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Chapter Text

The Garthim attacks were getting more and more relentless.

Rian knelt in his makeshift tent. They had been driven from Stone-in-the-Wood and were now constantly moving. As they did, they'd come across empty villages, the Gelfling completely wiped out. It was almost too much to take.

When their group of survivors had gotten word that another village over the hill was under attack, he didn't hesitate. He grabbed the glaive and started to run toward it.

Deet had tried to stop him. She begged. There was no use in trying to stop a herd of garthim with swords. He knew it, but he couldn't knowingly sit by while another village was attacked.

Only two Gelfling from that village made it out. It wasn't much, but it was something. His arm was injured, but it would have been worse if Deet hadn't aided him from above, lobbing explosives that disoriented the beasts just long enough for him to lead the survivors away.

He could hear her comforting the survivors, a brother and sister. Her voice comforted him, too.

He wanted to sleep, but he was still too wound up and his arm was in too much pain.

He took deep breaths, the way his father taught him to.

The tent stirred, giving him a start.

It was Deet. She slid in and settled on her knees beside him.

"I should check that wound," she said.

He nodded and presented his bandaged arm. Carefully, she undid the dressing. He tensed as she dabbed at it with a cloth soaked with one of her Grottan tinctures.

"Does it hurt?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "But it hurts less every time you tend to it."

"Good," she said, looking up from the wound to find her eyes locked with his. She held his gaze for a few moments, as if time had suddenly suspended, then reached in her satchel.

"Let's get this re-dressed," she said.

"Deet --"

"Hold still."

He did. He watched her finish wrapping his wound in silence until she secured it in place.

"Deet."

She looked into his eyes again, but just as the world began to melt away, she shifted.

"I should go," she said.

"No," he said, holding on to her hand. "Please. Stay."

She didn't move, her eyes down.

"Just," he tried to meet her gaze, "when it's just us, you and me… everything hurts less."

"I don't know if it should hurt less, Rian," she said. "All of this loss." She looked at him. "It feels selfish."

He paused. "I think I deserve -- we deserve -- to think about us. We deserve to be us "

She looked down again.

He touched her chin as she raised her gaze. "You know how I feel."

She nodded. "I feel that way too, I do."

"So stay." He pulled her closer with his good arm.

He was warm and still smelled faintly of the smoke from the attack. She touched his bandaged arm, her thoughts turning to the moment earlier that day when she thought he would be lost forever. Very few Gelfling are gripped by a Garthim's claw and live to see another day. If her aim had been off by just a few inches, she thought, there would be no 'us' to consider.

She leaned into him and put her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. She didn't lose him that day. But she could lose him tomorrow.

"Ok," she whispered, finally. "Yes."

He touched his forehead to hers. "I'm going to kiss you now, you know."

She laughed softly and a little self-consciously, a sound he'd missed desperately.

" I know."

Chapter Text

"What about these?" Deet asked, holding out a twig covered in nettelberries.

Rian sighed. "Only if you don't mind tiny barbs cutting at your tongue," he said.

Deet made a face and dropped it. "There's just too much up here," she said. Back in Domrak, plants were sparse compared to topside, but what was there and cultivated was food. No tiny barbs or hallucinogens.

"I say we stick to roots," Rian said, peering into his sack. They'd been foraging for the camp on unfamiliar terrain since breakfast, and he'd had far more luck with tubers and roots than fruit or berries.

Deet clicked her tongue. Somewhat ironically, underground vegetables didn't grow in the caves of Grot, and she hadn't developed a taste for them, or for any foods that required boiling or stewing.

Rian was used to the forest, but this was the kind of dense, thick forest that Gelfling were known to enter and never return. Even Garthim had trouble navigating it, which was exactly why they'd set up camp there.

"I'm going to look over there," she said, pointing to an area of thick brush.

"Suit yourself," he said. "But for Thra's sake, don't eat any berries without checking with me."

Deet huffed, but she knew the drill. About half of the berries she found topside would either alter your mental state, make you sick or outright kill you.

Topside is barbaric, she thought, as she pulled on a thicket of vines. It was dry enough to come down easily, revealing a funny looking place.

