There is a 'prayer' further on in the chapter, and that quote comes from the same person that this epilogue's epigraph comes from, though I couldn't find what specific work either of them came from.

There is no one who comes here that does not know this
is a true map of the world,
with you there in the center,
making home for us all.

-Brian Andreas

As I cycle up to the side road that will take me right to the back of the Riverlight Museum and Gardens to where our cottage is, I realise that I haven't seen Cariad at all on the way, which means I must have managed to get back here before her, even though I had club today. I grin to myself at the realisation and speed up, pedalling as hard as I can down the side road, enjoying the feeling of my hair streaming out behind me until I get the sense that someone is walking up behind me. Immediately I screech to a halt and hop off my bike, but when I turn around I immediately relax.

"Sasi!" I exclaim.

Technically, Cariad and I (and Maite, once she's actually old enough to speak) are supposed to address her as Aunt Sasi, because she's ended up being one of those amongst my parents' friends who's ended up a big part of our lives, someone we see regularly. She taught us to climb trees, and helped us sharpen our combat skills (quite literally) and helps us figure out the challenges of being us, specifically. But she's never particular liked being called 'Aunt', not even by Akira whose Mum was her friend even before the things that made her Mum and Dad's friend too. I still have to think about it every time, though.

"It's time for another cave visit, then?" I ask.

"Yes, that's right. I assumed you knew."

"Um….."

Sasi shakes her head at me, though she still smiles too.

"You should pay attention to that family calendar of yours, Kerenza. Where's your sister, anyway? Not the little one."

We start off walking again, and I decide to wheel my bike along instead rather than ride it. We're almost there anyway.

"She's probably still on her way home," I explain. "We've been competing on days that we've not gotta pick up Maite from daycare-who can get home first. Particularly if I have club but she doesn't or vice versa."

Sasi snorts at this.

"Clearly nobody has anything to worry about where you two being in different high schools is concerned."

"Ehh, well, it is a bit weird, when we were always together until now. But it's good, I guess, isn't it?"

"In some ways, perhaps. You've got your weapons with you?"

I pause, and first show her that I have the usual sword attached to my belt, then bend down to show her the knife at my ankle. I take each of them out too, so she can inspect the condition-she'd know best if anything was wrong, considering she made them herself in her workshop. She has duplicates of these ones displayed there as examples of her work for customers to see. I always feel oddly proud of that fact-like I'm promoting her, quietly, by carrying these.

In any case, as I show her the weapons then put them back and straighten up, Sasi considers me carefully before nodding firmly.

"Cariad has hers, too?"

"Yeah," I smile. "She does."

Sasi's not the only one who asks me this. Dad does, Mum does, almost all of the adults in our lives are always making sure we have weapons, that we have potions and other ways to protect ourselves. Particularly me, since I barely have any magic at all. Aunt Ruby's charity, the Elly De Aranka foundation, it's done a lot to change things. There's better protection in place in orphanages for confirmed and suspected 'mirror sisters', there's tighter laws and harsher consequences around exorcisms no matter who it's inflicted on. Photo campaigns like the one Cariad and I were in when we were three to show that twin sisters are just like any other sisters, any other adorable children (we were pretty adorable in the photos, I have to say)-these have been changing opinions. But despite that and all the other efforts that Aunt Ruby, Sasi, my parents, and all their other friends have put in to expose the truths of the world there are some people who believe the lies still. People who believe that being twin sisters, the way Cariad and I are, is a source of evil. Of darkness, even though dark in itself is not bad and never was. And even though they're always trying to protect us, we can't always hide from other people's thoughts and opinions and things, so even though it does get a bit grating to constantly be checked over like this, I don't let myself get too annoyed. Mostly because it's the things that they're trying to protect us from that are more annoying. Besides, thinking about being a twin sister reminds me of something:

"Hey, did you know Uncle Howl's bringing home his twins today? He's bringing them to visit us tomorrow. Mum's sorted out a whole bunch of Maite's old stuff for them."

"Yes, I knew," Sasi says as we continue walking. "He's named them too, I believe."

"Yeah, Evadne and Adelais."

Just then, we arrive at the cottage I live in with my family, with the honeysuckle around the door and the lilac bushes under each window all blooming in their full summer-time glory, and I unlatch the gate and walk up the path to unlock the door. Sasi follows, dragging her suitcase behind her and I let her in first before locking the door behind me.

"Do you want me to do your room for you? Anything to eat?" I ask as we take off our shoes.

"No, that's alright," Sasi says. "I'm fine from here."

