i think the after for the red army is a village.
not a great walled city, not a fortress, a village like the one that started off the series. thatched roofs and little stands of fruit, not even a fence around the border to protect from the enemies that aren’t there. just a nice, warm village that will never see another winter.
it resembles dogwarts, in a way, with a house in the centre that is clearly an echo of renchanting. martyn and ren live there together, and it’s a library, and they frequently host gatherings of the whole group. skizz’s house is there too, a bigger cottage, and he lives next door to bigb, who bakes cookies once a week and shares them among the group. etho’s house is also large, but you wouldn’t know it, because every inch is full of dogs, with a single cat hiding on top of the kitchen cupboards.
the red banners don’t fly. there’s nobody to proclaim their allegiance to—no king nor hand, not anymore, just their friend ren and his best friend martyn. they’re happy, though it’s sometimes bittersweet, to not see the others. but they make the most of it, this quaint little paradise.
someone turns up at the bottom of the hill one day, near where ren is fishing. he expects to be greeted with hostility, but instead ren pushes up his sunglasses as if he can’t believe his eyes.
“skizz!” ren cries out, knowing that the other man will want to see the new arrival. “skizz- it’s impulse!”
and impulse is welcomed into the red village with open arms, despite his betrayal—it’s hard to be angry when things are so nice. he’s come from the crastle, he says. everybody’s waiting to see them.
maybe they all have different afters. but the fog that replaces the world border is not hostile. the after is perfect, after all. it’s paradise.
why would they all be separated, forever?
and so they go. and amends are made around a potluck dinner—though all wounds can’t be healed in a night, the war is over. it’s over and gone, and now things can just… be.
death is never the end.
