Epilogue
King Gwyn of Winlan was working late. The only bad thing about the current state of affairs was that it meant paperwork... lots and lots of paperwork, and the greatest mass of it was for the rulers. He could delegate a lot of it to various advisors, but there was still plenty that he had to deal with personally. Finally, five hours after sunset, he put his stamp on the last one for the evening. There would be more in the morning, of course, but for now at least he was done. His wife had already turned in; the King started to fly towards their chambers, then paused. Before he went to sleep, he would look in on his daughter one more time. No matter how many times he saw her, he had been unable to get used to her being back home, safe and sound, and the heroine of the civilized world. For some inexplicable reason, King Gwyn kept having the strange notion that one day she would be gone again, simply vanished off across the world once more. Nina HAD been acting strange, the King mused to himself as his old wings carried him down the hall. She had been bright and cheery when talking to people, but when she thought nobody was watching her, her face would turn melancholy, and she would stare out the nearest available window to the southwest. The only explanation Gwyn could think of was that she somehow felt guilty about the complete destruction of Scande. It wasn't anything approaching her fault, of course; SHE hadn't told the idiots to resurrect Myria, and after all, how daft did you have to be to build your city on something like Obelisk in the first place? But Gwyn supposed that young girls were like that.
"She'll get over it eventually." Gwyn told himself. "She always does with things like this... ah, she'll be a fine queen. Might have some trouble finding her a husband, though... most noble lads tend to be a bit nervous about a wife who can kill them in armed combat with both hands tied behind her wings." Muttering to himself, the King approached Nina's door. He rapped on it once to see if she was awake, then gently pushed it open. His eyes widened. The room was empty; her bed was unoccupied, and the window was flying open, the wind blowing freely in. "What..." Behind him, the Queen walked up, yawning.
"What is it, dear... oh." She took in the situation at a glance. "So she's gone, then... I was wondering when she would. Didn't actually say anything to her, of course, but I knew she'd do it..." King Gwyn turned to his wife.
"You know where Nina is? What is she doing?"
"Come on, dear." The Queen took his arm. "I'll explain it to you on the way to bed... you'll need your sleep. There's going to be even more paperwork soon... you might have to look into changing a very old law..." King Gwyn gave in and followed her, shutting the door to Nina's room behind him. And yet in there, the wind still blew through the open window.
In Drogen, to the southwest of Winlan, the sun soon rose. In the largest house in town, newly repaired, a young Light Dragon named Ryu was preparing for the day ahead. It would be a tough one, but satisfying; they were going to put the roof back on the local general store. Slipping on his cape, he walked past his grandparents cooking breakfast, and opened the door to look at the sunrise. His breath caught in his chest. Standing before him, in front of his house, was a beautiful girl of the Wing Clan his own age, with blonde hair and light pink wings.
"Nina...?" He whispered, barely believing his own eyes.
"Ryu." She answered. "I'm glad I got here before you started working today..."
"You're here..." Ryu shook his head. "Nina... did you... why?"
"Back in Winlan... after you left... I thought about it." Nina explained, approaching him firmly. "All of it. About us... about what the others said... about what really mattered. I thought about you, Ryu."
"And what did you decide?" Ryu asked gently, although he already knew the answer by her being here.
"I decided... I decided that... oh, Ryu..." Losing it, Nina ran forward and embraced him. "Forget the rules... screw the laws... to hell with what anybody else will think. I don't care about any of that... not when compared to you. Ryu... I love you. Please... stay with me."
"For now, and forever... as long as you wish." Ryu kissed her. They held it for several long moments before releasing and looking into each others' eyes. Ryu made a sort of wry smile.
"Well, so much for my staying away from Ladon..."
"What do you mean?" Nina asked, smiling as well.
"Well, who else is going to marry us?" He reasoned. Nina's eyes grew mischevious.
"Well, I hear there's a new cult in Prima... the Church of the King. We could try going to them, I suppose." Ryu frowned; a feeling of darkness had come over him at the mention of it, a feeling of strange, utter dread and inexplicable horror...
"The one where they all wear white leather, pompadours and mirrored sunglasses?" He asked incredulously.
"That's the one." Nina giggled. The Light Dragon made a rude noise.
