Archive of Our Own

It all started the day of the Astral Conjunction that made all but one dragon and one unicorn disappear from Idhún when Shail and Alsan met when they were sent to Earth and tasked to find the newborn creatures they had just saved yet ended up stuck on Limbhad together, unable to go back to the planet they’d grew up on.

Even if the two teenagers traveled back and forth between Earth and Limbhad trying (and failing) to save the hidden indhunites in Earth, Shail and Alsan still spent most of their time stuck on the frontier microplanet Limbhad is slowly getting to know each other and training and improving their skills, talking about different plans for the Resistance and searching for clues about where the last dragon and the last unicorn could be since there was just so many places where such magnificent creatures could chose and their new homes.
This meant they had to spend a lot of time around each other and talking about their previous lives in Idhún and what they would be doing if the Astral Conjunction didn’t happen.
Shail and Alsan ended up forming a routine, adapting the other and their needs into their schedules. And even if they had gotten so used to the other’s presence and to talk with each other,there was a certain topic they always tiptoed around, carefully avoiding mentioning it, both not so oblivious as they pretended to be to the other male’s shy glances and soft smiles.
Like when Shail pretended to ignore how he sometimes felt Alsan spy on him whenever he was recharging his magic in the forest or practicing it in one of the many empty rooms the house had to offer.
Or how Alsan had caught Shail staring at him when he practiced his swordsmanship to keep in shape and just burn some of his stress and anger away, or how the knight offered the magician to train him on how to use a sword with the excuse that maybe it would be useful if he found himself unable to use magic and had to rely on more physical means. Of course Alsan hadn’t offered so he could touch Shail’s body in ways that wouldn’t be appropriate in most scenarios and kept his hands there longer than necessary when he corrected his posture or taught him how to properly hold a sword, and of course Shail didn’t allow his mind to wander every time Alsan’s strong hands were on top of his stomach and back to straighten his back.
Both were afraid of what would happen to the friendship they had so carefully created throughout the time spent living and stuck together if they were to start a relationship.

Weeks turned into months and before they wanted to realize those months had slowly turned into years and they hadn’t been able to save one of their own and they were as close to finding the creatures they saved as they were in the beginning. And that took a heavy toll on the, now, young men even if they didn’t want to admit it out loud.
But they knew each other too well and Limbhad was way too small a place to hide that fact from the other.
And so, Shail started to obsessively reread books he had already read a countless times, sleep be damned if that meant he might found even the slightest clue to where Lunnaris and Yandrak could be, and how they could beat Kirtash and save even one idhunite, Alsan didn’t leave the training room if it wasn’t to eat before starting to train again to the point he had passed in there more than once due to exhaustion.
A week and a half went by like this, the two boys using their own unhealthy methods to cope with all the stress and anxiety caused by the nearly impossible task dumped on their shoulders almost two years ago. It was Shail who brokedown first, just yelling in frustration in Limbhad’s library, not feeling as light as he expected after it.
Shail, then, dragged his feet towards the training room, where he knew Alsan would be, and just stomped inside the room, making the knight stop training due to the sudden interruption, as he just walked towards him, grabbed his face and kissed him.
Seconds after, Shail was already pushed away when he felt the lack of reaction from Alsan, who was just standing there, eyes wide open, too stunned to react, making the magician to just turn away and walk out cursing and apologizing for his rash action, blushing hard due to his embarrassment.

