Chapter Thirty

When she woke that morning, Lucy had no idea that the long journey they had been on was going to hurtle irreversibly into its final laps. In fact, when she woke that morning, the only thing Lucy had an idea of was that it was way too early and that Natsu's elbow was unreasonably pointy. She jabbed him in the ribs with her own, equally pointy elbow, and blinked her eyes open. She was used to the Horse using a loud gong to wake the Questers every morning, but it was only—she glanced blearily at the clock—3am! Why on Earthland were they ringing it now? She shook Natsu awake, and they made their way, bickering and grumbling, to the main hall, bumping into their comrades on the way.

"Dun your travelling raiment, Questers. Today, we shall journey forth on an excursion," boomed the Horse, before the wizards had time to descend the staircase.

It was too early, even, for Natsu to have one of his usual homonymous misunderstandings over the word 'raiment,' and the wizards returned to their rooms quietly to dress. Several hours later, they stepped out (or in the case of Natsu and Wendy, tumbled out, dry heaving) of the Horse's carriage into a cool, misty morning.

Lucy took a deep breath, her eyes widening as she smelled a familiar, tangy scent on the fresh breeze.

"We seem to be near the ocean," said Charle, her whiskers quirking in surprise.

The group had travelled southwards from the Horse's manor, the winter peeling away, blending into green the further they went.

"Indeed," replied Sacerdotisa, placing her hand in the Horse's and allowing them to hand her down from the carriage. She gestured for the Questers to follow her as she began to lead the way, gliding sedately over the turf.

The ground sloped gently upwards, and so the mages were surprised when it fell sharply away, the black stone of the cliffs dropping precipitously towards a vast plain of black sand. At the centre of the plain rose—luminous and lushly verdant with thick twisting trunks and laden branches—a very familiar looking tree.

"What is the meaning of this?" asked Erza, staring wide-eyed at the much taller, much older iteration of the Tenrou tree.

Sacerdotisa turned to look at the Fairy Tail wizards, a sly smile on her face. "This, my dear Questers, is why you are on this Quest."

The Horse tapped their foot, causing a long line of stairs to descend the cliff surface. The wizards followed Sacerdotisa down, bristling with curiosity, but aware that Sacerdotisa would not reveal anything to them until she was ready. They followed her across the black sands, before finally sitting down among the gnarled roots of the ancient tree. Charle frowned as she tucked her skirt neatly under her haunches. There was something familiar about these sands, although she could not put her paw on what.

Sacerdotisa placed a hand upon the tree, and it seemed to pulse with life and warmth beneath her touch. "I come from a long line of priestesses of the Tree," she began. "Some call it the Tree of Magic. Others the Heavenly Tree. There are as many names for it as there have been years on this Earthland, but to those of us who have lived beside it and cared for it, it has always only been the Tree—the tree the Heavenly Emperor placed upon this Earth, when They wished to grant magic to humankind."

She rubbed a knobbly piece of bark with her palm. The shadows on the surface of the tree rippled to life under her touch. "Ours was a small, but happy village. For centuries we lived in contentment in the upper boughs of the Tree." The shadows leapt up, creating a scene from a bazaar, showing people trading, elders conversing, and children playing. The many animals that called the tree home mingled freely with the humans.

"But humans are curious, and soon, the very first of my ancestors set upon a journey to see the wider world. The village elders approved, for there was no such thing as too much knowledge to have. Even then, they foresaw the danger of us living isolated from the remaining world. We needed fresh blood to keep going, so they blessed the journey and onward my ancestor went."

The shadow twisted, forming a silhouette of a person walking across miles of land and sailing across leagues of ocean. And then, the silhouette finally bumped into another, and then suddenly there was a third smaller silhouette, and then a fourth. "My ancestor found love, married, even had children but returned, eventually, to the Tree. Theirs was the first journey of many. After that, every year a few of the village would leave on their journeys to see the wider world. And for years, that was alright. More people returned to the village than left it, so there was no cause for concern."

The scene on the tree split into two and drifted apart. On one side remained the bazaar scene from before, but on the other side the shadows began to morph into tall buildings. "But the world outside grew faster and more wondrous than we had ever imagined. Soon people were leaving us, never to return at all." The people in the bazaar began to disappear, one by one.

"It was into this time that my mother's mother was born," Sacerdotisa continued. "Possessed of uncommon wisdom, she knew that the only way to ensure the survival of the Tree, and thus of magic on Earthland, was to sow the seeds of magic across the world. And so, she harvested parts of the tree—the brightest, greenest, youngest shoots—and sowed them in the tip of the continent."