"No, thanks. I'll take the I-told-you-sos from Ladon any day. There are some things that are just too horrible even to contemplate."
"Worse than Myria?" Nina teased. He nodded gravely, then broke and laughed before kissing her again. Behind them, Ryu's grandparents smiled.
"Looks like we'll have another set of hands around here tomorrow." Esma guessed. Theo nodded.
"Yep... although they'll both be gone for today. They'll be back to help out tomorrow, and until it's all done, though... they're good kids."
"We'll probably lose Ryu for at least half of each year, and more later on, though." Esma continued. "He'll have to play the noble at court with her... I worry for Winlan's court."
"He has to grow up and leave home one of these days." Theo reminded her. "Already did, really. Gwyn won't be happy, though."
"No, but he'll agree to it in the end." Esma said with certainty. "He's not stupid, just a bit silly... and he knows his daughter. That girl's strong-willed... a good match for Ryu."
"They'll do well together." Theo agreed. "We'll get some interesting great-grandkids, that much is certain." Both of them smiled as they heard the rush of wings leaving the ground, and they turned back to their breakfast.
Above the Forest of Despair... above the Thieves' Paradise, Bleak... above the Undersea Marketplace, Prima... above the mountain town of Gant... above the Wasteland of Gramor... even above the mobile ruins of Wisdon... the sound of huge, beating wings was heard. Most people looked up in surprise and wonder, but some scant few looked up instead with smiles on their faces, muttering, "It's about TIME." Their neighbors gave them odd looks, but they simply continued watching and smiling in satisfaction at what they saw.
They saw a Great Bird of the Wing Clan and a mighty dragon known as Rudra, flying together side by side across one horizon to the next, from sunrise to sunset, from one edge of the world to the other. They flew as if they would never let stop, as if their wings would carry them forever, never tiring.
Indeed, in a way... perhaps they would.
Author's Note
"Well, I'm glad THAT's all over with." Deis sighed with relief, watching the Great Bird and the Rudra wing overhead. "I was starting to worry. So that's it, right? I can go to sleep for real now?"
"Not quite." The battered old man sitting next to her shook his head. The two of them were on the roof of the largest building in Wisdon. Below them, the three spirits and the three High Priests moved around, doing various small jobs. "There's still one thing left. HE's coming by."
"Oh, lord." Deis rolled her eyes. "We made it THIS far without anything of the sort... couldn't you talk him out of it?"
"I tried." Grand High Priest Spekkio lifted his hands helplessly. "Believe me, I tried. But he refused to change his mind, or even compromise. You know how he gets about these things."
"Do I ever." Deis muttered something rude under her breath. "I just hope he behaves better than he did with Samus and Crono."
"From what Horzat and my namesake have told me, he was actually pretty decent for those." Spekkio told her. "Public appearances and all that, I guess. Even he knows how to act for these."
"Just as long as we keep him far, far away from the grape soda." The Sorceress of Wisdon sighed resignedly. "Oh well, might as well get it over with. When is he getting here, anyways?"
"About twenty seconds ago." The man behind them remarked cheerfully. Deis and Spekkio both spun around, startled. The newcomer was a tall man with pale skin and long blue hair. He wore a casual tunic and leggings, as well as a long black cloak, and a pair of sunglasses hid his eyes. "Thank you for that absolutely sparkling introduction. I'm sure the readers are thrilled."
"Oh, shut up and do this already." Deis grumbled. "I'm losing valuable nap time here."
"Stop trying to out-grump me." The strange man chuckled. "It won't work. I probably should get to work, though." He glanced at some paper he held. "Right, here's the typical disclaimer to start. Breath Of Fire, all its characters, places, etc., are not my property and I, Magus523, make no claims to them. However, all original material such as 'Uncle Specs' here..." He inclined his head towards Spekkio, who coughed. "As well as this novelization itself, are my intellectual property legally, so don't get any dumb ideas about trying to take them under your own name. I'm a lawyer's son, so I know what I'm talking about when I can guarantee pain in your future if you try. A LOT of pain." He checked another paper, then grunted in annoyance. "Might as well clear this up too. This does NOT qualify as friggin' self-insertion. It's the blasted Author's Note! I just hope nobody actually DOES get all indignant about this. My opinions of my own species are low enough as it is."
