“You’re always welcome here,” Balinth said on Theora’s last day in Hallmark. “If you ever decide to come back.”

Theora nodded. “Thank you very much. I hope we will.” She hugged Balinth and received a few pats on her back in turn.

Another few weeks had passed in the blink of an eye; and now, the Afterthought plague had finally been declared over.

“Good luck with Dema!” Hell said, grinning.

Theora swallowed, and hugged her too. “I don’t know what you mean by that,” she murmured. “Dema and I are doing well. I’m planning to invite her on a date.”

“Oh!” Balinth let out. “Date, date! Where? What are you going to do?”

“Grand Observatory of Fiction,” she said. “I want us to visit Dema’s favourite book.”

Balinth and Hell stared at each other for a moment, then Hell broke the gaze and turned to Theora. “Well, that’s going to be… fun.”

Balinth giggled.

By now, Theora had found out a little more about the book.

At first, she expected it to be a story about travelling to hell together with an author. However, during her superficial research, she realised the title was meant metaphorically; the main character apparently really didn’t like the author of the story she was trapped in, and voiced that dismay at every possible opportunity.

Theora had procured a copy of that book, with the solemn intent to read it before asking Dema on that ‘date’. On her attempts, she fell asleep during the first, second, and fifth page respectively, and thus gave up. Reading was difficult, and the prose of said book was dense and colourful, and the situation the main character was in went over Theora’s head three times over.

Isobel had described the story as ‘convoluted’. That didn’t even begin to describe it.

“At least you’ll meet Gonell!” Balinth added. “Remember? Told you about her. Dema made us read the book a while ago.”

Oh. Gonell. The person depicted on that cookie Balinth had made? She was a character from Dema’s favourite book?

“I remember,” Theora said. “I hope I can get to meet her.”

Hell smiled, and nodded. “I’d kinda want to see that, honestly. I wonder which of you would win a sparring match… Unfortunately, these bones are too old to make that kind of journey.”

“Oh, come on!” Balinth complained, and waved off, looking at Theora. “Hell’s just covering for me. I’m the one who can’t travel. Either way, write us a letter or something when you’re out! Tell us how it went!”

Theora nodded. She made sure to write down the address, so she wouldn’t forget, and placed the paper in the same pocket as Dema’s little note from a while ago.

Then, Theora left their home, for the last time in a while, and maybe forever. That little apartment, up the stairs, the small windows giving view of the town’s silhouette. A little space carved into this large town, and even though it wasn’t technically special, it very much felt like home to Theora.

Her next stops were to say goodbye to Rogue, to other members of the guard, and to Ulfine. She added all their addresses to her little collection too. In a way, that made her feel better. The idea of sending letters had never really occurred to her before.

She would leave behind this hectic city life, her in-and-out of constant toil, her sleep-deprivation and the gloomy thoughts of inadequacy, the feeling of missing out on the lives of every single person around her.

And, she would travel again, despite her weary body demanding rest. What if she were to blink and fall asleep for a few decades, or forgot herself in her next task? Everyone here would dissipate into a memory, like snapping them away into dust.

Theora had to stay vigilant and pass her time responsibly now, to have a chance to meet them again, to stay in touch, to send those letters and maybe receive replies. So, perhaps she should wait with her next long rest for another fifty years or so. That wasn’t too much, was it? She could manage.

She rubbed a bit of sleepy dust out of her eyes, on her way to Zeka and her son, to fetch Dema, who’d decided to spend one last day with them.

“Why, hello there!” Dema rasped gleefully after opening the door for her.

Dark hair, cut short and messy like always, but in a completely different shape now. Little ash-coloured horn poking out from the hair on top, and her long, pointed ears from the sides. Her eyebrows raised in confidence, gleaming amber eyes, thin golden lips stretched into a smile.

Oh, how Theora had missed that view. She felt like she hadn’t properly seen Dema ever since Isobel came back.

Only in passing, only asleep, both busy, both tired.

Theora stepped ahead and enclosed Dema in a hug.

“Woah!” Dema let out, embracing her back. “Why, I missed you too!” she said. “Turned into a li’l hug bug, huh?”

“I didn’t,” Theora mumbled, but kept the embrace.

“I’m pretty sure you did!” Dema said teasingly. “Iso told me everything.”

“Has she now.”

“Yeah. No secrets between mother and child!” she proclaimed, peeling herself out of the hug. Her grin slowly turned into a mischievous smile. “She also told me you were gonna ask me out.”

