Nocturne

40. Epilogue

"Today, we honor the girl that gave her life for the right to stand alongside humanity as equals."

It was months after the fire in the valley within the city limits of Sacramento, California, that Nolan was standing on a stage alongside many others. He was dressed in a suit and tie, blue, to contrast his muddled skin. Sable was there was well, as was Lily, Marshall, and Hal. They were all dressed in their finest and presenting themselves as valid members of the community, as they finally were. The one thing that linked each of them together now was the deep cracks within their eyes, the pain that had only just begun to dull with time.

Treaties had been signed and discussed, passed along to the Supreme Court and even to the President, who hesitantly agreed to sign them all after his botched agreement with PASCI. Any former subject now had the same rights as any one of their human counterparts: the right to work, to buy a house, to vote, to have children; to live as freely as they'd once dreamed to. PASCI was wiped from the governments database and replaced with a Bureau for Subject Diplomacy. Anyone with remarkable power or abilities could seek asylum within these buildings and find anything they needed to start on a life of their own, starting with a birth certificate.

At the end of it all, Agnes' death really did make a difference. She was a martyr, as was Osiris, and Sergei, and Margo. Áine and Stephen as well, albeit they were valued to a higher degree. Everyone who wasn't up on the stage was out in the crowd, watching with tears running down their eyes as a velvet sheet was pulled from a bronzed statue in the middle of the square. There she was, in all her fiery glory; the statue had been petitioned by the city residents for weeks to be built and finally the papers made it through. Agnes was dressed in her simple attire, nothing more and nothing less than what she would've been wearing on any given day. She was stepping forward, a hand cupping a tiny flame as her face reflected the soft edges and her eyes contained the same love her father had shown for her on his last day of life. They'd almost made the statue of her depicting Agnes protecting a child, her face contorted into determination, but neither Nolan nor Marshall agreed on that. They wanted to show her in her finest moments, the ones where she showed nothing but kindness to those around her.

"Agnes Duvessa Byrnes died ensuring that subjects would have a place on this earth. Without her, they would never have been able to come out from the shadows and live alongside everyone else," the mayor of the city was speaking, their eyes shifting to Nolan, "we have a guest today, someone who fought alongside her and was there on her last day and every day before that. I have asked him to speak so that we might better understand the plight of those like him. Please welcome Nolan Gray."

The crowd erupted into clapping as he took the podium, a set of notecards in his hand that he'd painstakingly written out the night before. In the last second he decided to place them face down just like he knew he would, knowing that he never would've been able to read off of them in the first place. In the back of his mind he could feel a hand gripping his shoulder and fingers tangling in his own, her voice telling him to go on.

"As many of you might know, Agnes was more than just a simple girl," he began, "it was just after her birthday, early March, when it was pouring down rain and I was playing the piano for her every night because she so desperately hated the thunder and storms both outside and in her head. We were all foster kids and she was always the odd one out, the black sheep if you will. I won't say why here, but her abilities manifested one night and she burned everything right down to the ground. I died and she dragged me outside where the last thing I saw was the sun rising over the flames and her face contorted into fear as she was dragged away."

The entire crowd was enraptured in his speech, the way he said his words and the way he gripped the podium. Nolan had told this story many a time, but still it brought tears to his eyes.

"Then, I was sent back without memory of any events from the first eighteen years of my life; no home, no parents, no Agnes. She and I were at the same facility and I'd already found out long before her the inner workings of the PASCI company. I knew I had to save this girl, even though I couldn't see her, I somehow knew that she would be the one to change my life. I wasn't the only one either: Marshall loved Agnes like she was a daughter, Sergei like she was his own flesh and blood; Osiris was her guardian, she owed her life to the girl, and Murmur and Thamyris both were the older siblings, always lining us up like little ducklings, and to Lily she was the first family the young demon had ever had." He paused and glanced at Lily, her hand reaching out to grip Marshall's tightly. She was holding back tears to the best of her ability and he knew it was hard for everyone there. "Family members came and went through the years, I regained my memories and lost them once again, but in the end, she was always there. For each of us. She was our anchor, our lifeline, the last ounce of bravery that always prevailed over everything else. I loved her from beginning to end and I know I am not the only one."

"Agnes devoted every second of her life to saving us and protecting us. She would've done anything to make sure we made it out of the fight alive, even if it meant giving up her own life, which she gladly did. In the end, I realize I should've cherished her more, loved every ounce of her just a little more warmly, and shown her the most compassion a human being ever could've produced. I never planned on losing her in this: in fact, we'd promised each other we were going to buy a house on the coast out here and adopt Lily over there, but we never got the chance. In seeing this statue I feel as if a little piece of her might be able to live on in the city we loved and the one that the biggest parts of our lives occurred in. We fought to save the lives of subjects and in turn, the lives of humans alongside them. We became stronger than we could ever have imagined and we did it. We conquered our foe and made it to the end of the line, and for that, I thank each and every one of you."

Cheers erupted from each and every person in the crowd, subject and human alike, all crying and smiling as they called out for the people on the stage. Nolan backed away from the podium and returned to their side, reaching out and running his hand along Lily's head of platinum hair. She looked up at him, eyes just like Agnes' Neptunian blue overflowing with tears.

"Sissy would be proud." She whispered.

"I hope so angel," he said back to her softly before looking back out at the crowd, "I hope so."