10. Epilogue

The Pendulum Prison had been an immense undertaking. Ironically, Alix helped build his own cage, adding clever tricks to contain his energy and keep out anyone else.

Hiding the Marker Stones had proven useless. Given enough time, which they surely had, someone would find them. Destroying them proved impossible so far.

Instead, Darus searched for the most remote island they were allowed to reach. There, he carved a large hole in the stone, with deep cliffs around it, like a moat around a castle. Only these cracks were so wide and deep that only gods could scale them.

To finish it off, they hung pendulums around the prison. Enchanted clouds, higher in the sky than any known bird, held massive boulders by ropes made of vine. The boulders swung back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, like a ticking clock. Anybody who wanted to enter would need impeccable timing and speed, or risk being swatted aside.

Normally, such pendulums would swing less and less over time, until they fell silent. Alix had been imprisoned with so much energy, however, that they could keep swinging at exactly the same pace until the sun would die.

All Smashers had perished. All Marker Stones, as far as they knew, were out of the itchy paws of their creatures now.

It took Feria a year before she visited Alix. She had fought ferociously to keep him alive, for they needed his brain. And to his credit, he’d helped them out a lot since. But she couldn’t look that mad scientist in the eyes and forgive him.

“I am sorry,” he said again as Feria approached. “I am not an evil fox, please believe me.”

“And your own madness made you the only fox left. We almost lost Cosmo too.”

Silence. Alix studied some insect crawling over the wall of his prison. Feria still admired him, even though she tried not to.

If her family hadn’t been bickering so much, if Ardex hadn’t treated him like garbage, would this disaster have been prevented? As her Hespryhound said, were the gods and their family issues—their never-ending interference—really the cause of all that was bad?

“How … how is life in prison?” she asked softly.

“Fascinating.”

Feria grinned. “I’m sure it is.”

“The pendulums give me ample time to study more Enyrgia, and forces, and other laws of nature and universe—”

“You can see them?”

“Indeed? I even became friends with a weird one, look—”

She ran up to him, following his gaze to a weirdly shaped Enyrgia on the wall.

“No. No, I shouldn’t,” Feria said mostly to herself. She froze. “What you did can’t be forgiven. We are not … acquintances anymore.”

A single pendulum had been slowed down to let Feria through. She walked away through the space and asked Darus to energize the pendulum again.

“Oh, are the animals enjoying my tools?” Alix yelled after her.

Friends with an Enyrgia. Massive advancements, such as tools, for all of Somnia in just a few years. Alix was special.

The possibilities nagged at her. The godchildren were still no closer to breaking out of their invisible cage. She wanted away from her family. She wanted to find other continents. Hoping against all reason there’d magically be more foxes there.

She wanted him at her side. He was right; this place stinks and nothing was going to change her world like this. Nothing was going to change her family, not after millions of years. She had to build a new family, forge her own path.

She exchanged a glance with Darus. She didn’t even need to say the words. Darus’ contempt for how his family had treated him, and ignored his stories about Zyme, could be read from outer space.

None of their siblings were around. They wouldn’t approve of her visits anyway and condemned her publicly for trying.

Darus slowed several pendulums again, until they fell still.

Feria walked away, leaving a wide open gap for Alix to escape his prison.

“See for yourself.”

The next few days, Alix nearly jumped on top of every creature they found.

Birds took stones inside their beak to break eggs, when their children had trouble hatching, or to break walls keeping them from food.

Gosti could rapidly create all sorts of twigs for all sorts of purposes. Some were sharp and used for spearing other animals; some were thin and long and allowed them to reach deep inside beehives. The Gosti were able to kill increasingly larger animals, after which they’d use their sharp stones to cut open their bones to eat the nutrient marrow.

The proto-monkeys had even started a trade with schools of fish. They gave them finished toolstones so they could break shells and mussels; in return, the fish told them where the waters were safest for fishing.

“Fascinating,” Alix breathed.

Every heartbeat of every day, Alix’ theories about force and energy were proven. The tools amplified the force of your arm or beak. By changing how far you needed to move, by using a different material at contact, animals could suddenly achieve more with less energy.

He excitedly told Feria about his next theory about sharpness. About how those spears could cut through things because all the force was concentrated on just the tip, instead of a larger area. All Enyrgias on a tiny tip, instead of a larger flat area. He promised he’d do more experiments and present his final theory to the gods. A theory of motion energy, he called it.

