WAR STORM (Red Queen 4// Alternate Version)

Epilogue 4

Mare

Far below,  the glittering lights of an unknown city twinkle in the night like stars. From the looks of it, the city is fairly big, spread out for miles with a center that's particularly dense with orange and yellow lights. I even make out a river alongside the center, oddly shaped with plenty of miniature waterways branching out from it, like the roots of a tree. 

The pane of glass on the airplane is cold beneath my hands, my nose almost pressing against it as I peer outside, into the darkness. A mirror, the actual stars are above us, sparkling proudly on the cloudless night.

"Sharilut, I would guess," Julian says across from me, watching as I look down thousands of feet. "We're close to the ocean, now. It shouldn't be more than half an hour."

Sharilut. I don't recall noting it in the geography texts I've read, despite how large it appears to be. It must be directly north of Savannus, maybe by two-hundred miles or so. "Hmm," is all that is said by me.

I have to blink back the tiredness, will my heavy eyelids to stay open for the night sky. Farley and I left my apartment about an hour after she initially arrived, telling me nothing about where I was going or what for, though it wasn't difficult to guess either. There are few reasons why anybody would come to my apartment and tell me I had to go somewhere. Cal hasn't had a funeral yet, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I guessed why. They've made ash out of him, and now we're heading south. To the ocean. 

Before he died, Cal told me he wanted to go and live by the ocean, to at last conquer his fear of the water. 

I swallow back the thought, once again leaning into the electricity of the plane, careful not to touch it. 

In the apartment, while Farley waited for me to pack my minimal belongings, taking my precious time to do so, we spoke. She apologized to me, showing off her manacle that she now constantly dons. She was mad, she told me. Insane with voices in her head, and she snapped. The Silence did her good, and she doesn't dare remove it now. Soon, I'll make certain to take her back to Julian. 

She mentioned what happened with Jon, as well, but I didn't ask her any further about it. I don't need to know what that sick man told her or why he killed himself. 

She only told me, that someday, should I desire to know of the lost futures Jon narrated, she would tell me. 

Farley took me to the airbase in a transport, where Iris, Bart, Julian, and much to my dismay, Maven, waited. Soon after, she left, catching a flight of her own to Montfort. To Clara. I'm happy for her. I have no doubt in my mind that Farley will get better, be the mother that Clara deserves. 

Across the aisle from me and Julian, Bart and Iris sit in reflective silence, the both of them looking out the tiny plane windows. And somewhere further back in the plane, Maven sits. Alone. 

Those letters... 

Instead of thinking about them, I turn to Julian. "Before he died," I breathe out, "he told me that he still loved you, didn't care that you sided with us. He wanted you to know that."

Julian's lips pinch into a tight line. It's as though he wanted to ask the question the whole time, but hadn't worked up the nerve. "Thank you."

^^^^^^^^^^

When we land and file out of the airplane, taking our small packs, the warm, balmy air hits me in the pores of my face, sultry but soothing. The night heat reminds me so vividly of last summer, the long nights spent awake with Cal.

The lights lining the tarmac are the only source of light besides for the stars, illuminating the black landing pad and the yellow line that cleaves it in half.