But when he was about to walk out of the room, Alsan grabbed his arm and made him turn around again so he could be the one to initiate the kiss, saying he had been caught with his guard down and didn’t expect Shail to kiss him out of blue, and that for a moment he hadn’t know if he was awake or not since it felt like a dream come true to feel the touch of his lips on his.
Shail was eager to kiss him back, quickly putting his hands behind Alsan’s neck to bring him even closer, both feeling like a weight lifted from their shoulders now that it was obvious that the other felt the same way they did, and so they poured all the unsaid words into the kiss.
A kiss that started at a slow and soft pace but quickly turned into a more aggressive one as it deepened, mouth opening allowing their tongues to meet, months of bottled up stress and anxiety gatecrashing through, Shail’s hands now running through Alsan’s chest, feeling his muscles shift with every movement and Alsan’s hands in Shail’s hair, pulling it, making the magician moan a bit every time he did it.
The kiss transformed into a new way for the boys to express themselves without words, allowing the other to know that he wasn’t alone in the mess their lives had been for a while now.

And when they finally separated to regain their breath, they were both flustered and a mess, also feeling way better than they did minutes before, feeling now able to calm down and speak like normal people instead of ignoring each other.
After his breath was even again, Shail just hugged Alsan, his head resting on his shoulder as he sighed as he thought what he could say.
“I’m just tired of all this…” he started “the fighting, the not being able to save anyone since Kirtash always, somehow, beats us to the refugees we find, and never ever finding nothing about Lunnaris and Yandrak.” to which Alsan murmured something in agreement
“And I decided that I would at least take control over something I could, making myself believe even if just for a second that not every single aspect of my life is a fucking mess and slipping between my fingers as it was desert sand.” Shail concluded his speech, allowing Alsan to continue to run his hand through his hair in a slow way since he knew the knight had never been good with words and showed his care through actions
“You said it better than I ever could, but I completely understand what you mean.” Alsan said, never stopping to pet Shail’s hair.

And so they stayed there for a while, before moving to the living room, holding hands, and to continue to cuddle in their shared sofa, Shail in between Alsan’s legs, his head resting in the night’s chest, before quickly falling asleep.

A new routine was now in place, result of the two young men starting a relationship, and it was that now, if one felt stressed or anxious enough he would shut down, they would both abandon what they were doing and just cuddle or go on an impromptu date -which meant one cooking for the other and cuddling since they couldn’t leave Limbhad that much.
That rule didn’t mean that some days they just grabbed the other and just went to the first empty room they found and made out, among other things.

It had been probably around six months since this new routine started when the Soul warned them about someone using magic and now being pursued by Kirtash and so they travel to the Earth, just in time so Shail could grab the young girl and bring her back with them to Limbhad, giving her time to calm down before she introduced herself, Victoria D’Ascolli was her name, and explained what happened that made Kirtash to follow her.
Turns out she was able to use some magic, which made Shail take the twelve year old under his wing and train her in the ways of magic and explaining to her that she must have seen Lunnaris at some point in her life.
All in all, the Resistance now had the help of a twelve year old spanish girl with the power to cast some magic, which meant that Shail and Alsan now possibly had a new clue as to where to find the last unicorn of Idhún, even if the girl was just able to come to Limbhad after she was done with school in the afternoons.

Slowly, Victoria got used to come and go from Earth to Limbhad and back to Earth, using most of the time she spent on Limbhad used being next to Shail training her magic and trying to learn more difficult magic as well as in Limbhad’s library learning about Idhún and its history and language trying if any of this helped her remember where and when she might have met Lunnaris.

This meant Shail had to spend a lot of time next to the girl to help her adjust and teach her and to answer all the questions she had, which meant that even during the mornings when Victoria was still at school Shail was preparing their lessons for the day and deciding what he’d do that day with Victoria, trying to use the same methods he used to learn while he still was a beginner.

