A/N: OK, so I have plenty of excuses—honest, from overtime at work to grad school stuff (blegh!)—but, in the end, I'm still late by like a lot, sooo . . . yeah. Whoops.

OK, after this chapter or so, it should be a little less jumpy, as we've made our way through most of the events of the game itself and would now be in the epilogue and aftermath of Zophar's defeat. I didn't think we'd get here so quickly, but we've got a lot still to go through for sure!

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Lucia was gone.

Hiro'd had a brief moment of bitterness when he'd realized it—after all, Althena had become human and eschewed duty, so why did Lucia have so much trouble following in her footsteps? Althena had even encouraged Lucia to believe in her human friends, to stand by their side no matter what they faced. She'd pushed Lucia to choose her heart over her duty.

And yet, Lucia had chosen her duty over her friends . . . over him.

His heart clenched, and he nearly gave into the urge to cry again. This time, however, Ruby wasn't here to cheer him up. He missed Lucia, and he needed her more than he'd ever thought he would.

But how could he see her again? How could he convince her to stay, when she was now so far away?

After a few days of moping at his grandfather's house, he'd realized that Lucia had been planning to leave all along. She'd always talked about the Blue Star—always compared Lunar to the place she'd called home. She'd spoken about the future of the Blue Star with such hope at the end, and how she now had faith she could leave it to the humans.

From the very beginning, Lucia had been planning to leave him.

The moment that realization had hit, he'd realized just what he had to do. He just hoped his friends would be willing to help him out.

Perhaps he shouldn't have been so surprised that they were, but it was still hard to believe they were all on the Dragonship Destiny with him.

All except for Lemina, that is.

Hiro had saved her for last, mostly because he just didn't have a clue how to convince Lemina. Heck, he didn't even really understand her to begin with, though not for a lack of trying on his part.

"Hey, Hiro! Let's go already! There's a big basket of fish waiting for me back at Nall's!" Ruby shouted, all but shoving him towards the deck of the Destiny. "Do you even realize how many fish that is?!"

"Aww, how sweet, Ruby! I wonder what color your babies will be?" Jean teased from behind them.

"Babies? Who the heck would want to have babies with that annoying fireball?" Ronfar added, just before Ruby incinerated his latest chewing wheat stalk—and his eyebrows. "C'mon, Red! Those were finally just starting to grow back!"

"Hmph!" Ruby let out a small puff of smoke, just to watch Ronfar freak out and dance around to avoid her fire. "When are you and Mauri finally having kids, huh, Ronfar?" She flew closer to his face, hoping to get him back for his comment.

She was not having kids with Nall. They were friends—sort of.

Leo rubbed his chin. "I hope it's soon, Ronfar. Mauri's waited long enough for you to get your act together, and besides, I want some nieces and nephews to spoil!" He gave Ronfar a thumb's up as Ronfar turned bright red.

"I never thought I'd see Ronfar so red sober," Jean added, laughing as she nudged Ronfar with her shoulder.

"Hey! Aren't you guys moving really fast?" Ronfar protested, his mouth hanging open slightly.

"Ronfar, for such a big playboy, you really know nothing of women!" Jean laughed again as Ruby impatiently made a beeline for Hiro.

"Hiro, why are you just standing there? C'mon, move already! Lemina's waiting for us!" Ruby pushed Hiro right off the stairs of the ship, and he landed on the side with a thud as Jean and Ronfar laughed behind him.

"Hey, chief, now there's a sight I bet Lucia's missing!" Ronfar called out as Jean chuckled behind him.

Hiro stood up slowly, rubbing his bottom with a wince.

Maybe bringing everyone wasn't the best idea he'd ever had.

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Lemina could tell her mother was hiding something from her, but she couldn't get her mother or Borgan to talk—and she'd even incinerated Borgan just to try and convince him to own up.

Unfortunately, Borgan's love for her mother far outweighed his fear of Lemina's magic . . . to her disgust.

She sighed as she dropped down onto the bench in her garden—it was hers, after all, because the only other person who'd ever really had a claim on it in the past few decades had died when he'd betrayed Zophar—and waved her wand absently in one hand as she placed her chin on the palm of her other hand.

Ghaleon . . . was he finally resting peacefully?

Part of her wanted to think he was. After all, he wasn't as bad as she'd initially thought he'd be after his resurrection. In fact, instead of damaging the Magic Guild or Vane further—despite their actions in the past that lead to his downfall—he'd helped rebuild what he could.

Obviously, he had some bias motives, given that according to the records Ghaleon had once spent a lot of time in the gardens just as Lemina herself had. Of course, that had been centuries ago, back when Vane was in its prime, and before it had started falling apart around them . . .

Still, as selfish as it was, Lemina wished that Ghaleon hadn't died again, because she just knew he'd have known how to begin repairing the history and traditions of Vane. What she and her mother were doing just wasn't enough. The old books were either falling apart and missing key information, or the old writings' meanings had become lost over the centuries. Even her mother had trouble reading some of the really old texts.

Buildings had also begun to decay beyond recognition, and there were few records left from Vane's prime to indicate what belonged where. Lemina was beginning to lose hope that she could ever restore Vane to its former glory on her own.

Ghaleon, on the other hand, if the records were to be believed, was far older than he had appeared, and he no doubt could at the very least read the old texts, if not supply the missing information to help restore it.

After all, he'd once been the head of the Guild and Vane, along with Lemia Ausa.

According to the old stories, Vane had become Ghaleon's home, and he'd known it better than anyone else ever could, even the Ausa clan. It wasn't fair that she'd had someone like at her fingertips, only to have them abandon her for the netherworld.

Lemina had finally learned she needed to restore the history and traditions of Vane if she truly wished to restore Vane, but how was she supposed to do it alone? There was just too much working against her, and it wasn't fair.

She finally sucked up her pride and admitted she needed help, only to discover there wasn't really anyone she could ask for help.

The one person she needed . . . was dead.

She sighed again. She would give up every single piece of silver she had if she could gain even the smallest bit of access to what someone like Ghaleon would know.

"Althena, I know you're not around anymore." Lemina stared at one of the now-blooming purple flowers Ghaleon had planted. "But . . . you had to have known I can't do this myself, right? You planned for everything else, even Lucia. I know the Blue Star and Zophar were your biggest concerns, and . . . a-and I know it's really selfish to say this, but I really could use some help. Please."

"Lemina! Please come here," her mother's voice called out. "There's someone here to see you."

Wearily, Lemina rose from the bench. "Coming, Mother!" she called as she made her way out of the garden.

As she walked out of the garden, she failed to notice how her shoulders suddenly didn't seem so hunched, nor did she notice the faint blue light that had flowed down into a corner of the garden, along with what would have been a faint, but memorable chuckle.