cascade

There’s not really a whole lot more bittersweet than seeing a martyr who knows her last day is nigh. To see someone at peace, ready to die for the greater good…It’s a strange feeling.

The robed goddess came down with us from her tower after our mission was over. At the time I didn’t really know what would happen, but looking back, I guess she did. I guess she knew for a long time what was to come. She’d had millenia to accept her fate.

After we returned home, I found her laying in the grass in the front of the castle. Her hood was down for the first time since we had met her, revealing a long face, pale and dotted with freckles. It appropriately looked like she hadn’t seen proper sunlight in hundreds, thousands of years. It contrasted sharply with her black hair, whose red streak fell over her face as if she didn’t care that it was there. Her eyes were closed, as if she were asleep. For maybe the only time since we had picked her up, she looked at peace with our world.

I was, of course, startled when she started to speak. “I’m glad… that I could see how our world turned out in the end…” She sounded tired. World-weary. A sharp contrast from how she sounded before.

“Well it’s far from ending…” I tried to reason. “You should come down more often. I’m sure we’d love to have you…”

She chuckled, seemingly in bemusement. “Perhaps, perhaps… maybe we will see each other again someday…” It may have been intended that way on the surface, but I had the distinct feeling she wasn’t actually talking about me or any of the group, not deep down.

“Remember to cherish who you have, Princess Danielle… Take a lesson from me…”

It was about now that she would open her eyes and look directly into mine. They were the most striking shade of violet… In those eyes, I didn’t see a weathered, cold goddess… no. I saw a scared sixteen year old who missed her sister and her friends, who maybe wanted to go back home where she belonged… someone who had been alone far too long. I saw longing, I saw sadness…I saw a little bit of fear.

“Never take your brothers and sisters for granted, and always cherish your friends… I didn’t realize what I had until after I lost it all…”

I nodded, taken off-guard by the sincerity, the pure melancholy in her voice. “Y…yes ma’am…”

She chuckled again. “Their tabards and robes rest with the kingdoms now… the ones their individual elements represent… it’s where they belong, I think…”

Then… she got up and started walking back in the direction of the crossroads. I tried to stop her, but she slowed the flow of time around me before I could reach her.

“But… wait, why don’t you sta-”

“I can’t… I have… things to prepare. We’ll see each other again…”

Before I knew it, she was gone.


The next… and last time I saw her was during our return to the fortress. It was still in ruins from whatever they say I did here… I don’t really remember, myself. We made our return seeking to finish off the man we came for the last time. It was me, my brother, Aunt Cassandra, Miss Lucidia, that Kit girl we picked up, Kaj and Luna, Minuki and that Jax girl, and Miss Astra. We found him of course… it wasn’t exactly hard. Astra set on him right away despite everything, and we were made to watch as they tore at each other. It was long, and it was fierce, and the two were evenly matched, but eventually the villain would gain the upper hand. He prepared the same spell that killed my brother as Miss Astra lay helpless on the ground trying to recollect herself.

What happened after that happened incredibly quickly, but I’ll do my best to recount.

As we would all shield our eyes from what we thought was inevitable, the room flashed bright white, and there was a deathly silence for a moment. I took this moment to look up and see the scene.

He had made the stab, of course, but hanging on the other end of that blade was a woman whose face only I had seen in full. Those sad violet eyes looked in our direction, she knew she was going to die… something, if I recall, she had wanted for centuries. As everyone else murmured in confusion, I reached out to her, but again the flow of time around me was slowed. With my brother the effects of the awful spell had taken effect by now… with her, it seemed she was slowing the inevitable for long enough to send one last message.

“It… is her time now… Take my robes with you and display them proudly in your halls, don’t let my story be forgotten… I’m… coming… I’m going to be with my sister again…”

As she spoke, the spell seemed to take place in a far different way than with my brother. He had melted away into a pool of blood in a gruesome display of brutality… She slowly was dissolving into a soft glowing multicolored light that, as she faded, began to swirl around Astra. She reached out in my direction slowly, as the light began to consume her. I touched my hand to hers, and she smiled weakly.

“Remember who you have, Princess… maybe we will meet again one day… I look forward to it…”

I watched her eyes close for the final time as the light finally fully consumed her.

“Goodbye…”

The light now wrapped itself around Miss Astra, consuming her as well… but it wasn’t a slowly disappearing sort of consumption, no… it was a different kind. A much brighter, warmer kind, that brought a sense of hope in its wake. In that moment between the Sorceress fading away and during this, it seemed as if time had both sped up and slowed down, it was impossible to tell if we were going backwards or forwards. It was like the flow of time mourned for its lost god and had chosen a new one to take her place.

 It was the rising of a fledgling goddess.

The glow would soon leave Astra in its place, giving off an aura of her own, newly ethereal hair flowing behind her though there wasn’t any wind. The light swirled up into the sky, out of the rubble that once was the Lost Society Fortress, and above the clouds of corruption above. They seemed to dissolve away at its touch, and for perhaps the first time we’d seen on this planet, the sun showed through a new blue sky, much like the kind at home. Even the earth around us began to glow, and the darkness and corrosion began to recede.

In the arena, the villain began to panic. “What… but… this can’t be happening… father! Father help me! FATHER!!”

“Your time has come.” Astra stated simply. “It is time for the rise of a new age in this planet’s history. Your reign is over.”

She forcefully ripped one of the swords out of his hand and slammed it down through the top of his skull. At the same time, Aunt Cassandra was allowed, as time once again slowed so he would remain alive, to give him the what for. She took out her rapier, and stabbed him in his nethers, then once she was done with that she cut through his remaining wing and slashed him across the face.

 His death was not quite as spectacular, no. He simply fell to the ground limply after time was allowed to flow normally again. As he lay there, slowly bleeding out, Astra looked at herself.

“Her last deed… was to save me… she had to die a death that was either heroic or just…”

The fly home was very somber. We did as the Sorceress asked, displaying her robes like a flag for all to see in the main foyer of Nintendria Castle. An effigy was erected in the ruins of the Fortress, so Miss Astra says. And me, well… I absconded to my room to write this in her tome. She asked not to be forgotten, so I figure this is the least I can do.

This tale is dedicated to the end of the Legend of the Temporal Sorceress, whose soul I pray found her way to Heaven. Somewhere out there, she is reuniting with her sister and her friends, and her spirit lives on in our world as Astra Heeren takes on her powers and duties. This may be the end of an ancient legend, but is the beginning of a new one, the Legend of the Rainbow Savior.

It’s the first day of a new beginning for the people of our sister planet.