"Rian!" She called. She turned around and didn't see him. "Rian?"

Her mind went directly to a warning Khylen had given her about the forest: "Never lose sight of each other. That forest has been known to swallow Gelfling whole "

She put her hand on her chest, her mind racing.

"Rian!"

"Just a minute."

She peered toward his voice to see him on the forest floor, pulling on a root like a rope. It broke off in his hand, and he looked up at Deet, looking cross.

"What is it?"

"I found something."

"Is it food?"

She shook her head. "No."

He got up and approached her. "Then why do we care?"

Deet pointed to a small alcove in the stone and thicket, lined almost entirely with what looked like a large makeshift sham. It was almost nest-like, but the feel of it was too familiar-feeling to belong to a bird or forest creature.

"Does a Gelfling live here?" she asked, trying to imagine life in such a tiny space.

Rian peered inside.

"Not anymore, it seems," he said.

"I thought Gelfling didn't live this deep in the forest," she said.

He looked at her. "There were no villages here," he said. "But that doesn't mean we're the first Gelfling here."

She looked around. The thick forest hardly seemed welcoming.

"Why would Gelfling leave their clan to live here?" she asked.

Rian slid inside to get a closer look. He ran his fingers across the wall.

"Look at all these markings," he said.

Deet leaned in and squinted. Can you read them?

"Some of it, maybe," he said. He looked over at her, still leaning in from outside, and reached out his hand. "Come here."

She took his hand and slid in beside him. Getting in was awkward, but it was quite cozy, actually.

Rian brushed the markings with his hand as Deet settled in on the sham.

"This is soft," she said.

He nodded. "This is definitely a Vapra symbol," he said. "And this one is Spriton."

Deet's eyes adjusted quickly, bringing the scene carved story into view.

"Oh," she said. "It's a whole story."

Rian stepped back and lowered himself to see the full carving.

"There are two Gelfling," Deet said, pointing to part of the wall Rian couldn't make out. "They're running. But not from monsters."

She looked at Rian. "It's like they're running from other Gelfling."

"I thought you couldn't read," he said.

"They're not words, they're pictures that tell the story," she said. "Don't you see?"

"I see names. Two names."

"Why would they run from other Gelfling, Rian?"

He shrugged. "Maybe they were casting them out?"

"Why would they do that?"

He paused, taking in the scene. "Two Gelfling. One Vapra, one Spriton. Two different worlds. Maybe they fell in love."

"Ok, but why were they cast out?" Deet asked.

"It's happened."

"Because they were from different clans?"

"Sure."

She let it sink in. "Hm."

She moved in closer to him until he draped an arm around her. She set her head against his shoulder as she tried to find more details in the markings.

"So it's a love story," she said.

He nodded. "I think so."

"A sad love story."

"I don't think finding love outside of others' expectations is sad," he said.

She sat up and looked at him.

He brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "I think it's beautiful."

She smiled.

"Are you still talking about the Gelfling on the wall?" she asked, and leaned in to kiss him deeply.

He pulled back for a moment, shaking his head lightly. "Not at all."

Chapter Text

The cave wall was covered with nearly 18 trine's worth of markings and shapes, all of them carved by Rian.

Now, they were at the eve of the end of this chapter.

He took a deep breath.

"Tomorrow I'll see the suns for the first time in what feels like a lifetime," he said.

His friend, Cack, clicked methodically. Rian had come to understand the language of the Arathim.

"You will not recognize it."

Rian brushed the dust from a fresh carving. "And if my son succeeds?"

"You will definitely not recognize it when that happens."

Rian smiled lightly at Cack's confident use of 'when.'

"I'm glad that you will be with us, friend," Rian said. "We wouldn't have survived all this time without you. All of you."

"We have as much to gain when the two become one as the Gelfling."

Rian nodded. With the Garthim having been created from captured Arathim, the Skeksis were a shared enemy for sure. He imagined riding with the Arathim army through the tunnels and out of the deepest caves of Grot -- the place that had become home for him, Deet and their children, as well as a small community of Gelfling survivors from across the seven clans.

He imagined seeing the Castle of the Crystal, his home for much of his youth, a place that still held tremendous trauma for him.

