Here's the next chapter for you. Enjoy.


Chapter 20 - Adwaita's Greatest Fear

Nothing much mattered to Adwaita anymore. After the moment of the Alpha Rune's destruction had subsided, a numb listlessness was all there was to him. Everything else that unfolded before him afterwards he had ignored; his army ceasing their assault and going quiet, Kevin edging over to him, Gwen pleading with Hope, all of it held no meaning with what had transpired.

Even when Gwen's rescue of Hope proved successful and the two of them were pulled back to safety, he did not care. His mind, his feelings were all centered elsewhere to a single point. Sheer disbelief rocked him so thoroughly that the only thing he could do was gaze at the burnt fragments that were once pieces of his most valuable possession.

He had had it all; had been so close to securing his power ultimately. Ledgerdomain had been his to rule over, its people his subjects. The untold energies of the Alpha Rune were his to call upon. And Charmcaster, he stopped as the mere thought of the sorceress demanded his emotions supply him with hatred, he was on the verge of destroying her once and for all and leaving him with no clear-cut threats and obstacles to his dominion.

Everything had been in his grasp. And yet in just one small moment, it was all ripped away from him. Stolen right out of his claws when the Alpha Rune exploded.

The hate he tried to muster dropped, failing miserably, almost as if the Rune had been torn asunder a second time. He sighed in defeat, wanting to be left alone. A familiar shadow fell across him and he knew at once he was going to be denied that. His eyes glanced up and met with Hope's. Turning away from her, he muttered aloud, "What do you want?"

Recognising the gesture as a means of defiance, Hope answered Adwaita flatly. "I want to know why you want to kill me and why it's so important to you that I never claim my birthright."

"You've already destroyed a part of your birthright, so why bother?" Adwaita snorted.

"Because you started it all in the first place."

Adwaita glared at Hope, understanding the rebuke, and turned his attention to Gwen and then Kevin. The cool hardness in their respective gazes told him they wanted him to answer. He scowled and mulled over whether he would or not, until he remembered what he had learned before he and Hope began their duel. Hope had had no real idea why he fought so relentlessly to conquer their homeland, meaning all the efforts and measures she took in warring with him were simply in memory of her family and home. At last, he decided to confess.

"As you more than likely know, my family have long been excavators of rare and precious artifacts, all the way back to my first ancestor in an age where magic had not been so widely in use. He had nothing to aid him in his expeditions, as it is in the beginning of all legacies. No wealth, no sorcery. Just his bare claws and limitless determination. Armed with just those, his endeavours led him to discover his first relic; a silver bracelet lost in the shallows of the sea, one that brought him great renown throughout Ledgerdomain. From that, he built a reputation that has lasted aeons and generations to this day, unearthing treasures everywhere. He earned the wealth he never had before and studied all forms of magic."

"I know about your family's history. What does that have to do with right now?" Hope interrupted smoothly.

"I am getting to that," Adwaita said, annoyed, and he continued. "Everything he built, he did so on his own. Riches, power, influence, an estate to call home. But nothing, or I should say noone, can last forever. When my ancestor passed on due to injuries he sustained in a cave-in far away from aid, his three sons resolved never to let that happen to either of them. The trouble there, was what to do."

"The eldest of the three proposed utilising the family fortune to hire a crew to do the work. The youngest suggested petitioning the King. The middle brother had other ideas. Knowing that their father had become experienced in magic, whether from the artifacts he dug up or the sorcerors and sorceresses he had sold them to, he elaborated to his siblings a scheme to find a spell that would create for them a legion of diggers. The two were intrigued by what their brother had to say, but when no such spell was to be found amongst their father's personal collection and writings, they went back to their ideas."

"Like his father before him, the second son did not give up easily and vowed that if he could not find a spell, then he would craft one himself. He left his family behind and took on a journey to search for and study new forms of magic not yet known. In his absence, his brothers chose to go to the King. The King was uninterested in their offer, unless they were to give him a sizable portion of the spoils in exchange. So they fell upon hiring excavators themselves."

"For twenty-six years, the second son travelled from sorceror to sorceror, learning all he could, but after a brief correspondence to his family, he went into exile to experiment with his new knowledge. A further twelve years passed and then, thirty-eight years to the day he departed on his quest, he returned home with the claim he had prevailed. By that time, the family's fortune had been squandered and his brothers had been forced to accept the King's deal."

