I am enjoying these epilogue and I don't mind them taking time to come out. This is a universe that you've spent a lot of time with and you're sharing it with us.
Ugh. I've had a nasty chest infection over the past few days. Again. I have a lung condition that makes me susceptible to such things.
Anyway, here's the last epilogue. I hope you enjoy it.
*
Back to the Beginning (Epilogue)
From high above, Aea gazed down at the place where a part of her had once been imprisoned: the secluded valley, surrounded on all sides by the mountains of Harond, in which Agon Hurondus had built a tower and a hedge maze. But that had been many years ago. By now, the tower was a burnt-out shell and the hedge maze, having broken free of the magical restraints that were supposed to keep it perfectly preserved, had become a wild and tangled thicket.
'Samaya was very angry when she came here,' she mused, gazing down at the ruined tower. "Of course, I can hardly blame her."
In one corner of the former hedge maze, flames were creeping through the undergrowth: crackling, spitting, and disgorging masses of black smoke. Aea already knew what she would find there: the exiled god, Tebhol, barely clinging to life by devouring the plants and what was left of Hurondus's magic. Soon, he would inevitably be slain when he came into conflict with the other spirits who dwelled nearby. Aea planned to offer him something better than that.
"Tebhol, god of civilisation, flames and the forge, attend me here," she said, floating some distance away from the drifting smoke.
The flames took shape, arose from the ashes, and became the vague silhouette of a man. His eyes and mouth consisted of empty darkness. "Who… are you? How do you know me?" he asked. "How do you know what I was?"
"I am Aea, goddess of time. I have come to make you an offer."
"I'm listening."
From seemingly nowhere, Aea drew a sword made of silvery metal, which was otherwise unadorned and rather plain, except that it was pristine, seemingly fresh from the forge. Tebhol was drawn to it as if propelled by a strong wind.
"What is this? What have you done to me?" he asked, making a visible effort to hold himself back.
"This is very much like your holy symbol, wouldn't you say? It could be a new home for you, in which you could regain your strength, fed by my magic and any reputation I gain while you are with me. Once again, you could gain power and glory."
Tebhol seemed hesitant. "And… what do you want in return?"
"I want a weapon potent enough that all my enemies will quail from it. All those who threaten Creation will flee from it or be destroyed. That could be you," said Aea. "With your blade in hand, I will be…" She hesitated. To say that she would become 'invincible' seemed too much like the kind of hubristic nonsense that the Fates had always enjoyed punishing in various painful and ironic ways. Instead, she settled for: "Formidable."
There was silence while Tebhol considered her words. Finally, with a weary sigh like the sputtering of flames licking through damp wood, he said, "It would seem that I have little choice. Your offer is the best I'm likely to get."
"There's always a choice: do or die," said Aea. "Is my offer so distasteful that you'd rather stay here and suffer a slow, lingering death?"
"No. But I have some concerns as to where it might lead."
"That's good. Caution will keep you alive."
"One can only hope," said Tebhol, his voice a dry crackle of dead leaves going up in smoke.
Another pause, growing increasingly awkward as it continued.
"I am inclined to accept your offer. It is the last hope I have," said Tebhol, inevitably.
Aea held the sword out to him. "You know what you must do."
Tebhol vanished into the blade, which became wreathed in bright orange flames. Everywhere else, the fires died away as the last remnants of the hedge maze's protective magics reasserted themselves. What was left behind was dust and ash.
For a moment, Aea examined her now flaming sword, feeling the heat emanating from it. Then, she sheathed it once again. It would be ready when she needed it.
Rising into the air, she surveyed the hedge maze. There was a large hole in the ground, partially covered by thick brambles, where Lavokthagua the earth dragon had been forced to rise up and defend his prison. In this timeline, he had been freed, taken part in the war against Aspitolm, and at last made a new home for himself in the mountains of Harond. In the previous timeline, before Kaerina had gone back and changed everything, Lavokthagua had been slain by Mawroth and his corpse had been dismantled and devoured.
'A change for the better. For him, certainly.'
There was no sign of anyone living in the hedge maze. Even the local vermin were scarcely in evidence, presumably having been deterred by the possibility of breaking their teeth on the magically-protected hedges. All was still. Hurondus's portals had long since been closed, meaning there was no possibility of any more unfortunates stumbling into them and arriving at this place.
'So where did Tebhol come from? How long was he here?' she wondered.
Perhaps there were still a few portals that could randomly open and close at odd times. That could cause problems in future. She would discuss the matter with Tebhol and then decide what to do. 'Raef and Samaya might need to know.'