He tried to imagine Jen. It felt like it was only yesterday that Ursu took the wriggling infant in his arms with awe as he assured them there was nowhere safer in Thra for their firstborn. The journey ahead of them, across mountains and rivers to the lost entrance to Grot would be far too dangerous for a baby.

Rian didn't believe in the prophecy -- or, he didn't fully believe at the time that the 'last Gelfling' would be his own childling. He just wanted Jen to survive when he wasn't sure he and Deet would.

He had come around over the years. Whether it was a way to soothe his grief over giving Jen to Ursu or true belief hardly mattered at that point. Tomorrow was the Great Conjunction. Jen was a young man now, with the knowledge of the Mystics, and, he knew, the resilience of his ancestors.

"It's time to rest," Cack clicked, as he climbed into the connecting tunnel.

"Sleep well," Rian said. He stared at the markings, the stories of his life. He didn't want to forget anything -- he wanted Jen to know everything when he returned.

*

"Rian?"

Rian blinked himself out of the state he was in and turned.

"Deet."

She came toward him, almost as if she was gliding, a circlet of moss braided into her silver hair.

She took his hands into hers and looked into his eyes.

"I'm worried," she said.

He squeezed her hands. "The journey will be safe," he said. "The Skeksis will be too preoccupied with the Conjunction --"

"I'm not worried about the journey," she said. "I'm worried about you."

"Me?"

"You've hardly eaten," she said. "At this rate you won't have slept enough to even take the journey."

He paused. There was never any reason to put on a false face with Deet.

"I'm terrified about what will happen," he confessed. "What we'll see. Aren't you?"

"Of course I am," she said. "But I have a job to do. We have a job to do. I've never known you to fall apart."

Rian blinked. Was he falling apart? He considered the possibility.

"What if," he said, readying himself to speak his great fear out loud. "What if he doesn't forgive me?"

"Rian."

"What kind of father --"

Deet touched his face. "You're a wonderful father," she said. "We made the only decision we could make. Jen must understand that."

He sniffed, his thoughts turning to their two younger childlings, who challenged him daily in their adolescence. "And if he's as stubborn as Lathe and Zara?"

She smiled and leaned in. "I'm sure Ursu is a far better parent than we are," she joked. She straightened up and squeezed his shoulders gently. "Lathe and Zara think you put the glow in glowmoss."

Rian sighed. "I think they've grown out of that."

"Hm. Well, I haven't," she said, leading him home. "Come, tomorrow will be here soon."

Chapter Text

The scene in the tunnel was positively chaotic. Spitters and Gelfling piled into messy rows, ready to start the pilgrimage to above ground and beyond.

This was it. This was the day.

Whenever Deet thought about it, she felt dizzy. But she had to think about it. She had a job to do.

"Mother?"

Deet looked up to see her daughter Zara, looking disheveled in three layers of dresses that she couldn't bear to leave behind.

"Are you ok?" Zara asked.

"Of course," Deet said, straightening up. She realized that she had been clutching her chest unconsciously.
Zara's eyes were wide with the same anxiety she had -- except Zara had never been above ground, had never known anything but the safety of the deep caves.

Yesterday, Zara had had a meltdown over leaving behind the baby nurlock she'd adopted. Now she was oddly calm as she turned to look over her shoulder, her fresh umber braids unraveling already.

"I don't want to go," she said.

Deet nodded, "I know." She touched
Zara's cheek and looked into her dark eyes. "But we're doing this together."

Yesterday, Zara probably would have stomped her feet and run tearfully to her father, but not today. Everything had changed, and she knew it. Today was the Great Conjunction, an event she'd heard about since she was a young childling but never had a concept of.

The whole thing was like a legend. Her mystical brother, raised by strange creatures, was going to save a land she'd never known, where Gelfling and Arathim had gone to war with each other and balls of fire hung overhead.

It was all so strange, but she was resigned to the reality that it was what she was about to face.

She took her mother's hand and followed her through the crowded tunnel to find her father and the bull spitter Cack. They would be leading the group, along with her mother. They knew the terrain better than anyone.

