After getting some much needed respite, Otis looked at the flashes of light and heard the echoing mayhem in the once beautiful town of Arrecigo, which was now but a bright, flaming spot in the horizon. Ludmila joined him while he reflected on the whole situation.

“I don’t understand,” Otis said. “Why did they target this place specifically?”

“They’re probably after Happe’s gunpowder factory,” Lulu replied. “They want to cripple King Sauvage’s arms production.”

“But they were attacking civilians. Destroying their homes.”

“Many of their towns were either taken from them or razed to the ground by Sauvage. This is their way of getting back at him.”

“Guess that makes them even, then.”

“As if. It won’t be the last attack. On either of both sides. We need to get as far from this kingdom as possible.”

“It’s okay. I know a place we can go.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. The kingdom of Drunrøk. It’s far off, and they’re less advanced than us, but they have a nice, small community in the mountains. I read about it in a travel guide. We’ll be safe there.”

Ludmila stayed quiet, looking at him with hesitation. Meanwhile, Sophie approached Otis and pulled on his shirt to grab his attention. Ludmila left to tend to the helm.

“What are we gonna do now, Mr. Otis?” Sophie asked.

“Firstly, we need to get you back to your parents,” Otis replied.

“They don’t even care about me.”

“Of course they do. I know they might go tough on you at times, but I’m sure that, deep down, you mean the world to —...”

At that moment, Otis was interrupted by the sight of Rooster and Cyril’s ferry sailing away in the distance. He stared in disbelief and anger. He held Sophie tighter, so as to keep her from ever realizing how much of a scoundrel and a coward her adoptive father really was. A pointless effort, since she had already seen them five minutes ago.

As midnight fell, Otis found Sophie dozing off on the ship’s deck. He lifted her carefully in his arms while she slept and laid her down in Ludmila’s bed. Then, he covered her with some blankets. Ludmila was standing beneath the door’s mainframe.

“She’s been through a lot,” Otis said to her.

“Yeah, I bet,” Lulu replied.

“I was thinking… maybe it’d be for the best if she came with us. At least until things settle down a bit. Life in the countryside might be a good change of pace for her.”

“Otis, that place you wanna go to… that kingdom. It’s surrounded by land. There’s no access to the sea anywhere near it.”

“I know. We’ll have to do the rest of the trip on foot.”

Ludmila gave him a resentful look.

“We'll figure something out,” Otis said. “Maybe —...”

“No. I’m tired of this,” she said. “All those years ago, you picked your sculpting career over me. Now you’re ditching me to look after this girl you barely even know. Face it, Otis. All I am to you is plan B. And you dare ask me to make sacrifices for you? Where do you get the nerve?”

“I gave up everything to be here. I sold my house. I passed on many more opportunities than I could count. Angered and disappointed a lot of people. Only to come here and see you again. Do you really think I’d have done all that if you were just my plan B?”

“Then why can’t we be together, Otis?”

“Because she needs me more. She’s got no-one else in the world.”

“She’s her family’s responsibility, not yours.”

“As a matter of fact, I saw Rooster and Cyril just now. They were escaping in that ferry of theirs. When did the invasion begin? Forty minutes ago? An hour, maybe? That’s how long they waited before bailing on her to save their own necks.”

“Dear God…”

They stood in front of each other in complete silence for a little while.

“Look, you’re right,” Otis remarked. “It was selfish of me to ask you to leave the sea. We’ll compromise, okay? We can find a place we both find suitable.”

Ludmila sighed, then looked at Sophie. “Listen, Otis,” she said. “It’s not like I have anything against her. She seems like a lovely kid and all. It’s just… I had a tough upbringing too. I’m not ready to form a family. It’s not the life I want.”

“There’s no working this out, is there?”

“I’m afraid not.”

Otis looked down, inconsolable. He felt her slip from his grasp like grains of sand on his fingertips, desperately wanting to stop it, but finding himself powerless to do so. He'd been in this exact place before, and it didn't make it hurt any less. Lulu then grabbed his hand and leaned in closer to him, as they embraced for the final time.

