Chapter Text
This isn't goodbye-not by a long shot!
Those words rung in my ears as I stared down at the shattered Timespeare and what remained of the Sword of Light.
I was wrong. It was the end. Eleven was gone. The battle was won; our purpose was fulfilled. He made the choice to go back in time to save Veronica, and we couldn't stop him. Not even I could make him see to reason.
Biting my lower lip, I curled my hands into fists, letting my fingernails dig into my skin. It wasn't the first time I said something on the spur of the moment, or the first time I said something for my own reassurance either.
Veronica and I had our fights, but she didn't do anything to deserve her fate. I wanted to see her alive and well again just as much as everyone else. I cared about her, same as the rest of the party, even though I showed it in different ways.
"It is done..." the Timekeeper announced, a hint of sadness in their tone. "Your friend has reversed the flow of time..." We hung our heads, sighing.
After a minute of bathing in the quietness, Rab finally spoke up. "I think I'm gonnae head back down," he said. "There's no reason to spend all day here..." I turned to look at him. I noticed a tear had fallen from his eye and was drifting down his cheek. He was just as distraught as I was, I realized. Not that it didn't make sense. Eleven was the only living biological relative he had left, and for the longest time, he was convinced that he too was gone. I knew the feeling all too well with Mia.
"What's done has been done," Hendrik heaved. "We must begin informing everyone at once. His old comrades will want to know what has befallen him."
My mind immediately flew to the inhabitants of Cobblestone. Amber and Gemma had been there for Eleven since the day he was found drifting down the river of Cobblestone Falls as a baby. He told me all about them when it was still just him and I after we broke out of Heliodor's dungeons. They were going to be devastated, and I could already the looks of disdain on their faces. I hadn't even known Eleven for a quarter of the time they knew him, and I felt like I had just lost Mia again.
Rab, Hendrik, Sylvando, and Jade slowly walked back to the platform that took us up, leaving me with Serena.
"Don't spend too long up there, darlings!" Sylvando called just he faded from view. "I'll come back to check on you guys in half an hour!"
"'We of Arboria swear to protect you, while we live none shall defeat you...'" She recited silently, tears streaming down her eyes. Since we found out about what happened to Veronica, it was the first time I'd heard her cry. It was the oath she swore to Eleven with her when they officially joined us. She looked up at me, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I thought you would've went back down with the others, seeing as you don't like staying too long in one place.
"I know," I nodded, "I just need a few minutes to let this all sink in."
Serena stepped closer to me, placing a hand on my shoulder, the sudden contact almost making me jump. "Don't blame yourself for a choice Eleven made," she said comfortingly. "This is something he wanted to do, and we couldn't stop him."
I looked down at my feet, resisting the temptation to start crying myself. "I miss him already, Serena..."
"And what do you propose he would think if he saw you like this?" Serena asked, suddenly stern. She stepped around to look me right in the eye, her hands on her hips.
"I don't know!" I uttered. "He's not here, anyway. It doesn't matter."
"I don't quite know what he'd say either," Serena confessed, chuckling. "He was never really talkative at any point during our travels, especially not later on. He's never really seen you cry at all either, except when you were recovering from your anmesia and you were finally coming clean about Mia."
I closed my eyes tightly for a long moment at the mention of Mia. "Go on..." I said, lightly gesturing.
"I think I might have a small idea," she began, "going by from what you told him. I think he might say 'Erik! What happened to the guy who once told me to bring myself together while I was breaking down in Cobblestone?! Why are you, the guy who kept me from breaking down so many times, about to do the same?'"
I couldn't help but smile at the mostly accurate impression, even though she didn't even try imitating his voice. "You got me," I said, now laughing myself. "I think we should head back down soon, though. Don't want to concern the others."
We leaned as close to the edge as possible at a safe distance and called for Sylvando and right away, he was standing just feet in front of us. "Did the alone time help any, honey?" He asked as I felt the platform begin to descend, a feeling that will always make my heart almost skip a beat.
"Yeah..." I answered. I ignored the part where I almost broke down because what Sylvando didn't know didn't hurt him. "I'll be fine..."
"It's okay to feel upset, Erik," Sylvando continued. "You and Eleven were close, it's not wrong to want to let out your emotions."
I didn't say anything as the platform stopped in front of the others. Joining up with them, we continued the rest of the way down to the bottom together. It was almost deathly silent, I could even hear myself breathing and everyone else's footsteps. Eventually, we were outside, back in the fresh air, basking in it for a long second.
"We should leave at once," Hendrik suggested. "Our first destination should be Cobblestone. Seeing how many people there knew him closely, they should be the first to know."
