A/N: It was never my intention to leave any of my WIP stories pending for any length of time. That said, I'm right in the middle of preparing my book (finally!) for self-publishing, and time has gotten away from me. Once the book is live, my distraction level should decrease significantly (I hope).

Lemina stood in the empty Star Dragon Tower with the rest of her friends.

It was over. They'd succeeded. Hiro was now safely on the Blue Star with Lucia, though whether or not they'd both be coming back home, Lemina didn't know for sure. She knew Hiro would try his hardest to bring Lucia home, but if Lucia felt honor-bound to remain on the recovering Blue Star, she didn't think Hiro would be willing to leave her.

For now, all they could do was wish him well, and hope Hiro brought Lucia to visit sooner or later.

Jean took Leo back with her to the carnival, and Lemina couldn't help but laugh at the idea of Leo soon working at the very carnival he'd tried to shut down. Ronfar had left to go back to Mauri, and Ruby, though she'd verbally complained the entire time, had left to rejoin Niall and the dragon kids.

In the end, it was Lemina and Ghaleon who returned to Vane alone, and the return journey had been eerily quiet.

Lemina hadn't been able to think of anything to say, and Ghaleon either had a similar problem, or had deliberately chosen to remain quiet.

Either way, neither had said anything up until they reached the manor. Lemina offered to let Ghaleon stay with them, but he refused and stated he'd find his own place to stay, and Lemina had returned to her mother and, unfortunately, Borgan, alone.

Her mother's gentle spirit had sensed Lemina's mood, and a home cooked meal had soon been delivered.

Lemina ate little, pushing the food around her plate, and finally, fed up, gotten up and had gone to the gardens Ghaleon had begun to heal.

There, she heard music, gentle music, playing on the breeze.

"Ghaleon!" She rushed through the gardens looking for him, but no matter where she searched, the man refused to be found.

Finally, dejected, Lemina sat down on a bench, and did her best to ignore the mournful sound of music around her. "Everyone's gone," she muttered to herself, allowing herself a moment to wallow in self-pity. "I can fix up Vane, but it doesn't mean anything without my friends. There's no one here to celebrate when I succeed."

She kicked at the dirt with her boring, sensible shoes, and wanted to cry. All her life she'd pinched and saved every gil she could, and still, she was nowhere close to amassing the wealth needed to restore Vane. She'd worn sensible shoes and sensible dresses and stayed home doing sensible things rather than spending money, and what did she have to show for it?

Nothing.

Vane was still falling apart at its seams, and Lemina was forced to accept that the traditions of Vane were long-lost. Some would be easy to rediscover, but the truth was that too much of Vane had been lost. Its magical towers were gone, its schools had been disbanded, and there were no longer any students coming to Vane in the hopes of learning magic.

Vane had died, and she hadn't even noticed.

Whether or not it could be revived still remained to be seen, but she finally realized that what she'd been trying to save had already been lost. Even if she was successful, it would never be exactly the same Vane that had once floated through the skies in Ghaleon's day.

Whether or not that would be a good thing she didn't know.

"What a failure I've shaped up to be." She sighed loudly. "I can't do anything on my own. All this time I've relied on my friends and Ghaleon to fix Vane rather than figuring out a way myself."

The music suddenly stopped.

"Perhaps," Ghaleon's voice drifted towards her, "you aren't meant to do this on your own."

Lemina shot up to her feet with a loud gasp. "Ghaleon!"

He suddenly appeared before her. "Here we are again, Lemina."

She remembered their first meeting in the garden. "You said you'd help me, Ghaleon."

"So I did." He sat down beside her with a regal flair. "You've been a most apt pupil."

"Then why won't you stay here?" she blurted.

His eyes widened. "Why would I? This manor is not the manor I knew, and so how could I barge in on its descendants to call it home?"

"Because you belong here." The words fell from her lips without Lemina taking a moment to think of the implications.

Ghaleon raised his brows. "Dyne said something similar..."

"Because it's true," Lemina pressed. "This place gets mega lonely without company, you know. And after all, this is your home too."

"Then you intend to expand the manor." Ghaleon's lips twinged.

"Oh, eventually," Lemina said, eagerly picturing the manor restored to its former glory. "But not yet. It would be selfish to put the manor first when everyone in Vane is living in buildings that are falling apart. I intend on fixing the manor last."

Ghaleon's lips twinged again. "I did not realize you'd become so bold, Lemina, but I'm afraid I would make a lousy husband."

Lemina gaped at him, and it took her several moments to realize what she'd implied. There was only one functional bedroom in the manor, because the roof had caved in on the guestrooms over a century ago. She began sputtering her attempts to change the topic, but Ghaleon refused to let it go.

"The Premier of Vane determined to save it, wedded to the one who destroyed it." Ghaleon laughed. "What irony."

"That's really not what I meant!" Lemina finally choked out. "I don't expect you to marry me, Ghaleon! You don't love me, and I—"

"No," Ghaleon confirmed, and Lemina didn't want to examine too closely her sinking heart. "Neither do you. But we could learn, I imagine."

Lemina's eyes widened. Is he saying...how else am I supposed to interpret those words?!

"Shall we restore Vane as partners?" One brow raised as if to dare her to say otherwise, and Lemina shot to her feet with a heated thump.

"I accept." She haughtily lifted her nose in the air, but when Ghaleon stood, too, he towered over her and rendered the gesture useless.

"Then let us be done with it, hmm." Again, he gave her that daring expression, and this time, Lemina was determined to wipe it off of his face.

She grabbed the lapel of his shirt and used it to tug him down into a kiss that was awkward and inexperienced, but left him quiet and looking surprised all the same. Smugly, Lemina left the gardens, whistling her way into the manor to tell her mother the news.

Ghaleon might think he had the upper hand, but he'd soon learn Ausa women were made of sterner stuff. She'd whip both him and Vane back into shape, and he'd learn to like it.

She couldn't wait for the wedding. To her delight, it would be attended by all of her friends... including Hiro and Lucia, newly married themselves. Niall would end up bawling through the entire ceremony, consoled by a resigned Ruby, but in the end, it would be a beautiful, simple ceremony held in the gardens of Vane.

It was the start of a new life together, for all of them.

For years after, even during cradle-tales to their children, Ghaleon would swear that on their wedding day, they were blessed by Dyne's company... and that Dyne had cried at seeing his old friend married and settling down into a life of his own.

But despite how many times he told the story, Lemina never fully believed him. Dyne was dead and gone, just as Althena herself had passed on.

But when their first son came, Ghaleon insisted on naming him Dyne, anyway, because, he claimed, of the tears shed for him. Dyne was followed by Mia, who was followed by Lynn, and these were joined by the children born to the rest of Lemina's friends. Every year they gathered together to celebrate Zophar's destruction in Vane, and every year they gathered, they also celebrated the increasing changes as Vane was restored.

More important still, they were restoring the legacy of Vane in the hearts of all of their children.

Vane had finally been restored.