“Go get some rest,” she said. “I’ll drop you off as close as I can. It’s a long trip to where you want to go, so I’ll prepare some supplies for you.”

Otis turned back and headed to his quarters. Right after opening the door, he took one last glance at her.

“Goodbye, Lulu,” Otis said. “Have a nice —...”

“No,” Lulu interrupted. “Don’t say that, you bumbling fool. Just… I don’t care how long it takes — promise me we’ll meet again. Can you at least do that for me? Can you promise that?”

At that moment, Otis knew he was about to commit his biggest sin yet, and that was speaking the next two words without being the least bit certain about whether they were sincere or he was lying through his teeth.

“I promise,” he said.

* * *

The sun shone bright over the Sea Urchin early the next morning. As the ship traversed a river in between two mountains, Sophie sat on the deck with her back against the wooden railing, staring at the floor with tired eyes. Otis came out of the cabin and sat next to her, after which they both stayed quiet for a little while.

“Y’know, I’ve moved out many times in my life,” Otis broke the silence. “Many, many times. And every single one, it was a hassle. You never really get used to it. I once had to leave an apartment I was renting because I found out some wasps had built a super-nest inside the walls. Can you believe that? I could hear their constant buzzing every night. It almost drove me mad! Anyway, I’m thinking it’s as good a time as any to look for somewhere new to stay. I found out about this humble village in the middle of the mountains, far off in the kingdom of Drunrøk. It’s called ‘Brümsgundy’. Seems quite peaceful, so… This could be it. This may be the place where I finally choose to settle in and call it ‘home’. Or it may not be — who knows! It’s an adventure.”

Sophie remained silent, staring at him with intrigue.

“Wanna join me in this adventure?” he asked.

Upon hearing that, she smiled from ear to ear for the first time in years, as she enthusiastically nodded with her head. Then, Otis gently stroked her hair.

Once they made it to land, Otis and Sophie disembarked and prepared for the long journey ahead of them. After days of travel, they finally arrived in the realm of Drunrøk, where they built a cozy cottage together in Brümsgundy Village, along with a treehouse, a life-long dream of Sophie’s.

Back in Arrecigo, the war did eventually come to a halt. Unlike Ludmila had predicted, Lothyen’s attack was their last. Not because a truce had been pacted, but because Salmacia’s retaliation was so brutal that it left the opposing nation no other choice but to accept defeat and become a part of newly-named Emperor Elias Sauvage’s ever-growing domains. In time, the shots ceased, and the troops retreated. Fires were extinguished. Resources were restocked. Buildings were rebuilt. Bodies were retrieved.

Once the incident started to seem like a distant memory to the denizens of Salmacia, there was but one question in their minds. A question that was left unanswered for years. The headlines on the gazettes put it best: ‘What happened to Sophie Happe?’. For months, the town was covered in missing person posters. The kingdom’s darling was searched exhaustively all over, to no avail. Some thought she became a prisoner of war, held captive in a cell somewhere. Most were convinced she was killed during the invasion, but her demise was covered up. As it would later come to light, the attack at the hands of the Lothyen army was made possible after a group of soldiers stole a whole shipment of Rooster’s gunpowder. This led many to believe that Rooster secretly buried her body in his backyard, so that people wouldn’t find out her daughter was shot to death with his own product — which he knew would make him look like a complete fool in the eyes of the entire nation.

There were no missing person posters put up for Marion, though — despite the fact that, mysteriously, her body wasn’t found either. It seemed her adoptive parents were too busy passing each other the blame for her death to notice there was a manhole with its lid open in the exact spot where the fireball hit.

To some extent, the rumors about Sophie Happe’s fateful ending were right. A part of her was to remain in Arrecigo forever. All because of to the gift offered lovingly to her by a sculptor she once met. The gift of a lifetime of quiet.

Thank you, Mr. Otis.

Thanks to you, I am free. Thanks to you, I am now a grown woman, and a sculptor. And I still go by ‘Rags’. The baggage that came with the name ‘Sophie Happe’ is nothing but a memory — one that, I hope, will fade with the passing of the years.

End of Secret Journals, Volume I.