"You were saying something about not being grumpy?" Deis remarked lightly. The blue-haired man growled something about snakes, then looked at another piece of paper.
"Yeah, yeah... moving on, as per rules and regulations, some changes have been made between the original manuscript and what you're reading right now. Specifically, the Epilogue and Author's Note are combined in one section, and character profiles I put at the end of each chapter have been removed. Plus, as MANY people have noticed, they remove my section breaks when I upload." He rolled his eyes. "Believe me, people, I KNOW. I have yet to figure out anything way to fix that. If and when I ever get my own website, those changes will not be implemented in the version of this that goes up there. In other words, it'll be better. While I'm at it, I'll officially state my hearty disapproval for current stifling and needless policies, the no-life-even-by-internet-standards toadies who spend their time sniffing through archives for the tiniest infraction they can report, and REMOVING MY GODDAMN SCENE BREAKS WHEN I UPLOAD. That's all, just a statement of disapproval; as far as I know, they haven't made complaining about them illegal. Yet. They're not THAT dumb. Yet."
"We get the picture." Spekkio tilted his hat to keep the sun out of his eyes. "Enough, already."
"Why do I tolerate backtalk from my own creations..." The strange man asked himself. "Onward, right. Some thank-yous are in order. First, Capcom. Despite their lackluster rerelease of BOF1 for the GBA, their ATROCIOUS rerelease of BOF2 for the same, and definate room for improvement in their Mega Man series, which I am also a big fan of, they DID come up with this thing in the first place, so obviously any fans owe them hugely." He paused for a moment. "Also, I have high hopes for Mega Man Zero 4." He dodged a swing from Deis' cane. "Aich! All right, all right, moving on. Next, we have a certain website, Dragon Tear. Located at it's an excellent site for BOF-related material, official artwork scans in particular. Those helped out greatly, so thanks. Also, I once hung out on the message boards of their predecessor/affiliate sites, a couple years back."
"Yeah, back when you were in high school." Spekkio chortled. "If anything, they should get an apology instead of a thankyou, if any of them actually remember you." The blue-haired man took a halfhearted swing at the old hobo, who dodged nimbly.
"Moving on... another thank you to my little brother DS, my ever-faithful editor. He tolerates my strange moods, spelling errors and deadline demands-that's right, the WRITER yells at the EDITOR about the deadline on this ship-so I owe him as always. Also as always, thanks to my writing mentor Erico, whom I hope to catch up to in skill within the next few years, as well as my three friends for the longest time on the 'net who I'm still in regular contact with; Yamakaze, Mister Chimpo and Chibi Schala. Just for hanging with me for this long." He frowned at Deis, who had broken into a fit of coughing. "What's YOUR problem?"
"What was that last name?" She demanded hoarsely. The strange man raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, that. Yeah, Chibi Schala. It's a non-issue." Spekkio snickered, and the other two both gave him glares that could set his hat on fire. Which they did. Cursing, he began beating it against his coat, and the blue-haired man continued.
"At any rate, to finish up this portion, thank yous go to all the regulars at Hazard Labs, which for you curious folks is It's my main hangout these days, and the guys there keep me humble, although they're also doing wonders for my career prospects in a rubber room. Here's to you, if any of you ever read these. Not likely, I know." He glanced at another paper. "Right then, next we're onto answering reader questions. Mostly from reviews. First, we've got some wondering about the name 'Deis' from Red Chaos Mage. Why don't we let the lady herself answer that?"
"Sure, make me do the work…" Deis rolled her eyes. "As is common sometimes, there were significant name changes between the English and Japanese versions of both Breath Of Fire 1 and 2. My name and Myria's were both two of these instances. For most cases, the author used the English names since he prefers those, but he's heard that they used our original ones in the later games, although he's never played them himself. Also, one friend of his has gotten him into the habit of using my Japanese name… which, like 'Myria', just sounds a lot cooler, to be honest. Which is why we got the special treatment. Right, handle the next question yourself."
