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Chapter 22

Willow shuddered as he remembered the emptiness he had seen in the sorcerer's eyes.

"Are you all right?" asked Lor. Willow had noticed a few days before that she had dropped all pretense of unconcern for him. "You look a little warm."

"Oh I'm fine, just excited for…for the battle."

"Hmph." Lor's worried expression turned to one of suppressed rage. "Why must everyone glorify battle so much?"

She turned toward the forest clearing to survey their makeshift army one last time.

True to her word, Korcal had come to Domicallia with most of the adult Fairies in tow. Lapis stood among the small band of Dwarves from Gummaka, conjuring a stream of water for the thirsty warriors around her. Though he had watched all day, Willow had seen no sign of Lazuli among the masses. A large crowd of elves stood in straight rows in the center of the clearing, some staring in disdain at the shabby uniforms and relaxed training of the other races. The Alder had not come to the battlefield but he had offered Lor all of Copillico's services for the care of the wounded and captured. Though it had taken Lor and Willow a full four days to convince first the Lord and then the people of Yarthel to put aside their differences, a throng of humans headed by the Lord himself now formed the largest group of all in one corner of the clearing. The human soldiers gawked at their strange allies, far too curious to remember their old prejudices.

Lor sighed. "The cities of Lavardia must be quiet today," she muttered.

"Not one," Willow reminded her, motioning in the direction of Domicallia.

Lor nodded but made no reply. Willow could tell that there was something she wanted to tell him, but by now he knew that it would be best to wait and let her answer in her own time.

"Willow." She turned back to face him, reached behind her neck and undid the clasp of her necklace. She reached for his hand and placed the silver chain in his cupped palm. Willow stared in amazement.

"You keep it," she grunted.

"But Mandy gave this to you, it should be yours."

"She only gave it to me because it was her duty. It's not like it was a special present or anything."

"But-"

"Look, I'm never going back there, all right? You can keep it to remember the first time we met or something but just hang on to it because you may want to go back someday, and when you do, you'll have to go on you own."

Willow shrugged, not wanting to argue.

"Uh…can you help-?"

Lor took one end of the necklace in each hand and took a step forward so she could clasp it around his neck. Her fingers brushed against his skin as she did it. They felt as cold as ice, though Willow was not sure if she was cold or he was boiling. Lor noticed it as well, and she tugged at his shoulder so that their eyes met. Her brow creased with worry.

"Are you sure you're all right? Maybe you should stay here-"

"What! And miss the attack?" Willow pulled away from her and reached for the hilt of his sword. "After all the torture I went though at school, do you really think I'm going to miss what could be the only battle in my lifetime?"

Lor gritted her teeth. "It's a battle…no one's going to notice if you sit out."

"I said no, Lor."

Willow was ready to argue himself hoarse, but his sister did not press the matter further.

"All right then, get ready. It's almost noon."

As Willow tightened the straps of his boots, a familiar Fairy bounded out of the crowd toward him.

"Hey Willow. Beautiful day for a battle!"

"How are you going in Jo?" Willow asked. He had not seen Jo for several days, not since Lor had sent him to ask his friend to spy on Reyner.

"I'll help the elves first and come down to fight as a Fairy later," he said. "Side by side, right?"

Willow chuckled. "Sure."

"Excuse me but we don't have much time," Lor shot at them. Blood rushed to Jo's face.

"Sorry Lor, I'm just excited for-"

"You and every other fool," she muttered, casting a dark glance at Willow.

A smile twitched at the corner of Jo's mouth. "Well, Korcal told me to tell you that she thinks you ought to say a few words to the warriors before we leave."

"What? Me? Now?"

Jo chuckled. "Yep, yes, and when else? Come on."

Willow followed his sister toward a boulder on the edge of the clearing, fighting off a wave of dizziness. Jo offered Lor a hand to help her up but she slapped it away.

He rolled his eyes and Willow struggled not to laugh.

It took several minutes for everyone to notice her, but for once, Lor was patient. She stood atop the rock with her head bowed and her hands on her hips, collecting her thoughts, and then looked up at the sea of warriors before her.

"Well, this is it." Dead silence in the clearing. Lor winced at her choice of opening words. "Ah…"

They all waited as though they had come for her, not for the battle to follow.

"I – I find it a little odd," Lor began, "that at the end of the Great War, when the Fairies, Dwarves and Elves united to defeat the humans, people called it a 'union of the races.' I mean, they were only three races ganging up on another one. So maybe Reyner has done something good after all… Over there is a city of warriors from every race and over here is an army of the same, and though we may go into battle against our brothers and sisters, at the same time the people of Earth have never been more united than they are right now. I know that after this battle many of us will go back to our lives as though nothing has changed, but I hope that you will always remember today so that we really can live in peace after this. May Earth protect us all."