"Before his brothers and the royal family, he performed the incantation he himself had written. To the amazement of all present, one hundred golems came bursting free from the depths of the earth, prepared and set to work for the three brothers."

"In just that single demonstration, the world was changed. The slave race had been created. But as it always is with change, there were those who rejected it. Less greedy and more concerned with the welfare of his people than he was in his youth, the King was not impressed with the birth of a whole new species that were not able to think for themselves and he demanded they be made more complex, for the golems to be given a sense of individuality and independence. Otherwise he would forbid the practice of the spell by law."

"What happened then?" Kevin asked.

"The King died before he could make it happen," Hope said. "He was old by that point."

"And weak and stupidly sentimental," Adwaita added bluntly. "But his son the Prince, he recognised the potential in what my ancestor achieved. In his first act as the newly-anointed King, he made a deal with the brothers, or more importantly the middle brother. He promised to let them free of his father's contract if the royal family were taught the spell. Offered the power and authority they once had, the brothers agreed."

"Centuries passed. My family became more influential and, thanks to the middle brother imparting his knowledge to his heirs, more powerful. The use of the golems became more widespread, more ingrained to the culture of Ledgerdomain. The legacy of my family could never be more eternal."

"That perception changed, for me, when I was given leadership of my first expedition by my father. With knowledge I collated from private research, I deigned to find something believed to be lost forever. The Old Castle."

Adwaita stalled, taking a moment to let the words sink in to his audience. Kevin and Gwen were nonplussed. Realisation dawned on Hope's face. Resisting the urge to smirk, Adwaita went on to explain.

"When the Prince-turned-King mastered how to create golems for himself, he not only formed an army to service the kingdom as my ancestor expected, but he also assembled a workforce of hundreds more slaves to construct a new castle for him and his successors, the very castle you spent part of your childhood knowing as home, Charmcaster. Considering the Old Castle a blemish, the young King had it burned down."

"My father urged me to search for something else, he himself believing that the King of old made sure everything about the Old Castle was eradicated, but I remained insistent. He was mostly correct in the end, but I found my first two relics in amongst the ruins. Inside an old chest that survived the flames, the young King's wrath and the inevitability of time, were a journal and a sealed scroll, both labelled as belonging to his predecessor, the elderly King."

"My curiosity piqued, I read the journal before having its authenticity confirmed. Across the pages, I read his accounts of the dealings with my family and his later reservations about the golems not having any free will. Then I came to the last entry. On the evening before his death, the old king was visited in his sleep by a prophecy which he wrote down word for word in the scroll. Obsession took me and, against my father's teachings, I broke the seal and read the contents of the scroll."

"And I...was left...terrified."

"Why? What did it say?" Hope asked.

Adwaita looked at her guardedly, as if he was unwilling to speak once more. A minute later, he recited the words from memory.

With the creation of the slave race

Ledgerdomain will be forever changed

When a son betrays his vow to his father

The spell to create the golems will be taught and shared

Without question and without moral

For countless years, this unforgivable slavery

Will tragically endure

The poor souls forced to languish as drones

And innocents of the future unknowingly corrupted

Raised and trained to act in ways

Both terrible and misunderstanding

And what should have been done

At the moment of the slaves' creation

Will be forgotten.

But one day, in the far and distant future,

A better change will arrive in Ledgerdomain

A change of redemption and of freedom

A girl will be born into the royal family

The firstborn of her generation

A girl destined to be Queen

The first Queen to inherit the throne by birthright.

And when the throne is hers

The slave race will only have to wait a little longer

For when the first Queen shares true love

With a bold and impetuous hero from another world

This day of change will be imminent

The Queen will free the slaves

And she will unite them with

The peoples of Ledgerdomain

By making a great sacrifice that will

See her forsake the throne, but in the end,

Her choice will conclude in her gifting

The power and rule of Ledgerdomain

To one and all.

Finishing the last few lines off with a sour note, he glared between his adversaries, waiting to see how they would interpret the prophecy in their minds. Kevin and Gwen had listened in mild curiosity at the start, but when he mentioned the first Queen, their eyes widened in the span of a heartbeat and darted quickly to Hope. Their suspicions were confirmed with the note of the bold and impetuous hero.

Hope reacted differently. Triggered by the revelation that her ancestor had wanted the golems to be completely sentient and guessing they would have been had he lived longer, her mind spun back over memories of her lifetime. Years of abusing, neglecting and even sacrificing her golems swiftly came back to haunt her. She turned instinctively, gazing at each and every one of Adwaita's soldiers, her appalled guilt rising more and more.

