It was a month later that Leora Deutschland came to call, with Lady Meliana at her side. Kasumi opened the door when they rang.

    “How is she?” Meliana asked. “Aquila, I mean.”

    “She’s starting to have more good days than bad,” Kasumi said. “And she doesn’t hate herself like she once did. She’s still got a lot of guilt to work through, though – I don’t think that will ever go away. But she’s sad instead of angry about it now, and she’s...she’s starting to like herself.”

    “Wonderful,” Meliana said. “You’ve got this house for as long as you need it, you know that, right?”

    Kasumi nodded. “And we’re very grateful for that.”

    “Is this a good day?” Leora asked.

    Kasumi nodded again.

    “Lovely,” Leora said. “This is important.”

    Kasumi led them into the living room where Natsuki and Darius were pouring over a lock, Selena staring at them.

    “We’re going to need to call Harry for help,” Natsuki said. “This one’s beating us.”

    “If we call Harry for help, he’s going to laugh at us,” Darius stated. “I’ve got a better idea. We get a new book, a more advanced book, and then if we can’t figure this one out, we call Harry and let him laugh at us.”

    “This is seriously what you’ve been doing with my boyfriend?” Selena said, shaking her head. “And here I thought I needed to worry.”

    “It’s fun!” Darius declared. “Besides, my magic is fading. Maybe locksmithing would be a good career option for me.”

    “More of Aquila’s miracle?” Leora asked.

    Kasumi shook her head. “Balthazar’s miracle. If he wanted to recruit people to help burn down the story worlds, there would have been no shortage of villains and psychopaths willing to join him. But he didn’t try to recruit them. He only recruited heroes – people of good conscience who would do whatever it takes to make things right once the war was over. And so, no hard feelings.” She blinked. “You parked on the street, right? Matt and Yuri are helping Atria and Prometheus move into their new house later today, and they need to be able to get out of the driveway.”

    “We’re on the street,” Meliana said.

    “Good,” Kasumi said. “Aquila’s resting in the study.”

    She led them into the study. The shelves were still mostly bare, but a smattering of books had begun to populate them. Aquila looked up from the book she was reading. “Hello! Come to visit?”

    “On business, actually,” Leora said. “I’ve started compiling a record of the war. It’s an oral history, getting everybody’s account of what happened. I interviewed Balthazar yesterday.”

    “That’s a good idea,” Aquila mused. “How is Balthazar, anyway?”

    “Settling into his new home at his creator’s parents’ house,” Leora replied. “And, he’s agreed to join the program and help return any of our kind who fall out of the information stream and want to go home. He’s decided he’s going to do as much as he can to make things right.”

    Aquila nodded. “Good. I knew he would. Anyway, I wish you luck on your project. Who are you here to interview? Matt, Natsuki? I’m sure they’d be willing.”

    Leora shook her head. “You.”

    Aquila scoffed. “Why would you want to interview me? I didn’t do anything other than run and get myself shot.”

    “I told you,” Meliana said to Leora. “She can’t see it.”

    “See what?” Aquila asked.

    Leora blinked and stared at Aquila. “How can you not see it? How can you not know what you are?”

    “I’m nothing important,” Aquila said. “I was just a refugee in the end.”

    “You found yourself in the middle of a war,” Leora said. “And you did everything you could to get the people under your care to safety. When one of them fell into the heart of that war, rather than leave her behind you followed to rescue her. Then, you tried to negotiate a peace, and got shot. And then, despite barely being able to stand, you walked into the middle of the final battle and ended the war, saving everybody on both sides. There’s only one word for somebody like that.”

    Aquila grinned. “An idiot?”

    “A hero,” Leora stated.

    Aquila blinked. “I’m not a hero. Nobody who has done the things I’ve done could ever be called a hero.”

    “Yes,” Leora retorted. “You are a hero. There were no casualties in the final battle. Everybody lived! In how many of the wars between creations that you told us you’d seen has that happened?”

    Aquila stared at her. “None.”

    “And we didn’t save this world, and all of the story worlds attached to it,” Leora added, a tear rolling down her cheek. “We were helpless to do that. The one who saved them was you! Every single person in this entire galaxy of creators and story worlds is alive because of you! Whatever you might have once been, you have become a hero now. Anybody who meets you can see it. It’s time that you did too.”

    Kasumi blinked and looked at the doorway. The others – Matt and Yuri, Natsuki, Darius and Selena, and Sayori and Yukari – had all crowded just outside, watching and listening.

    Leora leaned forward. “We would know the story of the hero who saved us. The bad, the good, all of it.”

    Aquila looked up at Kasumi. Kasumi just put her hand on Aquila’s shoulder and nodded. Leora put a voice recorder on the table and pressed the ‘record’ button.

    Aquila took a deep breath, and started from the beginning.

NEXT: “Epilogue”