three mages as Jeal climbed up to aid Crystan. Jeal eased himself beneath the white, letting her rest against him in her descent. Below them, Sadoul breathed a sigh of relief.
"Lucia..." murmured Kazyr.
She shook her head, blue hair waving slightly behind her. Though not old in appearance, she had physically aged the equivalent of ten human years. A premature streak of gray ran down the right side of her hair. "It is all right, Kazyr." Her eyes mirrored no pain at her loss. "The Maker is defeated. That alone is worth the price."
"He can do nothing now," said Ghaleon, "assuming he even knows who he is." He held out his hand, offering the small ball of light he carried to Lucia. "The Maker is at last nothing to fear. Our magic and trust in each other has been tested, and found worthy." He bowed his head. "I am grateful we had this chance."
Lucia reached out a hand and the light floated towards her, coming to a rest beside her crystal. "I will care for him, and perhaps if his consciousness should ever return he will remember his lessons and learn to feel. I am in debt to all of you."
"No," said Sadoul. "Your bringing us together has redeemed us. You owe us nothing. The score is even."
"Except for one thing." Lucia held her hand out to Kazyr. "Bring out your prism. I will repair what I have broken." The prism glowed when removed from the enchanted pouch at Kazyr's side and the white-haired mage watched in awe as the cracks sealed flawlessly. "Toss it to the ground to bring it back to its full size. You will find that I have made a few improvements to it."
Kazyr bowed deeply to her.
"And now I think it is time for us to go." Ghaleon nodded meaningfully to Lucia and she gestured in farewell. He removed the circlet from his brow and set it on the floor near the dais on which she stood. Ghaleon respectfully lay Althena's Sword in its sheath beside the circlet. "Thanks for the use of these as well."
Sadoul sighed and gestured. The armor disappeared from around his body to materialize by the sword and circlet. Kazyr narrowed his hands to slip the bracers over them and placed them with the rest as Solon set down his ring. Jeal alone, again in his human form, kept his gift with him.
The wizards nodded their farewells to Lucia and then to the dragons before exiting her audience chamber. Jeal followed them out.
"So where will you go now?" asked Jeal as the five paused together in the hallway. "It's plain that you do not intend to stay here."
Solon lifted his head, his gaze wistful. "The battle is over, though some of us only made it out by the barest of margins. I said that once this is all over I should like to take a tour of Vay and see how the world has changed. But now, though Lucia has the stolen life back, I know that this planet has changed more in these past few days than in the last thousand years." He shook his head. "I think I'll see what I can do to alleviate the suffering on my own continent, help people recover as much as possible." Solon turned to Jeal. "And you?"
Jeal shrugged. "I am an emperor without an empire. My land is dead, taken first as the Star Dragon promised. Lucia has given me some of the stolen energy to rebuild Danek though. My people are sailors. Some of them may have been away from their home during the Maker's attack. I'll have to find them and bring them to what home I can create." Jeal averted his eyes, shaking his head slightly in distress. "And... I must find out what happened to Torene."
Solon patted Jeal on the shoulder. "After a time, I'll come and help you."
Jeal nodded his gratitude, but turned to the other three. "But that still leaves you three."
Ghaleon smiled slightly. "I once thought to visit the city whose life I nearly destroyed. But I know better now. My place is no longer here. I have a greater mission to attend."
"Does that go for all of you?" Jeal turned from Kazyr to Sadoul, but found the same answer in both of them. "It's hard to say it, I'll miss you guys."
"Though I have only known this world for a short time, I am very happy to have done what I could for it," said Kazyr. "I have seen many places, but Lunar and the Blue Star will always hold a special meaning for me. My mission here is complete, but I know there are other tasks to be done before I am ready to return to my home. I can't stay."
Sadoul nodded. "I am dead, Jeal, remember? Sandor killed me. There is no place for me here. But now that I've found myself, perhaps I can do something elsewhere."
"Good luck to you then." Jeal offered them a slight bow. "Since I doubt we'll meet again, I especially wish you three a good journey. Althena praise you."
Outside of Lucia's tower, the surf crashed against the rocky shore. Ghaleon, Sadoul, and Kazyr stood together, looking out at the horizon and the deep blue of the evening sky. Though surrounded by water, the wind around them had a taste of the desert. The dryness, the lack of life, would haunt the Blue Star for decades to come.