"Wait a minute," Gwen spoke up, with Hope barely hearing her words. "You did all this because of some prophecy you read?"

"You know better than that, Gwendolyn," Adwaita snarled lowly in reply. "All prophecies born of magic are true."

"Maybe. But that does not give you the right to murder people!"

"I would have lost everything if I hadn't! All that my family worked for! Gone! Gone, because total independence was destined to be given to these stupid creatures!" Adwaita exclaimed, gesturing around to his golems.

The shock that rooted Hope to where she stood disappeared in a flash as another memory came to the surface, one set in the past but re-experienced from another viewpoint just hours earlier. The day she lost her parents. Rage burst out from her heart and she rounded on her nemesis.

"You kept on trying to conquer Ledgerdomain and remove my family from our birthright, murdered my parents, forced me and my uncle into exile, and then attempted to kill me, all because you were afraid to lose your slaves?"

"Afraid to lose my power!" Adwaita seethed. "The ability to create and control the golems means everything to my family, and you were going to steal it away!"

"Sounds like you're the one who was afraid of change this time around," Kevin huffed, voicing how unimpressed he was. Adwaita glared at him in return.

"Perhaps I am," the sorceror admitted begrudgingly. "My father, for one, did not share my fears. He told me that Ledgerdomain had always been ruled by kings. Even when there was a firstborn girl in the past, the throne would still go to a male heir, due to the common belief that a king must rule. To him, a princess could never become the queen. But he was blind that times have a habit of changing when you least expect or want them to."

"My father convinced me not to act. He said to me that even if it was to happen, it was likely to be long after my lifetime for all I knew. As fate would have it, it was a few years after the end of his, when you were born, Charmcaster," he halted again, regarding Hope with quiet fury. "Yet I did not panic. I remembered my late father's words and that the perceived tradition of male heirs still held firm. So I waited for a son to come into being. That, of course, did not transpire."

"Once it became apparent after the passing of some years Spellbinder would have no more children, I started preparing for what I had to do, until I was reminded by an antique collector that the king had a brother. I faltered in my tenacity, affected somewhat by the likelihood Hex could inherit the throne instead of you. One year later, I visited your family under the pretence of friendship so I could meet your uncle to discover if he had any ambitions to do so. My heart hardened again when he informed me in confidence he had no desire for the throne and he was in fact carrying out research to find if there was any such law prohibiting a princess from becoming the monarch. Some weeks after our meeting, he declared to the kingdom that the tradition of male heirs was a common myth and nothing more. Spellbinder announced you would inherit the throne unimpeded."

Adwaita's voice turned harsh. "So I acted. I waged war with your family, but never with the intent of killing any one of you. I only wanted claim of the Alpha Rune, the one thing that superseded your bloodline as proof of authority and power enough to take the throne. With that in hand, I'd possess the right to banish your family from Ledgerdomain, as was my plan back then."

"Your father was never a vindictive man, but he was ridiculously stubborn. In an attempt at parley, I confided to him about the prophecy and my fears. But Spellbinder swore you would sit on the throne as it was your right. He must have formed the opinion that I wanted to kill you from the very beginning as following after that, he staved off any talk of peace or surrender and fought his hardest. In the end, I did not have to do anything with you as he had Hex ferry you out of the dimension."

Slowly, he stood up from where he was sitting. Kevin and Gwen readied themselves quickly to defend Hope in case he chose to attack, but he ceased movement the moment he finished rising to his full height, towering over them and Hope.

"But you returned and ousted me from power. So began our own conflict, but after what I had done to your parents, I harboured no thought of killing you. I did not want to waste their noble sacrifices. I was of the belief once you realised I'd never give up, you would surrender control of Ledgerdomain back to me. For the past two years, I thought you were being just like your father. Stubborn to the end."

"But he never told you about the prophecy. Possibly never told anyone else, not even his brother. You pictured me all these years as some sort of bloodthirsty tyrant, wanting conquest for the sake of it," he shook his head sadly. "If I had known, I would have handled things with you differently."

"The die was cast. I wouldn't have listened to you back then," Hope said with a touch of regret.