"How are we going to get there?" I pointed out. "Eleven's gone and he's the only one who can summon Cetacea and it's not like all of us can climb these cliffs safely." I turned everyone's attention to the tall, steep cliffs that surrounded us on all sides.
"We should try Cetacea," Serena said. "I'm sure if we tell her what happened, she'll understand and let us on at least this once. He left the Flute for us so we could get back." She took the flute from her knapsack, holding it in her hands.
"Who's going to play it, then?" I asked. All I got were blank looks in response.
"I'm not any good with instruments," Jade answered.
"I repeat the princess' statement," Hendrik added.
Rolling my eyes, I looked at Serena.
"I'll do it then," she said. "I did it once before, so a second time might not be so bad." She quickly wiped the mouthpiece with her handkerchief and held it in front of her mouth, playing the short series of notes I'd heard one-hundred times before.
Looking up, we saw Her circling around the sky nearby, completely oblivious to the call. Serena played again. Still no response.
"She must realize that the Luminary is absent," Hendrik guessed.
"Maybe She'd prefer if someone closer to him played the song," Jade shrugged. "But the only who's been with Eleven longer than Serena would be-"
I cut her off. "Me..." I sighed. "but I've never played an instrument though!"
"Laddie, Eleven did it on his first try, and he didnae sound that bad." Rab said. "Just give it one go so we can get out of here."
I groaned as Serena handed the flute to me after cleaning it again. Taking a deep breath, I put it up to my mouth and started playing. Or, at least tried to, anyway. It sounded worse than I thought it would. Still, as I predicted, nothing happened, even though she did come a little closer after I'd played it a couple more times. I needed to be louder, and more on key, and there was only one way I could do that.
Taking in another deep inhale and clearing my throat, I started screaming the song at the top of my lungs.
That finally got Her attention. Within seconds, she was right on top of us and we were teleported to her back and I started coughing.
"Erik, darling, that was a lovely preformance!" Sylvando clapped in amusement. "I'm sure you could become a great singer if you practiced! Maybe you could join my Soldiers for some training! We'd all love to have you-"
I glared at him. "Never in a million years, Sylv," I interrupted him. "And not a word of this to anyone."
Sylvando frowned, but nodded compliently.
"Erik, he was just teasing you," Serena tried to remind me. "If I'm being completely honest, I didn't think you could belt out like that. It is a little surprising."
She was right. As much as I'd yelled, screamed and lashed out before, I had almost never belted out a tune the way I just did. The few times I did were when I was pretty little, when I was still with the Vikings, and they were pretty quick to reprimend me for, in their words "disturbing the silence."
"I wasn't being serious with what I said, honey," Sylvando nodded. "Of course I know that joining my group of Soldiers would never work out for you!"
"Enough of it," I mumbled. "I did it, it's done, so let's not mention it again." Everyone nodded, and the flight went on in silence after we explained to Cetacea what went down at the Tower with Eleven.
We were dropped off in Arboria at the Luminary's landing. Almost instantly, Benedictus noticed and grew concerned over Eleven's absence, so we relunctantly told him what happened less than an hour ago.
"I'm saddened to hear that the Luminary has departed," he said. "But it was a choice he made, and we must respect it." He bowed his head down. "May his story be remembered for generations to come. I will forward this news to everyone else."
"We have many places to be," Hendrik remarked, "that'd be of great help to us. We thank you greatly."
We didn't stay in Arboria longer than we had to. After dropping by Serena's house and saying hi to Fidelus and Alma, and telling them what happened, we left, making way for Sniffleheim. Sylvando explained that Dave was waiting for us there and was willing to take us to the dock on the Emerald Coast.
It took us almost two whole days to get there. While Sylvando explained to Dave about why Eleven was absent, I trudged up the courage to visit Mia.
"Back already, Erik?" The priest asked as I walked inside. I sat down on the nearest bench nodding.
"I have been nearby," I explained. "I thought I'd check on Mia."
He took a spot of his own beside me. "She's recovering rapidly," he said, "the guilt from what she did is still messing with her, however, but that's to be expected."
"None if it's her fault!" I cried in protest, slamming my forearm on the bench's arm. "She was possessed by Mordegon and she had no idea what she was doing!"
"What's all the commotion?" Mia's tired voice rang from the back room before the priest could say anything back.
"Maybe I should leave you two to talk for awhile," he slowly scooched away from me and stood up, walking back to the lecturn. Mia stepped out of the room and took the priest's spot.
"What brings you back here so soon?" She asked. "Miss me already? It's only been a few days since your last visit."