"Missions," said Ghaleon. "We have much to do."
Sadoul flicked his gaze to the west. Danek. "I wish I could stay and help. There is so much wrong that must be healed. But you are right, we have a mission for ourselves."
"Though the Maker is gone, there are still worlds left behind him in need of a helping hand." Ghaleon reached a hand to finger the hilt of his old sword. Solon had returned it to him. "We may be the only ones who can help them."
They stood silent a moment longer, the shock of the final confrontation haunting them like the dull ache of a heart. There were so many more worlds beyond the Blue Star and Lunar. Kazyr was living proof of that. Perhaps Sadoul had not so greatly believed in Althena, but Ghaleon felt the very foundations of his beliefs shattered. Althena did not create all. There was much beyond her range. If she created humans, she was not the only one to do so; perhaps not even the first. Thousands of civilizations existed out there without ever knowing the touch of a musical blue-haired goddess. And it did not matter, because another god or goddess likely protected them as a personal creation.
Who, or what, really was the Maker? Ghaleon asked himself that question more often than he thought possible in the mere hours since the conflict. For the most part he believed that the Maker was an entity discontent with the way the universe had turned out, and that's why he set about "fixing" it. But a small part of Ghaleon had the nagging feeling: what if he was our creator? Then what? This would be a universe cast adrift from its god. The whole picture became so much bigger than it was when Lunar lost Althena. Ghaleon shook his head. The three of them made the decision for all who dwell across the stars. None of them deserved that right, but the deed was done nevertheless.
"You'll teach me that rejuvenation spell, right?" Ghaleon asked.
"Yeah," Sadoul replied heavily. "Can't have you dying on us. Better the three of us live forever than a mere two." He paused, fingering Kazyr's charm around his neck. "We should have asked Lucia to give us our lives back."
"That might have been too much to ask. I think this way we will not loose sight of ourselves. We will still be mortal after a sense."
Kazyr nodded almost undetectably. "I'll repair the damage to your charms once we get going. Are we ready?"
Ghaleon glanced to Sadoul, who still faced towards the remains of Danek. The blond magician said nothing. Ghaleon turned back to Kazyr, nodded his head. "Yes."
Kazyr lifted the small prism and tossed it to the ground. It flashed at its moment of contact. In its place appeared a wide cylindrical structure with three squarish spokes along its circumference. The center was clear, much as Kazyr's ship had been, but each of the spokes was a different color, either blue, pink, or violet.
Kazyr smiled slightly. "Lucia's given us private rooms. That'll make this traveling more bearable. She's even color-coded them."
Sadoul lifted his gaze, turning to look at the ship. He shook his head in disbelief. "Pink? She gave me pink ?"
Ghaleon chuckled. "Well, it certainly isn't us."
Sadoul glowered and gestured some obscenities to Ghaleon, although they both knew he didn't really mean them. Kazyr laughed and clapped his hands. The white-haired mage smiled and with a mock bow, gestured for Ghaleon to enter first.
Ghaleon stepped up to the central compartment, but paused in thought. He wanted to travel with Kazyr and Sadoul as much as they did with him, but he couldn't help feeling morose about leaving the land he had fought for in three different times in history. Ghaleon hoped he'd weather his long years as well as Kazyr had. Kazyr really was the eldest after all. Ghaleon shook his head and took a last look over his shoulder, knowing that Lucia still watched over the Blue Star as she had done for so many ages, and that she would take care of it and Lunar while he is gone.
Sadoul barked something at Ghaleon, which he missed. Ghaleon shrugged, feigning an indifference that was broken by his easy smile. Apparently that was not an appropriate response. Sadoul did not take it very well and tried tackling him. Kazyr shouted for the two of them to get along, and when that didn't work, threw himself into the fray. Somehow, the three passed through the walls of the great cylinder and land in a quarreling heap inside. Through their bickering, the ship sensed they were ready to go and lifted them up into the sky.
The three of them quieted suddenly, looking down with longing at the retreating seascape beneath them, and they knew they no longer had a place on any of their worlds. The stars would be their home. But with the three of them together, they need not fear the solitude that immortality brings.