I leave her to it, going to the kitchen to check the calendar. Sure enough, under today's date my Dad's simply written Sasi's name, the way he always does to indicate when she's coming. There isn't really any need for anything more specific on the calendar, as it's been the same pretty much since Mum and Dad got married and Dad started work as Groundskeeper and Head Gardener of Riverlight Museum and Gardens. Every so often, Sasi's always come here to spend time in the cave that hides behind the waterfall leading into the Portal of Otohime. I don't think anyone's particularly sure what it is she does there exactly, but it's obvious why she goes, that it's a cross between vigil and memorial.

Right from the start, Dad smoothed the way so that she could come without getting any trouble from the other staff who were brought on to work here and once the cottage was built, he and Mum managed to persuade her to at least come back here to have meals and to get a change of clothes, maybe even stop to chat, rather than simply staying there the entire time. Obviously, she accepted, otherwise we probably wouldn't have been encouraged to call her 'Aunt' from the time we were born. I think sometimes my parents, and Sasi's other friends worry that she's still too 'stuck' in her grief over Tricker, and maybe she is but I don't think so. The way I see it, it's not that different to going to memorial ceremonies every Crow Moon. It's not that different to how Dad's planted carnations in our back garden (both Riverlight's and the cottage's garden) because they were the flowers his friend Jae loved the most, or how a number of us 'core group kids' have names to honour some of the friends they lost at Kawaakari. It's not that different to how every few years, Uncle Howl will go to Kouki-san to see if he can find any of Ariadne's remains-sometimes with Uncle Quiet, but usually on his own, even though he's never found anything. Though maybe he won't be trying again for a while anyway, not now he's got the baby twins to think about. They'll be better off with him than whoever their blood parents were, anyway.

Just thinking about Evadne and Adelais's blood parents makes me angry-I know how much flack my parents got from people who weren't their friends, their 'core group', when they found out we were twin sisters. Mum's grandma barely talked to her while she was pregnant with us, though in all fairness once we were actually born and she met us, she changed her mind and they reconciled. But some of these other people weren't so flexible, and I know Mum and Dad were encouraged to just abandon us or hurt us, and though they never actually directly told us this bit, I'm sure they were threatened, too. And yet, they didn't once waver from keeping and loving both of us. Never have.

But, in any case, in thinking about this, it occurs to me that if there's anything that's close to Sasi's regular glow-worm cave vigils, then it's just how many of us have honour names of some variety. Struan's middle name of Silvanus was chosen by Sasi, as it's apparently the eponymic that Tricker would have taken for himself once he'd come of age. His brother Orson's middle name is Will, his little sister Eira's second middle name is Mica and of course there's Ria's full name as well. Evadne and Adelais are honour names for Ariadne, and Aunt Rena named Ariadna for her too. Some of the honour names aren't nearly as obvious though, like Vita's. In that case, Aunt Julka picked that to honour Elly, because Mum once told her that Elly was like life itself. Zoe's name also has that meaning, but I believe her parents picked the name because it's connected to the name 'Eve' via some Ancient Language or another. Either way, if an honour name isn't a connection to the past then I don't know what is.

Shaking my head to try and get those thoughts out of my head for the time being, I get my lunchbox and water bottle out of my schoolbag, leave them by the sink, and then go upstairs to shower and change, taking my time in doing so. When I get back to the bedroom I share with Cariad I look through my homework planner but I don't particularly feel like doing any of it yet, so I sling it onto my desk and wonder absently what I should do now when I hear the door open and Cariad calling out:

"I'm baaaack!"

"So am I!" I call.

"What? Oh, dammit!"

I giggle as Cariad swears, and sit on my bed to wait until she has flung off her shoes and comes stamping up, throwing herself on her bed with an exhausted groan.

"Ugh, Kenna, I wish Mum and Dad would let me board, even if it's just for the week!"

"You know they won't."

"Yeah….but I mean, Aunt Ruby's letting Larkin, Setsuna and Amarantha from next term, and if Mum and Dad did too that means me and Ammy could be roommates! It's a drag, that journey home!"

Admittedly it isn't a drag for me, since I just go to our local high school (I'm not magical enough for anything more specialised), but I wouldn't like travelling for ages to and from school if I did have to go somewhere else. The thing is, most of our parents' friends are leery about boarding school, and it's very obviously because of Kawaakari because their reasons are always along the lines of 'we want you to be able to come home if you need to'. Ria and Vita have similar problems now they're going to a magical high school that's far from their home, just like Cariad's is far from ours. I'm frankly surprised Aunt Ruby's letting Ammy and the others board at all, but I doubt that'll change our parents minds any time soon, so I don't say anything about that and just decide to tease instead:

"You're just saying that because you can't stand the fact that I'm speedier than you!"