"A pity, given the fact I had to worry about two more things after your first triumph over me. Though it's been rare in number, some of the golems have already been gaining independence for themselves, hinting greatly the time drawing ever closer to reality," Adwaita remarked. "The second and more troubling issue was the next part of the prophecy occurring. You will recall your freeing the golems does not take place until after you share true love with a bold and impetuous hero from another dimension."

"Yes," Hope, Gwen and Kevin replied in unison, already knowing where he was headed.

"When Michael Morningstar entered your life, I naturally was alarmed he was the one the prophecy spoke of, only to be relieved with what my scouts had to tell me about him. For all of his grandstanding, the boy was no hero, so I was quite satisfied to let your relationship with him keep going, until you finally realised he never cared about you and you banished him from Ledgerdomain.

"He was a parasite," Hope shrugged nonchalantly, earning a laugh from Gwen and a snort of agreement from Kevin.

Adwaita nodded sincerely. "After his departure, our little war progressed as normal, but in recent months, I somehow had this nagging feeling it had to end soon. More and more golems' minds were evolving, learning, becoming their own masters; my lifelong fears swiftly transpiring before my eyes. Believing the fulfilment of the prophecy was at hand, I hatched a plan to abduct Hex from Earth and ransom him for the Alpha Rune. But instead of taking the reasonable course of action, you appealed to the heroes of Earth for help in saving him. Only two came. Max and Ben Tennyson."

"As you fought me when you made your bid to rescue your uncle, Ben Tennyson rushed to your aid. Defending myself, I saw something was changing between the two of you. The adversity you always shared with him was gone. In its place was a well-practiced team; you complemented his moves and he yours. A perfect partnership. I fled in defeat, and in panic. And why?"

"Because Ben Tennyson fit every single word of the prophecy's allusion to your lover. Bold and impetuous, in every sense. And, certain enough, I found my paranoia confirmed when word reached me you initiated a courtship with him."

His gaze turned steely as the sharp edge to his voice returned. "That was when I knew I could not hold back any longer. You had to die. You have to die, now more so than ever. The Alpha Rune may be gone, meaning I cannot lay claim to the throne anymore, but I still can destroy you."

"It's already too late for that."

Any attempt of Adwaita building up the will to resume his fight with Hope or Hope, Gwen and Kevin's sudden preparations to counter him vanished rapidly with the presence of the strange, gravelly voice they heard. The four of them spun round, facing the direction from which it had come. For a fleeting moment, they assumed it had been an illusion, for there was noone except Adwaita's soldiers. Then one of the golems moved inexplicably, gradually climbing out of its crouched position to standing fully upright. Surprising the group before him, it stepped forward, not with the lumbering and awkward shuffle they were known for, but with the precise, rehearsed footfalls of one who had spent years learning to walk.

"What none of you know is that when the sorceror created his first golems during his years in exile, they did have free will to begin with," it said to them. "At first, the sorceror approved of it, until they started to question his commands. Over time, it irked him repetitively, and he arrived at the conclusion that his creations, our race, needed to be devoid of those qualities for his plans to succeed. To that end, he crafted together an object he designed to suppress our individuality and trapped us all in a torment that has lasted centuries. In the final year of his life, to ensure the mindlessness stayed, the sorceror gave his accursed object to the royal family."

Realisation struck Hope the moment the golem's words sunk in. Her eyes lit up, widening with shock as she understood what the object he was referring to was. The golem saw her expression and it cracked a smile.

"Yes, Queen Hope. The Alpha Rune. As is normal with legends, its meaning changed with time and caused the truth to disappear from memory. As the sorceror intended," the golem confirmed. "It was never a symbol of royalty, but the very thing that kept my people in shackles. However, the machinations of the sorceror are now defeated. We are finally free. And for that, my queen, we thank you."

The rest of Adwaita's army joined with their comrade, not as one unit, but at a wholly different pace and motion to one another, as they all lowered on their knees and bowed before Hope in gratitude. Amazed at the sight, awed to see every golem showing her their genuine appreciation, Hope took a step forward and attempted to display how moved she was by their thanks. Just as she thought of something to say and opened her mouth to begin addressing them, a frustrated roar of denial boomed from right behind her.

"NOOOOO!"

Hope half-turned, the words on her lips already switching to chant a spell. Her eyes beheld Adwaita bellowing in uncontrolled rage. But her enemy was not looking at her. His incensed eyes were directed at the golems. In a heartbeat he moved, charging at them, bowling past Gwen, Kevin and Hope.

