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ROYO

THE TEMPLE OF KNOWLEDGE, YUSAN

TWO YEARS LATER

I ’ll find a way —that’s my motto and the words I live by.

New scrolls come in every day, documenting Queen Sora’s rule. She is, of course, everything a ruler should be—fair and wise. It’s no surprise that everybody loves her, and Yusan has never known this level of peace and prosperity.

I load the scrolls onto a cart, and with a grunt, I haul it to the scroll room. We really gotta invest in a wheelbarrow, but I’m just the muscle here.

My bloodwork days are long over, but I carry heavy things. I move tables around and shut large doors. Basically, I do grunt work for the priests of the Temple of Knowledge. In exchange, the Yoksa feed me and let me stay here.

I’ve taken worse jobs.

It’s also my responsibility to greet pilgrims. In one of her many changes to the realm, Sora allowed public access to all the books and scrolls we keep.

She said the people must know their past to avoid repeating it.

It’s true enough, but these scholars are a pain in the ass.

They do come all this way, braving the sheer cliffs of Cuesta Mountain, so I guess it’s only right to let them in.

For a little while.

It’s dusk now, though, so I can tell everybody to get lost. No, I don’t say it that way, but they get the point. They pack their shit and scurry out. They can come back after sunrise tomorrow.

Once they’re gone, I close the massive black wood doors. Any time I touch them, I think about Gaya—what we gained and lost there. I remember that the world only changes when people with really good hearts are willing to die for each other.

I wonder how King Adoros is doing. I mean, I see the scrolls and reports come in.

He, like Sora, is beloved. He’s made some missteps, but at his core, he loves the island from the farms that replaced the drug crop to the souls of the people.

But I wonder how Mikail really is after all the shit he’s been through.

After all the shit we’ve been through together.

Sora sent word that Mikail raised a golden statue to the Dragon Lord Naerium. Pilgrims from all over journey to the overlook on Charm Beach to leave roses and pray for Aeri’s soul. Sora invited me to go, but I said no. A statue isn’t the same.

Nothing is the same.

I sigh as I turn the green temple key, then lumber down the stairs to my bedroom.

The bedrooms are built right into the orangey rock of the mountain.

It’s kind of a tomb, but I don’t care. My axe and my nunchuka hang on the rock wall, unused since Gaya.

Sora gave me a gold band of friendship before I left the palace, and that hangs there, too.

It’s as good as making me a nobleman, even though she got rid of all titles right after her coronation.

A lot of people were unhappy, but because we don’t owe Wei tribute anymore, she was able to buy them off.

Like Ambassador Fallador said, money solves a lot of problems.

Sora made Rune Yusan’s prominent ambassador. He travels all three realms but spends most of his time in Khitan. I still think she should’ve killed him, but whatever. No one agreed, and I’ve got bigger issues.

I take a book out from my desk drawer and continue trying to translate it. It’s the forty-first book I found on a gateway to the Kingdom of Hells. Scholars think it exists—a way to get from our world to the Ten Hells without dying—but so far, no one can tell me where the fuck it is.

If there’s a way to make it to the Ten Hells, I’m going to do it. And then I’m going to bring Aeri back.

Somewhere, the road to hell exists, and I’ve got nowhere else to be.

The End