Murmurs of mild approval ran through the crowd, but Lor did not leave them time to think over her words before she leapt from the boulder and pulled Willow to the head of the crowd. Slowly, the entire mass of warriors began to move through the forest toward Domicallia.

As the trees fell away, exposing the massive wall up ahead, Willow held his head high and tried to ignore the last look of concern that Lor cast in his direction. When the time came to go their separate ways, Willow caught Lor's hand.

"May Earth protect you," he whispered, praying that the good Planet could hear him.

"And you." Lor's cool grip tightened before she released his fingers, leading her half of the army around to the back of the fort.

Once they set foot on the bare soil, a hush fell over the crowd, making it easier for Willow to guide his half around the edge of the clearing to surround the fort. The guards high above on the wall soon alerted Domicallia to the threat and released a volley of arrows. One struck a Fairy, another a Human, and Willow wasted no time ordering the few warriors who had not noticed their fallen comrades to retreat to the tree line where they would be out of firing range.

"Raise the flags!" he called. Banner bearers rushed forward to wave the white flags of armistice, and at once, the arrows ceased to fall from the sky. Shouts of confusion echoed through the forest as Union soldiers of Domicallia rushed to their posts atop the wall. Far sooner than Willow had expected, a white flag appeared over the edge of the wall and a single figure appeared, dark against Sun's glare. Willow took a few steps forward, taking care to remain out of firing range.

"Who are you and why have you come to disturb the peace at Domicallia?" called the figure on the wall.

"We are warriors of Earth's army," Willow replied, raising his voice as much as he could. "We have received first-hand reports of the cruelty of the Union and your plans for the people of Yarthel, and we have come to stop you. If you surrender now, we shall do everything in our power to satisfy every member of you organization, but if you insist upon it, we shall fight to the last warrior."

The figure disappeared and a hush fell over the clearing and the fort as both armies waited for a reply. The response was swift, another volley of arrows from the wall. Willow turned and ran out of range, darting back and forth to make his back a more difficult target until he remembered that the arrows could not reach him. Feeling his face grow rather hotter than usual, he straightened his path.

"Fire! Fire NOW!" He called as he joined his half of the army. Jo, standing nearby, heard the order, changed into an elf, and shot off through the crowd toward the nearest tree, shouting "Fire!" at the top of his lungs as he went. Soon the warriors took up the call, and while flying fairies summoned birds and elves scaled the trees on the edge of the forest, the clearing reverberated with chants of "Fire! Fire! Fire!"

Once they had climbed to the upper branches, the elves readied their bows and lit the cloth-wrapped ends of their arrows on fire. When they were ready, two fairies picked up one elf and lifted them up in the hair, higher than the arrows of the enemy could reach, and hovered before the walls of the fort. One by one, the elves loosed their arrows. Some of the flames burned out in the air, some hit and fell, some lodged in the wood and burned themselves out, but many stuck fast and ignited the wall.

At first the Union warriors were unaware of what had happened. They fired their arrows upwards at the elves and fairies, and once they realized that they were out of reach, returned to shooting at the boldly advancing crowd below. Still, few of the arrows struck true. Two more soldiers were killed and five injured before the men on the wall saw their impending predicament and rushed towards the ladders. The wall was deserted in minutes, and in less than half an hour, the whole thing was ablaze.

Upon the return of the flying fairies and their elves, the warriors grew rowdy with excitement for the success of the plan, but Willow ordered everyone to rest. They would not cross the wall until it had burned to the ground, which could take hours, and they would need their strength for the true battle that would follow. Leaving the Lord of Yarthel in charge, he strolled to the other side of the fort to check on Lor.

They had lost three warriors when the birds could no longer hold on to the fairies and their burden, seven were injured, and an elvish archer had hit one of the sentries on the wall. Lor relayed this last piece of news with no trace of satisfaction in her voice. Willow knew that despite her call for action, she had no desire to be responsible for so many lives, and she had designed her plan around her wish to kill as few warriors as possible.

For the umpteenth time that day, Lor appraised Willow with a worried eye, but before she could say anything, he groaned.

"Lor, I know what you're thinking and for the last time, I'm fine!" He turned and stomped back to his side of the fort, half-disappointed when she did not follow.