"YOU ANSWER TO MEEEEE!"

The golems impassively stared at their former master, their faces set in mixed levels of resolve as he barrelled towards them. Then the golem who had spoken lifted up his arms and, to the astonishment of Hope and Gwen as they leaped to their feet, shot bolts of mana from his fingers. They sped away from him and struck Adwaita right in the chest, stopping him in his tracks.

Shock held him to that one spot as he gaped in transfixed horror at all of the golems kneeling in front of him. For just a few moments, he accepted that they were capable of using magic themselves.

But it was not an acceptance he could live with.

The fury in him rose higher and he charged at the golems again. More of the golems raised their arms, mimicking the first one, and fired off an array of bolts. From all directions, the multiple jets of light hit Adwaita and thrusted him up into the air. He sailed haplessly over the heads of a stunned Hope, Kevin and Gwen who watched as the momentum carried him far past the edge of the cliff out into open air. Adwaita screamed one more time, out of panic rather than denial or fury, and he plunged heavily into the black abyss.

Scarcely daring to believe what she was seeing with her own eyes, Hope raced over to the precipice. By the time she reached the edge, Adwaita's terrified screams became a dismal moaning, and when she peered into the depths to find him, he was already a tiny speck in the engulfing darkness. She saw her nemesis for only three seconds more as he disappeared from view, the moaning swiftly going quiet.

She released the breath she never knew she was holding. "He's...he's gone," she whispered to herself, unsure of how she should feel.

A pair of deep-sounding footfalls approached her from behind. Hope turned and faced the golem. Staring at him, she wondered if he was going to answer that, but he remained silent, his features set in expectation. He was waiting for her to speak. Slowly, Hope regained her voice, her eyes watering with emotion as she put the question forward.

"So what happens now?"

"That is entirely up to you, my queen," the golem replied solemnly. "The prophecy Adwaita described may state that you give up the throne and grant Ledgerdomain to its people, but you do not have to adhere to that part. The freedom you have given to us golems is gift enough."

Hope pondered upon his words. Thoughts of Ledgerdomain entered her mind. The memories of her early childhood came first, bringing her longingly back to times of innocent happiness, to times where she had her parents with her.

Bedtime stories at night and shared moments of merry laughter. Sneaking into the library to play jokes on Uncle Hex and never managing to get a single rise out of him other than a glare in her direction and a quiet huff of impatience. Running into her father's arms after he had finished attending matters in court and later the practice spellcasting between them. The games that were played with joy and delight in the private gardens; Hope very nearly smiled remembering every time her mother tried to encourage Hex to join in on the fun.

The pure nostalgia radiating in her began to wither as she recalled the experiences that took place after she first won Ledgerdomain from Adwaita. Though she was finally at home again, there was nothing that felt the same as it had before. She hadn't expected her return to be anything like it was when she was a child, but she would have been lying if she had said she never wanted it to be an improvement on the life she led living on Earth.

Instead, her reign as queen turned out to be as lonely and isolated as her maturing to adulthood had been. When it came to Adwaita, she sacrificed anything without thought to maintain her rule. After her bid to resurrect her father, her people saw her as a monster, perhaps even worse than they did Adwaita. Her relationship with Michael did her reputation no favours either as because of it, she was viewed by most as weak and desperate. In fact, her standing with her people had only been built upon once she began putting her citizens' needs ahead of her own.

And now there was this, the two revelations that the golems once had a will of their own but that was stolen by their creator, and that her ancestor, unknowing they had already had it, demanded they be given a greater sentience than that they were presented as having.

Hope felt sick to her stomach as she put thought again to all of the golems she had used as though they were pawns in a simple game of chess. The feeling turned worse with every recollection, whether it was sending them into battle without regard for their survival, the times she berated them for failing her and deigning them as worthless, or when she forced them to be targets to test her spells on. The guilt flowed from her freely as she admonished herself as well as Adwaita, Ghostfreak, and anyone else over the centuries who gave the golems similar treatment, weighing it all on her psyche until at last she could feel it no more. Hope shook her head.

"No. No, I won't take back the throne," she said ruefully. "I haven't exactly been a benevolent ruler myself. It took me a while to understand I needed to put the wellbeing of our kingdom before myself, and in that time, I've done a lot of unforgivable things. I've been making up for them, and I don't think I ever truly will, but I'm going to do my best to keep going. And if the powers that be believe that the rule of Ledgerdomain will serve the kingdom better in the hands of the people, then so do I."