The shadows took the familiar form of Giltena, save for a long, narrow peninsula in the South. Suddenly, the peninsula broke into pieces, the fragments drifting across the oceans. "She broke the continent using the last of her magic, and sent hundreds of islands, and hundreds of tiny trees across the world, to carry on the legacy of magic. She knew that the next few generations would remain tied to our duty, until we were sure that our work was done. And then, we too would be free to live lives unburdened by destiny and duty," she paused then, an expression of yearning on her face, but then gave herself a little shake before continuing.

"But those were not her sole motivations." Sacerdotisa looked at the Horse, who inclined their head, indicating that she could continue. "The people of my village had long been aware of the Quest for the Great Gift and the Guardian Sprits that protected its Keys. But we were surprised one day to find three of the Guardians at our doorstep."

"The Quest was fa-hay-ding from human memory," the Horse explained. "The three of us wanted more Questers to take on the journey. Cast a net that was a bit wider. Finding more wizards who could eventually take on the Quest was another reason to spread the seedlings of the Tree across the world. Their strong magic would influence the steeple around them and invite them into magic."

"And it was so, that my brother, whom you know as Erza's Grandpa Rob, set out one day to check upon the seedlings that we had dispersed, confirm that they thrived, and see the kind of wizards that their magic had influenced. It was on one such journey that he chanced upon the tree that you all know as the Tenrou tree. A tree that was growing on an island where, one day, Mavis Vermillion met Yuri Dreyar, Warrod Sequen, and Precht Gaebolg, and embarked upon the journey that would result in the formation of the guild known as Fairy Tail." The guild's emblem stood embossed against the dark brown bark. "When he told me of the guild, of the strong bonds between the members, I knew that it was time to invite them on the Quest. And my surety of this decision was only made stronger when Rob decided not to come back. He had found his people."

She turned away from the Tree to look at the Questers. "He came to me, as a thought projection, on the day he died. To tell me where he had been, how he had been shackled, his magic suppressed. How Erza had reawakened it. How he had decided to give his life to protect hers. And how the time had come for the next generation of mages.

"I had never expected to see that Erza had joined Fairy Tail, however. It makes me think that I made the right choice, delivering the Quest to the guild."

The shadows morphed into one final image, depicting the seven wizards sitting beneath the Tree with Sacerdotisa and the Horse. "And that, dear wizards," concluded the priestess, "answers the first of your questions, 'Why Fairy Tail?'"

The water lapping at her feet was warm. The breaking of the peninsula centuries ago had created a bay, allowing the warmer currents of the South Giltena Sea to swirl unimpeded across its expanse. Lucy dug her toes into the black sand, enjoying how it squished in between them.

Sacerdotisa's revelations were a lot to take in. They seemed to throw up more questions than they answered. She supposed that their doubts would be clarified eventually, but it still made her uneasy. They were halfway through the Quest but there was still so much they didn't know.

"Natsu! Happy! No swimming for 30 minutes after eating!" Erza called sharply as she came to stand beside Lucy.

Lucy stifled a grin as she saw Natsu and Happy's faces fall. They waited until Erza's back was turned before sneaking into the water anyway.

"You want to go too, don't you?" Erza sighed, not even turning to look at the three mages who were standing right behind her.

"It'd be a good workout after sitting around on my butt all day," replied Gray.

"It has been a long time since we've been to the beach, Erza-san," admitted Wendy sheepishly. "In warm weather at least."

"Someone has to keep an eye on them," sniffed Charle.

Erza sighed. Tilted her head. Then all of a sudden, all three mages were off, running towards the water and scattering clothes in their wake.

Lucy giggled at her comrades' antics. They were finally getting the beach outing that they had been waiting for.

"How are you doing, Lucy?" asked Erza, folding her arms. "You seem pensive."

"It was a lot of information to process, ne?" replied Lucy evenly.

Erza hmmed. "Indeed."

"Can you believe the tree we consider to be a symbol of our guild is a part of something much greater?"

"I am not surprised. There are many secrets surrounding the founding of the guild that we are unaware of."

Lucy tapped her chin and thought of what Erza said. It was true. Zeref. The Lumen Histoire. The mysterious Zera who had appeared during the war with Alvarez. There were mysteries aplenty surrounding Fairy Tail, and it felt like their number was growing every year.

"The factor to consider is that the Tree does not seem to choose upon whom to bestow magic," Erza continued. "There are good wizards in this world and bad. Even on Tenrou Island, there once was a guild that terrorised the First Master."