Willow passed the next few hours with Jo, playing cards and discussing Jo's brief charade as a member of the Union, all the while fighting a fog of drowsiness that threatened to envelop him. The wood in the wall was old and dry, so it burned much faster than anyone had expected. Sun set behind the trees, and by eleven, all that remained were ashes and blackened logs. Willow allowed two hours for the coals to settle before he roused the warriors, yelling encouragement as he went.

"All that's left between us and those buildings is a field." Everyone whooped and cheered with nervous anticipation. "Ready your weapons and remember the reward offered for captives: the equivalent of seven gold bits for every warrior brought in alive. Warriors in front keep your shields up, and Dwarves stay on the edge of the ashes and stop anyone from escaping."

Willow took his place next to Jo, drew his sword and waited. Though the night air was warm from the massive fire, a shiver crept up his spine and his blood throbbed in his temples. He gritted his teeth and ignored it.

Six horns blew around the fort and the army of Earth roared "Fire!" before they charged forward.

The crowd swept Willow along, through the pile of trampled ashes and coals, across the field and the strip of packed dirt into the cluster of cabins. The first of the Union's guards lay dead on the ground and everyone who saw them forgot about the reward. Willow separated from the group so that he could handle his sword without hurting a friend and fought as hard as he could. He tried to let the men he clashed with live, but one by one, they fell dead under his blade.

Someone seized his shoulder from behind and pressed the end of a knife to his throat, but the hand went limp a second later and the knife fell to the ground. Willow turned in time to see Hemlock, his old enemy, push the dead body off his sword.

"Not so useless anymore, are you?" Hemlock said with a grudging nod of his head, before returning to the world of battle. Willow did not hear him.

He stared at the face of the man who had tried to kill him. It was Kaolin, the dwarf who showed him to the common during his short stay in the Union. Willow felt his knees weaken and give way. His sword clattered to the ground as he landed on all fours at Kaolin's side and threw up. When he had stopped retching, he reached over and closed the dwarf's eyes with his trembling thumb. Willow hauled himself to his feet but he found that his sword was ten times heavier than when the battle had begun, so he discarded it and began to stumble along the alleys in search of Lor.

Most of the fighting had ended already and many of his fellow warriors had left the battlefield with captives and wounded comrades. Willow wandered among the buildings, leaning against the walls of the cabins for support as his strength ebbed away. Suddenly exhausted, he tripped over a body near the common in the middle of the cabins and surrendered to darkness.

~~~

He woke when a pair of hands rolled him onto his back, trying to find out if he was dead or alive.

"Willow?" Lor whispered. Her cool fingers brushed the hair away from his burning face and it was only with tremendous effort that he managed to open his eyes a crack. She sighed with relief to see that there was still life in his body.

Lor's eyes widened at the hiss of a sword being drawn behind her. She snatched her own sword from the ground at her side and spun around. It was Reyner.

A bark of mirthless laughter burst from his lips.

"I just realized that this will be the third time I've tried to kill you, and as they say, third time's the charm."

He swung his sword at her but she jumped up out of the way and lashed back, drawing him away from Willow. Reyner lunged forward and went for her head but she held up her sword and blocked his just in time. He pushed against her, trying to back her up to the wall of a cabin so that he could stab her. Realizing what he was trying to do, she pulled her foot up and kicked him in the stomach. He fell away for a moment, doubling with pain, but jumped back up and went for her head again. She ducked out of the way.

Willow's body ached as he pulled himself to his knees against the wall, wishing that he had not abandoned his sword.

Reyner was stronger than Lor and she knew it. Abandoning her no-killing rule, she swung at his waist. He held his sword down to block it before reaching over with his left hand and punching her. She fell to the ground and rolled away from his next strike just a split second too late. His blade sliced her left arm and she cried out in shock, swinging her sword up at him, but he stepped back, laughing. She tried to stand up and in the split second that she was unbalanced, he swung his sword and caught her in the back. Lor gasped in pain and fell back down. She tried to push herself up again but Reyner kicked her onto her back.

"Reyner triumphs," he said, raising his sword.

Panic surged through Willow's veins. "NO!" he cried.

Reyner brought the sword down with all the strength he had left and threw his whole weight on it. Lor shuddered as the blade ran though her stomach and into the ground beneath. Only the hilt showed above her body and she lay still.

"No." The panic vanished like a wisp of smoke, leaving only weakness in its place. Willow turned his eyes away from Lor and retched again. Reyner strode across the common until he stood over Willow, his face a mask of pure hatred.

"What do you say I put you out of your misery?" He picked up a sword from a nearby dead elf, raised it above his head, and Willow bowed down to receive the blow. Then he heard the sound of a bowstring tightening and glanced up.

Jo stood there, with his arrow pointed straight at Reyner's head. Reyner turned to face him, and before his eyes, Jo transformed into Lor, dripping blood from her arm, her back, and her stomach.

"For Lor," she whispered, her voice cracking. Reyner paled and Lor loosed the arrow straight into his eye. Reyner's body twitched, went limp and fell into the mud.
Jo changed back into his standard Fairy, sank to the ground against the wall of the building, and buried his head in his hands.

Willow looked back at Lor, now covered in her own blood, and passed out.

