Lucien woke up again not too long later, finding everyone still looking at him with concern. “I’m fine,” he croaked, barely managing to get out, followed by heavy coughing. He wasn’t exactly lying though. He felt like absolute shit, but that was better than not feeling anything because he was dead. Just seeing Roddy’s face next to everyone else's made everything worth it.

  Roddy rushed forward and jumped on him, hugging him tight. Lucien felt his bones creak, but couldn’t possibly tell the kid to get off him. Neither could anyone else, in spite of their better judgement. They all left, leaving the food and water to the side, wanting to give the two space.

  “I’m so glad you’re okay.” he loosely threw his arms around Roddy, doing as best he could to hug him back. He felt something wet on his shoulder, and couldn’t stop himself from crying too. The two sat there crying, neither saying a word. They just held each other close, grateful that they could share this moment. Once all the tears had dried up, they were both left just happy that the other was alive and well.

  Lucien was especially happy that Roddy didn’t seem too shaken up by what he witnessed. He was a really tough kid. Although, that made him shudder thinking about what Roddy had been through in that bandit camp before he had got there.

  “Are you okay? They didn’t hurt you right?” Lucien asked.

  “I’m fine. They, they didn’t do anything.” He shrunk further into Lucien’s shoulder.

  Lucien felt the pain flaring up again, but he let Roddy keep doing what he was doing. They had only just been reunited after so long, so he didn’t mind indulging the boy a little.

  The two talked. Telling each other everything that had happened during the time they were apart.

  “I’ll take care of you from now on. We’ll be a family again.” Lucien was so overcome by emotions that he would have hugged Roddy even tighter if his body would let him.

  Suddenly, Roddy froze up, looking at something behind Lucien. “Rabbit?” he whispered quietly, confused.

  “Huh?” Lucien turned around despite his injuries, coming face to face with the familiar rabbit that had been following him throughout his journey. He was confused as to why the rabbit was showing itself to Roddy, as it had never done this with anyone else. Come to think of it. Roddy did see it first. Even before I did. “You can go pat it if you want.” Lucien tapped him on the shoulder, saying it was okay.

  Hesitant, Roddy looked between Lucien and the rabbit, torn between his curiosity and not wanting Lucien to disappear while he wasn’t looking.

  Lucien saw this, and smiled. “I’ll be fine. Let this old man rest a little more.”

  Eventually, Roddy got off him, making Lucien’s entire body practically sigh with relief. I swear he’s gotten heavier. Lucien laughed a little at his weakened state. He figured his bones would be crushed if Roddy was able to hug him any tighter. He reached out for the water, taking a few tries to get it and bring it back. He gulped down the entire thing, then turned to look at Roddy and the rabbit.

  During that time, Roddy had reached his hand out, hovering over the rabbit’s head, but not quite touching it.

  The rabbit looked up at him curiously, then turned to look at Lucien and opened its mouth wide.

  “I see you’ve found your nephew, hero Lucien. Well done,” a vaguely familiar voice came out of the rabbit’s mouth. It wasn’t like the past few times the rabbit spoke, where it used the voice of his dead family. He didn’t know who this voice belonged to at all.

  There was also something strange about it. It had an almost hypnotic quality to it that Lucien couldn’t quite put his finger on, like it could lull him into an eternal sleep if he wasn’t careful. It was soft and gentle, like a mother’s warm embrace. It also felt like it was coming from all around him, not just from the rabbit, but he somehow knew that nobody outside of this wagon could hear it.

  “You’ve also retrieved and bonded with the Morningstar, strengthening our connection. Your guide here shall allow us to communicate whenever I deem it necessary. For now, just know that your time in this realm is not close to ending. There’s still a lot more I need you to do.” The rabbit closed its mouth as the voice came to a stop and the air around them felt normal again. The rabbit stopped to let Roddy pat it once before disappearing.

  Lucien fell back onto his bed, processing what he just heard. There was a lot of information there for Lucien to unpack. He looked at Roddy, who was confused.

  “How? Where did the rabbit go?” It seemed like Roddy hadn’t heard what the rabbit had said at all.

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  Lucien looked at him carefully. “Don’t tell anybody about what you just saw okay?” and after receiving a nod, he continued. “You should go out to the others. I need some more rest.”

  Roddy stood there, hesitating, not wanting to leave. “But-”

  “I’ll be fine, Roddy. It’s not like I can go anywhere.” With a bit of effort, he convinced Roddy to leave, and now he was in the wagon all by himself. He wasn’t too worried about Roddy’s safety right now, though he was still vigilant. He could trust the rest of his squad to take care of Roddy, they did find him after Lucien had fallen unconscious after all. But also, they were surrounded by the rest of the army, which had only suffered minor casualties. There wasn’t anything or anyone that he knew of that would be able to get through the army and get to Roddy.