"And if there could be no guarantee of the type of wizards whose magic it would enhance, then why did the Horse and the other Guardians choose it to aid their search?" Lucy finished for her.

"Is it that they have complete confidence in the Horse's vetting process—the one we have just undergone?"

"Or were they that desperate to find more Questers?" A chill ran through Lucy. She was much more in tune with the threads of magic around her after her training sessions with the Horse, and she had just sensed an unmistakeable shift. She was still some way from being able to trace its origin, however. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Sacerdotisa melting away into the shadows. Perhaps it was that she had sensed.

The Horse called out to them, gathering their attention once more. "I have decided, there is no steed to prolong this further. I can see that you have more Quest-ions, and it is time they were answered."

The wizards took up places under the Tree again. The Horse waited until the last of them was seated before speaking, "In the normal c-horse of events, I would reserve your follow up Quest-ions for another day, but as yesterday we addressed a Quest-ion that was not on your list, it is permissible to make an exception." It was not the whole truth, but it was enough of a truth until Sacerdotisa returned with more information. "You may put fore-th one single query."

"Why did only three of you seek to find more Questers?" The question shot forth from Charle's mouth. She looked around apologetically, checking if there were any protests from her comrades.

There were none.

The Horse nodded, and began, "To comprehensively answer that query, we must return to the origin of this tail."

The years rolled back for the Horse, and they remembered, once more, how enthusiastic they had all been in the beginning. Humankind had pleased the Heavenly Emperor, and, in return, They had wanted to reward them with the Great Gift. To be selected to participate in the endeavour was the greatest honour, and the chosen few were eager to do their part.

The Quest to obtain the Great Gift was not easy. The Guardian Spirits were difficult to track down. The Quest was too long. Many joined but then abandoned it simply because their lives changed while on the journey. People fell into other, steadier jobs. Went to university. Married. Had children. Realised they wanted something else for themselves. And so on it had gone. Until he came.

He had charmed them. Oblivious, they had trusted him. He was tenacious and perseverant, and over the course of a few years, he had obtained the Keys one by one. The Guardian Sprits, in their turn, had enthusiastically granted them to him, pleased at last to fulfil the Heavenly Emperor's wish.

Until, one day, he had revealed his true colours and everything had fallen to pieces. And as a consequence, they had been changed, irrevocably, forever.

"The Guardian Spirits on Earthland were in disarr-hay after Aconologia completed the Quest," the Horse said succinctly. "While we had been happy to grant the Keys to Questers be-fore, we were no longer keen to do so. However, the vehemence of our convictions varied. We gathered together, for the first time since we had taken part in the Great Race, to decide upon our future c-horse."

They remembered that meeting as though it had taken place only the day before. They all had gathered at the Horse's own abode, broken and fractious in their grief; each unwilling to give quarter to any who disagreed with their own opinion.

"There were some among us who wished to thwart any and all future Questers, to prevent a night-mare like Aconologia from obtaining power again. There were others who thought that in the right hands, the Great Gift could precipitate the outcome that we all had begun to yearn for. There were others still who considered such a meeting a bit-rayal of the orders of the Heavenly Emperor.

"Unable to reach a consensus, we called upon the Heavenly Princess, she who you stall Vega, to act as arbiter. But her roan neutrality had been shaken by Acnologia's actions. In the end, we split as a result of our disagreements into different factions." This handful of sentences fell short in its attempt to convey the acrimony that arose at that long ago conference. The Guardians, who had served the Heavenly Emperor's cause together for centuries, had suddenly been at odds with each other. They had sat across from each other, spewing vitriol, especially towards the last few who had parted with their Keys. The Horse remembered, vividly, how the Snake had turned on the Pig, who had confessed to tricking Aconologia into taking the Key instead of testing him. They remembered as well, the derision with which the Ox spoke to the Rooster, the Monkey, and the Goat, the three of whom had come away gravely injured from their battles over the Key.

"In truth, none had been to blame," the Horse continued, their tone wistful. "All of our dealings with Aconologia had been constrained by the Rules of the Quest. Moreover, any desire for retribution once we returned to Earthland had been left directionless after the villain had been installed as one of our own member and granted a Key. The eleven of us who met that day were restricted to a compromise. A second-best course of action that would salve our wounds and somehow prevent our hurts from ever occurring again."