~~~

He was somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness. He crawled, dragged himself through the bloody mud across the common to Lor's side. He reached for the hilt of the sword and prepared to pull it out but he had no strength left. His stomach heaved but there was nothing left in it to come back up. His head sank to the ground.

As Willow's eyes roved over the devastation in the common, he noticed hundreds of tiny blue, white, and green lights floating in the air nearby. They gathered around him and Lor and began to circle them, forming long bright streaks of light as they picked up speed, flying faster and faster until they all blurred together in one great, glowing sphere. Willow felt his body rise above the ground and the sphere pinched in the middle, splitting into two smaller orbs, the other floating a few feet away and carrying Lor's body with it.

Higher and higher they rose, above the fort, the Everwood, Lavardia, the ocean, and then the world. Willow was able to see all of Earth at once now but the orbs carried him still farther away until the planet shrank to the size of his fist. When at last they stopped, Willow lifted his heavy head and looked around to make sure that the sphere carrying Lor was still beside him before turning back to the world.

A strange blue mist was forming around the planet, not dense enough to block out the stars, just enough to be noticed. It swirled into the rough shape of a woman with the world visible where the heart would have been.

It was Earth. She gave him a shy smile, more a feeling than a feature.

"Hello Willow."

She stepped forward so that she stood just outside his sphere, staring at him. She cocked her head to the side to look at Lor and Willow followed her gaze. Lor was still dead, pierced through by Reyner's sword and soaked in her own blood. A tear rolled down Willow's cheek, then another, and soon he could not control the sobs that racked his body.

Earth watched him for a while before she knelt down, reached through the wall of light into the sphere, and placed her hand on his head. Through the muddled mixture of pain and loss, Willow found enough thought to marvel at the soft touch of her vapor hand.

All traces of shyness gone, Earth stroked Willow's hair and back until he was calm again. Though they had never met before and Willow had sometimes doubted Earth's very existence as a being, her touch was even more warm and familiar than Lor's had been. Willow realized that this must be what it felt like to have a mother.

"There is nothing wrong with crying," she told him softly. "If we did not cry then we would not be people."

Willow lay there, a thousand thoughts moving like slugs though his mind. "I hate Reyner," he rasped. "He's evil."

"No one is completely evil, not even Core himself," Earth said.

"I wish Lor weren't dead."

"Is she dead?"

Willow looked over towards Lor's glowing sphere. The sword eased itself out of her body and drifted away, then the blood dried up and vanished while her wounds closed, leaving hideous scars. Silver thread appeared out of thin air, mending the rips in her shirt. Lor drifted up into a standing position. Her head rolled, then the muscles in her neck twitched and her head was straight. Her eyes opened for a moment to meet Willow's and she smiled before her eyelids slid shut again.

"Lor!"

As Willow watched, beginning at her feet and working up her body, she began to turn into smoke and drift away. Earth shifted nervously, but she regained her composure and turned back to Willow.

"She will live forever in your memory…and remember that stories are immortal. Even the forgotten ones live on."

"No," whispered Willow.

Lor's shoulders disappeared, then her neck, and then in one last swirl of smoke, she was gone. Willow threw himself at the edge of the sphere, pounding his fists on the wall of light, but it was as solid as stone. He sank to his knees in despair.

Then the sphere filled with a light wind and Lor's voice echoed back to him from somewhere in the recent past.

"Look, I'm never going back there, all right? …You may want to go back someday, and when you do, you'll have to go on you own."

"A casual statement that we can interpret two ways," Earth murmured. "Willow, Lor's story is over for now. Like you told the woman in the farmer's hamlet, you hold your fate in your own hands, whether you live or die, give up or go on."

"I want to live," croaked Willow. "But Lor was my family."

"It is hard to say good bye…but you must now face the world on your own. I will watch over you always, Willow."

Earth disappeared and Willow began to drift back towards the planet. He had to go on now. He knew that he had to choose his own course and that no matter what lay ahead, he would live with the consequences.

"Good bye."

________

Sit tight, folks. It's not over yet...