Cariad swears at me again, and then sits up.

"Hey, Sasi's arrived, right? I saw her shoes by the door."

"Yeah, I heard the side gate go so she's probably at the caves by now."

"Do you know if Cain dropped her off?"

I roll my eyes at her, but she continues on undaunted.

"I'm telling you, Kenna, he's definitely got a thing for her, and has for all these years!"

To be fair, the number of times Cariad's been saying this over the past couple of years, I've come to sort of see why she's saying it. Kind of. After all, when he's not in front of the cameras, whenever I've seen Cain he always just looks sad, only ever brightening a little around Sasi. Apart from having an ever-revolving cycle of incredibly attractive plus-ones whenever he's attending some awards ceremony or fundraiser or whatever, he doesn't date at all and doesn't seem like he's pleased about that (if he was, not even Cariad would blink at it). And though he's always got the right things to say on camera, he's tongue-tied and distant away from it, shyer even than Zoe's dad or Aunt Yara. I'm just not sure that's evidence of romantic pining so much as it's evidence that he's probably one of the adults who is more 'stuck' in grief than the others. That, and evidence of him just better at masking it because his life's so dazzling and sociable compared to Sasi, who mostly does seem to like keeping to herself.

Pointing out such things has not, to date, deterred my sister from her theories. Not that this prevents me from trying.

"Why's it matter anyway?"

"What do you mean, why does it matter?" Cariad's eyes practically bug out. "They'd be the sweetest thing together!"

"Yeah, if Sasi was actually interested-you know she isn't interested in anyone in that way, Cari. Not that it'd be any of our buisness if she was."

"Hey, it's not like I'm actually trying to get them together, you know! I'm not overstepping anything, no way. I just want to be able to dream because they would be the dream."

"They're friends, that's the dream already."

"Yeah, but I'm not just talking the dream, I'm talking the dream. C'mon, Kenna, I have a point, admit it!"

I see no distinction here and therefore I do not see any point, either. I'm not even going to try making another counter-point.

"You're obsessed," I inform her staunchly. "You're as bad as Aunt Jenna, seriously! I don't know how Olly puts up with you both."

"It's because he loves us~!" Cariad sing-songs. "And you do too!"

While Aunt Yara is probably closest to an actual aunt (making Hazuki and Tsubaki our cousins, basically) because she lived with Dad and even took on his eponymic after coming of age, Aunt Jenna is the next closest, which makes Olly-Oleander-and his older siblings like our cousins too. It's inevitable that we all adore each other. On the other hand, Cariad's insistence on following in Aunt Jenna's romance-obsessed footsteps is a pain in the butt, so I just grab a pillow off of my bed and throw it at her. It hits her square in the face before falling to the floor, and immediately she shrieks, scoops it up and throws it at me, but I dodge and it lands almost exactly where it came from. Seeing Cariad's annoyed face, I just laugh. She glares at me for a moment but can't keep it up:

"Ugh…anyway, I'm going to Ria's house-Vita and Olly are going to be there too. We all get similar kinds of homework apparently, so yeah. Do you want to come with?"

"Nah-too much of a dud for that. I think I'll just go say hi to the trees, then maybe hang out with Dad for a bit if he's doing any garden-y things."

"Didn't you have enough gardening at your school's club today?"

"Wait, how'd you know I have club?"

Now, apparently, it's Cariad's turn to roll her eyes.

"It's on the calendar, Kenna."

"Oh, right. Is Ria on the calendar too?"

"No, but Mum and Dad know. I'll be back for dinner anyway."

"Cool. Well then," I say, getting up. "I'm going to the gardens. See you later, then!"

…

I ended up forgetting my phone and only remembering it when I was out of the side gate, so I ended up having to go back to get it and then I found myself deciding to grab a snack. Chewing absently on the biscuit, I spot my water bottle still waiting by the sink -now with Cariad's next to it- and I take it and refill it before making my way back out into the back garden. I pause for a moment to look at the carnations, and then at the smaller version of the Angel Tree that was, apparently the first thing that Mum and Dad planted together once this cottage was finished. In the early evening light it sparkles, and when I pat it the glow becomes brighter as if it's happy, illuminating the bench that Uncle Howl built right around it. He carved Dad and Mum's names into it first, and then when we were born Mum carved in our first and middle names underneath. Then last autumn, once Mum and Maite were back from the hospital, I came down here and put in her name.

