The Nominal Hero, chapter 13: After

Everything had gone quiet. An expectant hush lay over the crowd of Nouns, and over the human audience as well. A few flakes of snow drifted down.

And out of the woods came the witches.

They should have looked silly, Caden thought: twelve identical people with heads like cartoon toadstools, gazing out from behind square glasses like the ones Caden--(he touched his face)--like the ones Caden used to have. But instead the witches only looked otherworldly, their strangeness adding to their dignity somehow.

It was Mushroom who broke the stillness. They jumped down from the stage and strode to the border of the trees, and spoke rapidly and urgently to the witches, in a low voice that Caden couldn’t hear. The witches swayed in unison, listening, and then a few of the closest inclined their heads in what might have been agreement. Mushroom bowed, and came back.

“What was that about?” Caden asked quietly.

Mushroom shook their head. “Later.”

“Okay, but what--” Masami began, but then stopped, because the noise had started.

It was the same eerie humming they had heard from the witches before, but this time it sounded less threatening, and more triumphant.

One of the witches stepped forward, turning their silvery gaze upon Caden. He met their eyes calmly. The witch smiled.

“There was a young hero named Caden,
With worries and cares heavy-laden.
His powers unfurled,
He brought forth a world
That all of Nounkind was remade in.”

They stepped back among their fellows, and all together the witches raised their hands. The shadows between the trees brightened, turning silvery-green.

In ones and twos the Nouns stepped off the stage and walked into the woods. Some looked back at Caden, smiling or nodding, before they went. Orrery gave a jaunty wave. Dirigible floated down out of the snowy sky. Sphinx tossed their head and roared.

At last only Mushroom and Duck were left. “I told them we wanted to take a minute to say goodbye,” Mushroom explained.

“Did it work?” Caden asked. “Did things change? The past, and the war?”

Duck nodded. “I remember that world, but it’s like a dream,” they said. “I lived on a farm, and never went anywhere. It’s hard to believe.”

“You still live on a farm,” Mushroom said, grinning.

“Well, yes, right now,” Duck said, “but I’ve been to the Crystal Caverns, and the reefs of the Clement Sea, and seen the sun rise over the ice mountains of the north. Now I’m home for awhile.” Their beak clacked as they chuckled. “It’s good to have somewhere to stop for a bit and plan my next adventures. I don’t think I used to like the place very much, but it’s much bettwe when I have the choice whether to go or stay. Now, when the wild ducks fly over--” They stretched their wings wide. “I can join them, or not, exactly as I choose.”

“We’ve gone on a few expeditions together,” Mushroom added. “I’ve made a number of botanical discoveries, plants with amazing magical or biological properties. There’s so much out there to see.”

Caden sighed.

“Why so glum?” Mushroom inquired.

“The glasses are gone,” Caden explained sadly. “Used up.”

“That means no more adventures,” Masami realized. He looked stricken.

“Pfft,” Duck scoffed. “There are always more adventures.”

“I’ll miss you, though,” Caden said.

“I want to see more magic,” Masami said plaintively. “Or science,” he added.

Mushroom grinned. “Keep your eyes open, kid. I don’t think adventure’s done with any of you yet.”

The shadowlight flared from the forest. “Time to go,” Duck said, and wrapped their wing around Mushroom’s shoulders. The two of them turned, and walked into the trees, and vanished.

The children looked at each other. “What do we do now?” Hunter asked in a small voice.

“Now you explain who’s going to pay for this!” someone snapped from behind them. It was the woman with the badge, looking furious. “You’ve destroyed the stage!” She waved at the platform, which, Caden realized guiltily, was party burned, and partly dissolved, and partly sprouted, and partly eaten, and partly in bloom. “Your so-called show is a disaster!”

“Dude, are you kidding? It was awesome!” one of the members of the audience countered.

“We’ll fix it,” added one of the construction crew from the other stage. “That was so cool.”

“Like magic,” added one of the Irish dancers wonderingly.

“Are you going to do any more shows?” another asked.

Caden laughed, despite himself. “I have no idea what’s going to happen,” he answered. He grinned at his friends and sisters. “No idea at all.”

“Come on,” Ruth said. “Let’s go.” She took Paz’s hand, gathered the others by eye and led them out of the parking lot. Up to the road by the woods they went, in the gently falling snow.

“What do we do now, though?” Hunter repeated.

Caden realized, with some surprise, that he knew the answer. “We go home,” he said. “Like Duck said. That’s what you do between adventures.”

Out of habit he touched his pocket, but the glasses were still gone. He had a feeling they weren’t going to come back.

But there were Hunter’s powers, still, which they’d only started to figure out. There was Paz and whatever her connection to the Nouns’ world was. And there had been that moment at the end, when Caden had known the right thing to do--when he’d felt, just for that instant, that he really was Caden the Summoner, and understood the world. The moment had passed, he’d let it go, but that didn’t mean it might not come again.

Keep your eyes open, kid.

“Come on,” he said. “Race you to my house.” He took off running.

“No fair!” Masami shouting, pelting after him. Laughing, they tumbled through the snowy afternoon, and the world they were in, for the moment, was enough.

The End.