10. Epilogue

The Moon and the Sun had three car accidents, but survived them all. The palace was returned to ruins before they’d even reached the shore. Chonib managed to get a foreign ship and arrange passage on it.

From the ship’s deck, they saw columns of smoke that pinpointed the locations that once held Ottojon’s largest cities.

In Floria, the nice jackals gave them protection. They, indeed, had practically no army. And the lonely Florians assumed that the world would just believe Chonib and Enra had died during the attack.

Lucky once more, as his rhino friend would have said. They received a second chance at life.

And the Florians were right. Soon, news arrived that Ottojon had fallen, including its capital and all its leaders. They even changed Ottojon’s flag to represent the two bears: a crescent moon with a star in the center. A tiny bit of respect or memorial for their enemy. Though Enra later learned that the Sumiseri already used this symbol, which meant there was a long pedigree of Moon and Sun beings in Somnia’s history.

It also meant the entire empire was suddenly without a leader.

When the initial wave of battles in the Second Conflict was over, the victors came together to distribute the land. It was cut in pieces, like dividing food among your children at the dinner table, or a garden into different areas for different vegetables.

Or, Enra mused as he looked at the shard still in the pocket of his uniform, like a vase shattering into pieces and everyone received one shard.

Casbrita, the Frambozi, the all received some plot of land they had no use for, but did tax.

And that, dear reader, is obviously a recipe for more conflicts. Something victors would never learn, unfortunately. In a century, they’d still wage war in old-Ottojon, because some claim the land is theirs, while others claim it is theirs, and another abuses the situation to get rich from selling weapons.

“Why couldn’t they just leave the country whole?” Chonib repeatedly said. “Bring peace and leave them alone?”

Then she’d shake her head, snuggle up to Enra, and paint the moon once more.

Jaco, the sort-of-king of Floria, kept buying the paintings on the advise of an energetic gazelle. To hang on the walls of a pyramid or something.

He still laughed when he remembered that Enra had kept his identity secret for so long, for both himself and others, as Demigod of the Sun.

“Your name literally means not-Ra, or not-sun. Your parents gave their absolute worst try at hiding it!”

Today, Jaco was a little more serious when discussing Ottojon’s downfall.

“Well, as they once said, no empire without downfall. And as for you, Enra, and what you experienced … remember: no power without the powerless.”

Chonib smiled. “Ah! I’ve found another reader of the books of Ardex and Bella?”

Jaco shrugged. “Gidi teaches me to write. She’s given up teaching me to count.”

With a glimmer in his eye, he looked at the next beautiful painting from the Moongoddess. “But I also know: no life without art. Truly, those beige sand walls are making me sick and hurting my eyes, but with these paintings on the walls …”

Gidi, the slender-horned gazelle, regularly visited.

“Well, erm, well, now, like, I wouldn’t mind if you experimented and painting a few things that were not the moon.”

“I can paint the sun!” Enra said.

“He can approximately paint a circular yellow blot,” Chonib corrected.

“Who says what is and isn’t art?” Jaco said. “If it makes you happy to draw completely incorrect suns, then—”

“Puh. I think it’s time we move on,” Enra said as if offended.

Ardex had understood that the godchildren would not be around forever. His children, the demigods, were probably meant to succeed them. But now they, too, were chased and hunted in a new world-wide conflict.

Enra and Chonib eventually left Floria to find their family again, if they still lived. They knew they were in danger everywhere, if anyone found out they were demigods with magic. It almost made them lose hope. Ever since that very first fight between two groups, whatever it was, the world was stuck in andless cycle of hate, murder, and conquering others.

But as long as they had each other—because they had each other—their light of life would never go out.

And so it was that life continued …