Jun | Robyn
Kerenza Sumire | Cariad Ayame
Maite Kikyo

I trace the letters absently, and then smile at the tree before walking down the rest of the garden and around to the side gate once again. Once I've locked it behind me, I then walk down the path and around the corner until I see the very familiar sheds and greenhouse. They're not in the same place that they were back when this was Kawaakari Academy, and indeed it's only one of the sheds that's the exact same one that was there before-all the others were built anew once the place was cleared and the Imperial Government started the process of turning it into what it is today.

The Riverlight Museum and Gardens.

Walking across the grass, I can see a few visitors wandering around. I wonder what they came to see. Did they come to find out about Frost Yukino and Yoyo Arisuschild, the two girls whose families were descended from the heretics of the Great War? Did they come to find out that those families were nothing more than terrorists who twisted the truth for their own ends and forced their own teenagers to embody the worst lies ever told about Goddess Kagami? Maybe these visitors are here to see the same trees that I'm now heading to see, or the original Angel Tree in what remains of the South Wing. Or even the blue-blossom trees whose cuttings were salvaged from the wreckage of the Floating Gardens, though those pale in comparison, of course.

Perhaps they've been in the museum, staring at the photographs of the school dances and the other mundane aspects of school life across the three hundred years. Will they be able to see the objects on display from Room 777, or will they only see an empty space? They might gawp at the collection of the other things salvaged from the Floating Garden wreckages, especially those things we're sure came from there and not the part of the building it fell on top of. Perhaps these visitors will be drawn to the triple-glazed case that contains the most intriguing of these items: two tiny locks of colourless hair dated as originating from the Era of Plum Blossoms kept in a mahogany box, preserved with a strong Ancient spell and tied in ribbons both in the current mourning colour of silver-blue and the old mourning colour of black. I have wondered about these often myself, particularly at how tiny the locks are, as if from a child.

But perhaps they just want to read, to visit the library section to be directed by Zoe's dad or one of the other library assistants to Professor Shippa's records or Elly De Aranka's notebooks. Maybe they will get a thrill of being told to put special gloves on to handle these and any of the other older documents. While they must know they will not find anything about the identity of the hairs' owner, will they search through these documents to find answers to other questions they have about the staff of Kawaakari Academy, no matter how big or small they are? Though if they know that Professor Cinnabun's old name was Fiachra, even after reading the story of that name-switch they'll probably still be confused as to how he got from one name to the other. I certainly am. Not that particular detail's ever been important, just really funny.

Or maybe, just maybe, they're here to wander through the ruins that are still kept carefully preserved as a reminder of all that was lost, seeing the four separate memorials that have been installed in each quarter, such as the armillary sphere I am walking past as I follow the meandering of the river. This one is for the four freshmen who disappeared on that fateful day. Theodore, Ezrael, Haze and A. The sphere has one wrought iron for the each of them, each with their name etched into it and raised on a plinth made with pieces of rose stone from Kawaakari's building, put together with gold and silver lacquers. The stand of the sphere itself is not the normal shape, but an abstract swirl that, upon closer inspection, is clearly meant to be four intertwined hands.

Four hands, to symbolise the four of them because in the end that's what's ended up being the most remembered thing about them. Of course, everyone knows now that in some way, the shadows came with them and that they got indirectly caught up in Oura's machinations. Everyone also knows that they were the ones to inadvertently halt these by breaking Otohime-san's flute. But they were always together while still in the world, and even while people thought of them as ordinary kids before all this, the strength of their friendship is what even their own families remember the most about them. And though nobody knows where, exactly, they are now I'm pretty sure that they still are together and that they could be here. Cariad scoffs at that whenever I say it, considering I can't actually sense that they're around in any form, then again since they're definitely not dead it's not as if she'd be able to prove me wrong. But sometimes Dad says he can sense them, and so can some of my parents' friends, and I've heard visitors say the same. Some of them even leave offerings-usually little tea-lights and golden silk flowers- that have to be cleared away all the time-though not today apparently.

Whether they're here or not, though, I like to think they are together.