Description
Chapter 22

Willow shuddered as he remembered the emptiness he had seen in the sorcerer's eyes.

"Are you all right?" asked Lor. Willow had noticed a few days before that she had dropped all pretense of unconcern for him. "You look a little warm."

"Oh I'm fine, just excited for…for the battle."

"Hmph." Lor's worried expression turned to one of suppressed rage. "Why must everyone glorify battle so much?"

She turned toward the forest clearing to survey their makeshift army one last time.

True to her word, Korcal had come to Domicallia with most of the adult Fairies in tow. Lapis stood among the small band of Dwarves from Gummaka, conjuring a stream of water for the thirsty warriors around her. Though he had watched all day, Willow had seen no sign of Lazuli among the masses. A large crowd of elves stood in straight rows in the center of the clearing, some staring in disdain at the shabby uniforms and relaxed training of the other races. The Alder had not come to the battlefield but he had offered Lor all of Copillico's services for the care of the wounded and captured. Though it had taken Lor and Willow a full four days to convince first the Lord and then the people of Yarthel to put aside their differences, a throng of humans headed by the Lord himself now formed the largest group of all in one corner of the clearing. The human soldiers gawked at their strange allies, far too curious to remember their old prejudices.

Lor sighed. "The cities of Lavardia must be quiet today," she muttered.

"Not one," Willow reminded her, motioning in the direction of Domicallia.

Lor nodded but made no reply. Willow could tell that there was something she wanted to tell him, but by now he knew that it would be best to wait and let her answer in her own time.

"Willow." She turned back to face him, reached behind her neck and undid the clasp of her necklace. She reached for his hand and placed the silver chain in his cupped palm. Willow stared in amazement.

"You keep it," she grunted.

"But Mandy gave this to you, it should be yours."

"She only gave it to me because it was her duty. It's not like it was a special present or anything."

"But-"

"Look, I'm never going back there, all right? You can keep it to remember the first time we met or something but just hang on to it because you may want to go back someday, and when you do, you'll have to go on you own."

Willow shrugged, not wanting to argue.

"Uh…can you help-?"

Lor took one end of the necklace in each hand and took a step forward so she could clasp it around his neck. Her fingers brushed against his skin as she did it. They felt as cold as ice, though Willow was not sure if she was cold or he was boiling. Lor noticed it as well, and she tugged at his shoulder so that their eyes met. Her brow creased with worry.

"Are you sure you're all right? Maybe you should stay here-"

"What! And miss the attack?" Willow pulled away from her and reached for the hilt of his sword. "After all the torture I went though at school, do you really think I'm going to miss what could be the only battle in my lifetime?"

Lor gritted her teeth. "It's a battle…no one's going to notice if you sit out."

"I said no, Lor."

Willow was ready to argue himself hoarse, but his sister did not press the matter further.

"All right then, get ready. It's almost noon."

As Willow tightened the straps of his boots, a familiar Fairy bounded out of the crowd toward him.

"Hey Willow. Beautiful day for a battle!"

"How are you going in Jo?" Willow asked. He had not seen Jo for several days, not since Lor had sent him to ask his friend to spy on Reyner.

"I'll help the elves first and come down to fight as a Fairy later," he said. "Side by side, right?"

Willow chuckled. "Sure."

"Excuse me but we don't have much time," Lor shot at them. Blood rushed to Jo's face.

"Sorry Lor, I'm just excited for-"

"You and every other fool," she muttered, casting a dark glance at Willow.

A smile twitched at the corner of Jo's mouth. "Well, Korcal told me to tell you that she thinks you ought to say a few words to the warriors before we leave."

"What? Me? Now?"

Jo chuckled. "Yep, yes, and when else? Come on."

Willow followed his sister toward a boulder on the edge of the clearing, fighting off a wave of dizziness. Jo offered Lor a hand to help her up but she slapped it away.

He rolled his eyes and Willow struggled not to laugh.

It took several minutes for everyone to notice her, but for once, Lor was patient. She stood atop the rock with her head bowed and her hands on her hips, collecting her thoughts, and then looked up at the sea of warriors before her.

"Well, this is it." Dead silence in the clearing. Lor winced at her choice of opening words. "Ah…"

They all waited as though they had come for her, not for the battle to follow.

"I – I find it a little odd," Lor began, "that at the end of the Great War, when the Fairies, Dwarves and Elves united to defeat the humans, people called it a 'union of the races.' I mean, they were only three races ganging up on another one. So maybe Reyner has done something good after all… Over there is a city of warriors from every race and over here is an army of the same, and though we may go into battle against our brothers and sisters, at the same time the people of Earth have never been more united than they are right now. I know that after this battle many of us will go back to our lives as though nothing has changed, but I hope that you will always remember today so that we really can live in peace after this. May Earth protect us all."