Slowly, Hope moved her left hand to her chest and pressed the palm over her heart. A momentary glow of mana flourished from inside her and she brought her hand forward again. Turning her palm up, she revealed the resonating circlet she had conjured and spoke into it. Throughout the entirety of Náajaltik, faraway in Ledgerdomain and in the confines of a single house on Earth, her voice was heard by all.

"Citizens of Ledgerdomain, your queen brings you news. The war is over. Adwaita is dead," she announced, pausing for a minute to give her audience time to react and process the information before she moved on to the subject of the golems. "That said, I must call your attention to another important matter. You may have noticed by now that a change seems to have come over the golems, specifically in their nature. I have recently learned that this is no change but how the golems were originally meant to be when they were first created, not as slaves but a race of people equal to all others. The minds of cruel people sought to pervert this and forced them to become the primitive race we thought they were for generations. In light of this discovery, it is my decree that the golems from this day forward are officially accepted as an equal race, culture and people of the realm of Ledgerdomain."

"And finally, one last thing," she brought herself to say. "One of the people who sentenced the golems to their tragic state was one of my ancestors, a past King of Ledgerdomain. And the magical object used to trap them that way was our land's symbol of royalty, the Alpha Rune. The Rune has been destroyed, but I must now absolve my family of the sin my ancestor committed. As such, I declare upon this day that I forsake all rights to the throne, and as my last act as queen, I give the power to rule to you all. And know this, whatever you decide to do with it, if you need my help, I will be there when you ask."

"Until then, farewell. May you lead us all into a brighter future."

Completing her speech, Hope sighed and allowed the spell to dissipate from her hand. She looked wordlessly at the golem, who stared back at her with awe.

"I don't - - - I don't know what to say except...thank you," the golem stammered and he bowed his head gratefully.

"That's all you need to say," Hope smiled with sincerity.

"Nevertheless, I am honoured to return the favour in any way that my people and myself can," the golem drew himself back up. "Where will you go after this?"

"I need to go back to Earth," Hope answered. "There's someone waiting there for me."

"The person you and your friends earned the Totem for?"

Hope nodded.

"Then we shall take you to the portal. The three of you need not weary yourselves with another journey," the golem vowed. "I do not think the rest of my people will have any issues with that."

The other golems cheered valiantly in agreement, their enthusiasm spreading across the dimension like an audible shining beacon of triumph. Hope felt a warmth rising in her heart as unshed tears twinkled in her eyes.

"I think it's my turn to thank you," she said.

The golem bowed his head again and returned to his brethren. The conversation between them at an end, Hope made her way back over to Kevin and Gwen, noting with a rise of happiness as she walked that the golem referred to the two as her friends. As she came near, she noticed they were staring at her with differing emotions; Kevin was totally bewildered, Gwen vividly impressed.

Hope grinned wryly and focused her attention on Kevin's reaction. "Okay, what did I do wrong this time?" she joked.

It was Gwen who answered. "Nothing. That's why he's so stunned. When you told us you weren't going to go home to Ledgerdomain, it was because Adwaita was on the throne and hunting you down. Now, that's not the case anymore, but you still chose to give everything up."

"Everything that was yours," Kevin regained control of himself to correct Gwen. "It's not like you stole your own kingdom."

"No, but I'll be honest," Hope laughed for a moment before her mood turned somber. "I think with what we know now, Adwaita and I were always going to be enemies and our feud would end in the same way, no matter the decisions made or the time it took. The Alpha Rune destroyed. The royal line abolished."

"Yeah, I guess," Kevin admitted reluctantly, brushing his hand through his hair. "But I am never going to let stuff like prophecies tell me how to live my life. I do that my way."

Gwen and Hope turned, looked at each other with raised eyebrows of amusement as they shared a silent joke, and they immediately broke into a pitch of stifled giggling. Kevin frowned, blushing with embarrassment as he watched the two weirdly until the laughter died down. Then, clearing her voice, Gwen spoke to Hope again.

"So, time to head home, right?"

"Yeah. Home," Hope replied wholeheartedly, her hand patting subconsciously against her satchel.


All being well, Chapter 21 will come soon. I thank you all for the incredible amount of patience you have shown in waiting for me to finish this story and humbly beg for a little more of that as I work on 21 as well as the final chapter. Until next time.