Walking past the central courtyard, I cut across the paths leading to it and glance over to see other visitors sitting there. I wonder if they imagine what it was like to be a student here, picturing them crossing this space to get to lessons, or sitting and socialising. I've done the same thing myself, only while I'm sure the visitors' imaginings are more abstract, mine are more specific. Like imagining Aunt Rena and Ariadne and the rest of their group exploring this strange new place they ended up in, or Sasi's friend Niwa and Uncle Quiet's friend Koda sitting here giggling and eating melon bread and play-fighting like children. They still do that, actually, according to my parents-but they're both otherwise such ordinary adults with ordinary office jobs I don't think anyone who didn't know them would realise. But it's things like that, scenarios with specific people that I've only ever known as adults that I picture when I'm picturing anything to do with that year. I even imagine my Mum and Dad, sitting here and looking out at the gardens as they got to know each other better. After all, while for some people this place is just a monument, somewhere to understand the truths about our world that Kawaakari Academy's final year unearthed. But for me and Cariad, it's a part of our lives. It's our parents' legacy and one day will be ours.

Yet, as approach the trees, I do not feel weighed down by the thought of this. I don't think I ever have. If I had, I don't think that most of my defining memories of this place would be things like helping Dad with some of the work around here (I remember being so proud as a little kid when he'd introduce me as his 'little assistant'), or of playing and running around with Cariad and those of the 'core group kids' who're a similar age to us. Mostly that was Struan, Ria, Olly and Vita but Samaa, Leander and Ariadna came by pretty often and so did Amarantha and Setsuna (by the time Aunt Ruby adopted Larkin, we were more at the age of hanging around than playing). Olly's brother Calix hung out a lot with Hazuki and Tsubaki, and sometimes, whenever they came to visit Delilah or Aunt Lidia, Stella would bring Aurora and Ririsa would bring Tsukasa and they'd all be their own little gang. Any of us a little older than that yet again, like Seren, Phaedra, Aneurin, Olly's older sister Amaryllis as well as Amarantha's other (eldest) sisters would also hang out together and likewise with those who were younger than us. We didn't segregate so much by ages all the time-for example, Aneurin's mum and Aunt Julka are closest friends so Vita is close with both Aneurin and his little brother Einar, and Zoe and Phaedra always liked playing with us 'tiny ones'-a good thing because Eira and Samaa's little sister in particular liked to follow us all around. But because in most cases, enough of us were similar ages, we've always naturally grouped together according to that.

And whether we grouped together by age or not, most of the time we'd end up climbing or hanging around these trees, the World Trees. We respected them, of course we did, right from the beginning we knew that these were not ordinary trees and not just because of how they looked. But they were never meant to just be things admired from a distance, as mysterious as they had been as people. They're the core of this safer, better world after all, their power distributed throughout it with cuttings planted and grown as trees. A part of the world, meant to be lived in and lived with.

And so, we played.

Indeed, it was the World Trees that Sasi used to teach us to climb. Professor Lucifel's tree was easy because we could actually use the ribbon-like leaves to pull ourselves up, and Professor Nyamai's is also relatively short, lots of branches to use as footholds. Professor Rynacel's tree was the most difficult, being one of the smoothest but I remember feeling so satisfied when I managed it and peered through the turquoise leaves at everything below me. Professor Hiromi's was the best to hide in, because of the large petal-leaves, though Professor Mshrupo's was a close-second because of the trailing leaves.

Overall though, Cariad's favourite of these trees has always been Professor Snow's, because it's all pretty and pastel-ly and is sort of like the tree version of a sugar cookie. I myself have always preferred the warm smell of Professor Cinnabun's tree (another tricky one to climb, but the most comfortable to sit in once the top is reached). And we both liked to collect the stars that hang from Professor Reoni's tree, the jewel-like leaves from Professor Ceiirai's tree and the heart-shaped ones from Professor Bin's tree. Indeed, I pick up a few of these now, noticing some must have been blown off in a breeze. I fan them out and sniff them-I like the peach scent of these, too- before I tuck them into my pocket.

It feels quiet as I weave in and out and around the trees, greeting them quietly by name and asking how they are. Just as I've seen them grow and become more and more glorious as I've become older, so to they've seen me and Cariad get older-seen our parents actually become our parents, even. Just as we all know them as individuals (as much as we can, considering that even now there's stuff about their lives that's a great unknown), I'm pretty sure they all know us as well. Kaguya-san did, too, at least until he faded away into death soon after we started middle school. Whenever we used to play here as little kids, he'd always be in the shadows, there in case we wandered too far into Aeternum or injured ourselves-an otherworldly childminder. He didn't say much to us most of the time-I'm not sure he ever quite understood young children-but sometimes we'd all gather around to listen him tell us stories in the traditional Storyteller way.

It's from Kaguya-san that we learnt exactly what it was that our parents and their friends actually did to restore the world's balance. He filled some of the gaps in the stories that they wouldn't fill. He's why I'll always take pride in knowing about it all. I miss him. I know that he at least got to see Akira, Zoe and Seren become adults, and he met pretty much all the rest of us 'core group kids' too, even those that didn't come by very often due to living in other towns or regions. But he didn't get to meet Maite, and he won't get to meet Adelais and Evadne. And he won't get to see me become an adult.