The Horse saw Lucy and Gray exchange a wary glance. Good. The unmasking of emotion and lack of puns had been deliberate. They could feel the magic around them stirring once more. Although Sacerdotisa had not yet returned from her reconnaissance, they sensed that their time with the Questers was coming to an end. They had hoped for a few weeks to slowly let slip the clues to their ultimate goal, forbidden as they were from speaking it openly. They cursed inwardly. Slipshod and heavy-handed hints were not what they had planned for. They could only hope that their intentions would get through.

"The Rat, loyal to the Heavenly Emperor beyond reproach, re-mane-d the only truly neutral party. The Dog remained neutral as well, choosing to exercise their own judgement to pick and shoes which Questers to grant their Key. The Ox was against granting her Key to any future Questers, as was the Snake, but they hit a s-nag when they could not see eye to eye on the execution of their plans. The Ox was confident that her strength alone would serve as deterrent to future Questers. I can see from the Quest-ions that were presented to me, that Vega did not furbish you with the complete Rules of the Quest. This was un-roan to me. The Ox and Vega are well-acquainted. I can only speculate that this was a fragment of their plan that was set in motion, to hinder Questers from graining the Great Gift."

The Horse paused for a moment, sensing another stirring in the magic around them. Sacerdotisa appeared then, stepping freely from the long shadows cast by the setting sun. She inclined her head at them, indicating their suspicions had been true.

"The Snake, you have met, and you already know the lengths he will go to, to bl-hock the Great Gift from falling once again into the hands of Questers. Those who were undecided became a part of his faction. Only three of us were not draught-ed to his cause, the Pig, the Tiger, and I. We constituted what came to be known as the Great Alliance. The only Guardians in favour of helping, neigh, grooming Questers to achieve the Great Gift."

Wendy drew in a sharp breath as the identities of the three Guardians who had approached Sacerdotisa's family for help became clear.

"However, we set in place our roan rules," cautioned the Horse. "We would not offer our aid to just any Quester. They had to prove themselves to be honourable, empathetic, and kind. Questers that we believed would understand what to do with the Great Gift to help serve the greater good." Another heavy-handed hint that had landed, judging by the furrow in Erza's brow.

"I am the last one standing of the Great Alliance. Once I bestow upon you the Key, you will have no more allies. No more neutral parties either. From now, saddle-y every Guardian you meet will be actively seeking a way to coerce you into abdicating the Quest. If their efforts to that end fail, then it is my belief that they will make the necessary choice to prevent you from gaining your foals."

Lucy gulped at their implication. The other Guardians would kill them. That would be the necessary choice.

The Horse wished that they had had the three weeks they had desired with the Questers. They wished they could have better equipped them for what was to come. Night had fallen by then, and the Horse felt the final swell in the magic around them. This one, much larger than the ones before it. She was here. And soon, their time on Earthland would end.

"I'm starting to understand why no one has completed this Quest in 400 years," said Gray contemplatively.

"Aye," agreed Happy.

"Never mind that!" Lucy sprang to her feet, a sense of urgency coming over her. "How did Aconologia anger the Heavenly Emperor? Vega warned us to be just in our endeavours, implying that he had not been. But what did he do?"

The Horse was given no time to reply, the first lightning bolt catapulted across the beach then. The Questers looked up, just in time to see the promontory come ablaze with light. A horde stood at the edge, the light from hundreds of torches burnishing their plate armour. There were rows and rows of helmets. Hundreds, if not thousands.

Unable to see the details clearly at a distance, Natsu and Wendy rose into the air, flown up by Happy and Charle.

"Remember, the orders are to capture, not kill," shouted one of the warriors at the front, her voice surprisingly strident despite its light and airy timbre. Her plumed helmet distinguished her as a leader, but then she looked up, her eyes meeting Wendy's through the visor.

"It's a kid!" Wendy exclaimed, but her words were lost as shadowy limbs grabbed the four Fairy Tail wizards and yanked them swiftly towards the ground.

The next moment the Horse crashed their hooves to the earth, calling forth a curved wall of sand to shield them from sight.

"This is not a fight you can win!" they told the protesting Questers harshly as the sand dome closed overhead. They too had seen the young girl at the front of the swarm. Was it her they had sensed? Had the Rabbit not come herself? Or was she just waiting, out of sight, knowing that she could not harm the Questers while they remained in the Horse's care? Whichever it was, the Questers needed to leave before they encountered her, or they would lose their best chance of obtaining her Key. The Rabbit would not hesitate to kill them as soon as the Rule of the First Meeting was no longer in effect. "We must go."

"Back to the house?" asked Lucy.

"No. They will be waiting for you the second you leave there to collect the other Keys."