All this meant that he and Alsan didn’t get as much time together as the older man was used to and the knight hated the fact that he might be jealous of a twelve year old girl, fact that he would never say out loud out of fear of dying if embarassment because of how stupid that was.
But Shail wasn’t stupid or blind and had also been living him for years so he knew when Alsan was just lying and avoiding him, so after a couple months of this going on he just cornered Alsan one morning while the Nurgon knight was having breakfast before his morning training and just asked him what was his problem.
It took awhile for Alsan to actually admit what his problem was after evading the question and staring at his food for minutes, a blush spreading through his neck and face.
“I might be jealous of that young girl be-” he was suddenly interrupted by Shail to remind him to call Victoria by her name and not as that girl “Okay, well then, I might be jealous of Victoria because you spent all your time with her or preparing her next lessons and I just don’t know what to do because I have little in common with her to be able to be there when you’re together.” Alsan explained, after starting again using Victoria’s name the second time.
Once he finished talking, he looked up at Shail again just to see the magician covering his mouth with one of his hands, trying not to laugh at him, and one second after that, failing and just proceeding to burst out laughing his heart out.
Only after his laughing died and he was able to breathe normally again, Shail gave his answer to Alsan, who looked understandably hurt and embarrassed at Shail’s reaction.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to burst out laughing but you should’ve seen your face while admitting your jealousy, which by the way was very obvious, because you looked as if you had committed a sin and deserved to be punished accordingly.” Shail said, trying to control himself and actually look serious when speaking and not laugh again “But don’t worry, I just don’t worry because while I do care about Victoria, I don’t see her as nothing but a little sister, and I, sure as the six created Idhún, don’t like Victoria in that way, you’re the only person I like in that aspect.” he continued, before smirking for a second before looking Alsan dead in the eyes. “Not to mention that she is just twelve, and also that I. AM. GAY. and I just like MEN.” he deadpanned, Alsan blushing because of course Shail was right yet again but he couldn’t complain because now that he was done talking, Shail just cupped his face and he leaned into the soft touch while Shail leaned down to kiss him as Alsan looked to him as he was the one who hung all the stars on the sky.

They must have spent more than expected kissing, and at some point Shail sat on Alsan’s lap, because the next thing the two men remembered after their conversation was Victoria just clearing her throat to get their attention as if she had been waiting for them to realize she was standing there. Once Victoria made her presence known Shaill jumped out of Alsan’s lap while exclaiming that what she had seen wasn’t what seemed to be at all even if his red face betrayed his words to which the girl just stared at Shail as she said “Sure…” in the most deadpan voice she had, as if she hadn’t been standing there for like ten minutes as they didn’t even realize she had arrived.
“I mean, I had already suspected you had some kind of relationship but I didn’t need to have it confirmed by seeing you two making out on a living room chair.” she added, which made Alsan and Shail blush even more out of embarrassment. “I’m just glad this happened now that the crush I had on Shail for like a week is gone, or this would have been more violent and awkward for the three of us.” she said nonchalantly before adding “Now, if Shail, who by the way I now see as some kind of brother, is ready for today’s lesson I will be waiting outside in the forest.” turning around and walking out of the house as if she hadn’t just said all that.

Months had gone by since that fatidic and very embarrassing day and the three members of the Resistance had a routine that after she finished her school homework, Victoria and Shail trained their magic together, then Victoria read and learnt more about Idhún’s culture and history and mythology and practiced talking the language, without using the universal translator amulet she had been given her first day at Limbhad, by talking with Alsan who explained her about his homeland and kingdom and the different races living there as well as he talked about his time among the Nurgon knights as a young boy.

But one day it all changed because while she was at school, the Soul warned Shail and Alsan about an attack in Denmark and saw Kirtash and the dark magician Elrion trying to kill a young blond boy who looked to be scared out of his mind and just barely escaping all the attacks due to both luck and the adrenaline rushing through his blood.
Once Shail, Alsan and the boy managed to escape the situation and back to Limbhad, they were able to make the boy introduce himself as Jack and to explain the situation to him, even if he was in full denial of anything of this being real, convinced this was just a very realistic nightmare.

Not even a couple after when Victoria reached Limbhad and introduced herself to him did Jack believe this was real, and just jumped out of the library’s balcony and started limping to try and leave Limbhad once he reached its limits. Only when he saw he couldn’t leave the little planet and he allowed Victoria to heal his wounded leg that it all started to dawn on him that this was all real and not a dream and he started crying, Victoria hugging him as he let the boy cry and grief the death of his parents and the way he would never be able to go back home.

