"No…"
Only one word managed to escape Maura's lips. Her eyes were torn as to what they wanted to see, Jack's unconscious body beside a resting Bowzer or the corpses of Daliea and Keela.
"Big Bro?" Lina finally noticed that something was wrong when Jack wasn't waking up. "What's wrong…"
The young girl's tunnel vision was shattered as she looked up to see Eliza in her bloodied dress. "Big Sis Eliza… What happened?"
"Lina… I'm sorry." Eliza pulled the girl into a hug, letting her tears fall onto Lina's shoulder.
Looking over Eliza, Lina noticed a man she didn't recognize sitting next to Rydel, who was also wearing clothes covered in dry blood. Lina then looked down behind Eliza, recognizing the lifeless bodies of her two other "sisters".
"Big… Sis…" The little girl had no hope of holding back tears. Her eyes instantly puffed up and filled with water. "Big Sis… What happened?"
"I'm sorry, Little Lina… I'm sorry…"
"Lina," Rydel spoke up, "Things didn't go as we planned. It was a lot harder than we expected."
"Uncle Rydel…" Lina struggled to get the words out as her mind tried to accept the terrible sight in front of her eyes. "They'll be okay… right?"
"I… don't know," Rydel answered honestly. "We would need Jack for that, but he's been unconscious since his fight with a bounty hunter."
"Bounty hunter?" Maynard questioned. "Ya guys had bounty hunters chasing ya?"
"Yeah."
"What about the army?"
"It's been delayed."
"So ya were successful, then?"
"... Yes. The mission was a success." Rydel looked to Maura's forlorn face, not sure how he should explain everything.
"Allow me to explain. That might make things easier." Dirk stood up and introduced himself, "My name's Dirk, the former assistant to General Toms of the Limneer army."
"Former assistant?" Maynard was blown away by the man's reputation.
"Correct. I've decided to aid Trodar in ending these wars as peacefully as possible," Dirk continued. "As for what happened, the army was successfully delayed and the party managed to escape them. However, the bounty hunters that General Toms hired caught up with us."
"Daliea," Dirk pointed to the grey-skinned girl, "had used up all of her mana and had already consumed multiple elixirs in order to make the delay possible without harming the innocent citizens of Limneer. That left her vulnerable and the leader of the bounty hunters made sure to exploit her weakness."
"Keela," he next pointed at the cleric, "gave her life protecting Eliza. And apparently, she had also given her means of self-resurrection to Eliza as well, effectively trading her life for Eliza's. She also was the only one who could directly counter the bounty hunter's stunning abilities, making her a prime target to remove as quickly as possible."
Dirk continued as if he were giving a military report, not paying mind to the sorrowful expressions of the others at the moment, "Jack eventually managed to kill the leader of the bounty hunters while Bowzer went on a rampage and slaughtered the remaining bounty hunters under that man. Also, the fox started the worst forest fire that Limneer has ever seen in all its history. However, I'd guess that both of them were left quite weak after the encounter, especially Jack after all of the damage that he took. Hence, both of them have been either resting for days on end or remaining entirely unconscious."
"... So, ya betrayed your superior to help make this possible?" asked Maynard, who like Rydel was more experienced in the tragedies of war.
"Correct. I made sure to lead the general and the army along to a certain point where the Rydel and the others could make their move, finally giving the general no choice but to delay his invasion," explained Dirk. "Also, I was offered a home for my family in Trodar and a job within the Leisure Guild."
"Then where's your family now?"
"Already in Gilga," replied Dirk. "Jack was kind enough to bring the guild leader as their personal escort. He teleported them away before the final plan was underway."
"Then your family is out of harm's way and we have no reason to go back to Limneer as of yet…" While the others were filled with sorrow, Maynard began to emit a near-palpable blood-lust. "I guess I'll have to slaughter that general some other time."