"Where then?" asked Erza.

"And more importantly, how?" added Gray. The army had hemmed them in on three sides, and on the fourth was the open sea.

Natsu crashed his fists together. "We're going to have to tear a path right through them!"

Some of the wizards flinched as the dome above them cracked. "No," the Horse corrected him. "Your best choice is to run, and to run now."

They ushered the Questers towards the Tree. Sacerdotisa was already waiting. She placed a hand upon one of its twisted roots and suddenly, there was a path before them that had not existed before. The Questers hurried forth, clambering into the tunnel beneath the Tree. The Horse stopped at the entrance and turned towards Sacerdotisa. "I am sorry," they said.

Sacerdotisa nodded, a wry smile twisting her lips. "We always knew it might come down to this. You and the Rabbit cannot fight one another, but I can."

"That is not the Rabbit out there. The child is not constrained by the Rules of the Quest."

"I know."

Her whole life had been leading up to this moment. She was the last of the Priestesses of the Tree. Destined to protect the gift of magic to the world. Destined to repay her grandmother's debt to the three Guardians who had helped her harvest the Tree's magic and seed it. Destined to sacrifice her cherished dreams and desires by being born a minute before her twin.

The Horse was watching her carefully, doubtfully.

Their face was impassive but she had known them long enough to read their emotions. She took a deep breath, ignoring the slowly crumbling dome of earth above them. "I wish…" she began.

"Sacerdotisa…"

They were right. Now was not the time for regrets. She brought a smile to her face, though it threatened to break. The time had come to say goodbye. "I have loved you, you know."

Boom, another chunk of the dome was blown off.

"And I you, my most cherished friend."

"Go," she said. "I'll hold them off until you can get away."

The Horse nodded. They gazed at one another for a long moment, years of friendship, acknowledgment, apologies, and goodbyes jammed into one look.

"Give me one last pun before you go," she whispered, as the dome above them finally cracked open.

"All of this has not been in vain. Filly-ve it."

Sacerdotisa groaned, then smiled, and finally turned away. It was time to make her last stand.

The tunnel beneath the tree was dark. Natsu flared a small flame in his hand to light the way. The wizards picked out a path among the dirt and stones to the sound of the army laying siege above ground. Occasional flashes lit the underground tunnel through the small opening, and Charle was struck with a familiar vision of shadow and lightning battling in front of the Tenrou tree. Except, it had not been the Tenrou tree in her vision, had it?

There was a scuffling sound and the Horse descended into the tunnel, sealing it shut behind them. "Come, we must hurry," they said.

The group walked on for a while, heading deeper under the Tree rather than away from it. Lucy's skin prickled with rising awareness of a great source of magic. A look at her comrades told her that they felt it too. It was the same feeling they had gotten at the glacier north of Silestina. "It's a confluence of supernal lines," she said.

"Correct," the Horse said, stepping out of the tunnel into a vast, empty cavern that tingled with magic. "You know of wizards who can jour-neigh through lightning and shadow. We shall be travelling in a similar stile."

"You mean to use the supernal lines as a mode of transportation?" Erza said, squinting into the cavern to see if the magic had any discernible form.

"Did you never wonder how the Snake was stable to take you from Tekka and return you in such a short span of time?"

Wendy frowned. Had the Tiger told them about that? But that did not explain how they knew about Laxus and Gajeel's abilities to travel using lightning and shadow.

"The descendants of Sacerdotisa's line may have left the Tree, but many of them have mane-tained a connection to their roots. They do not know the true extent of their leg-acy or of the Quest, but they write to Sacerdotisa on occasion and share the news of the world," the Horse explained, pre-empting her question. "Now come, we do not have time to waste."

They raised a hand into the air and it flickered and distorted, like a blurry image on a lacrima-cam.

"I'm already feeling sick," Natsu said, his cheeks puffing up as he watched the Horse's hand.

"A hazard of this mode of con-hay-ance," the Horse conceded. "Consider this to be similar to a Celestial Gate. But while Celestial Spirits require one to visit Earthland, us Guardians have pony-ied of such a conduit to traverse these lines."

"I see," said Lucy, catching on. "Celestial Spirits essentially travel through magic, but the Celestial Spirit world and ours exist on two different planes. And so, we require a means to bridge that gap—the Celestial Spirit Gate. But as beings of pure magic, travelling in between places on the same plane, the Guardian Spirits have no such requirement."

"Wait, so what, we wait for some kind of magic train to come by?" asked Gray, his forehead wrinkled.