But these trees will.

Having gone around to all of the trees, I now approach the tree in the centre. One tree, for two people. It was by this tree, the one that belongs to both the Headmaster and the Headmistress of Kawaakari Academy, that we'd sit and listen to Kaguya-san's stories while all the trees watched us. Though we were always encouraged to greet the trees, it wasn't really until we started growing out of playing that I started to talk to them more. Over the past few years, I tend to come here to watch them shimmer and glow and sparkle in interest as I share details of my day and of the world around me. But today, I don't. Today, I have questions that have been building up in my head from the moment I encountered Sasi on the way home, as I've been thinking about the past I'm inheriting.

"What do you think?" I ask. "Of all of this?"

The blood-red glow intensifies a little, but apart from that this tree remains inscrutable. These two, they don't show their emotions in their braided pure-gold trunk and filigree branches as clearly as the other trees do. If there's still so much unknown about the Professors and Faculty the basically everything two of them is shrouded in mystery, especially the question of when and how the Goddess Akari decided to become a part of the Headmaster, and just how intertwined they were by that end. There were a lot of unanswered question thirty years ago, and the Headmaster and Headmistress took some of the chances for answers with them when they finally decided to do the right thing and allowed themselves and their precious comrades to be returned to the earth. I do not think that even if someone attempted a divination of the type Mum and Elly did with the Angel Tree that they'd give up those answers. Perhaps it doesn't matter, though. There's enough that the world knows about the type of people they were from the way they led the school for three hundred years and all the choices they made, both good and bad, right up until the end.

"You're happy with this, right? The way things worked out for my parents and everyone in the end. I don't see why you wouldn't be. So, are you? Is this what you would have hoped for?"

There is nothing, just a slight shimmering at the sound of my voice. Just a breeze rustling through the wind, bringing with it sounds of the laughter from Professor Hiromi's tree, jangling bracelets from Professor Bin's, the softer sound from Professor Snow's. The sounds should clash, but they come together instead, a strange kind of song. Just as all the different colours these trees have in their branches and trees and their fruits and flowers should also clash but instead come together beautifully to form a picture. They're all still sparkling, too. It's a sight I will never tire of.

I suppose though, that is an answer in itself.

So I step back to bow deeply before straightening and smiling.

"I'll be back tomorrow." I promise.

When they glow, brighter even than the Angel Tree cutting in our own garden, I smile again and wave, and then run back the way I came.

…

I take a more circuitous route around the garden when I leave Aeternum and the trees, first walking past the sculpture and myrtle tree that stand as the memorial to Frost's victims and then back past the armillary sphere and then to the lantern 'tree' that stands as a memorial to Ariadne specifically, although the inscription of 'answer to a prayer' refers to a line in Professor Shippa's records towards the end, describing her and all nine of the 'non-magical freshmen' as she, Aunt Angela, Aunt Rena, Leander's mum, Samaa's mum and the others were known as. There are less visitors overall on the grounds now, but one is lighting one of the lanterns and they give me a curious look as I stop to gaze at the tree and all its other glowing lanterns, and the light blue ribbons tied to the metal 'branches' before then looking over at the mountains beyond that. I wonder if, assuming Ariadne is still there and able to see, if she's also happy with what she sees. If she knows that now there is a belief that rather than being a mistake, she and her friends were indeed an 'answer to a prayer', key to how everything ended thirty years ago. But this isn't even an actual tree, let alone a World Tree. The entire point of it being here is that she isn't here to hear the questions or give the answers. So after retying a ribbon that had come loose, I continue on my way.

As I do so, I spot a few of the other groundskeepers and gardeners and wave to them, and then eventually I spot Dad working on clearing a section of one of the flower beds nearest to a wall in the quarter where the rock garden memorial for the collapse victims is situated. As always, he's utterly focused on the plants but nonetheless seems to sense me approaching (though, in all fairness, I'm not making a point to be particularly sneaky) and he looks up. For a moment he blinks, but then he smiles.

"Renza. Want to help?"

"Yeah, sure."

And that's that, as it always has been. I dig out spare tools from his bag, along with some gloves and begin helping, following his directions as to which plants we're pulling out, and what to do with them. It is only when we've cleared out a decent circle out of the patch that I ask.

"Hey, what are you putting here anyway?"

