A/N-Alright peoples, the last installment of Book 4: Time's Revelation is here. Read on to find out what is yet to be solved...

Epilogue

What is to Come

The present is a fickle thing

Never at peace, always in motion

The foundations of all life are frail

Able in a moment's pace to be broken

So, when all things fall around you

Ask yourself, are you ready

For what is to come?

A few days had passed and, Berk being Berk, everything was just about back to normal. The Bog Burglars and Meatheads had sailed off to their respective islands, the latter dragging along Alvin and his crew who would be spending some quality time in dark solitary cells, and the Hooligans were settling back down. After hundreds of years of rebuilding constantly after dragon raids, the Vikings were very well experienced with making their houses look ready to live in within a day or two, and the piles and shards of the odd metal remaining from the arrows and machines had been gathered up (carefully, especially after Tuffnut demonstrated just how effective the stuff was at cutting things) and deposited in the forge storehouse to be used for who-knows-what later, likely whatever Hiccup, Gobber and I could come up with. Last but not least the remaining men from Jezebel's army had been sent off, with just enough to survive until they washed up along the mainland coast somewhere.

I hadn't told anyone back at the house about the bag of jewels when I returned home, instead hiding them in the back corner of my closet until I could find a more suitable location or I felt they were needed. Frankly, with that much just handed off to me I didn't really know what I could do with it, and it was something I just wasn't quite ready to spring on my parents yet.

During those few days everyone also got a LOT of work done. Save for my embarrassing fainting spell at the Great Hall, due to the stunt with the bombs no one actually slept for about three days straight. That's great for people like the Hooligans, who had houses to build, stores to refill, etc., but not so great for the college kid who had finished all his work a week before. So, I focused on other little projects here and there and, after my parents got wind of the odd circumstance, I got stuck with household chores while everyone else slept. Oh well, it was over quickly enough and things returned to my version of normality by the middle of the week.

There were still a few issues to sort through though, like the case of misplaced Ember and Orha. After I got out of school, I stopped by to see them in the village.

"So, where are you going to be off to now?" I asked as I walked up to the two, both busy helping haul a cart up the street. "Since I doubt rogue sorceresses will be an issue for a while and her army is basically gone, are you planning on heading home, or…?" Ember glanced down at me, then up at the small house near Astrid's that had been set up for her over the past couple months.

"I don't think I'll be leaving actually, so long as I'm welcome here," she admitted. "I mean, save for some of the weather you guys get it's rather nice, and other than the fact that Jerusalem is where I came from there's nothing more for either of us there." Ember glanced down at Orha, and a smile grew across her face. "And after all, with him back to normal we may both actually be of benefit around here now."

"Meaning I would be doing all the work and you'd be getting a free ride around the village all the time, right?" Orha snarked back, but I could see the smile he had on too. I grinned at the pair, and nodded. "Oh, I'm sure Stoick and the rest of the village will find you welcome additions," I reassured, before bidding farewell for the moment and leaving them to their task (and joking insults they threw at each other as they moved along).

My next quarry was Hiccup, and I flew off in search of him, but after a short search came up empty handed. It wasn't much of a surprise though, as over the past few days he and Astrid had been making themselves scarce several times a day. I had talked to the chief about it, concerned the two may have been tampering with ideas that should be left for more appropriate circumstances, but he shrugged it off with a grin, no doubt planning on teasing his son with just that topic later, and mentioned that several supplies had vanished overnight as well. Rumor sprung up that the two had come up with some sort of project they were working on in secret in one of Hiccup's many hideouts.

I set the matter off to the side for the time being, knowing I'd always be able to find the young inventor later on (and make him blush scarlet in punishment for disappearing), and instead turned my mind to the more daily nuances everyone has to take care of.

A couple days later, I was in my room, door closed and blocked off as I sorted through the bag of minerals I'd been given, when I heard my mom call my name with one of those famous "urgent mother" tones. Immediately I put everything back in the bag and stored it away before walking out to find her staring as if lost at her phone.

"What happened?" I asked. She slowly turned her head up to look at me, then out the back window with worry. "We need to keep a close eye on everyone," she said, "especially you and your sister with both of you out and about away from us every day." "Why? Who called you?" I pressed.

She looked straight at me this time, and spoke a few words that set me on edge faster than the twins with a barrel of gunpowder. "That was the police. Malin disappeared from his cell a few days ago, and there is no trace of where he went."

Jezebel groaned, and slowly rolled over, pressing her hands to the ground and pushing herself to her knees, before painfully standing upright. As she moved, the bruises on her sides protested and she winced, the result of a hard landing after being thrown through the portal. A quick wave of her hand however and the dark magic that flowed through her erased the wounds, and she looked around.

The sun blazed down from high ahead, and nothing but sand dunes and half-scorched shrubs could be seen scattered sparsely in every direction. It was certainly not where she had started out a few hours before, but Jezebel reasoned things could have ended even worse. The Asgardians had underestimated her once more; after nearly nine centuries on this planet, she had become well-traveled, and in but a few hours she would discover where they had dumped her.

Though she had lost the battle as well, Jezebel also had learned a thing or two about her new opponents. The girl, of course, could be rid of easily enough once removed from the group she'd attached herself to, and the dragon boy, for all his abilities, still had weaknesses and limits of both his power and his mind. Not to mention Jezebel was far from run out of surprises of her own just yet.

She grinned at the thought and, as if to prove her own point, drew out a small emerald gem, much like the one that the dragon whisperer Hiccup had destroyed earlier, and pressed down on the flat central face.

As the mineral began to glow, so did the sand around the sorceress's feet, shifting and sliding over itself as is coalesced, a solid, floating platform. Jezebel stepped on to it, and the platform began to move, heading northward and traveling at a great speed across the desolate landscape.

Time was short, Jezebel knew, and she had much to gather together once more before the real battle commenced.

A/N-And there we have it! Ember is staying around for now at least, and Jezebel is far from out of the story. What will her next move be? Keep an eye out for Book 5: Inheritance Past to find out! The prologue for that story will be uploaded next week!

And as always, please let me know what you think, and give me your predictions! That review button is dying for clicks!