  And if there was something that could do that, he knew there was nothing he could do right now to stop it.

  He picked up the bowl of porridge and started eating, all the while contemplating about what the rabbit had meant.

  Let’s try and go through everything. First off, who was that speaking to me? It felt different from the other times. Lucien knew that there was something different about this voice. It was more alive. Present even. While his daughter’s voice had a strange distance to it, like she was talking to him from beyond the stars, this one felt like it was right there next to him. But also like it was everywhere. It was confusing.

  He felt like he had heard the voice somewhere before. Maybe even recently. But he couldn’t quite place where or when he had heard it. Since he couldn’t figure out anything from the voice itself, he decided to focus on what the voice had said, though that left him with many questions and only a few answers.

  Why did they call me hero Lucien? I haven’t done anything heroic. Although he had helped a lot of people by relaying that message, he didn’t really see it as something heroic. He had done it for personal reasons after all. So that he could get his revenge and get his only family back.

  Then there was the mention of the Morningstar. Lucien vaguely remembered Adam taking it out and using it against him, but he wasn’t sure what happened after he fell unconscious. Not until he woke up again for a moment to kill Adam. He didn’t know how long he had been out for before that, or after. It could have been for a few seconds, or for several minutes, he wasn’t sure. He didn’t know what happened during that time.

  He hurriedly searched his surroundings, or at least what he could reach from his prone position, for the Morningstar, but couldn’t find it.

  He tried to think hard about everything that had happened during that time, but it felt like whatever he was looking for was constantly squirming away from him. As time passed, and he failed to figure anything out, he was getting more frustrated and annoyed.

  Calm down. He told himself. Think. Try and remember how you killed Adam. Since he couldn’t remember what had happened while he was unconscious, he could only focus on the few seconds he was awake.

  His memory was blurry at first, but slowly became clearer. He remembered waking up in immense pain, radiating from every part of his body. He remembered people speaking, but not being able to understand what they were saying. He remembered his senses clearing, hearing what Adam was saying, slowly opening his eyes, getting up, and seeing Adam scream and rush at him.

  Then the rest of what happened cleared up, and he looked at his own hand in confusion, dumbfounded. What was that? What did I do? He remembered the spiky ball of light that seemed to shoot directly out of his hand and through Adam’s body, only for it to then come hurtling back to his body, causing no damage as it disappeared into him.

  With that thought, he began searching his own body to try and find something that would explain whatever had happened. His hand roamed his body, wincing slightly as he passed over injuries, and even over many places that looked fine, eventually settling on the left side of his chest, where his heart was.

  The first thing he noticed was just how warm his chest was there, like there was a small flame burning underneath his skin. And the moment he noticed this, it started getting hotter and hotter, almost scorching to the touch, although it didn’t cause him any pain. It was almost as if it was reacting to him finding it. What?

  He knocked on his chest while probing it, causing it to flare up again, and after another knock the heat dropped back down. It was still hotter than his chest normally would be, but not scorching hot. Okay. He sighed, rubbing his eyes. Whatever’s doing this is obviously... alive? Whatever it is, it can at least react to me.

  He placed his hand on his chest again and closed his eyes, focusing as he tried to connect and communicate with it. After a while of just feeling the heat, he noticed something else almost hidden there.

  There was a second, faint pulsing coming from his chest. It was almost perfectly in sync with his heartbeat, but there was an ever so slight difference that he couldn’t really tell how he spotted it, he could just feel the difference.

  He tried focusing on that. Trying to locate where the pulsing was coming from, and what exactly it was. Since he was focusing so intensely on it, he noticed immediately when the pulsing changed, matching perfectly with his heartbeat, and he suddenly felt a weight on his chest, like a small animal had found its way right next to his hand. The increased heat in his chest even lowered ever so slightly at the same time.

  His eyes shot open as he looked down, finding the Morningstar sitting right there, waiting for him. He looked down in confusion at the thing that looked even more plain than what it used to now that it had shed its typical rusty appearance, and couldn’t help but let out a little laugh. Even though it didn’t look the same, he was able to connect the sudden appearance of the weapon and the newfound heat in his chest with what he had seen in his memories.

  The weapon he had been looking after and protecting his family from for years, had somehow found its way into his body. And he had somehow been able to turn it into a ball of light to kill Adam. He couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of all of it. The voice didn’t call him a hero because of his actions, but because he was now just like his ancestor.

  He had somehow become the hero.