Needless to say, Alex “forgot” to build the sleep chamber, and no one seemed upset about that.
As for the palace, Alex decided not to build one at all, and instead put a lighthouse with a lookout tower in its place on the top of the hill. For the time being, he appointed Gunnar Haluki to watch over the new annex, reassign jobs to all the people instead of just the Necessaries, and make sure the farms and animals were being nurtured properly. Gunnar asked Claire Morning to teach the Quillens how to make the most of their new situation, and she began by showing them how to funnel rainwater off their roofs into barrels so they wouldn’t have to travel to the fountain to get it. They’d always have more than enough water to go around for people, plants, and animals.
With only a little grumbling, the people of Quill settled in to their new Artiméan-made homes, and life returned to almost normal.
Henry Finds a Purpose
Back in Artimé, the last of the injured had recovered from the battle against Gondoleery, and the hospital ward stood empty. Henry Haluki had been a permanent fixture there over the past months, and was often regarded as the go-to healer since he was seen there the most, though he still took orders from Ms. Morning and Carina. But just because there was no one for Henry to heal didn’t mean he had nothing to do. He used his free time to work with plants from his greenhouse, experimenting with their medicinal properties and creating new, more potent strains that would make his healing serums more effective. And every day he painstakingly added to his store of proven medicines so they’d never be in short supply again.
He spent a little time with other people—the nurses sometimes helped him bottle up the medicine—but he was often lost in thought these days. He hadn’t quite forgiven himself for not saving Meghan Ranger. Yet whenever he thought about giving her the glowing seaweed he’d gotten from Ishibashi, which would’ve extended her life indefinitely, he knew that he’d done the only thing he could. He’d obeyed Ishibashi’s command: Never use it on any human without their permission. Meghan had been near death by the time Henry saw her—perhaps she was dead already. But Henry never had the opportunity to ask her, and so he’d stood there, holding the seaweed, looking on helplessly at her still body.
Alex had unwittingly helped Henry come to terms with his guilt after the fact. And now Henry knew that if he was forced into the same predicament with the head mage’s life hanging in the balance, he didn’t have to agonize over it. He’d asked Alex a hypothetical question about having the chance to live indefinitely, and Alex had told him point blank that he wouldn’t ever want to have his life significantly extended by unnatural means. It was a relief to know.
And now that their world was finally at peace, Henry was extremely glad he didn’t have to worry about it anymore.
But even though they were at peace, Florence started up Magical Warrior Training again, knowing Artimé could never be too prepared. One day, Henry was outside cutting some leaves from his greenhouse plants that Ishibashi had given him. He paused now and then in his work to watch the training, and felt almost wistful.
On the end nearest him was Thatcher, a young teen from Warbler who was about Henry’s age, perhaps a year older. He had black curly hair and dark brown skin, and orange eyes like all the Warbler children. He wasn’t intimidated by the instructors, and he liked chatting with them. His obvious ease with more authoritative figures was striking. But the blond-haired Warbler girl next to him, Scarlet, was all seriousness, especially in her attempts to mess Thatcher up without him noticing. Henry watched Scarlet for a moment, and then his eyes strayed back to Thatcher, and he observed the Warbler boy’s carefree spirit and sense of humor when he joked with Florence and Ms. Morning.
At one point Thatcher caught Henry staring and smiled at him, raising a hand in greeting. Henry smiled back and quickly looked down at his cuttings. “I might need to take a class soon,” he said to nobody in particular. He gathered up his cuttings, and then walked in a wide circle around the students to keep from getting accidentally struck by a poor throw.
? ? ? ?
On the day after Alex finished expanding the world, he walked past the hospital ward on his way to the kitchen to get a snack and noticed that every bed was empty for the first time in a long time. He paused, then went in, seeing Henry working alone at the laboratory table with something bubbling merrily in a beaker nearby.
“Congratulations, Henry,” Alex said. “Empty beds. Now that’s an accomplishment!”
Henry looked up. “Thanks. The last one checked out a couple days ago. Did you finish the expansion in Quill? Anybody give you trouble?”