Skyrun

Epilogue; The adventurer in the soul.

Months passed, and even if all that time Liam felt as if it was too short to talk of all of his adventures, while in the same instant learning what had happened to his family.

So much had changed in both the Citadel and in the city of  Maufaria and Liam listened with rapt interest as both his father and mother told him of his cousins Archer and Pip's return to the surface world from the depths of the Abyss as though they had just risen from the dead.

Yet once their stories had been told, it was Liam's turn to speak, his mind whirling with memories that spilled from his lips like ink onto paper.

And with that, he began to recount his tale.

Tophsy, Spyglass, Margaery, Sinclair, Ezra, Raven, Coin, Burn, and above all, Valentine-- he spoke of them all, though some more fondly than others. And yet no matter for how many hours he told his tales, his family would always ask for more, their eyes wide as he spoke of the metal sky serpent, the Red Thorn, and his worries upon the ship that they had all been dead.

Elizabeth, though clearly shaken by his revelations that he thought she had been dead, recounted to him the events of the autumn festival that day, saying that the wolf broach was popular in design and that lots of girls had been wearing them. She herself had thrown her's aside when the first warning cries within the town had sounded, thinking it better not to be wearing anything of value.

That decision, it seemed, had saved her life.

The story sickened Liam; both with guilt that he had accused Valentine of murdering his sister, and the thought that even though a girl had still died he was relieved he had not known her. Nevertheless, for many nights his guilt haunted him and on more than one occasion Valentine's lifeless face appeared before his eyes in his dreams. Yet still he told her story, recalling every detail of his adventures and the things he had seen, the friends he had made and lost, the wonder they had shared, the love he had found.

"So you kissed the pirate captain, then?" Phillip asked one evening as they sat before the fire like so many nights before.

Liam nodded.

"I bet you weren't any good at it."

"That's probably how he got the scar on his face." Brem said gravely, while Bram nodded in agreement. "He kissed her, then she cut him."

Snorting, Elizabeth spoke up then, "Would you shut up? I want to hear about the island full of ghosts again." And with that, they all turned expectantly to Liam once more, their eyes shining with delight at the stories and maybe, just maybe, at the fact that he was home once more.

                                 ..........................................

'Dearest Liam, blimey it feels like ages since I've written to you. I suppose you assumed I was dead, or at least trapped in the bottom of the Abyss with Pip and Cogs-- which DID happen to be the case, as it turns out. 

By the gods, you won't believe the tales I'll tell you when I visit though I must confess my coming has a another motive as well. My cousin, Pip-- you remember her, don't you? The one with the hair that looks as though two hedgehogs were wrestling about in it?-- in any case, Pip had heard the stories of your adventures amongst the pirates when your previous letter arrived. Blimey, she read it over and over till I was certain she would forget to eat. But what I'm getting at, Liam, is that I have a favor to ask of you and shall speak to you soon of it. Hopefully.'

Sincerely, your cousin who is decidedly NOT DEAD, Archer Bram.

Looking up from the letter once more, Liam felt a smile tug at his lips as the unspoken request of Archer's letter hung in his mind.