Murmurs of mild approval ran through the crowd, but Lor did not leave them time to think over her words before she leapt from the boulder and pulled Willow to the head of the crowd. Slowly, the entire mass of warriors began to move through the forest toward Domicallia.

As the trees fell away, exposing the massive wall up ahead, Willow held his head high and tried to ignore the last look of concern that Lor cast in his direction. When the time came to go their separate ways, Willow caught Lor's hand.

"May Earth protect you," he whispered, praying that the good Planet could hear him.

"And you." Lor's cool grip tightened before she released his fingers, leading her half of the army around to the back of the fort.

Once they set foot on the bare soil, a hush fell over the crowd, making it easier for Willow to guide his half around the edge of the clearing to surround the fort. The guards high above on the wall soon alerted Domicallia to the threat and released a volley of arrows. One struck a Fairy, another a Human, and Willow wasted no time ordering the few warriors who had not noticed their fallen comrades to retreat to the tree line where they would be out of firing range.

"Raise the flags!" he called. Banner bearers rushed forward to wave the white flags of armistice, and at once, the arrows ceased to fall from the sky. Shouts of confusion echoed through the forest as Union soldiers of Domicallia rushed to their posts atop the wall. Far sooner than Willow had expected, a white flag appeared over the edge of the wall and a single figure appeared, dark against Sun's glare. Willow took a few steps forward, taking care to remain out of firing range.

"Who are you and why have you come to disturb the peace at Domicallia?" called the figure on the wall.

"We are warriors of Earth's army," Willow replied, raising his voice as much as he could. "We have received first-hand reports of the cruelty of the Union and your plans for the people of Yarthel, and we have come to stop you. If you surrender now, we shall do everything in our power to satisfy every member of you organization, but if you insist upon it, we shall fight to the last warrior."

The figure disappeared and a hush fell over the clearing and the fort as both armies waited for a reply. The response was swift, another volley of arrows from the wall. Willow turned and ran out of range, darting back and forth to make his back a more difficult target until he remembered that the arrows could not reach him. Feeling his face grow rather hotter than usual, he straightened his path.

"Fire! Fire NOW!" He called as he joined his half of the army. Jo, standing nearby, heard the order, changed into an elf, and shot off through the crowd toward the nearest tree, shouting "Fire!" at the top of his lungs as he went. Soon the warriors took up the call, and while flying fairies summoned birds and elves scaled the trees on the edge of the forest, the clearing reverberated with chants of "Fire! Fire! Fire!"

Once they had climbed to the upper branches, the elves readied their bows and lit the cloth-wrapped ends of their arrows on fire. When they were ready, two fairies picked up one elf and lifted them up in the hair, higher than the arrows of the enemy could reach, and hovered before the walls of the fort. One by one, the elves loosed their arrows. Some of the flames burned out in the air, some hit and fell, some lodged in the wood and burned themselves out, but many stuck fast and ignited the wall.

At first the Union warriors were unaware of what had happened. They fired their arrows upwards at the elves and fairies, and once they realized that they were out of reach, returned to shooting at the boldly advancing crowd below. Still, few of the arrows struck true. Two more soldiers were killed and five injured before the men on the wall saw their impending predicament and rushed towards the ladders. The wall was deserted in minutes, and in less than half an hour, the whole thing was ablaze.

Upon the return of the flying fairies and their elves, the warriors grew rowdy with excitement for the success of the plan, but Willow ordered everyone to rest. They would not cross the wall until it had burned to the ground, which could take hours, and they would need their strength for the true battle that would follow. Leaving the Lord of Yarthel in charge, he strolled to the other side of the fort to check on Lor.

They had lost three warriors when the birds could no longer hold on to the fairies and their burden, seven were injured, and an elvish archer had hit one of the sentries on the wall. Lor relayed this last piece of news with no trace of satisfaction in her voice. Willow knew that despite her call for action, she had no desire to be responsible for so many lives, and she had designed her plan around her wish to kill as few warriors as possible.

For the umpteenth time that day, Lor appraised Willow with a worried eye, but before she could say anything, he groaned.

"Lor, I know what you're thinking and for the last time, I'm fine!" He turned and stomped back to his side of the fort, half-disappointed when she did not follow.

