Aurelius came out of the villa with his lips drawn into a sour frown. Solomon came behind him.

  "What's that?" Cade asked, pointing to the cloak that was hung over his forearm.

  "My old cloak. Aurelius here had inherited it."

  Aurelius gestured for Cade to give him his bag. She gave it, and he crouched down, stuffing the cloak into the bag.

  "Oh, come on." Cade pushed him. "At least try it on!"

  "We should go already. There are two knocked-out Zalfarian scouts waiting for us, remember?"

  "Tch. You're the only one who gets a parting gift, and you won't even wear it," Cade spat.

  Aurelius glanced at her and then at Solomon, who should've understood his mood. He got no support from the old man. "Try it on."

  Aurelius sighed and dug it out of his bag but left the tome in which he had hidden inside the cloak.

  Cade took the cloak excitedly. "Turn around," she ordered.

  Aurelius shook his head, but obeyed, and Cade threw it over his shoulders and attached it with the golden chain. Cade backed away and watched him with Solomon.

  The cloak was a weight on his shoulders, and though it gave him a feeling of stability and dignity, it wasn't terribly nice.

  "How'd you fight in this thing?" he asked Solomon.

  "I didn't." Solomon laughed. "It's ceremonial."

  "Oh, figures." Aurelius shrugged and turned around.

  As he walked to the edge of the path to the villa, he heard Cade whisper about how princely he looked.

  "It's that quarter of royal blood,' Solomon quipped.

  Aurelius blocked their voices from his head. He looked down. One more step and he would've fallen to his death without essence. Boulders below looked like pebbles. He had risen high indeed. There was a large bruise on Solomon's side. The first he had likely had in tens and tens of years. Given to him by Aurelius.

  Had he truly crossed the threshold to the realm of mythic heroes? Did he stand toe-to-toe with his father?

  Aurelius raised his head. His black and gold hair swayed as he gazed at the glimmering turquoise fjords and the sharp mountains that riddled the landscape, covered in the morning's sunny orange mist. There, he breathed as deep as he could, trying to absorb the moment as best he could. He did not know when he'd see something so beautiful again.

  When he turned, Cade was wiping her eyes. "When the war is over, you should stop being a hermit," she told Solomon.

  Aurelius smiled. He sometimes forgot just how much Cade had grown. There was once a time when she would've kept herself stone-faced just because she could, but now she let it show that she was moved. That only made Aurelius want to protect her more. She was more precious than any flower or cloud. Out of everything nature had created, Aurelius loved her most.

  Solomon chuckled, patting her on the head. "You know, if I could've had a granddaughter, I think she would've been just like you."

  She hugged him tight, and he winced a little.

  Aurelius didn't miss the opportunity to point it out. "Is grandpa's side doing alright?"

  Solomon scoffed and mumbled something. He put a hand on Aurelius' shoulder and shook him. "You're alright."

  It was Solomon's peculiar moments of tenderness that caught Aurelius most off-guard. A little glint formed in his eyes. Then Solomon kissed Cade on the mouth. Aurelius' jaw fell. Cade and he glanced at each other, unsure what just happened. Then Solomon took him by the cheek and kissed him as well. Aurelius' hands flailed at his sides, and he saw Cade suppress her laughter.

  When Solomon pulled apart, he clapped Aurelius on the cheek. "Take good care of Cade now, or I won't be responsible for what happens to you."

  "Ah, right..." Aurelius nodded. "I will."

  Solomon grinned, a glint in his eyes as well. "Now piss off."

  Cade pranced to Aurelius, taking his hand into hers. They grabbed their bags and waved goodbye. Solomon raised his hand and walked back into his villa.

  "What was that kiss?" Aurelius whispered to Cade.

  "No. Idea." Cade shook her head. "Must be a cultural thing."

  "What a culture." Aurelius shook his head. "Though, I get why someone would want to kiss you."

  Cade smiled. She went on her tiptoes, he leaned down, and they shared a little peck.

  In that moment, Aurelius had a vision. One of their past selves and how they'd arrived at the villa almost half a year ago, so lost, broken, and separated. And now they walked back the same way they came. How things had changed.

  ***

  In the night, Aurelius left Cade to sleep in at the camp with Tidas and Heilos. He took his notebooks with him and found a nice spot atop a hill where he settled down to write. The moon was bright that night, emanating a soft blue light. It was accompanied by a thousand stars that dotted the space all around.

  Aurelius didn't need their light, however. He focused on his breathing and gave life to the essence all around him, which illuminated the pages. It was awfully calm. Despite his resistance to the cold, Aurelius found himself shivering.

