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Everyone was still celebrating. It had been a few days since they fought Thiala. Since they had defeated Thiala. Hardwon still couldn’t believe it.
He was alive.
They were all alive.
The hole left by Balnor was still an aching wound, but it was soothed by the knowledge that he was safe and happy with his family in another version of the Feywilds.
Hardwon looked over the side of The Stormborn, at the twinkling lights in the dark sky, and took a deep breath. So much had changed since he left Irondeep, alone and with nothing except the name he chose for himself.
Hardwon Surefoot. Bastard of the Mountain. Pride of the Dwarfanage.
But he wasn’t that man anymore. He was Hardwon Surefoot, but he was also Elias Stormborn. He was the son of Lydia and Elias Stormborn. He was part of the band of boobs. He was a Titan. He was one of the saviors of Bahumia.
He looked at the letter in his hands.
Hardwon stood alone on the deck of his father’s ship as he heard people still celebrating hundreds of feet below him. He stood alone, looking at the stars, with an unopened letter in his hands and a tension in his chest he couldn’t name. It had been days since they defeated Thiala and Hardwon watched the stars above him with a pressure behind his eyes and emotions he couldn’t let go of.
He left Irondeep completely alone, but he wasn’t alone anymore. His life had changed so completely since he met Moonshine and Beverly and he didn’t know how it would change in the future.
He took a shaky breath.
They defeated Akarot. They defeated Thiala. They saved Bahumia. But it felt bittersweet. Maybe that was the feeling twisting his stomach. Their quest was over. No one left to defeat, no one left to save. The story was over and he wasn’t sure what to do next.
He didn’t want to be alone again.
He looked at the letter in his hands.
He looked at his own shaky handwriting and the unbroken seal on it. He stood, alone on the deck of his father’s ship, watching the stars above him and holding the words he’d been to afraid to think without the possibility of death looming over them all. But he was alive and the letter was unopened and he didn’t know how to feel.
“Hardwon? What are you doin’ out there? We’re supposed to be headin’ to Galaderon to help with the repairs real early. Gonna be dead on yer feet if you don’t head to bed.”
He didn’t know how to feel quite yet, but he would follow his family to the ends of the earth, and that wouldn’t stop just because they finished the mission. He turned to look at the woman who opened her home and her heart to him, who asked for nothing in return even though she deserved everything.
Hardwon stood on the deck of his father’s ship, underneath a starry sky, and he let an unopened letter fall to the earth below with a smile on his face and a pressure in his chest.
“I’m coming Moonshine.”
He wasn’t going to be alone again.