Vanessa woke in his arms that morning, her stomach rolling like the sea despite the comfort of his warmth. She could feel his hot breath on her neck, but a stronger chill overwhelmed the air, a taste of what was to come.

Today would be a day of redemption. She could wash her sins clean through the ablutions of blood and death. Within hours, she would be dead. But, she would have been loved.

And so she faced the day with peace in her mind and strength in her sword arm.

—

A miracle occurred.

Vanessa survived. So did the world. The carpet of the future rolled out before her, something she had never expected to actually walk down. The Battle of Zzyzx became an event in history, instead of the end.

Wonders never ceased in the life of Vanessa Santoro.

—

In the end, there were only a few select moments of the battle that remained in Vanessa's memory after, and she had trouble piecing them together.

When she closed her eyes, she could conjure the raucous sound of screaming, demonic bellowing, sword clashing, magic sparks, and explosions. It would surround her, placing her back in the Battle of Zzyzx. Then, she would open her eyes to a dull airport and it would melt like it had never been real.

Sometimes, when she looked to the sky, the clouds glinted like the dragons had when they had rushed in. A memory would replace her vision; the same awe would fill her as she watched Celebrant, King of the Dragons, lead the most formidable magical force through the sky.

Speaking of mythic heroes, Vanessa still remembered the Fairy Queen addressing the group. That stuck in her memory like glue. Power had radiated from her. The Fairy Queen had felt less like a being, and more like a force of unbridled magic. Of course, while the Fairy Queen had locked eyes with everyone else present, she had skipped over Vanessa. But, that had been expected. It was probably a mercy the Fairy Queen had recognized that Vanessa was on her side instead of smiting the blix on sight.

Later, sometime in the thick of the battle, Vanessa remembered the defenses breaking and how they ran to fall back to the shrine. Her lungs had filled with knives, her legs screaming in painful exertion. She remembered being back-to-back with Warren, fighting like they had when they had been at the peak of their partnership. Every shift in his stance was as anticipated and natural as her own breathing. He became an extension of her, and vice versa. Muscles had rippled as he swung his sword, and she had felt them on her own back, a morse code telling her to cover the opposite side.

She remembered slashing down an arrow that had headed for Bracken, and having a brief moment of regret that she had stopped it as its splinters shattered and stuck to her torso.

She remembered a poison knife slicing her side, and how she had to fight through the burn to stay conscious. The nearest unicorn had refused to help her (or hadn't realized she was on their side—it was hard to know), and it had taken fifteen minutes until Bracken had ended up near them and had eradicated the poison with a hand on her side. It had probably been the first time he had ever healed a blix. It had absolutely been the first time she hadn't flinched from the approach of a unicorn.

She remembered a claw catching Warren's chest, and she remembered forming a wide circle around him, defending any attack until a healer arrived. Roaring fire blazed around them but she heard nothing except the delightful screams of the enemy dying, and Warren's pitiful assurances that he was fine. It had reminded her of the Inverted Tower: how Warren always said he was fine even as his body shut down.

Vanessa didn't remember the beginning of the battle at all, the memory of the demons exiting the mountain fleeing her mind, but she did remember the end.

She remembered how the silence of the battlefield rang out louder than a thousand victory bells. She remembered the kiss, Warren's hands wrapped around her, tears falling from both their faces. She remembered the breaking apart, her forehead to his, as they laughed and cried at their unexpected survival.

But, other than those fragments, the memory of the Battle of Zzyzx had been lost to the wind. More specifically, it had gotten the treatment that many of Vanessa's memories had had before–becoming so obscured and shoved so deep inside they could never be unearthed again.

She always told herself it was for the better. And it was. It was.

—

April 2008

Vanessa didn't sleep the following two days after the battle.

Warren left to set Living Mirage back to rights with Trask and the Sphinx, and Agad assigned her the task of putting out small fires everywhere. With a team of Knights she had never met, they flew from preserve to preserve, eliminating unrest. The adrenaline hadn't left her since the fight, running in her veins, propelling her to victory. When her final mission ended, she collapsed into her airplane seat and slept the entire 21-hour flight to Turkey.

There, she arrived at Living Mirage as a delegate of Agad's dinner and embraced with Warren like hugging an old friend. Bright, saturated colors met her at every turn. A bright smile, shining eyes, warm pats on the back.

There were many reunions. She met Tanu and told him briefly about the battle, sure he had already heard a more thorough account. She saw Hank and Gloria and gave the latter some choice words. She walked around the halls, saying hi to people she hadn't seen in years. She offered Maddox condolences about Dougan.

She even witnessed the Sorensons' reunion, albeit from afar.

As she saw Kendra and Seth warm in their parents' embraces, the realization struck Vanessa that she no longer felt an intense fiery jealousy towards children who got to have kind parents. In contrast, gratitude filled her bones, and happiness for the children buoyed her spirits. It was something new.

All in all, she had survived the end of the world. That was something to celebrate, even if she flinched at the idea of the unexpected, undefined future.

—

Good food and good people defined the delightful feast. Vanessa had a great time. Of course, until the last course when Agad gave a speech and asked for a vote on the Sphinx's situation. Vanessa had thought it had been a done deal that he would die. That had seemed obvious and necessary.

No one else agreed.

Agad droned on about making the Sphinx an Eternal, even saying that both Bracken and the Fairy Queen had scrutinized his mind for sincerity which carried weight with everyone but Vanessa. Little opposition rose from the large group, and so she had to do it herself.

Vanessa rose. "I have known the Sphinx for a long time. I have worked for him. As Agad mentioned at the outset, he is a deceiver, a master manipulator. Making him an Eternal seems appropriate, but he's an expert at making his interests make sense. He may not be here to speak, but Agad is delivering his rhetoric. The Sphinx has a sinister history of working mischief while wearing a friendly face. The only way to be safe from the Sphinx is if he ceases to exist."

In the end, her words didn't matter. Her experiences didn't matter. The fact that the Sphinx had spent thousands of years on a single goal, had gotten so close, and fully wanted to open the demon prison didn't matter. The vote to make the Sphinx an Eternal was unanimous, except for Vanessa and the satyrs (and those latter two didn't really count at all).

The feast continued, desserts arrived, but all sense of safety and joy had vanished in one breath for Vanessa. She saw her future now.

The walls closed in. Her vision narrowed. The air was stale, stale, stale. They never believed her.

No one ever listened.