  "It is the third day of this moon," Aurelius wrote down. "Heilos has told me of the war during our week of travel, its current state, and the proceedings. Zalfari is holding on with Alexander having done an admirable job. He wasn't unprepared for Kendrick's breach of the truce. Tidas says he's never unprepared. Nevertheless, Zalfari has lost 30% of its land area, though it is mostly scarcely habited areas in the south."

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Aurelius gazed up intensely at the west, where the mountains rose high.

  "Kendrick is preparing something. He may already know about my role in the war. Nothing is certain except that he has reached every goal he's had in the past, and now his goal includes me being killed. Autumn is a few months away. I don't think we have that much time. Kendrick is surely willing to sacrifice whatever mythic reputation he has in order to conquer Zalfari. I don't think the eastern continent will be able to muster much resistance to him after that. This is the last real war there will be for ages."

  Aurelius rubbed his temples. 'I shouldn't be thinking these things.' He was about to shut the notebook and go back to sleep by Cade's side. But then he wrote down one more thing. The thing that had really been bothering him.

  "Tomorrow we will be arriving in Alexandria, the capital of Zalfari, and I'm likely going to meet my uncle, the Emperor, Alexander the 6th. My nerves are uneasy. There's a shiver in my bones. I'm not sure I'm ready. Solomon went easy on me. I do not feel prepared for what awaits me. I'm afraid. I'm afraid of Kendrick and that he might take me from Cade forever. Without this pressure, I'm sure I would currently be the happiest I've ever been. That is why I am so terrified."

  ***

  The next day, Heilos and Tidas led the way to Alexandria. It wasn't the beautiful city Aurelius had once imagined. Above all else, it was a large and populated city. More populated than it was large.

  Aurelius walked through the streets in a white and gold cloak. Heilos had told him to keep the hood on. A tragedy for all the time Cade had poured into styling his Goldilocks hair. The black had been washed from it. It was clear that Aurelius' arrival wasn't going to be kept secret, but he didn't know when it was going to be revealed.

  Just from a quick look, Aurelius got a grasp on the state of things in the capital. Most of the buildings were densely packed. Those buildings were made of yellow stone and had tile roofs. Some buildings were set apart from the rest. Those were coated with tiles of marble, white, gold, and some green. Notable were the public squares, gardens, and a large river crossed by three impressive bridges.

  As they crossed the bridge, Cade whispered, "They aren't looking at me weird."

  "What?" Aurelius asked.

  "The people here. I'm in the same clothes I was when we came to Zalfari except for this cloak, and nobody's looking at me weirdly like they did."

  "That's because your cloak is for warriors," Heilos explained. "A lady who is a warrior is not expected to adhere to the traditional clothing standards any more than a man is. Your wear is indicative of..."

  Aurelius tuned out from the culture. Solomonian farewell kisses were enough culture for a single moon. He did listen to Heilos' explanations on the histories of places and statues, though.

  One of them he did not have to explain. Aurelius wouldn't have heard it regardless.

  They had come to stand in the largest of the public squares that was free of commerce. Instead, people were silently holding their hands together in prayer.

  "It's the most grand statue in all of Zalfari, probably the whole world." Heilos commented. "They said it was impossible. A statue of that size, with accurate details. Yet, here he stands."

  Aurelius bent his head all the way back to drink in every bit of that enormous gilded statue. It was of a man best described as godly. There was an enormous blue cape at his back, putting those behind him in his shadow. Aurelius was beside him.

  The statue's face was sharp and without flaws. His mouth was open in resolute command as he pointed to the west—towards the enemy.

  At his feet there was a line of inscription in Zalfarian letters:

  HONOR THE MIGHTIEST OF HEROES

  And below that, three more lines:

  I AM MY COUNTRY'S BLADE AND SHIELD.

  HERE I WAS FORGED WITH A HEART OF STEEL.

  LET MY LAND BE REVERED EVERMORE.

  Aurelius had not realized that as he looked up, his hood had fallen and his head of golden hair was revealed. Suddenly, the people in the square flocked to him. Hundreds of them, all at once. They pushed and shoved, but all just seemed to want to touch him and know he was really there.

  Aurelius couldn't understand all that they were saying. They spoke Zalfarian a little differently in the capital than Aurelius was used to, and they all spoke at once. Still, Aurelius could see their emotions.

  Under his father's statue, as people gathered around him, separated him from Cade and raised him in the air, Aurelius looked around at all the people relying on him. Young men were cheering, mothers were weeping. All were relieved to see that their savior had arrived.

  Aurelius found Cade in the crowd, suddenly so far away. Her lips were twitching. And while the common people of Zalfari reached out to touch him, Aurelius reached out to the east, to Cade, where his heart lay.