Stuck in the human world (an eldarya fanfiction)

22. The End...?

Leiftan's POV

It has been two months since we've held the funerals.

It was a very quiet, and consolidate funereal, to be exact. We held it only in a small group of friends. It was also rather quick, but I'm sure that didn't prevent other eldarians from finding out about it. We've placed their gravestones just outside the forest, near where they died. That's where we have held the ceremony too. I was honestly touched by it and even cried a little. It at least had brought us closer to each other. It was Ykhar who told me I should find something positive in every situation, to battle my grief. I sadly can't take her advice at most times, since I've had reoccurring nightmares for a week after the funereal.

Most things went back to normal, after that. Miiko once again took her position as the leader of the light guard. Despite my objection, I have remained in the light guard, in my old position too, and my past had been forgiven, with the fact that I was a daemon.
Apparently, what Ashkore did, is a spell that purified all daemons in Eldarya, henceforth making them aengels. That's how I have ceased to exist as a daemon, and I am an aengel now, again. It will take a while to get used to it. But I wasn't the only daemon, for sure.
After finding out about this, Miiko and I began to look for more of my kind, preferably in secret. I don't think anybody knows besides us, and the few confidants. The light guard also began searching for any living dragons, to apologize, and to possibly learn more about the species.

Other guard members aren't exactly bored either. For instance, our biggest project at the moment is creating a whole new guard in eel. The details aren't set yet, but we do know that it would be beneficial to combine the skills of all guards while creating this new one. As for the absynthe guard, Ezarel continued researching multiverse traveling, while starting a side-project with Nevra, trying to bring back some extinct species. They're only working with plants, for now. Another collaboration between these two guards is trying to solve the feeding problem.

The Obsidian guard isn't resting either. Valkyon, believing in Ashkore's vision, had started training a special unit alongside some shadow guard members. These soldiers will specialize in protecting the crystal, and finding more pieces of it, hopefully. Besides that, they keep training everyone, especially newbies. Sometimes I help out too.

As for me, I haven't been able to fill the void in me by working. No matter how hard I tried, Ash's memory kept coming up in my mind. Especially after I took his apprentice, Lilith, under my wing. Her tests didn't show clear results, but as I know, or rather, knew Ash, Lilith has to be of a rare species, or an uncommon hybrid, at least. She actually helped me with my grief. Even if she does remind me of him, which hurts at times, she also reassures me easily. We have talked a lot, and she is like a sister to me, by now. It's easier to talk to her, maybe because compared to the others she's been more of a stranger, a new person. She was the one who actually suggested me searching for others of my kind, and she also helps me with it. She is slowly starting to fit in, even though she still doesn't talk to many people.

As much I would like to, my mind just can't rest. I keep thinking about the chance of an upcoming war, with more deaths incoming. I shall suggest working on a new defense system too. Or maybe our attack Will be our defense? Every day I'm wondering about it, planning possible outcomes to events that haven't even started yet. It would be the best if they never did, but I am still unsure. Maybe, one day I will find my place, and my answers, and then, my mind can rest, and relax. Maybe then, I can let my past go. All I know is, that isn't something happening tomorrow. For now, I can only wait, and hope. Hope, that I don't have to lose anyone like I've lost Ash. And hope, that his legacy will live on and that his death wasn't for nothing. Or maybe even hope, that he can come back, that there is a way it was all fake, that he can be brought back. That he planned his fake death and is just hiding as Lance did. The chances are low, but...Am I really wrong to hope so? He had surprised me many times before. I wish he had another surprise, just so I could see him again. Maybe in memoria... I shook my head above my paperwork.

As if there was a chance.

***

Meanwhile, Somewhere in time and space...

Everything was pitch black.

I tried to open my eyes, but I couldn't. Tried to move, yet couldn't, as if I was in a coma. I also didn't feel time passing by. It felt like an infinite space of nothing. I think I heard a few shouts, maybe screams, sometimes...They felt so distant. After those stopped, it was the nothing embracing me again. The quiet, dark, empty nothing. The void.

After...who knows, actually, I lost my sense of time in the emptiness. Suddenly, I opened my eyes, finally, since I could open them at last. It was still dark, but I had surroundings, I wasn't alone in the pitch-black nothing, anymore. I felt that I was laying on something quite hard, but had no recollection of how I got there, or where I even was.

My eyes soon adjusted to the light.

Light? It was dark a minute ago...

I looked up at the sky. I only saw a ring from it, the surrounding trees didn't let me see the rest. Their leaves were bright green, healthy. The sky was almost unnaturally blue, with puffy, soft clouds. The temperature was perfect, not too warm, and not too cold. I breathed in, inhaling fresh air, that I don't think has ever felt this good before. Then I looked down, beside me. The grass I was laying on matched the leaves with its bright, lively color. I saw a few flowers too. I softly brushed my fingers through. The place was beautiful. Perfect, even. Too perfect to be real.

That's when I noticed a body beside mine. I looked at him, it was Lance. Then suddenly everything came back. The memories, flooding back to me...scared me. Confused me, made me shiver. Where are we? And more importantly...What are we now? What are we supposed to do? How am I not gone?

I looked back at the sky. I guess I had an infinite amount of time to think about that.