Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 60 of 86

The chamber was quiet now. Zach stood on cold stone and stared at his empty hand. The sword was gone. The beast was gone. And with the blade, his only road home was gone too. He had crossed worlds by that steel. Now no steel remained. He had known it would come to this the moment he opened his fingers. Knowing did not soften the blow. He walked to the shattered floor where the fire had burned. Bits of the sword lay scattered, gray and dead. He knelt and picked one up. It was cold. No light. No hum. Just a broken piece of metal. He set it down. There was no spell to gather the shards. No way to forge a new path across the dark between worlds. His old life waited somewhere he could never reach again. Zach fell to his knees. He pressed his palms to the stone. His breath came hard. He thought of the streets he grew up on, the noise, the people he had lost the day the sword pulled him here. All of it, closed now like a slammed door. Boots crossed the stone behind him. He turned his head. Raven came to him, careful over the cracked tiles. Her cat ears were low. Her eyes shone. She did not speak. She only reached out her hand. Zach looked up at her. Something in his chest shifted. The grief was still there. But it was not the whole of him. He took her hand and he smiled. "I have you, Raven," he said. "You're my home." He looked past her. Garrok leaned on his axe, chest still heaving from the fight. Talon stood with his katanas sheathed, one hand on Lyra's shoulder. Lyra watched Zach with her purple eyes wet. Ayla lowered her staff, the silver crystal dim. "And all of you," Zach said. "You're my family." Garrok grunted and looked away, but his jaw worked. Lyra pressed her lips together and nodded. Ayla wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. Zach turned back to Raven. He was still on his knees. He kept her hand in his. "Raven," he said. "Will you marry me?" Her mouth opened. No words came at first. Then the tears spilled over, and she laughed through them. "Yes," she said. "Yes." He stood and pulled her in. They kissed on the broken stone where a god had died. Talon let out a whoop. Garrok pounded his axe handle against the floor. Lyra clapped, laughing and crying at once. Ayla raised her staff high and the group cheered. Zach held Raven and did not let go. The sword was gone. His way home was gone. But he had found where he belonged, and it stood around him now, cheering in the dark. The road back to his old world was closed. The road forward was these five people. He would have to build a life here from nothing.