"I have to catch a boat here," I said, sighing. She looked at me suspicously, giving me no choice but to tell her the full story. "Not very long ago, we found some ruins nearby Dundrasil. Some of these ruins had these ancient portaits and this cog of some kind. After we dug around, and travelled through Erdrea a bit more, we found this Tower just northwest of the World Tree. It was where the flow of time was guarded and maintained. Eleven had been guilt ridden about an old party member of ours ever since he heard about her passing, and he had the opportunity to undo it all there... We tried telling him to get past it, but nothing could stop him... We just started telling everyone and we had to go through the region to get to the boat."
"Do you think I'm strong enough to come with you?" Mia asked again hopefully. "You promised me that big treasure hunt and taking me with you now would save the trouble of coming back here. Where are you going anyway?"
"I'll have to ask that priest," I reminded her, scratching my temple. "You might be clear to go if you take it easy for a couple more weeks. We're taking a quick trip to Cobblestone to inform Eleven's old friends that he's departed. If you want to go, I should probably asl him now because the others are waiting for me."
Mia nodded. "Okay."
I waved the priest back over and told him Mia wanted to leave early.
He nodded. "She sbould be strong enough to come with you," he said. "I'd suggest she take it easy for a couple more weeks before you do anything signifigant, though."
Mia jumped in her seat. "Yes!" She cheered.
After thanking the priest for everything, I took her hand and we stood up, walking outside the church and we met Sylvando and the others at the boat where Dave took us to the ship.
"Mia's well enough to join," I said as I sat down again. "I'm taking her with me."
Everyone else nodded and we went forward.
Cobblestone, obviously, had still seen better days, but even in the two weeks that Mordegon had been defeated, there was improvement. They'd begun tearing down all the wooden walls and materials had been arriving from left and right.
Of course I had been nominated with Serena to tell Amber and Gemma about the Tower of Lost Time while the other informed King Carnelian and his shoulders before I got a good chance to look around.
I found them sitting near a fire close to the Tor with a few other refugees. Nervously, I sighed, and walked closer to them. "Umm... hi," I said in an attempt to break their conversation.
"Oh, hello there!" Amber exclaimed before gaspimg when she realized who I was. "You must be that Erik figure Eleven told me about when he was last here!" She turned to Serena. "And you're Serena, right?"
"It's a very nice pleasure to meet you," Serena chuckled, nodding.
"Eleven's told you about me?" I asked, stunned.
Gemma giggled. "Amber wouldn't stop asking him about the people he met on his journey," she answered. "He talked about all the people who joined him for hours when he gave into the prodding, especially you-how you helped him break out of Heliodor and had to jump off a cliff to evade capture. He said a lot of good things about you."
"Gemma, dearie, he looks like he just got here, let him take a sit," Amber responded. "Eleven should be here shortly. He's probably back at the main base talking with Carnelian."
I swallowed the lump in my throat. "About Eleven..." I sighed. "That's what we came to talk to you about..." I looked at Serena nervously.
Gemma and Amber exhanged concerned glances. "Did anything happen?" Amber asked worridly. "Is he alright?"
"Amber, he's gone..." I had to force those words out of my mouth, and I couldn't bring myself to look either of them in the eye. "I'm sorry..."
Gemma poured her head onto Amber's shoulder and screamed. Amber let out another gasp, this one being in shock and disbelief. "What happened?! How did this happen?" She shouted. "He was fine when he was last here!"
"Not all of us atop Yggdrasil survived the Fall..." Serena continued when I couldn't. "My sister, Veronica, who was another friend of ours, used the last of her strength to seperate us and save our lives, and she died from the overexertion... Shortly after defeating Mordegon, we found a way to turn back time and bring her back, but only Eleven weilding the Sword of Light could do it... He's not dead - he went back in time..."
"And he didn't even say one last goodbye to us..." Gemma whimpered. "I'm never going to see him again..."
"I'm sorry for this sudden reaction," Amber apologized, wiping her face with a nearby napkin. "It's just a lot to take in, that's all. If it's alright with you, could we have some space for awhile to let everything sink in."
I nodded and walked away from them and met the group at Eleven's old house.
"So, how did it go?" Jade asked as we came up to them, sitting on the ledge of the slope that paved the way up.
"They're devastated," I answered. "Not like I didn't think they'd be. Gemma screamed. She's gonna be upset about this for months."
"It was awful," Serena added. "As soon as we told them, they started breaking down. I almost couldn't bear to see the looks on their faces."
"Understandable," Hendrik said. "Seeing how close they were to him. It sounded like Gemma wanted to marry him when all was said and done."
"I'd known Gemna since before I could talk," Eleven's voice said as the conversation around me continued. It was after we'd found out that Cobblestone had been trashed. "We'd been there for one another, and we'd play by this tree all the time." His voice started. "If I knew what was about to happen, I wouldn't have told King Carnelian about this place, and now they're all dead, and it's my fault... I betrayed everyone..."