"Next question… okay, next is from the Young Fool, asking about Jade and Zog's motives." The blue-haired man thought for a moment. "Tricky, there. Jade… well, I worry about him, but I think he came out mostly okay in the end. Jade's motives really are self-serving, in the end… up until his death, he's using his Unit as stepping stones to fulfill the future he believes in, and not even he knows that he actually cares about them… so for all intents and purposes, he's been manipulating them to their deaths (and his own), and the fact that they know exactly what he's doing to them and follow his every wish anyways makes him even more of an ass. Jade IS an ass; even if he turns out to surprise even himself. Zog, now… Zog, I didn't really get a chance to explain properly, I think. Zog is insane… he wants to conquer the world, but not so much because he wants to be some kind of god-thing but because he feels the Dragon Clan's rightful place is at the top, stopping everybody else from killing each other. It's quite possible he might even have been a religious fanatic, believing that Ladon gave them the power of the Dragon for that purpose. Power and responsibility and all that jazz. At any rate, his mind wasn't working too well, but in his moments of lucidity he probably knew he was messed up, and made plans for the future… the daughter I gave him, who Zog knew would have been a far better ruler than him after his death. He was probably figuring that even with Myria's power (remember, unlike the Tiamat Unit who he technically wasn't a part of, Zog did not see the future and his own death), it would take him the rest of his life to bend the entire world to his will, and that his daughter would then take the throne and repair all the damage he had done in the process. Things didn't quite work out that way, obviously, but the end result is somewhat similar; Zog's daughter will have a great deal to do with the process that returns the Dark Dragons to the world's good grace, preparing for Breath Of Fire 2. In the end, Zog sees what he has become and what sins he has committed, but he also sees that Ryu can take care of things, and that his daughter can salvage his species, so he can be said to die happy."
"Blah, blah, blah." Uncle Specs growled. The blue-haired man glared at him.
"Just for that, YOU can answer the next… oh. That's all that haven't been answered already. Huh. Right then, that was easy."
"It usually is." Deis remarked. "In fact, I think once you made a Q&A section without any questions actually being answered at all."
"Quiet, you." The strange man muttered. "Well, we're just about the end. As usual, looking back on this thing it seems to be to be leaps and bounds above the one before it. I certainly hope it is; maybe I'll actually become pro quality one of these days. I think I managed to keep from going TOO far afield while still adding enough of my own material to keep things interesting... mainly with the Tiamat Unit." He made a face. "Looking back now, I think I overdid it a bit.. overcompensating for the utter lack of development they got in the game, I suppose. Which is a shame, because I've always thought they were extremely cool ever since I first played the game. And yet they don't seem to be very popular; fanart of them in particular is just about nonexistent. Not much I can do about it, though. Oh, there is one more thing. Namely, why the hell there were-I believe, five months-between updates on this thing. While I can't name names, there was an incident right after I had written chapters six and seven together but before I could put them up. An incident involving my computer and grape soda. No, it didn't actually explode, but the smoke was impressive. It was several months before I got a new comp, and even then I started from chapter eight on the hopes that six and seven could be salvaged from the hard drive. Said hopes turned out to be in vain, so eventually I gave in and just rewrote the damn things, putting them up on Easter of this year. Of course, by that point I was already several chapters ahead of the game. Still am; as I'm actually writing this, Chapter 13 will be going up in three days."
"And why exactly aren't you doing the decent thing and just throwing them all up now?" Spekkio inquired mildly.
"Because that would, you know, completely neutralize the suspense of waiting for what's going to happen next." The blue-haired man retorted. "Also, to be honest, to buy myself some time. My next project is, as longtime fans of mine can probably guess, back into the world of Mega Man for my third time. Even if you're not much of a fan of that series, take a look. You never know... and even if that doesn't do it, more things will come in time." Standing up, he gave a bit of a wry chuckle. "Believe me... this writing is one of the only things I can honestly say I'm doing GOOD in. I'm not giving it up for keeps."
"Good, looks like you're about done." Deis yawned. "Now I can finally catch some shut-eye."
"Yadda, yadda, yadda." The strange man groaned. "I'm going, I'm going. I'll see you in 20XX when the time comes, folks." Becoming a purple beam of light, the author zipped off through the clouds. Spekkio watched him go for a moment, then shrugged and disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Deis alone on the roof. Below, the spirits and High Priests finished clearing up all the equipment and left as well. Deis remained where she was, and soon the only sounds in the city of Wisdon were her snores, echoing over the desert of Arad.
Magus523, May 2005