Willow passed the next few hours with Jo, playing cards and discussing Jo's brief charade as a member of the Union, all the while fighting a fog of drowsiness that threatened to envelop him. The wood in the wall was old and dry, so it burned much faster than anyone had expected. Sun set behind the trees, and by eleven, all that remained were ashes and blackened logs. Willow allowed two hours for the coals to settle before he roused the warriors, yelling encouragement as he went.

"All that's left between us and those buildings is a field." Everyone whooped and cheered with nervous anticipation. "Ready your weapons and remember the reward offered for captives: the equivalent of seven gold bits for every warrior brought in alive. Warriors in front keep your shields up, and Dwarves stay on the edge of the ashes and stop anyone from escaping."

Willow took his place next to Jo, drew his sword and waited. Though the night air was warm from the massive fire, a shiver crept up his spine and his blood throbbed in his temples. He gritted his teeth and ignored it.

Six horns blew around the fort and the army of Earth roared "Fire!" before they charged forward.

The crowd swept Willow along, through the pile of trampled ashes and coals, across the field and the strip of packed dirt into the cluster of cabins. The first of the Union's guards lay dead on the ground and everyone who saw them forgot about the reward. Willow separated from the group so that he could handle his sword without hurting a friend and fought as hard as he could. He tried to let the men he clashed with live, but one by one, they fell dead under his blade.

Someone seized his shoulder from behind and pressed the end of a knife to his throat, but the hand went limp a second later and the knife fell to the ground. Willow turned in time to see Hemlock, his old enemy, push the dead body off his sword.

"Not so useless anymore, are you?" Hemlock said with a grudging nod of his head, before returning to the world of battle. Willow did not hear him.

He stared at the face of the man who had tried to kill him. It was Kaolin, the dwarf who showed him to the common during his short stay in the Union. Willow felt his knees weaken and give way. His sword clattered to the ground as he landed on all fours at Kaolin's side and threw up. When he had stopped retching, he reached over and closed the dwarf's eyes with his trembling thumb. Willow hauled himself to his feet but he found that his sword was ten times heavier than when the battle had begun, so he discarded it and began to stumble along the alleys in search of Lor.

Most of the fighting had ended already and many of his fellow warriors had left the battlefield with captives and wounded comrades. Willow wandered among the buildings, leaning against the walls of the cabins for support as his strength ebbed away. Suddenly exhausted, he tripped over a body near the common in the middle of the cabins and surrendered to darkness.

~~~

He woke when a pair of hands rolled him onto his back, trying to find out if he was dead or alive.

"Willow?" Lor whispered. Her cool fingers brushed the hair away from his burning face and it was only with tremendous effort that he managed to open his eyes a crack. She sighed with relief to see that there was still life in his body.

Lor's eyes widened at the hiss of a sword being drawn behind her. She snatched her own sword from the ground at her side and spun around. It was Reyner.

A bark of mirthless laughter burst from his lips.

"I just realized that this will be the third time I've tried to kill you, and as they say, third time's the charm."

He swung his sword at her but she jumped up out of the way and lashed back, drawing him away from Willow. Reyner lunged forward and went for her head but she held up her sword and blocked his just in time. He pushed against her, trying to back her up to the wall of a cabin so that he could stab her. Realizing what he was trying to do, she pulled her foot up and kicked him in the stomach. He fell away for a moment, doubling with pain, but jumped back up and went for her head again. She ducked out of the way.

Willow's body ached as he pulled himself to his knees against the wall, wishing that he had not abandoned his sword.

Reyner was stronger than Lor and she knew it. Abandoning her no-killing rule, she swung at his waist. He held his sword down to block it before reaching over with his left hand and punching her. She fell to the ground and rolled away from his next strike just a split second too late. His blade sliced her left arm and she cried out in shock, swinging her sword up at him, but he stepped back, laughing. She tried to stand up and in the split second that she was unbalanced, he swung his sword and caught her in the back. Lor gasped in pain and fell back down. She tried to push herself up again but Reyner kicked her onto her back.

"Reyner triumphs," he said, raising his sword.

Panic surged through Willow's veins. "NO!" he cried.

Reyner brought the sword down with all the strength he had left and threw his whole weight on it. Lor shuddered as the blade ran though her stomach and into the ground beneath. Only the hilt showed above her body and she lay still.

"No." The panic vanished like a wisp of smoke, leaving only weakness in its place. Willow turned his eyes away from Lor and retched again. Reyner strode across the common until he stood over Willow, his face a mask of pure hatred.

"What do you say I put you out of your misery?" He picked up a sword from a nearby dead elf, raised it above his head, and Willow bowed down to receive the blow. Then he heard the sound of a bowstring tightening and glanced up.

Jo stood there, with his arrow pointed straight at Reyner's head. Reyner turned to face him, and before his eyes, Jo transformed into Lor, dripping blood from her arm, her back, and her stomach.

"For Lor," she whispered, her voice cracking. Reyner paled and Lor loosed the arrow straight into his eye. Reyner's body twitched, went limp and fell into the mud.
Jo changed back into his standard Fairy, sank to the ground against the wall of the building, and buried his head in his hands.

Willow looked back at Lor, now covered in her own blood, and passed out.