Dad looks up from the bag he's just tied of the plants that he'll be putting in the compost bins near the sheds and he smiles, gesturing to another bag near him that I hadn't noticed before. I peer into it and then I gasp.

"Maite's roses!" I exclaim. "Of course."

I take the pot from the bag carefully. The buds are only just starting to open, but I can already see that these roses will be a cheerful and sunny yellow, the edges of the petals frilly. Dad couldn't have predicted this when he started grafting the flowers that would result in these ones, but given how sunny and funny my baby sister is, they're so fitting for her.

"They're brighter than I expected. I thought they'd be more pastel because of the white roses."

"Yes, I thought so too. Then again, your roses were unexpected too."

Dad points across to one of the garden arch trellises along the path that connects this area to the central courtyard. Each of the trellises along this path has climbing plants that are in shades of blue and purple, with some trellises having smaller white ones to complement them. The one halfway along the path only has my roses, which are a deep indigo colour almost as velvet-rich as the night sky, and larger-petalled than the plants they were grafted from. Cariad's roses are neat, elegant little tea-roses in a swirl of all different pinks and grow in a flower bed near to where the South Wing ruins and the library section are. I'm not sure if either of them fit us as well as Maite's do, but it doesn't matter. They're beautiful but most importantly they are ours, and only exist because we do. That's more than enough.

"Yes, they were." I reply with feeling.

Together, we carefully pull the new rose plant out of the pot and place it in the hole, put in the soil from the pot itself and cover the rest of the hole again. Dad then replants some of the flowers he'd taken out and adjusts their position before I put some compost around Maite's roses and get the watering can. It's just as I'm watering as I hear a very familiar babbling sound and turn to see that Mum is approaching us, still wearing her nurse's uniform and carrying Maite. It hits me how quickly Maite is starting to look like Mum, and not just because they share the same eye colour. Cariad and I, we're both dark eyed like Dad, but I'm the one that looks more like him while Cariad is just sort of in-between. It's weird to think about.

When they get closer and Maite sees us, she starts to babble incredibly loudly, waving her little chubby arms in excitement. I get up, but Dad gets to her first and plucks her from Mum's arms. He spins her around then holds her facing him, asking very seriously how she is. Maite scrunches up her face and then in intense concentration she does exactly what I expect her to do-grab at Dad's ponytail and attempt to pull the hairband out.

"Again, Maite?" Dad asks in mock disappointment, pulling a face. "Really?"

Maite giggles as she tugs and tugs as if her life depends on it. Nobody is really sure why she's suddenly decided that undoing Dad's ponytail is her new favourite activity, but once she has the hairband she shrieks with glee, waving it around in the air before promptly dropping it. Mum bends down to pick it up and puts it in her uniform pocket before attempting to distract Maite before she realises she's lost it.

"Look, Maite! Look, those are your roses!"

Dad turns so that Maite can see and she laughs again and claps before wriggling restlessly. Dad lets her down and she toddles over unsteadily. I make a point of putting the watering can down shoving away the other things so she doesn't trip over them. I then have to stop her from climbing right into the flowerbeds-because even if Dad has a lot of free rein over these gardens that doesn't include lenience over an overexcited baby ruining everything. She protests but then allows me to kneel and place her on my lap, facing the flowers so she can see them more closely.

"Look." I tell her. "See how yellow they are! Like the little bows Mum put in your hair."

Maite babbles something at me, but though I don't have a clue what she's talking about I answer as if I do, telling her about the process Dad used to graft the roses that created the ones that we've just planted here. Of course, in this I'm making a big assumption which is that a baby understands the concept of grafting. Behind me, Mum and Dad are quietly talking-he's telling her about the jobs he's done around both this garden and our cottage's garden so far today, while she tells him how her shift at the hospital went. After a little while, Maite gets restless so I let her go and watch her toddle around, following to make sure she doesn't damage or try to eat anything.

Almost inevitably, she ends up wandering towards the rock garden installation, clambering onto its small circular gravel path. She sets off down it speedily and ends up stumbling and falling on her bottom just as she gets to the centre of it. I rush over, but rather than crying she just sits there looking bewildered until I get there and pick her up. Carrying her on my hip, which feels awkward for me but seems comfortable for her, I turn to see what Mum and Dad are doing, and notice that though they're still talking, Mum's also retying Dad's ponytail for him. The tenderness of it reminds me a bit of photographs I've seen of them from back when they were the same age as Cariad and I, back in their Kawaakari days. It occurs to me that just as they've not ever wavered from loving us, not once, they've never wavered from each other. And while it's definitely weird to be thinking of my parents' romantic interests and feelings (Cariad, thankfully, also typically draws this line though Aunt Jenna never hesitates to embarrass us by regaling us with tales of their 'utter cuteness'), I still like looking at them and seeing that they're happy. Especially knowing what they went through.