It took Jack a while to actually get used to living in Limbhad permanently, as there were just so many things a thirteen year old with so much energy to spare could do in Limbhad before getting bored and restless. He even started missing going to school every day spending hours mindlessly listening to teachers and not paying any attention.
Luckily, once Alsan started to train him so he could fight and help them rescue refugee idhunites living on Earth during the morning and spending some time with Victoria when the girl was in Limbhad that he felt part of the group.
And even if Alsan didn’t allow him to train with a real sword, even less a legendary one, he did really enjoy the exercise this meant and how he slowly made progress and built some muscle, Alsan beating his ass every time, even if sometimes was because he was too distracted staring at Alsan due to the knight training shirtless or with the tight sleeveless shirts that left nothing to the imagination that he always wore.
Alsan also seemed to enjoy having someone to train under him, even if he rarely showed it, he really thought Jack was one of the best, if not the best, of the young boys he had trained in Nurgon, as well as considering the young boy something akin to a younger brother.

Now that Jack was there, it seemed the Resistance started to do more things, like getting the scans of one old idhunite history book that Victoria and Shail spent their time translating in hoped it’d help them find Lunnaris or Yandrak, even if Jack seemed to interrupt them every half an hour thinking that made them go faster and, adding to the whole using the Soul to spy on Kirtash and almost getting himself killed, made Shail ban him from the library until further notice.
A couple weeks after that, Shail and Victoria called an emergency reunion at the library and explained to Alsan and Jack that they had found the location of the famous Ayshel’s Staff and to gear up because they’d be leaving for the desert in less than an hour.

Back again at Limbhad, all of them were reflecting on everything that had just happened because it seemed that every single thing that could have gone wrong went even worse and now Alsan was a captive for Elrion and Kirtash. The only good thing out of that mission was Victoria getting Ayshel’s Staff, even if she still had no idea of how she was supposed to be using it.
But even helping Victoria figure that out could help Shail from breaking down and despairing and spending every single second searching for where Alsan could be being held prisoner to just go and save him, only sleeping when Jack forced him to lay down after seeing him pass out due to exhaustion as he promised him he’d search as he slept.

Not even five days after Alsan was captured, Shail called Vic and Jack and told the kids he had found that Alsan was being held in some old and abandoned castle in Germany that would be full to the brim with szishs, and they came up with a plan to save the knight from the hands of Kirtash and Elrion.

Meanwhile somewhere in Germany, Alsan was battling with the soul of the wolf Elrion forcefully implanted inside him, trying not to give in to the beast and to keep his humanity above all, even if that seemed to be more complicated with every second that passed inside that jail.
But even as he became a beast, a human-wolf hybrid, could Alsan catch a breath because suddenly the castle was in an uproar as Jack unsuccessfully infiltrated the szishs lines but managed to get the knight out of his jail while wielding, somehow, wielding Domivat, fact that Alsan decided to file as a “discuss later” matter at the moment.
And after retrieving Alsan’s own legendary sword, Sumlaris, did the two of them get out of the castle thanks to Alsan using his newfound wolf strength to kill all their snake pursuers.

But not even then were they fast enough. Because once they reached the clearing where Victoria was standing, they found her crying, her hands holding the necklace Shail had given her as a birthday gift as if it were a lifeline, as she, between sobs, told them that Elrion had just killed Shail, who died trying to save her, and that she had been unable to do nothing until after Elrion and Kirtash escaped from her grasp as she promised she’d kill Kirtash and Erion herself after what they had done.
Upon hearing the news, Alsan felt as if all humanity left his body as the wolf gained more and more strength inside im, begging him to go feral and search for Elrion and rip his throat out with his own claws and teeth for daring to kill Shail, but was rendered unable to do so as Victoria took him and Jack back to Limbhad and he was imprisoned on one of its many rooms just being able to leave the microplanet after convincing Victoria in one of his moments of lucidity, being more human than beast before the wolf took hold of him yet again.