~~~

He was somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness. He crawled, dragged himself through the bloody mud across the common to Lor's side. He reached for the hilt of the sword and prepared to pull it out but he had no strength left. His stomach heaved but there was nothing left in it to come back up. His head sank to the ground.

As Willow's eyes roved over the devastation in the common, he noticed hundreds of tiny blue, white, and green lights floating in the air nearby. They gathered around him and Lor and began to circle them, forming long bright streaks of light as they picked up speed, flying faster and faster until they all blurred together in one great, glowing sphere. Willow felt his body rise above the ground and the sphere pinched in the middle, splitting into two smaller orbs, the other floating a few feet away and carrying Lor's body with it.

Higher and higher they rose, above the fort, the Everwood, Lavardia, the ocean, and then the world. Willow was able to see all of Earth at once now but the orbs carried him still farther away until the planet shrank to the size of his fist. When at last they stopped, Willow lifted his heavy head and looked around to make sure that the sphere carrying Lor was still beside him before turning back to the world.

A strange blue mist was forming around the planet, not dense enough to block out the stars, just enough to be noticed. It swirled into the rough shape of a woman with the world visible where the heart would have been.

It was Earth. She gave him a shy smile, more a feeling than a feature.

"Hello Willow."

She stepped forward so that she stood just outside his sphere, staring at him. She cocked her head to the side to look at Lor and Willow followed her gaze. Lor was still dead, pierced through by Reyner's sword and soaked in her own blood. A tear rolled down Willow's cheek, then another, and soon he could not control the sobs that racked his body.

Earth watched him for a while before she knelt down, reached through the wall of light into the sphere, and placed her hand on his head. Through the muddled mixture of pain and loss, Willow found enough thought to marvel at the soft touch of her vapor hand.

All traces of shyness gone, Earth stroked Willow's hair and back until he was calm again. Though they had never met before and Willow had sometimes doubted Earth's very existence as a being, her touch was even more warm and familiar than Lor's had been. Willow realized that this must be what it felt like to have a mother.

"There is nothing wrong with crying," she told him softly. "If we did not cry then we would not be people."

Willow lay there, a thousand thoughts moving like slugs though his mind. "I hate Reyner," he rasped. "He's evil."

"No one is completely evil, not even Core himself," Earth said.

"I wish Lor weren't dead."

"Is she dead?"

Willow looked over towards Lor's glowing sphere. The sword eased itself out of her body and drifted away, then the blood dried up and vanished while her wounds closed, leaving hideous scars. Silver thread appeared out of thin air, mending the rips in her shirt. Lor drifted up into a standing position. Her head rolled, then the muscles in her neck twitched and her head was straight. Her eyes opened for a moment to meet Willow's and she smiled before her eyelids slid shut again.

"Lor!"

As Willow watched, beginning at her feet and working up her body, she began to turn into smoke and drift away. Earth shifted nervously, but she regained her composure and turned back to Willow.

"She will live forever in your memory…and remember that stories are immortal. Even the forgotten ones live on."

"No," whispered Willow.

Lor's shoulders disappeared, then her neck, and then in one last swirl of smoke, she was gone. Willow threw himself at the edge of the sphere, pounding his fists on the wall of light, but it was as solid as stone. He sank to his knees in despair.

Then the sphere filled with a light wind and Lor's voice echoed back to him from somewhere in the recent past.

"Look, I'm never going back there, all right? …You may want to go back someday, and when you do, you'll have to go on you own."

"A casual statement that we can interpret two ways," Earth murmured. "Willow, Lor's story is over for now. Like you told the woman in the farmer's hamlet, you hold your fate in your own hands, whether you live or die, give up or go on."

"I want to live," croaked Willow. "But Lor was my family."

"It is hard to say good bye…but you must now face the world on your own. I will watch over you always, Willow."

Earth disappeared and Willow began to drift back towards the planet. He had to go on now. He knew that he had to choose his own course and that no matter what lay ahead, he would live with the consequences.

"Good bye."

________

Sit tight, folks. It's not over yet...