Her brother, Lathe, watched as their mother climbed onto Cack's back. The Arathim were no beasts of burden, but many had agreed to the mission. Zara would be riding with her brother, not on the back of a spitter, but in one of the carriages meant to protect them from whatever was out there.

Lathe belonged in the carriage, sure, but she was nearly fifteen trine.

She huffed lightly and grabbed Lathe by the arm. He pulled it away and glared at her, icy blue eyes peering through a tuft of bangs.

"Don't!"

"Get into the carriage now!" Rian called to Lathe, his voice cutting through the tense air.

"But Father," Lathe cried, "I thought I was going to ride!"

"You thought wrong!" Rian shouted. He rarely yelled at them. It was something they'd learned to take advantage of. When he did, it was serious.

Lathe pouted and scuttled into the carriage. Zara followed silently.

Such a happy family. She thought. Jen will feel so lucky if we find him.

Rian took a deep breath and watched his daughter and younger son settle in, about to face absolute uncertainty.

For years, they didn't talk about what would happen on the day of the Great Conjunction, other than a vague hope that they would reunite with Jen.

Reality was an Arathim caravan and frightened, sad childlings. It didn't exactly go along with his commitment to protect his youngers from anything and everything, no matter what. But that's what it was.

"Are you ready for this?" He asked, turning to Deet.

"I've never felt less ready for anything since we handed Jen to Ursu," she said. She looked at him and took a deep breath. "But we're doing it. Together."

Chapter Text

Deet had not imagined how deeply, soul-crushingly difficult leaving the caves after nearly 20 trine of living somewhat normal lives would be.

On the one hand, she had practically counted the moments since she tearfully handed the infant Jen to Ursu. Every trine, every milestone brought her closer to the Great Conjunction, and she was always somewhat aware of it deep down. Sometimes, the awareness flowed through her. Today, it was visceral.

Though she yearned to return to the open air of Thra, and the possibility that she and Rian would see their son again was overwhelming, her heart was breaking over leaving the home they’d built. It hadn’t even been as hard to leave when she was young and first left Domrak all alone.

But then, her younger self believed she would be able to go home again.

She was no longer so naive. When she left Grot for the first time, she never imagined how profoundly her life would change. If she closed her eyes, she could put herself there again, herding nurlock, playing games with her fathers. It was all she’d ever wanted. She thought she would grow old in the house she grew up in. She had never seriously entertained having a partner or becoming a mother and having her own family. Certainly, she never saw herself as any kind of leader.

She looked down, back in the present, to see her two youngers cuddled up together in the carriage beside them. She nudged Rian and motioned for him to look.

He peered down across her and smiled. “There’s no in-between with them, is there?”

She shook her head, smiling. She positioned herself closer to him on Cack’s back. It was her first time riding on an arathim. It felt smoother and more predictable than riding a landstrider, but also more awkward. Cack would occasionally turn his head and speak to Rian in series of clicks. He understood much better than she did, and had carried on a conversation about the route the pack would take while she looked on.

“Maybe they’ll start to get along better,” he said.

She wanted to agree, but she felt they were bonding through pain.

“They really didn’t want to leave,” she said.

Rian nodded and pulled her closer. “They’re resilient.”

“Are they?”

“Of course.”

Deet looked over at them again. “They’ve been so sheltered.”

“Well, we didn’t have a choice about that,” Rian said. “Besides, we were all sheltered in one way or another before the Darkening and the Garthim War.”

Deet considered. “I suppose you’re right.” She leaned against him for comfort.

Up ahead, she knew, was the cave's opening leading topside.

“Oh!” Deet sat up straight. “I forgot about the blindfolds!”

She looked around, as if her misplaced blindfolds might be within view, then began to rip at the hem of her dress.

Curse this rump for being so sturdy, she thought. She kept at it.

“Deet,” Rian said, finally.

She didn’t respond, still trying to work a strip of fabric from her dress, at least enough for the childlings.

“Deet, look.”

Cack and the rest of the pack stopped. They had just emerged from the caves, yet it was no brighter. Somehow, it wasn’t night.

Thra appeared completely darkened.

“I don’t think we’re going to need blindfolds,” Rian said.

Chapter Text

"You weren't kidding when you said we wouldn't recognize it," Rian said to Cack, taking in the darkness.