Within the hedge maze, there was a small pond, fed by rainwater from the mountains. It had been there for many years, ever since Hurondus had rearranged the landscape to his liking. Soon, a spirit would be born from it. Aea sensed that it was slowly gestating there, little by little. A few days. No more than that.
Similarly, the tangled threads of spirit energy running through the overgrown hedge maze would soon give rise to another spirit. The Hedge Maze God. At least, that's what he'll become, after he's gathered a few worshippers.
But even as she thought that, Aea knew that it wasn't true. Whatever spirits rose from this place, they would be different from before. They wouldn't be Kyrina or Hedgy. Everything had changed. Nothing would ever be the same as it once was.
And that's no bad thing. A great many tragedies had been prevented – or at least reduced in scale. For centuries, the Aspiti Empire had been taking slaves and committing atrocities, but now it had fallen more than a decade before it otherwise would. The goblins of Har had wisely departed the city before King Maginn could subject them to any worse persecution than he already had. Zora Alishanda had been freed. Melphior had been slain. The other Demon Lords had lost several of their most valuable allies. The future of Creation looks brighter than it has in centuries. But even I can't see the end of all things.
Perhaps Kyrina and Hedgy would never exist. Not as they had done in the previous timeline. Nevertheless, Kyrina is part of me. She always will be. And I will remember them always.
Again, Aea surveyed the hedge maze. Through her third eye, she could see the spirits, budding like flowers, who would soon come into existence there. "Live well, both of you," she murmured. "Whatever happens, I hope your lives will be better than they were before."
Then, with a small sigh, she turned away. There was still much work to be done.
Ah. It's finally over. If you want to ask any questions, please do. I'll write some kind of afterword over the next week or so.
Thank you very much for participating in this quest. I really do appreciate it. I never would have continued for this long without your encouragement.
Your world building is as ever, exemplary, the way you managed to build such a detailed and elaborate world across multiple quests, characters and storylines, weaving i all together and even giving it all a sense of cyclical closure is nothing short of astounding Chandagnac, kudos, kudos!
And so the wheel turns. Thanks for your work on this, it's incredible that you managed to keep this story of the world going across so many different quests and then tie them together in the end!
After nearly ten years, I've finally finished the saga that began with A Hedge Maze Is You (AHMIY). I'm sure that will come as a surprise to many of you who were under the impression that AHMIY ended nearly ten years ago. Yeah, well… there are a lot of reasons for that.
For a long time, I was struggling with mental illness, which led to a self-destructive meltdown every twelve months or so, which also meant that for several months at a time I abandoned the whole project. That happened more than once.
But then, more recently, I started having seizures. I was prescribed Lamotrigine. It's anti-seizure medication, which seems to be working out pretty well so far, but it's also commonly prescribed to people suffering from bipolar disorder. I haven't been officially diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but it would explain a few things. Ever since I started taking Lamotrigine, I've been feeling a lot more stable, so much so that I was able to persevere, keep writing more-or-less weekly updates for more than two years, and finish off the last quest in the series that began with AHMIY. However, along the way, I seem to have lost most of my readers. From time to time, I get a few likes from new readers, but they always seem to give up halfway through. Presumably because there are some boring bits in the middle. Oh well.
The Tinpot Princess and Her Many Travels stars a different main character and is almost like a 'time travel fix-it fic' for AHMIY. Chosen by the Dragon God is a direct sequel and stars most of the same characters.
School of Sorcery is set in the same universe, but was an experiment that didn't really work, so I ended it fairly early on. Most of the characters and plotlines were reused in Chosen by the Dragon God.
If you're not interested in reading through the rest of the series, but you've read through AHMIY and you just want some closure, these are a few highlights you might want to take a look at:
Here, Kaerina engineered things to that Samaya would escape several decades before she would otherwise become horribly traumatized. Here, Samaya frees Raef from the cell beneath Hurondus's tower. Here, the goblins have built a giant cannon to fire a spaceship at the moon. Here, Zora Alishanda is freed from her prison on the moon.
And here, the final battle between the Chosen (including Tavi) and the Mystic Path (including Hurondus) takes place.
There are several quests that are longer than the entire Hedgyverse saga, that updated more frequently and reached a satisfying conclusion in much less than ten years. Nevertheless, I'm proud of what I've written and the fact that I did eventually finish it. And it's amusing to think that despite my struggles with depression, the saga ends on a hopeful note, and the heroine basically saves the world through the power of friendship (but it's not as sappy as that, I swear).
Many thanks to Flashkannon, Indivisible, Zam, MagewyrmMira and Toboe, without whose encouragement and friendship I wouldn't have got this far. I really am very grateful to all of you.
If anyone would like to read anything I've written, I hope you'll enjoy it. Thank you.