Shail, who the rest of the Resistance thought dead, had unexpectedly been sent back to Idhún by Kirtash just before Elrion’s spell had the chance to hit him and kill him.
Back in Idhún, and after joining the Resistance’s mismatched coterie of magicians and beings of all of Idhún’s species and races. There, it was when the magician got to know about the time lag he and Alsan had suffered, meaning that while he thought he’d been gone from his home planet for around 3 years, it had really been 13, 10 of those he and Alsan had been trapped in the interdimensional portal.

While in Idhún, Shail became an important asset to the resistance, not only as a powerful magician, but as the one who had been searching for Lunnaris and actively fighting Kirtash and his evil wizard.
In the Resistance is where Shail met Zaisei, a celestial woman, who he became really close to, to the point people thinking they had a relationship together despite the two of them denying it every single them, only other celestial knowing they were being honest due to their ability seeing bonds and what type of bond those were.

Alsan, who now went by the name Alexander, spent the following two years traveling the word and spent several of those months in the Tibet, learning to control his wolf side, even if he had still drastically changed, both physical and mentally, when Jack had finally found him compared to the last time the boy had seen him in Limbhad.
After he and Jack are reunited, the boy convinces him to re-start the Resistance after continuously begging him to until he agreed to do so and proving to him he had refined his swordsmanship skills during their two years apart.

Once the two of them reunite with Victoria, the three of them restart the Resistance from the beginning with the little clues Alexander had found about Kirtash’s new identity, the famous musician Chris Tara, who was, maybe-not-so-coincidentally, Victoria’s favorite artist for the time being, feeling drawn by the melodies and lyrics.
Knowing this, the three of them prepare an ambush during a concert in New York.

Despite their planning, the trio got overwhelmed when Victoria uses Ayshel’s Staff earlier than the three of them had planned since Victoria is feeling very drawn to Kirtash’s music live and thinks the boy is trying to hypnotize her with his shek powers.
After that, outside the concert venue, Kirtash and Victoria meet in person just before the boy gets away before Jack and Alexander get there.

It’s not long after this that, in Victoria’s house, the Resistance, alongside Victoria’s adoptive grandmother suffers a brutal attack lead by Gerde, a fae witch and a brainwashed Kirtash.
Victoria is almost killed by Kirtash, and is saved by Jack at the last moment and they win their battle against Gerde.
After the battle, Victoria’s grandmother reveals her real identity of Aile Alhenai and tells Jack and Victoria they are the dragon and the unicorn the prophecy talked about.

It’s here when Kirtash, due to the brutal torture he was put through by his father, captures Victoria and takes her to Idhún, and has her captive in Drackwen’s Tower, where, alongside Gerde and Ashran, torture her to take her power’s away, forcefully awakwning her unicorn’s powers, until the Resistance members in Idhún, in a desperate attack possibly lead by Shail, attack the Tower, where Shail reawaken’s the Kirtash’s feelings for Victoria, who saves her when Gerde tries to kill the girl twice before Victoria and Shail escape to Limbhad again.

Once in Limbhad again, the original Resistance with Aile, is where Shail and Alsan meet again. Though it’s more as if the two of them met from the first time again after the two years apart and the changes they both went through, the feelings for each other reawakened but both were afraid to act on them since they were both very different people from the last time they had spent together.
Those sneaky kisses in the unused rooms of Limbhad were now long distant memories, something that happened not between them but between two men who didn’t longer exist anywhere but their memories.
And so, the two learnt to coexist again and got to know the other once again, each time they spoke they tiptoed less and less around each other.
And in the months they spent in Limbhad, Shail and Alexander decide that, until Alexander has his wolf side completely dominated, they’re better off as friends, Alexander too afraid of harming Shail during one of his transformations.

