259 Chapter 259 The End

"Frederik, the newest baby is healthy," said Aella, as she approached the large rock on the cliffside of her home. Running her hands over the worn grooves in the rock, she entertained the idea once more of smoothing it with her earth powers, and discarded the idea just as quickly.

"That's good," he responded in her head. His voice was faint, just as it always was now, but she smiled at the sound of it.

Sitting in the groove she had formed over the years; she pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her head on them. Her heels fit perfectly into the grooves she had made, but she didn't notice anymore.

"How's Aadya?" he asked.

"She's not talking to me anymore," whispered Aella, a tear dripping down her cheek.

"She's tired Aella. It's been over a hundred years since I saw her last," chided Frederik. "Gargoyles aren't supposed to live that long."

"She still won't take the rune so I can talk to her later," said Aella, ignoring his words. He was right, but she refused to accept them.

"Still stubborn. Just like her mother," chuckled Frederik.

"I miss you," she said to the wind.

"I know. I miss you, too. Have you made yourself known to the parents? What is this one, the ninth great?"

"Tenth, I think. I'm not sure."

"Well, have you?"

"No. I probably won't either. They know I'm there sometimes, but I don't talk to them. I might get attached."

"Aella, you can't go through eternity alone," sighed Frederik.

"I am alone," she said.

"Have you talked with Firion at least?"

"I sparred with him last week. He's gotten so good, it's scary. Whatever Joseph's kids told him so long ago, he's really taken it and run with it. But he's not the same since his daughter died. I don't think he even bothers to check up on his descendants. He just runs the assassins from the shadows and keeps the major criminals in check."

"I can understand that. You should go see Aadya and tell her it's ok. She can come to me. I miss her too, you know."

"But… once she's gone, I really will be alone."

"No, you have the hydra, and the tree."

"The hydra is a perpetual child, and the tree is busy with Precious running the realm. I don't really have much to do, other than redirecting volcanoes and releasing pressure to prevent earthquakes. Even the Fairy Queen doesn't talk to me anymore."

"I thought you taught her ninjas how to make cookies?"

"They figured it out by watching the cooks in your castle."

"That hasn't been my castle in a very long time," he chuckled. "You should go see Bob. He's back now, isn't he?"

"Yeah, I've been afraid to see him since he came back. What if he still says I owe him things?"

"That would at least give you something to focus on rather than being alone?" said Frederik gently. "Besides, you sound like you could use a drink."

"Alright. I'll talk to you tomorrow," she whispered, wiping her eyes and standing up.

"I know," he said, his voice fading as the moon set.

She teleported to the entrance to Bob's bar. The only one in the entire realm was the one she had made during the creation of this city. It had been reserved for when Bob could come back.

Glancing around to make sure no one was around to see her; she tentatively released her invisibility for the first time in decades and stepped through the doorway.

"Aella! So good to see you! Come have a seat!" said Bob cheerfully, setting a glass down in front of her. "I'm glad you listened to Frederik and finally came to see me! I've missed you!"

"Really?" she asked softly, sitting down.

"You've lost your edge," he chided, shaking his head.

"What?" she asked, furrowing her brow.

"I'm not talking about fighting skill," he said, tilting his head to the side. "I'm talking about your social skills. You need to talk to more people."

"They die."

He laughed. "I know that all too well."

"How do you deal with it?" she asked, finally noticing that he didn't look a day older than the first time she had met him.

"It's hard," he said seriously. "But I enjoy the time I have with people and don't forget the good times."

"I miss Frederik, and Aadya is about to die. She's so weak, I have to heal her every day."

"Why? Does she ask you to?" he asked curiously.

"No, in fact, I've had to start doing it when she's sleeping so she doesn't yell at me. Her nurses think she's lost her mind and try their best to calm her, but we both know it's not her mind."

"You should let her go before she starts to hate you. If she's in constant pain from the very act of living, then why keep her alive?"

"She listens to me when I talk to her," said Aella, staring at her drink. "And she refuses to take a rune so I can talk to her once she's…"

"Yet you talk to Frederik," said Bob.

"I know. Everyone I know is dead, except Firion, you, and the tree. Precious died when he became the realm, and the hydras don't count."

"You are welcome to come visit me whenever you want, or you can go to sleep when there is no need for you?" suggested Bob. "There's a lot of realm guardians who do that."

"But I don't want to be a realm guardian! I'm the King of the Realm!" she insisted, slapping her hand on the counter.

"I don't see you being very kingly, hiding in the shadows and watching people from afar. You haven't had new runes placed on any of the leaders of the various kingdoms in years, and other than your daughter, you don't really visit anyone. You need to let Frederik rest and find someone new."

"But how?" she whispered. "I don't know that I can stand to watch someone else I love die."

Bob was silent for a moment as he cleaned his glass.

"I have lots of friends. All over the place in many different realms. I know when some stop visiting that they have died, and it saddens me, but I have so many other friends, I am able to move on and continue forward. It doesn't stop me from doing what I love. I think the lesson you need to learn right now, is how to move on. You did it once, I believe, when your daughter was born."

"I was so confused and angry," nodded Aella. "I basically woke up and boom, there she was. I love her the most, though."

"Sounds like you need to start over," he said, picking up his glass again and setting it on the shelf behind him.