We didn't stay longer than two hours. I had other things on my mind, like getting the Red Orb from the Kingsbarrow and my head was still reeling from the encounter with the Tricky Devil, and it was torturing Eleven to the point staying would've done nothing but hurt him more. Within the first few days of his journey, he'd been to hell and back, and he didn't need to go back when he didn't have to.
"King Carnelian's gonnae tell everyone Eleven's departed elsewhere for us," Rab told me. "We should head out soon, and give these people some space. They're probably gonnae want it."
I nodded, agreeing. Gemma and Amber would probably take the news worse than everyone by far, but even then, the fact their old friend has left would still hit them hard.
"Is it alright if Hendrik and I stay here and help Father overlook the reconstruction efforts?" Jade asked.
"Why, of course, Lassie!" Rab answered. "He is your father, after all! You should be catching up on all the bonding time ye've lost. And Hendrik would know how to guide people along with this better than anyone. You two are best off staying here."
"Are we leaving now?" Mia suddenly stood up, surprised. "We just got here! Can't we stay a little longer and explore?"
I shook my head. "Once we give these people a bit of space, we'll look around," I said. "These are Eleven's old friends, y'know. And besides, that priest said you had to take it easy for a couple more weeks."
"If the darlings here want alone time, we should give it to them," Sylvando added. "And Rab, Serena and I have homes to be getting to as well."
We said our goodbyes to everyone and left, and we stopped for the night at the campsite. It felt weird dropping all our stuff on the ground next to the fire without Eleven. I guessed everyone felt the same way, seeing as we didn't say a word as we ate.
In fact, nobody said a thing until we were almost asleep, Rab tapping my shoulder to catch my attention. "Laddie, are ye awake still?" He whispered softly in my ear.
"Yeah," I uttered back. "What is it?"
"I want to talk to ye outside for a minute." He said.
"Can't it wait till morning?" I protested, yawning. It seemed like everyone wanted me to things for them today only because I was the only one close to Eleven other than Amber and Gemma. "Today was a long day."
"I want to get it off me chest now, if that's alright with ye." He whispered.
"If I don't have to stay out too long, I'll come out." I said.
We stood up and sat back down on one of the logs outside of the tent. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
"It's about Dundrasil," Rab sighed. "I've just begun gathering people and materials, as well as funds to rebuild it. I told Eleven this at his parents grave, before he left. He was the prince, and it was going to be him to take the throne, but now he's gone..."
"Can't you take it?" I pointed out.
"Erik, laddie, I would, but I'm an auld man now," Rab mumbled, looking down upon the dirt. "I don't have much time left. I probably don't have longer than another seven years at my best estimates. I could take the throne for now, until I pass on, but I need a heir so people aren't fighting for the crown... My brothers and their children all died before and Dundrasil, so I need to chose someone myself. Eleven trusted you with his life, and I think he'd want you to take his place if anything happened to him..."
My jaw dropped. "Me? Take the... the throne..." I asked after I did a double take.
"It's a sudden request, I know, but you have to settle down eventually after your treasure hunt with Mia..." Rab said. "And it'd be a great opportunity for you to live a good life."
I let out a deep exhale. "I-I need to think on this, Rab... This isn't exactly a light decision that won't change everything about my life. I mean, I used to be a thief, and now you want me to be a king... I need time... and a lot of it before I come to a final choice. I might not even be ready after the treasure hunt."
"I have a few years in me yet, laddie, take your time, if you must." Rab said. "I just thought I'd tell it to ye now, so you know about it and can start thinking on it now. We haven't evem restarted rebuilding the kingdom yet, so ye have plenty of time to make an informed decision. In the meantime, I'll write to ye regularily for updates on the reconstruction and tell ye when you need to begin thinking more seriously."
I stayed out when Rab went back inside. It wasn't that cold out, so it didn't really bother me, but I had to think about what he said.
King Erik of Dundrasil. The flow of it sounded weird. "I'm not meant for this..." I said to myself. I couldn't picture myself sitting on a throne all day, wearing fancy robes and a golden crown. I might not have had any plans after the treasure hunt, but did I really want to commit the rest of my life to ruling a country? This decision needed time to get to, like Rab said, and I was nowehere near ready to come to a final conclusion. It started getting colder after ten minutes, so I quietly went back inside, careful not to disturb the others, deciding I'd tell Mia the next morning.
How long would take for me to finally settle down and be responsible for myself? I didn't know. All I knew was one chapter of my life had ended, and a new one was starting in it's place.