Not long after, the Resistance decide to go back to Idhún to finally face off Ashran and rid Idhún of his decade long tyranny.

Back in Idhún, the original Resistance group didn’t have much time before finding themselves thrusted from all directions at the same time, each of them needed to do their own thing.
And as worried as they all were for their own personal reasons and the future ahead of them, the group didn’t realize they were being ambushed by sheks on their way to Kazlunn’s tower until it was too late and all they could do to manage to survive was avoid most of the attacks.
Even doing so, one of Shail’s legs was brutally bitten by a shek before they managed to barely escape from the Tower and into the Forest of Awa.

Once in the safety of the Fae’s forest, the group finally had the chance to rest, but not before Shail’s wounded leg had to be amputated by the faerie kin.
After that, Shail and Aile needed to reinforce the magic defenses. Vic and Jack had their own duties to fulfill as the last unicorn and dragon, and Alexander had to go back to his family and see how his kingdom was doing.
Still they all put their duties on hold until Shail was awake and steadily recovering.

With Shail and Alexander going their separate ways once again, the two young men didn’t have much time together.
Alexander helped the people in his kingdom while also getting used to the three moon cycles Idhún had and how each one affected the beast within, making people distrustful of him.
Meanwhile Shail was in the forest of Awa with all the magicians,making sure everyone who arrived there was welcomed and had a place to stay.
Not to mention giving the most basic training to the very few people Victoria granted magic, or half-magic as she traveled the land the unicorn and dragons had been born in to feel more connected to those parts of their beings.

Days turned into weeks and then months with a relatively stable truce with just some isolated attacks, or the fake wooden dragons battles against the sheks being a rather normal constant.
With everything settled in the forest, Shail leaves with Gaedalu’s court until they’re attacked, and he and Zaisei together headed west, following Jack and Victoria’s tracks with Kimara’s help.

Sadly, when the magician finally was reunited with the two he helped rescue as kids, what he saw was Yandrak being struck down by Kirtash and fall to his death, the only thing Shail was able to do was look as it all unfold and run to Victoria’s side as grief and anger took over her.

After that, knowing that what Victoria needed was to be with people who cared about her as more than just her unicorn soul, Shail took her to Nurgon where she could stay among humans as she recovered and made sense of the mess of her emotions there.
In Nurgon, Shial and Alexander met once again, and maybe it was because there was a war going on or maybe it was because seeing Victoria just lose one of the people she loved the most in her life made the two men see how fickle live could be that after talking for a while, Shail, once again, was the one to make the first move and kissed Alexander. And, by the Six, if it didn’t feel as if a piece of a puzzle fell into place, but the awkward tension there had been between the two disappeared as their relationship started again, despite knowing they would have to part ways soon once again, even if Alexander promised they wouldn’t be apart for much longer, making it known he knows something Shail doesn’t.

And the knight was right, because after the few months Shail and Zaisei spent in Celestia on their way to Awa, the two of them were reunited, and with Shail and other magicians help, they subdued the beast inside Alsan so he wouldn’t go savage during the triple full moon and so being able to leave the Alexander part of his life behind and going back of being Alsa, being able to take part during the Battle of Awa, leading the human army and the Nurgon knights alongside his brother while Shail and Aile lead the magic attacks.

After the Battle of Awa, Alsan went, once again, back to Vanissar, to make the escaped szishs and establish peace in the kingdom, divided between who wanted Alsan to take the throne and the ones who wanted Alsan’s brother to keep it, even if the two siblings decided to set all crown related affairs after the war was done. Not to mention, Alsan had a despairing Victoria going in and out and who couldn’t stay still.
Not being able to keep Victoria to stay in Vanissar, knowing the girl would go away no matter what he would have said, Alsan lets her go face Kirtash.