"Maite, look at this, see this?"

Bending slightly, I point to the plaque in the middle of the rock garden arrangement. It doesn't have the names of all the students who died when Kawaakari Academy collapsed, because those are listed in detail in the museum. Instead, it simply says In Memoriam, Kawaakari Era: Taiki 28 and underneath, this prayer:

I carry you with me into the world,
into the smell of rain
and the words that dance between people
and for me, it will always be this way,
walking in the light,
remembering being alive together.

"This is for Dad's friend. Well, Mum's and Dad's both, but one of the people this is for…that person was one of Dad's friends, and many of the others, they knew. Some of them were our aunts and uncles' friends." I tell her. "You'll be learning about what happened in school when you're big enough-hey, maybe you'll end up coming here on a school trip, like Cari and I did once. Which was weird because this is just part of our home, and who goes home on a school trip, but anyway. You may as well know now that Mum and Dad, and Aunt Ruby and Sasi and the others you haven't met yet? They're all heroes, and the ones here, they were too."

Maite looks at me curiously, making a slightly confused cooing sound. I pull faces at her and she giggles before I point to the plaque again.

"We'll have to remember them for Mum and Dad, when they're no longer here. But that's a long time away anyway. Still, you'll be hearing the stories before long. And you should be proud of them when you hear them, okay? You should be really proud."

Maite babbles and reaches for the plaque, probably because it's shiny. I shake my head and bend down so she can tap it. In a way, it's a good thing that she's oblivious right now, considering she's a baby. That way she'll end up being like me and Cari-knowing the weight of it, but without being weighed down by it. She'll learn the stories, and the names of the World Trees, but she'll also learn how to climb in them too. Perhaps she'll even play in them with Adelais and Evadne.

As I straighten, I hear Mum and Dad's voices getting closer and see they're walking towards us.

"Let's head back to the cottage now, Kenna," Mum says. "It's your turn to do dinner, after all."

"It is?"

Mum and Dad both laugh and shake their heads, exchanging looks with each other.

"Forgot to check the calendar again?" Dad asks.

I pull a face at him, and am glad when Maite insists on being let down because then I can hide my embarrassment that way. No point saying I did look at the calendar earlier, considering I somehow managed to miss that.

"She's like you," I hear Mum saying. "Head full of flowers."

"Well, she had to get it from somewhere, didn't she?" Dad replies, amused.

I pull another face again. In truth, I don't mind taking after either of them, not if it means that one day I'll have something as long-lasting and constant as they have, if one day someone will look at me and admire how happy I am. Whether that's family and romance like Mum and Dad and a lot of their other friends, or romance as adventures kind of like Sado or Aunt Seraph or family without the romance like Aunt Ruby or even the quiet, mostly solitary but still love-filled like that Sasi leads. It'll be easier for me to get, that kind of happiness, considering how normal my life is in comparison to theirs, but even so. One day, I want someone to look at me the way I look at them and their lives, sometimes.

That, I think, is the biggest legacy they'll ever leave me.

"Alright then, let's go. Stay safe, alright?" Mum says to Dad.

"Always, Robyn." Dad replies.

I turn away to let them kiss goodbye, and then see that Maite is already wandering off and I chase after her so she doesn't wreak baby-havoc. A few moments later I hear Mum coming after us, taking Maite's hand and then asking me about my day. I reply, the conversation goes on and together we gradually head back to the cottage.

I tried to describe or mention as many of the character's overall fates (including children, where they have them) across these four epilogues but I know that there were some details I didn't quite manage to squeeze in. If you're curious to know more about what happened to your characters (or any characters) in the epilogue timeframe then feel free to message me and ask :)

Anyway, here we are, finally finished. Thanks so much everyone who has been reading and/or listening to me go on and on about this. Working on this story really has been a meaningful/enjoyable experience for me and so I can only hope that it has been just as fun for you all to be reading this. Especially for those of you who were part of KACB's staff or participating groups that I featured in this, I hope you've liked my interpretations of your stories/characters/lore etc. But whoever you are, if you've been reading up until now, definitely love to know your final thoughts so if you want, I'd love to be left a review or a comment.

I'd try and include more in this author's note but it'd probably just be incoherent ramblings of gratitude and general emotions, so I'll just leave it at that. So once again, thank you for everything, and goodbye! :)