Feria forcefully told him he was never to see or meet her siblings ever again.

Darus and Feria met up in secret. Their meeting, however, had one other surprise guest: Hanah.

The youngest godchild, who had disappeared when they first landed on Somnia. And whom had rarely showed her face since. She had repeatedly told her siblings to slow down. Don’t interfere. Enjoy life as it slowly develops and figures things out, instead of rushing through. Hence why she didn’t help or visit the Throne of Tomorrow.

“They’re whispering,” the red panda said. “The number of animals supporting the gods is shrinking. They say you’re just fighting amongst yourself. The big felines say it’s not fair that you’ve given the smaller animals tools to defend themselves. The small animals say it’s not fair that you gave all that energy to a single fox, or that you even kept him alive.”

She glanced at Alix. In all those years, every glance his way, even the mention of his name, was overflowing with anger. But Hanah looked kind, as she always did.

“Don’t try to stop us,” said Feria.

“We can’t do it anymore, Hanah,” said Darus. “Ardex, Bella, they mean well, they’re family. But we get in each other’s way and they’ve left me for dead numerous times now.”

“I am not here to stop you. I am here to help you.”

“How? Do you know more about the invisible barriers?”

Hanah grinned and flopped childishly with her tail. “At least some of them were made by me.”

“Unbelievable!” Darus exclaimed, crushing a stone in his paw. “Our family is working against us literally all the time!”

“Tut tut, don’t be like that. I thought you understood me, Darus. Zyme, remember? Let life do what it wants, at the pace that it wants.”

“So why help us now?” Feria said, her anger rising. “Why not let us fumble around in the dark until we happen to find the solution to your cage?”

“Because, with Alix at your side, you’d have found it tomorrow anyway. And … I worry about you.”

They followed the red panda until they reached the barrier. She’d chosen a spot on the Impossible Wall of Darus. But it was one of the lowest locations, very close to the Dolphin Pass. It was the shortest distance to the continent at the other side.

A Glyptodoth passed them by. A giant armadillo with a carapace that covered its entire body from head to toe, and made it look like it could curl up and roll away at any moment. They were herbivores and regularly used by other animals as a shield against predators. They were almost walking shelters, reaching for the legendary look of dinosaurs but falling just short.

That is, until the Gosti with their spears could suddenly kill one by hitting between the holes and notches in the shell. The tools had made the battle fair—for now—sharp stick against natural armor.

The Glyptodoth species had also evolved seemingly out of nowhere.

Hanah looked around until she found a blue, perfectly round boulder. It glowed without moonlight.

“Ha! Say, we were right!” said Darus. “Those are the key.”

Hanah mumbled something, stomped the dirt with her tail, and the blue boulder sent a blue shockwave ahead of her.

It was over in a heartbeat. They could see clearly now. No distortion, no magic barrier, nothing to stop them from going over there.

Hanah grinned and hugged her siblings. Feria knew it was useless asking her to stay, but she still tried numerous times. The panda even hugged Alix so hard it made him uncomfortable.

“Well. Here’s to hoping,” Feria said. “Hoping we miraculously find another fox.”

Hanah frowned, turning extra red. “Sister. You do remember you’re a female fox too, right?”

“I … I can’t … are you suggesting …”

Alix was already fascinated by every part of the beach. An entire new part of the world that nobody else had seen or visited before, or so they thought. He and Darus jumped around and yelled excitedly about the shape of rocks and the feeling of sand.

“Just promise me one thing,” said Hanah. She pulled her own Heavenmatter, the incredibly powerful Soulsplitter, out of thin air. She caressed the glowing red orb. “When you find a way to destroy the Marker Stones, do it. And perhaps, as thanks for what I did tonight, you would help me figure out a plan to keep my family safe.”

She had tears in her eyes. “I worry about you.”

Then she disappeared, climbing a tree until she was lost in the dark canopy.

“How … how are we supposed to cross the water!?” Feria yelled after her. “We can’t swim that far!”

“Oh you’ll figure it out!” said Hanah’s distant voice. “The others won’t know you’re missing for weeks!”

Darus pulled stones from the bottom of the ocean to create a precarious path. As if magically walking on water. They’d need to place their paws with precision, but they’ll eventually reach the other side.

The three of them left Origina for the first time, to visit a new continent they’d later call Garda. The sun would rise again, at least they managed that. As for what they’d see in its light … that much was unknown, but it was sure to be fascinating.

And so it was that life continued…