Though Dirk was familiar with Toms and his strength, he couldn't deny the sense of fear he felt when Dirk saw Maynard's crazed eyes and the samurai's unwaning desire to kill. The former assistant still didn't believe that Maynard could do the general in so easily, but he felt that the samurai would possibly give the general the fight of a lifetime.
"Either way, we're stuck with what to do next," Rydel interjected, calming Maynard slightly and gathering everyone's attention. "Remember, Jack has a life spring jewel."
"Right, we can bring back… one of them…" Maura struggled to admit the harsh reality.
With a nod, Maynard continued, "Jack will wake up but we're not sure when. Last time it took him a week, and I think he took far more damage this time around so it could likely take even longer for him now."
"But the life spring jewel can only revive someone within a week of their death," Maynard picked up on Rydel's train of thought. "Ya think we'll have to choose who lives and who doesn't since Jack won't wake up in time, right?"
"No…" Eliza mumbled to herself as the thought of choosing returned to her mind. And it was only made worse that they were the ones to choose and bear the burden, not Jack.
"That's right," nodded Rydel. "Also, we don't currently have a way to preserve the bodies, so we'll have to choose quickly."
"But… how can we?" asked Maura, struggling to process everything.
"Sadly, I have to think about what's best for the party. And if you remember that we need to go to Korten…"
"Then it would be best to have Daliea come back." Maynard didn't hide his opinion or soften his voice in any way.
"But what about Keela?" Eliza's conscience forced her to ask, even if she couldn't refute their argument. "We can't just… let her die."
"Eliza, it's not that we don't want Keela back," explained Maynard, "but we'll probably need Daliea if we want to be successful in Korten. That's just how things are, we can't change that."
"I'll be honest," Dirk's unexpected voice broke the debate. "Nearly every party in Kartonia would have to let both of them go. In my life, I've had to say goodbye to countless comrades in arms. You guys being able to revive even one of them… That's a miracle that everyone else in the world would die for."
Taking Dirk's opinion to heart, everyone else remained silent for a while.
Only Lina who was willing to speak up, "But… I don't want to say goodbye to Big Sis Keela…"
Maura tried to wipe some of her tears as she climbed onto Appa. She nestled up to Eliza and Lina, throwing her arms around them both. "It'll be okay… Sometimes… fate's not too nice to us. But other times, fate's really nice to us. You don't remember it, but when you were an egg, you were stolen, right?"
"Right…"
"Your mom and dad thought they lost you forever. They eventually gave up on finding you after hundreds of years. But we found you and we helped you hatch. That's also because of fate," stated Maura.
"So fate… is good and bad?"
"Yes, Lina... it is." Eliza lifted her head and shared a sad smile with Maura. "Fate has a lot of hellos and goodbyes…"
"Ya will never forget the goodbyes, but ya can always focus on the hellos," added Maynard with a chuckled.
"Focus on hellos… But I still don't want to say goodbye." The stubborn girl shook her head.
"Lina, sometimes fate doesn't give us a choice… Or it gives us a really hard one, like now." Tears continued to fall from Eliza's cheeks as she hugged Lina and Maura even tighter. "I don't want to say goodbye either, but I have to say it too... Maybe if we say it together, it will be easier."
"... Okay…" Lina wiped her tears and looked at the smile left of Keela's face. "Goodbye, Big Sis Keela."
Maura and Eliza couldn't hold back any longer. The floodgates were forced open and they let all their tears spill unimpeded.
"Big Sis Eliza, you said together…"
"Okay…"
"Me too…"
Eliza and Maura repositioned themselves around Lina, letting the three of them have a good look a Keela's smile.
"Goodbye, Keela…"
Together, the three girls embraced each other as they were forced to begrudgingly accept the truth.
"Bye, Keela," Rydel added with a bow of the head.
Maynard held both sheathed swords and formally bowed. "Goodbye, Keela."
Dirk watched with moist eyes as the party members each took their turn saying their goodbyes. If he had any doubts about their loyalty to each other before, they were all eradicated by witnessing this sorrowful event.