#distant finale

Years pass. Lin disappeared for a few years, but Lyna knew she’d return. It can only mean that what she had mentioned in her hopes had come to pass.

But she returned, another weapon to learn. Many, in fact, over the time. Multiple forms of healing and casting for the most part, but after some time, she sets aside weapons and focuses on skills the Mean appreciates. She had done so during a time she revealed that the passage was unstable, but her skills weren’t luck any longer.

Almost a decade passes and for a few months, her visits become more common, but there’s something she plans, She asks for help from the Crystalline Mean (Especially the facets of smithing and gathering, but all have their uses).

Then, one day, she calls all the leaders of the Crystarium inside.

In front of her grandfather’s mirror, the portal Lin used to cross worlds most of the time, is an archway. It’s made of some metal Lyna doesn’t know, a handful of wires attaching themselves into the tower itself.

“Is this what I think this is?” Moren asks.

“It depends on what you think it is. Katliss and the Mean know the answer, as does Chai-Nuzz, given how they helped.”

Lyna speaks up. “This is a portal to your homeworld. One you hope will allow passage for any to travel.”

Lin nods her head. “I don’t know if any of you ever saw me look as if I’m speaking to myself. We’ve gotten the communication part down, but I wanted to keep it all a surprise for when I get to this point.”

She looks away. “I wish G’raha could be the first to step through, given how much he means to all of you, but this is untested, and we don’t know if my aethereal trail means it would work for me regardless of others.”

She flips a few pieces and gives a signal, her hand to her ear.

A few sparks arc between both sides of the archway, and then the area ripples to life, a spring turned on its side.

Lin takes a few deep breaths, but then starts to hold it.

Lyna finds she imitates the action. She hadn’t known what the plan was for months, but now?

Now all her hopes, everything she had written in letters, would come to pass.

A man steps through. White hair and beard, about an average height for a hume, though Lyna recalls hearing of a race that had passed away in the flood with that bead in the middle of the forehead. Another eye. Something about how they lacked a skill, or had a settlement too close to the flood’s origin to warn them in time.

“I told Nero we wouldn’t need to increase the power for a more stable portal. Everything Lin told us made me certain this world’s aetheric balance was not off any longer. I can’t wait to rub it in his face.”

The man speaks nonsense to Lyna. Who is Nero, and why is there an argument going on like that.

Lin chuckles. “I never doubted you, Cid. I will back you up when I return home.”

However, she turns to everyone. “If you have read the chronicles G’raha translated for you, then this is Cid. He’s the one who built the portal to the thirteenth when we sought to rescue three from the clutches of a powerful voidsent, the equivalent of Sin Eaters, but for darkness.”

Lin clears her throat. “And also the man who, in a timeline that no longer exists, sought to find a way to undo a helltorn world, wrote the first theory on how it could be done. Also my boss for the past few years.”

Cid’s cheeks light up at everything. “I cannot say much for the latter, but the middle point, I will remind you that apparently it took the better part of four epochs for me to write that theory. I only built on what you found of the papers. I will return to let those waiting to proceed. And ensure Nero does not try to fix the perceived power supply issue.”

It takes another few minutes, but the first to step through after Cid leaves is a face Lyna knows well from the sketches Lin frequently sends her way.

The aged face of her grandfather. Once upon a time, he was over a century in age, but had the face of a young adult. He’s an ilm or two taller, a longer face and wider shoulders, but the red hair and red eyes are the same. His hair still past his shoulders in a braid.

The man immediately finds her in the small crowd and hugs her. “I should have done this years ago, Lyna.”

She nods her head. Her arms wrap around him.

After a dozen years, she can talk to her grandfather once more.