Skye is dead.
How she perished is a mystery. All she knows is that she is trapped in After, a makeshift city of souls surrounded by infinite darkness and terrifying monsters that tear ghosts apart.
But while all other ghosts accept the eternity of...
I followed Nannāru through what remained of my home. After had become an unrecognizable place. Even Blackburne's palace lay in pieces, the lux dome shattered into ruby shards that people filched. Dazed and shell-shocked ghosts sifted through ruins in search of loved ones. I stopped in my tracks when I realized where the crow had led me.
My friends and I stood in the main square. Blackburne's statue had fallen, finally freeing the giant shadow of the king's blade. The hundreds of surviving members of Crow's flock gathered on the remains of the statue, covering it like a shivering black funeral shroud. None of them made a sound.
Nannāru squawked to herself as she hovered about the rubble in search of something. Finally, she settled on a heap of metal near where the slain knight lay and cawed just once. And that's where we dug.
Orville heaved aside the heaviest bit of rubble, and beneath it was where we found our friend.
A dust-covered Crow coughed from where he lay on his back. "Took you long enough," he rasped while we gathered around him.
"Crow!" I exclaimed. Then my hope vanished like a dead ghost.
Spirals of ice crawled up the surrounding rubble like vines. The man we gathered around shivered, and his skin had a bluish tinge to it. Crow kept his broken body covered beneath his sun-covered shawl like a blanket.
"Hold on, brother," Orville said to him. "We'll git yew right again."
"And we'll find your shadow," I said.
Many pairs of hands covered Crow, trying to hold him together, but the man shoved us away with his remaining arm. "Stop. Stop it," he growled. "Leave me be, you pests."
Nannāru hopped down from a piece of exposed rebar and roosted beside her ailing friend. I didn't bother to pull my hands away from Crow, no matter how much the coldness stung.
"Let us help you, mate," Vale told him.
Crow just laughed weakly. "You already are. I was waiting for you. There is not a better way to die than amongst friends. This time, I am without pain and fear. And I am free of...Ehm..." He lifted what remained of his left arm beneath his shawl. He was free of his brand. He settled back down among the debris and coughed again.
"Die? You can't die," Webb said. His voice cracked. "You're a king. We need you. Who's going to lead After without you?"
"Ha...You all know After would never accept a creature like me. I have already played king," the exhausted ghost said. "I want this. I am tired and I have lived long enough. I want to rest with my people now." His scarred eyes flashed beneath his hair. "If you ever find my shadow, let that miserable thing rest, too."
"Crow..." I said. Then I choked up, and I had to wipe away tears. I pulled the winged spear over to me and offered it to him. "Take this," I told him. "It's your spear."
"You keep it. Remember me and Aḫ-ḫur that way. This, however," Crow said, raising his remaining arm to show us his woven lux bracelet. "I am taking this with me."
Orville laid a hand on his old friend, his face a red blubbering mess.
The dying ghost breathed a laugh and comforted his friend. Then he said to the rest of us, "So, my friends. The behemoth is vanquished, and the sun is in the sky again. How does it look?"
I looked upon After, the makeshift city of souls that had become my home. The skyscrapers gleamed in the sunlight like black diamonds. Below in the streets, the people helped each other rebuild. All the monsters were gone, save for one. I smiled up at the crystal in the sky. Did you see all that, Albrecht?
A vein of lightning crackled across the sky.
You were chosen, Skye. And I have plans for you. You and the two others.
I looked back and forth to the two ghosts at either side of me-the two other ghosts who were with me when I first awoke the sun.
Albrecht hadn't been talking about Blackburne and Crow.
He meant Webb and Vale.
They caught me gawking at them, and my face reddened. The three of us touched our heads together, smiling and drinking in the sight of the rejuvenated city beneath an eternal dawn. I described everything I saw and felt, and recounted to Crow of Blackburne's fate which Crow cackled weakly at. "It's so beautiful, Tamzi," I finished telling the ghost we gathered around.
Tamzi exhaled a contented sigh. "I am happy to hear that." He said nothing else. Still smiling softly, he shut his star-filled eyes as if he'd fallen asleep. His body withered into ashes, and a sigh of wind carried all that remained of the king of storms away from After.
There was a rustling whisper of feathers as his flock of crows took wing as one, escorting their friend one last time over the wall and across the desert.
Only Nannāru remained, and she hopped up on my shoulder, looking perfectly content where she was. I ran my fingers through her feathers, feeling for the first time just how soft she was. She pecked me in the face. I felt that, too.
The last of the flock disappeared beyond the horizon.
And, at peace, I smiled through my tears.
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I'm coming home, I'm coming home Tell the world I'm coming home Let the rain wash away All the pain of yesterday I know my kingdom awaits And they've forgiven my mistakes I'm coming home, I'm coming home Tell the world I'm coming
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