Intent on killing Kirtash as revenge for taking Jack away, Victoria sets off and faces the shek.
And she would have killed him in cold blood hadn’t it been for Jack seemingly coming back from the dead saving both Kirtash and Victoria herself from her own despair and wrath.
Victoria’s joy doesn’t last long as when she goes to face Ashran, the Nigromant captures Jack and Kirtash making the girl choose between them and ripping Lunnaris’s horn off after she offers herself to save the two boys she loved, Jack and Kirtash joining forces despite their mutual hatred and beat the Nigromant, the unicorn’s horn disappearing with him.

Informing Shail, Alsan and everyone who needed to know about what happened, Victoria is taken to Kazlunn’s tower where not even the best magicians can do anything to heal her and make her wake and the horn grow back, so it’s Jack who stays with her while Kirtash goes to search what happened with the horn, because somehow news of szishs with magic had reached their ears.
And so what they feared most was seemingly becoming true, the war was over but something way worse was about to happen.

It isn’t until Jack explains how he survived that everyone discovers what is about to happen.
“After Kirtash wounded me and I fell, I didn’t die. I was transported to Umadhún, the first world the Six created long before they did Idhún.” Jack started.
“There I was taken care off by a female shek who hated sheks and the Seventh as much, if not more, as I did. She did so so I could go back and kill Ashran. She was Sheziss, the mother of Kirtash’s shek part, and she wanted revenge on her life partner and Ashran for taking her still-unborn kids so Ashran, who was the human body the Seventh was using at the time until his death, created Kirtash, using all her unborn kids as tests until one, Kirtash, survived.” Jack continued his story.
“While in Umadhún, Sheziss taught me how to keep the dragon in check when it came to my innate hate towards sheks as she also told me the intertwined history of Umadhún and Idhún. Umadhún was destroyed by the Six who grew bored of their creations and to be able a better version of it, they cast aside all creatures there to die was well as they ripped all evil sides of their beings, and the Seventh was born out of that evil, barely escaping before Umadhún was destroyed and abandoned as a barren landscape with no life.”

“As revenge for his creation, the Seventh created the sheks -a species of cold, calculating strategists-, to battle the Six’s favorite new creation, the dragons -who represented Idhún’s burning wild freedom and care-free beings. Thus making the two species hate each other in a way none could control, as it had been designated by the gods themselves. It took me months to learn to control my hate and now I understand the sheks and even came to respect Sheziss, a mother consumed by grief over her kids and the betrayal suffered by the one she loved.” Jack explained and admitted, his face and voice showing the truth of his statements and the respect towards the shek who saved his life, as he continued telling the story of Idhún and how the dragons vanished sheks and szishs to Umadhún at the end of the Second Era and their comeback to Idhún eras later.

“All this was to say that yes, what happened to Umadhún will happen to Idhún as the Six will come visit this planet to find the Seven, who was hidden in Ashran’s body and has found a new vessel, like the sneaky bastard he is. The Seven is probably the one granting szishs the gift of magic with Victoria’s horn.” Jack divulged to everyone who was granted access to Kazlunn’s tower. Which allowed for everyone to make preparations to do their best when the god’s made their appearance known.

Sadly, Jack’s predictions and stories turned out to be true..
The first god that visited Idhún was Yohavir, appearing not long after Victoria awoke and her horn slowly started growing again, passing near Kazlunn’s tower, making Victoria act as a channel for the god’s immense destructive energy. And with Kirtash, Jack and Victoria decide it would be safer for the girl to go back to Earth while the gods decide to roam and practically destroy Idhún.

And despite all preparations taken, no one expected the gods they prayed to be this huge amount of energy who destroyed everything and everyone in their wake. Nothing they did or could even do was able to help or stop them.
As the gods ravage Idhún as they visit the places the species they created live, Alsan is taken over by the wolf during a triple full moon despite Shail’s magic due to the god’s energy being greater than the magicians.
It was during that long full moon night, that, after the wolf took over, Alsan unconsciously attacked his brother and wounded him, regaining part of his senses and stopping before he killed him.
After that, Alsan allowed Gaedalu and her court to experiment on him and try to discover how to rid him of the wolf and the Seven magic inside him.