"It looks like the whole world caught fire and these are the smouldering remains," Deet said, holding back tears.

"That's pretty much accurate, I think," said Rian.

Deet covered her face with her hands. "Oh," she said, keeping her voice down, "I caused this."

"Deet, that's not true," Rian said, putting his arms around her. "Deet -- look at me -- you did not cause this."

She looked up at him, blinking back tears. "I could have contained it," she said.

"No," he said. "It would have killed you and still overtaken everything. And that would have been far worse."

Deet blinked and nodded lightly, though guilt still gripped her.

A small commotion interrupted them.

"Father, Mother, look!"

They turned to see Lathe and Zara, out of the carriage, looking up in wonder.

They looked up. The suns, closer than Rian had ever seen them, were dim, but the sky was clear. There were stars and nebulae visible.

It was stunning. In fact, if you just looked up, it still looked like the Thra he remembered standing guard deep in the night.

"You didn't tell us it was this… incredible," said Zara as Deet and Rian climbed down.

"Where does it stop, Father?" Lathe asked, pushing his hair out of his eyes.

"Well, it's the sky," Rian said. "It doesn't end."

"How is that possible?" Zara asked.

Rian and Deet looked at each other. All the childlings saw was the wonder of the sky above.

See? Rian thought. Resilient.

The Gelfling Tespe, leader of the secondary pack, called out:

"The suns are getting closer, Deethra! What should we do?"

Deet looked up, then around. She really had no idea whether they should keep moving or stay put.

"Rian, what should we do?"

"If nothing happens, if it stays the same, we'll need to retreat back into the caves as quickly as possible," he said over the sounds of anticipation from the Gelfling and Arathim.

"Good point," Deet said. She looked over at Tespe and tried to make eye contact with as many as possible.

"Stay put until the Conjunction is complete!"

"They're touching!" a voice behind her called out.

"Hold on to your families," Rian yelled as he pulled Zara and Lathe onto the ground with Deet.

Deet held her breath as the suns came together.

There was a moment. A quick moment that felt endless when the Conjunction was complete and time seemed to stop.
In that moment, the eyes of Deet and Rian weren't on the sky. They were on each other.

"Ri--"

Before Deet could finish his name, there was a flash more blinding than anything she had ever seen and a sound like a massive mounthorn resonating into the ground. The world shook, lifting them up and lowering them down again.

Then it went silent.

Deet tried to open her eyes, but saw nothing but white before shutting them again.

"Keep your eyes closed, little ones," she said.

"I need a blindfold," Rian said, holding onto them.

"The ground feels different," Zara said.

Deet tried to tear the hem of her dress again as she tried to discern if the sounds she was hearing were panic, grief or exaltation.

She finally tore off a long strip and handed it to Rian before tearing off two more and tying them onto Zara and Lathe, her own eyes squeezed shut.

"Can we look?" Lathe asked.

Deet blindfolded herself and tried opening her eyes. It was still incredibly bright, brighter than she ever remembered topside to be.

She could make out Rian standing beside her. He was crying. For a moment, she felt her heart stop.

Then he fell to his knees and pulled her into a hug. "The Castle," he said.

"Does it still stand?" she asked.

He pulled back and looked at her through the fabric across his eyes.

"It's beautiful," he said, his voice filled with emotion. "It's all impossibly beautiful."

Deet let out a sob and threw her arms around him.

"I can't see anything," Lathe said.

"It will take a while for your eyes to adjust," said Rian.

He pulled Deet to her feet and faced the Castle, now so bright it glowed, surrounded by green hills and forests.

"Did he do this, Rian?" Deet asked, taking in the scene as much as she could manage with her Grottan eyes.

Rian squeezed her hand.

"There's only one way to find out."

Chapter Text

Thisa was awoken by a booming voice -- "Next stop, The Shrines... Next stop, Shrines."

She blinked and looked out the window she'd been using as a pillow and gasped as she realized she wasn't in the city anymore. The air-rail was now above the trees headed toward… The Shrines?

"Oh no no no no," she said, hitting a button on her wristband to call a porter.

A red-haired Gelfling in a uniform appeared on the small screen.

"Ma'am?"