Theora gulped and her mind blanked out.

“I—” she said, breaking off. “I—” she repeated, throat closing up. “… I need to go say goodbye to Zeka,” she mumbled, awkwardly shuffling past Dema in the door entry.

So Isobel had just gone ahead and done it. Gone ahead and spilled the largest of Theora’s secrets, to the very person who would tease her the most about it. And now that Dema knew, Theora had no way to get out of it, either… Not that she wanted to, but procrastinating on it for another century would have certainly been nice.

Well, on the other hand, she couldn’t have done that, because then it would have been impossible to write a letter to Balinth and Hell about how it went.

Theora sighed, and her thoughts circled around letters, sleeplessness, and dates for a long while, until they met up with Bell and Iso.

The two were wearing large backpacks. They’d stored additional luggage inside Theora’s interdimensional coat, happy at the prospect of not having to bring a wagon for their belongings.

Shortly after, they finally left through the gates of Hallmark. Looking back at the city, Theora couldn’t help but feel happy for its inhabitants — happy that the Roaming Blight finally decided to leave.

“So!” Dema let out. “Where we gonna go next?”

Isobel’s head shot up. “She hasn’t told you?”

“Told me what!” Dema’s gaze went over to Theora, and then her eyes widened a little. “Wait, this related to our date? Has it already started?”

Theora stared at the ground. Where was Dema getting this boundless confidence from? Hadn’t she been just as much of a flustered mess as Theora last time? Actually, no, Dema had been really aggressive with cornering Theora like the little rabbit she was. So, maybe Dema was only weak to being caught unguarded.

It was a nice thought, but Theora had no way to exploit it.

“You’re going to kill her,” Bell murmured. “Leave the girl alone for one second!”

“What!” Dema laughed. “Was just a question! Also, what do you mean, leave her alone. Unlike jellyfish, rabbits ain’t solitary creatures!”

“That’s a poor argument!” Isobel chimed in. “Giant Isopods are solitary, and I still prefer to be with others. Comes down to the individual.”

“Huh,” Dema hummed, turning to Theora. “Well then, little rabbit,” she said, stepping very close to her. “You a solitary creature?”

Theora avoided Dema’s stare, letting her hair fall on her face as much as possible, to hide away from the never-ending onslaught of attention. Then, in an almost-whisper, she pressed out, “You can stay with me if you want.”

Dema perked up in surprise, and made a step sideways. She gulped, and shook her head. “Damn, making my heart flutter again…”

“You two are both absolutely hopeless,” Bell mumbled.

Iso clacked her mandibles. “I think they’re getting better!”

“Oh, really? I’m not getting that feeling at all.”

“Hey!” Dema complained. “Totally rude to speak about people while they’re there!”

Oh, yes. Of course, of all the people to utter such a sentence, Dema would be the one to do it.

“We are going north,” Theora murmured, having finally calmed down enough to speak. She had consulted a few maps in preparation for their journey over the last few days, and spoken with travellers who knew the region. “There are two possible routes.”

“Let’s take the long one!” Dema chirped.

Theora nodded. “Alright. The longer one is safer, since it circumvents an active volcano.”

Dema jolted up. “Let’s take the short one!”

Theora hummed. “I was worried about the volcanic route, because we have Bell with us. It would be dry and hot.”

“Oh, please,” Bell interjected. She was walking a few steps away from the others, her tendrils floating around in the air. She made sure not to have them touch anyone. “I’m a strong girl. I’m a [Barrier-Mage], in fact.”

“I wasn’t worried about you getting hurt,” Theora said, glancing at her. “Of course you are strong. Even if you weren’t, we would protect you. I just wondered if the climate might be uncomfortable for you.”

Bell’s tendrils gently sunk down. “Oh,” she said. “No, that’s alright. None has water with her, and if it gets too uncomfortable, I can wrap myself in a bubble.”

“What about you, Isobel?” Theora asked. “You are a water-creature too. Are you alright with it?”

“Alright with it?” Iso gushed out. “I’m voting for it! Let Dema have her volcano! There might be some nice rocks there for her to study too.”

“So, no reservations?”

“Nope!” Iso let out, clattering her carapace with a tiny jump. “What could possibly go wrong?”

She grinned wide, all back in one piece now, able to walk again after Dema had done her best to reassemble her from all those tiny chunks and shards after that misfortune in Sounddoom Valley.

“Volcano it is!” Dema cheered, throwing a fist in the air.

Theora nodded. “Volcano it is.”