It wasn’t until a few weeks later, when Kirtash and Victoria came back to Earth followed by Gerde, revealed as the new vessel of the Seven, and her sheks.
Knowing the identity of the Seven’s new vessel, the Six were able to destroy the fae and greatly weaken the Seven, leaving Idhún shortly after, considering their duties done.

The Seven, not happy with the outcome chose Assher, a szishs magician, as their new vessel. But Assher, not wanting to harm Victoria and just wanting peace for both sheks and szishs, decided to open a portal so the two snake-like species could travel to the world Gerde had created for them while she hid on Earth as a way to have an escape if needed.

The Battle against the Seven finished, Alsan uses the power in his legendary sword, Sumlaris, to keep the power open, using both his and the wolf’s strength and will to keep the portal open long enough for the last of the sheks to cross it before letting it close, his sword and right arm unusable, both burnt by the energy it required, but showing this way that he was as human as anyone else, despite sharing body with a wolf, and not letting Gaedalu and hr people keep using him as a test of all their tests, taking out the rock collar Gaedalu had given him as a way to control the wolf even if she knew the rock would slowly corrupt the knight’s soul.

After what ended up being known as the Battle of the Seven, Idhún’s long decade of tyranny was finally over, and celebrations arose everywhere, not needing an excuse to party after years of desolation.

In Vanissar, where one of the biggest celebrations took place, Alsan, who had, shortly after the Battle, been crowned as king of Vanissar, used the occasion to apologize to his brother.
Alsan admitted to his brother he did not wish to wear the crown for longer than necessary, the war making him see that the throne wasn’t what he wished for.
And, true to his word, Alsan gave the crown up in favor of his brother, who he said was better suited for it, but not before he passed a law that made Vanissar a kingdom safe for refugees of all species, no matter their class or if they were half-bloods.

The law also made it safe for Jack, Victoria and Kirtash to stay in the kingdom’s land after the three of them betrothed each other in a ceremony officiated by Zaisei, after the son born of Victoria and Jack was born.
The wedding came to a surprise, not because it was between three people, which was fairly normal in Idhún, but because Jack and Kirtash not only were marrying Victoria but also each other. Turns out that after learning how to control their inherent hate towards each other, the two young men discovered that part of why they were so annoyed by the other was that they were also attracted to the other but that was in conflict with their inner dragon and shek.

Yes, there were some people against the union and their family, but with Alsan’s sole law as a ruler and his further protection after he gave the crown up, the three of them were free to live in Idhún with their kids. Because no matter who the children's biological father was, both kids had two fathers and a mother who adored them and would fight to protect them.

With the Triad living together and safe, somewhere rather secret in Vanissar, Shail and Alsan, once the latter wasn’t tied to his duties to his kingdom, stepped down from their important positions and went to live together in a small house.
Shail became a teacher to the new magicians being created, and, unknown to the Archmages, keeping Victoria’s first horn safe somewhere no one but he and the unicorn knew, from the girl’s request as she told him how she chose how Lunnaris chose the people she granted magic to.

This is when Victoria touches Shail’s leg, infusing it with the magic it needs to be fully connected to his body.
In turn, Jack uses his fire to infuse power to the prosthetic arm he got made to replace the one that got burnt up alongside his sword.
It was the way the unicorn and the dragon had to thank and give something back to the man who had saved them the day they were born and who had looked after them for the years to come after.

A few years later, Shail and Alsan got married in a small wedding, Victoria being Shail’s best woman and Jack being Alsan’s best man, Zaisei, now a high priestess, officiated her best friend’s wedding to the man he had loved for what now was most of his life.
The two of them also became parents when they decided to adopt some orphaned kids who lost their parents during the war and gave them a new life and family with them.