"I think I've missed my stop," she said. "Did you stop at Metrovia Avenue?"

"Of course, ma'am."

"I must have missed it."

"We do offer a wake up service for a nominal charge," the porter.

"Oh," she said, " will that take me back to my stop?"

The porter paused. "No ma'am."

"Just set me up with the next train back to the city."

"Of course, ma'am"

She sighed.

"Ok, I've changed your itinerary with just a nominal charge," he said.

"Thank you."

"The next air-rail to Metrovia Avenue will leave Shrines first thing in the morning."

Thisa drew back. "Tomorrow morning?"

"Yes, ma'am, this is the last air-rail passing through Shrines for the day."

Thisa tried to breathe. "There's no way back tonight?"

"Well," said the porter, "I can connect you to a private charter --"

"Ugh," Thisa groaned, clicking off the communication and burying her face in her hands. She'd never make that interview now.

After a few beats, a stranger's voice came from the seat behind her.

"Excuse me?"

Thisa turned to see a young, teal-haired Gelfling woman in a flowy tunic that nearly matched her brown skin. It was why Thisa avoided wearing brown herself, but it complimented the stranger.

"I'm sorry you missed your stop," she said. "If you've never been to The Shrines, I can show you around."

Oh great, Thisa thought. A Proselytizer.

"I'm not religious, thank you," Thisa said.

"Oh, I'm not either," the woman said. "I mean, I'm spiritual, but I'm not some fundie trying to use the Saviors to brainwash you."

Thisa turned away. That didn't make her less skeptical.

"Have you been before?" the woman asked, not taking the hint.

"No I haven't," Thisa said.

"Every Gelfling should," she said. "It's life-changing."

"My life is fine," Thisa said curtly.

After a few moments, Thisa turned back to face the stranger. "Do you really believe all of that?"

She blinked. "Well, some of the stories have been twisted and exaggerated," she said. "I majored in ancient studies. It's actually kind of funny what Renewal Age translations get wrong."

"Like what?"

"Well, The Savior Jen's parents were not deities who watched over him during the Great Quest,"

Thisa nodded. That was what she'd always been taught, but she'd never really believed it. "Who were they?"

"Regular Gelfling, like us," she said.

Thisa looked over her shoulder. "You probably shouldn't say that too loudly."

"There's an ancient statue, almost eight thousand trine old, in one of the gardens of The Shrines," she said. "A man and a woman in an embrace. The Mother and Father. It always makes me cry."

"Why?"

"I don't know, I can't explain it," she said. She paused and held out her hand. "I'm Shora, by the way."

***

The statues of the Saviors, King Jen and Queen Kira, towered over them at the Shrines' entrance.

"It certainly is impressive," Thisa said. "Is there a prayer or something I'm supposed to do when entering?"

Shora shrugged. "They're just statues," she said. "You don't have to do anything."

Thisa nodded as she took it in. "How did they build something so big without modern technology?"

"You'd be surprised what the ancients could do," Shora said. She made a gesture with her hand and blew on her knuckle.

"What was that?"

"Hm?"

"I thought you said you weren't religious?"

"I said I wasn't fundamentalist," Shora said, walking through the gate.

Thisa followed, rolling her eyes at the semantics.

They followed a walkway through a fairly typical wooded area not unlike the city parks near her home. As they continued, it changed, somehow, into a place she had never seen but felt strangely familiar.

"Why does it feel like I've been here before?" Thisa asked, looking around.

"We're Gelfling," Shora said. "To experience Thra untouched is to embrace ourselves."

Thisa would have definitely rolled her eyes at that normally, but this place was unexpectedly intoxicating.

"Over here," Shora said, motioning to her, "The Garden of the Mother and Father."

Thisa was awestruck where she was, but followed her new friend after a moment.

The garden was exquisite, with shimmers of blue and gold and moss that smelled like fresh rain.

Shora stood before the larger-than-life statue of the two Gelfling's embrace. Thisa hadn't imagined it would be so detailed, with hair hanging in a nonexistent breeze and every bead and stitch visible.

"It's beautiful," Thisa said.

They stood there for a while, just staring.

Finally, Thisa spoke.

"Tell me more about them."