"No. To travel through magic without a conduit, you would have to be one with the magic," Lucy explained. She turned to the Horse, anxiously, "But we don't know how to do that!"

The Horse gave a curt nod. "And there is no time to learn. Fore this venture, you shall make use of my ability. Now, let us make haste." They held out their hands, and the wizards grabbed on. "Brace yourselves, this shall be extremely dun-pleasant."

The earth under the wizards' feet gave a sickening lurch and then suddenly, there was nothing. And then there was a star-filled sky and cold wood beneath their feet. The Horse tipped the wizards forward quickly, one by one, nudging the last one over mere moments before the first threw up. They waited patiently as the wizards retched. None of them had been immune to the effects of travel, but then the Horse had not expected any of them to be. That was why they had brought them here, to a bridge leading across the Sulphia River near the port town of Elmina. The water would carry away whatever it was the wizards disgorged, leaving almost no trace of their arrival.

They barely waited for the wizards to finish vomiting to materialise the Key. "Lay hands on the Key, there is no time to lose. I have criss-crossed the continent, taking several paths over and over to confuse anyone who hay be following us, but the longer I linger, the stronger the remnants of my magic will be."

"Where are we?" gasped Charle, wiping her mouth with a dainty paw.

"Near where you first arrived on Giltena." They had not taken them to the far end of the continent from the Tree, for that would be the obvious choice of escape. However, somewhere too close by would have been obvious too, if the Rabbit decided to employ reverse psychology. Here, a place that was some leagues away, a place where the wizards had already been and left a scent—this was the ideal choice. "Now take hold of the Key. I will have a few moments thereafter, to traverse a bit farther and further diffuse the trail. You must quit this town too, travel far-rier from the supernal lines for a few days to avoid risk of detection before you make your next move."

"Wait," ordered Erza. "We still have unanswered questions. What about the Deal?"

"Consider the Deal null and void. Circumstances have fore-ced us in a different direction," the Horse replied blandly.

"But-," Gray began.

The Horse raised a forbidding hand. "You must horse-ten to the Palace of Bones, therein you shall find the answers you seek." This last part they said directly to Wendy.

The Key whispered into the air before the wizards, as bright as the rainbow in the moon's halo. "Stay the c-horse, Questers. There are perils ahead, but your journey is the fruition of a centuries-long plan. May your corral stay high and your convictions true."

"Leave it with us, Horsie-chan," Natsu replied.

"Thank you for the training, for the answers, and for the Key," added Lucy.

The wizards' hands closed about the key as one. The Guardian began to fade immediately. They nodded tersely once, a final farewell to the wizards, before they jumped back into the magical jetstream that had brought them all here, to try and throw the Rabbit off the Questers' trail before their corporeal form finally returned to the heavens.

The Fairy Tail wizards looked on for a moment at the iridescent sparkle that wisped in the air before blinking out. And then they, too, were gone, hastening from the area just as the Horse had said.

A/N: I went back and added a link to a map to the previous chapter, but I know you don't get updates for chapter edits, so here is the link again in case anyone is interested!

You'll have to replace the bracketed parts with the appropriate symbol: i(period)ibb(period)co(slash)PCX3VdQ(slash)Map-of-Giltena-Shareable-Final-Copy(period)png

It's also hosted on Chapter Twenty Nine of the same story on AO3.

It was only after uploading it that I realised that most of the words had curly red, error lines under them. Oops. And that there's a random 4 on the map that I forgot to delete. Oh well, at least it's a 4 and not a 14, because that would've been a spoiler haha. I also kind of spoiled the bit about the broken continent... in my defense I wrote this chapter over a year ago, so it feels like old news to me, even if it's all new to you!

This kind of thing has been happening a lot to me lately, my brain doesn't work as sharply as it used to when I first started writing this story. Case in point, last chapter I said I would update on the 17th and then two lines later I said 14th... it's part of the reason I was struggling to write this story over the past few years, I kept waiting for days that my 'brain quality' was good. But it's been a bit difficult to ensure that with any level of consistency, so I'm just going to keep writing now and just check and recheck and hope there are no errors. I hope you will let me know if I make any... especially if random plot holes turn up!

A/N 2: The next update will be on Jan 31. :). I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you did, please consider leaving me a review (even if it's just, 'I read it' or 'nice one' or an emoji). Writing can get pretty lonely... though I can't really blame anyone for not reviewing or even dropping the fic altogether because my history of updating has been shamefully poor. Anyway, it is what it is.

Thank you for reading! heart emoji