It was bright on the precipice. Bright, and steep. The markings on his skin glowed just as brilliantly as ever, eager to get on with it. Next to him were those of his family line by immediate blood relation. It had been decades since he had been face to face with his daemon, Minasé, yet the connection had never been completely severed. There was a stillness to his crimson eyes that Naota hadn’t expected, and for once he was being silent in the presence of the unknown.

On his right stood a woman with skin darkened from the sun despite the vampiric blood that coursed through her veins. Her cherry blossom hair rippled behind her, caught against the wind, her own eyes a deep shade of emerald to match his. Though she was a few years his senior, her heart trembled uncertainly in her chest while his own kept a steady beat.

To his left was a boy fresh to the age of seventeen with eyes as cerulean as island waters. Six black lines trailed down from the crooks of his elbows to his wrists; Naota could sense his own heartbeat within them. The boy was young, but power radiated through him just like everyone else in their line; his black hair ruffled in the wind, though it would have anyways in still air.

When Naota looked to his sister he saw a flash of her own daemon take over for a single breath: Raïe’s eyes, as blood hued and dangerous as Minasé’s, were eager but reserved. White light blocked out what was on the other side, leaving the family to resort simply to a leap of faith.

Naota couldn’t quite see what waited for them on the other side, but he could feel it as much as he felt the air filling his lungs. Beyond that light was a new life, a new home, possibly one where none of them would know who they were or remember where they came from. DaeLuin had left them all grasping for answers, and it felt all too recent that Naota had been given back those memories of his former life. Would that happen again? Would they meet each other? Would they ever stop travelling?

He thought of all he had done on DaeLuin: his fiancé, his prejudice, his lack of children or husband, or wife. He thought of The Roses. Revaliir and all of her exchanges overlapped, and he recalled the petal soft brush of his wife’s lips at the hollow of his throat; the musical laughter of his children all leading back to that first cry of his firstborn’s birth. All of that would be left behind, yet he knew there was no other alternative. Their time was finished on Revaliir, and even if they didn’t take that first step, one way or the other it would happen. It was best to make that decision themselves.

“Everything will be lost,” it was Raïe who spoke. Naota looked over to the very likeness of his sister, only with eyes red as freshly spilled blood, hair as white as snow, and black markings of her own smoothly flowing down her porcelain pale back. She was completely naked, preferring the natural state to being confined by clothes, but the transformation burned them away anyways. Naota remembered waking up naked himself when Minasé took his turns in the past.

The corner of Naota’s lips upturned in a light smile as he shook his head, “Nothing is ever truly lost.” He looked back out into the distance and then over to his own, now separated, daemon. Minasé still said nothing, his expression unreadable. They both knew the chance was high that they would be merged once more, so each party was enjoying their physical independence in the small moments that they could.

“I’ll take lost over being alone,” said the boy next to him. Lee was his name.

Raïe scoffed, “You’re too young to even know what loneliness truly is, boy.”

Lee simply rolled his eyes before letting them fall on that tempting light that called to them all. He had a response, there was always one just below the surface, but still waters ran deep in this one. Lee scratched at the crook of his elbow, his body already feeling the effects of what was to come for him in that world so close. He didn’t even realize what was in store for him, but then, none of them did.

Hiromi’s voice returned, Raïe having been forced back inside, but his sister did not clothe herself. What was the point? Her voice lowered to a near whisper, “But still, I feel lost.”

Naota looked over to her and reached out to take her hand. Their fingers intertwined in a way he hadn’t felt since they were both small children. Not in Revaliir, but in their first home at the edge of the Drow community during their days of DaeLuin. She gripped his hand tightly and for once he was happy that the god like power of holiness that radiated from him didn’t harm her.

She turned her eyes to him and he saw another flicker of Raïe in them. All eyes were on him, and he looked to each one, letting them settle on Minasé’s for the longest, then Lee, back to the light. A comforting smile lifted his lips as the words came, the final words he would ever speak on Revaliir, the only words that fit. Perhaps this was what they had been meant for, this one defining moment, this one leap of faith:

“There’s nothing terribly wrong with feeling lost,” he said, each syllable flowing smoothly as he gave them all one more lock of eye contact. “So long as that feeling precedes some plan on your part to actually do something about it.”

Lee’s hand found his, Minasé’s found Lee’s, Hiromi gripped him tighter. And then all together, The Ikawas took their step into that light flooded tomorrow.