"What do you mean?" she asked, glancing up at him puzzled.

"Are you asking me a question?" he asked with a slow smile. "I charge for those."

A tight coil that had been winding up within her for years started to loosen as she smiled back. "Maybe. What's the price?"

"First, you have to go say good-bye to your daughter," he said with stern look.

Aella's smile disappeared immediately. She glanced back down at her drink, then nodded. Picking it up and throwing it back all at once, she savored the burn it caused going down. She hadn't felt that in a long time!

"I'll be back," she said, standing up and teleporting to her daughter's room.

The frail figure in the bed before her barely resembled the happy child she remembered from so long ago. The look of pain was what really tore at Aella's heart. The nurses had to wrap bandages around her arms and legs to keep the blankets from tearing her skin because of how fragile it was. And they were stained with blood from causing tears themselves.

"Aadya," whispered Aella, feeling the word slip off her tongue. It had been such a long time since she had said it.

"Mother?" said the soft voice. Those beautiful eyes opened, but stared up at the ceiling, blind from old age. Nothing Aella had done could fix them. The cells didn't have any energy left to rebuild themselves.

"I'm here," she said, sitting on the side of the bed and carefully laying her hand on hers.

"Stop healing me," she whispered. "I hate it."

"I know. I'm not here to heal you," said Aella, fighting back the lump in her throat. "I spoke with your dad this morning. He said he misses you and looks forward to seeing you."

"Really?" she asked, her voice was hesitant, like a child being offered a piece of candy she wasn't sure she was going to get, and Aella's heart broke.

"Can you forgive me for being so selfish?" Aella asked, fighting to speak around the stupid lump that just wouldn't go away. She didn't even bother to stop the tears.

"Of course, I can, you silly thing!" scoffed Aadya. "Just because I'm mad at you doesn't mean I don't love you!"

Aella smiled and a broken chuckle that was a half sob slipped out before she could stop it. "Can you tell my parents I love and miss them?" she whispered.

"Why don't you have dad tell them?" she asked, her breath already fainter. Aella hadn't healed her, and it was becoming very obvious her body was giving up.

"Because I know you will get to see them very soon, and he's with them all the time," said Aella, fighting the urge to heal her again for just one more day.

"I will get to see my husband and my children, too," smiled Aadya, her voice growing fainter with each word.

Aella sat with her until her heart stopped and then stood up. She would add another sculpture to her garden. The nurses would come and find her with a smile still on her face. Teleporting back to the rock on the cliffside, she sat on her stone and cried until the sun was low on the horizon. Then, through her red eyes, she created the statue of her daughter, next to the one of Frederik, and her father. Gazing over the various statues of the children she had watched grow and die, she felt a weight lift from her shoulders.

Teleporting back to Bob's bar, she paused to let a young man dart into the bar before her. He looked familiar, but she couldn't place where she had seen him last.

"Bob! I finished that task you wanted me to do!" he grinned, slipping into the chair she was about to sit in.

Aella stopped and had to make sure she wasn't invisible before stepping over to sit in a chair two seats down from the man.

"That's great! And what did you find?" asked Bob, who obviously already knew the answer.

"The King of the Realm was a gargoyle known as Aella!" he answered excitedly. "My uncle in the library is the Great Sage, and he told me all about her! Apparently the first Great Sage Bridgette wrote a book about her!"

Aella listened to his excitement with amusement, taking the drink Bob slid in front of her, she took a sip.

"As your reward, I will give you one drink, but you can't tell anyone, alright? What would people say when they found out I had given the Hero of Light a drink?" confided Bob, mocking horror at the thought while sliding a drink in front of the young man.

"Hero of Light?" blurted Aella. She hadn��t heard that in so long! Alfred had died and his powers had passed on, but she lost track of the actual hero because there had been no need for one.

"Oh! Please don't tell!" pleaded the young man, grabbing her arm and looking at her with such wide eyes Aella couldn't help but nod.

"Alright, but I want to know how you became the hero," she said.

"Well, my dad had been the hero, but he died fighting giant ants, so they came to me. My older brothers were really mad that I got them, but my uncle said the youngest child always gets the powers."

She watched him as he picked up the drink and carefully sipped it, as if it were too hot for him.

"The Hero of Light died to giant ants?" she asked. The last time she had thought about giant ants had been on the old continent. "Are they a threat?"

"No, they were found by explorers on the other continent, where the elves and dwarves live, and dad went to deal with them because they killed all but one of the adventurers. We figured he died because I got his powers."

"I remember fighting giant ants once," said Aella, taking another sip of her drink.

"Really? Could you help me? I think the dwarves are going to ask me to go deal with them again, and I'm really nervous about it."

Bob didn't say anything, having stepped back out of the conversation and was focusing on getting an invisible speck off of one of his mugs.

"I don't know," frowned Aella, wondering if she wanted to get involved in anything again. "My daughter just died and I'm not sure I want to get started on an adventure."

"My uncle would say that an adventure is exactly what you need," said the young man with a knowing nod. "He told my mom that same thing when my dad died. If you don't stay involved in life, it passes you by and you become lonely and sad."

"You know what, that's actually good advice," nodded Aella. "What's your name?"

"Alfred," smiled the man, holding out his hand. "What's yours?"