As quickly as the people had set up the tables, they took them away. In the Square, now, instead of festivities and fun and laughter, was sadness and shock and mourning and grief. Even relief.

The people at the table who stood up to help Eeva and Mikkael's escape, including Daria, along with the council members, Aimos, Goddard's mother and Calysa's brother, lay before the crying people who stood with candles. The bodies were lowered into the ground.

Luka looked at Eeva, who was forcefully stone faced, trying to give her people strength to latch onto, as she lowered a flower onto her father, and grabbed his silver crown from his head. She passed Mikkael a golden flower which he lowered onto his mother's body. She couldn't hold it together any longer, and as dirt filled the graves of the fallen, tears rolled down her cheeks, her face still as stone. Mikkael clung to her, and she held him close, her last family member.

"We remember those who have fallen so we can live on. Passed on, but never... ever... forgotten," Eeva said loudly to her people. Her voice quavered at the end, but only Luka noticed.

"Never forgotten," the Orcas said in unison, along with their words: "compassionate, open, resolute".

Luka and his group of Hosts waited off to the side, allowing the Orcas to mourn as one.

Luka said to them, "They have a train underground that circles the continent. It's how Lleyton was always one step ahead of us. With secret exits scattered and churning all over the continent."

The group absorbed the information, shocked, but understanding. Rosaya remembered the man she thought she had seen disappearing into the ground and kicked herself, her eyes not tired after all. Luka thought of the earlier Outlanders he had dispatched appearing from the brush near the Ring. Tristan asked Luka, "How do you know?"

"Lleyton raised me down there. I escaped and they tried to kill me when I learned the truth. That we were the monsters. We, the Outlanders."

The group looked at Luka with wide eyes. They didn't see someone evil before them, especially Laplan. They saw a victim. A victim who broke through the façade the Outlanders had created. Signey asked, "If he just wanted to kill you, why train you into what you are? Into a soldier?"

Luka shrugged. Nothing appeared to make sense.

Adrian said, "That woman you met in the Ring, Maeve. You told us she spoke of some man she was scared of. Do you think she was referring to Lleyton?"

Luka shook his head, and replied, "No. She was talking about someone else. Someone worse."

The crew shuddered.

Tristan gently nudged Luka closer to the funeral proceedings. The Orcas saw him on the outside, and brought him close, hugging him. Arms around him as one of their own. Eeva spotted him in the crowd, and through wet eyes, softly smiled towards him.

Calysa and Goddard also found their way down to the burial, Luka and his crew finding them locked in Aimos's chamber and releasing them. The people were overjoyed to see them okay, their remaining family members hugging them tightly. Calysa mourned with her mother, both saying goodbye to Calixo as they softly cried together.

After some time, Calysa joined Luka and the Hosts. Luka could tell she felt guilty for the massacre, like her winning the Island Games caused the events to unfold, like she was responsible for her brother's death. Of course, Luka's guilt was greater. He didn't have the courage to tell that truth.

"Luka... how did you know?" Calysa asked him, not understanding why Lleyton had spared her and Goddard, and how Luka knew that they would be spared.

For several moments, Luka lost himself in Calysa's eyes. Grateful didn't even begin to describe Luka's feelings as she came to him, safe, as he had somehow knew she would be but was thankful all the same. Her eyes were red from crying but as beautiful as ever in the moonlight. Every piece of him wanted to embrace her. Seeing someone as pure as Calysa so throughly wounded felt like a dagger in his heart. He wished he could take her pain for himself.

Tristan noticed Luka searching for words and speechless and came in himself. He said to her, "Luka saved each of us. We are Hosts from each province. While Lleyton was killing the Sixes and the people, he spared each of us. Luka knew he'd do the same for you."

Calysa looked back and forth at Tristan and Luka, and asked, "Why me? Why not Goddard and his mom or my brother and Goddard or..."

"You happened to be the only female Host left around our age," Tristan said to her. "I guess Goddard just got lucky."

While he had everyone at once, Luka revealed his silver jewel to the Hosts. The others who had collected them brought theirs forth, too, along with a confused Calysa.

"How did it come into your possession?" Talia kindly asked Calysa.

"I was swimming one day... in the ocean, off the south pier our people almost died in. Something beckoned me deeper. Not a voice, or a light or anything I could see. Just a feeling, a feeling to go as deep as I could, and to dig my hand in the sea floor. I found it, I found it deep in the mud. It was a strange day, to say the least. It was the day after my father died. What is it?"

Luka knew the feeling. He had the same one when he was drawn to the jewel in the tree outside of his native city, digging his hand deep into it to retrieve.

The Hosts all came to the realization the revealing and retrieval of the stones came shortly after family was lost, after unbearable grief. In Luka's case, the realization of loss when he saw his family's grave. Or perhaps after he left the only family he knew behind at Orconia City.

"I'm not sure," he said to her, "I think that they call to the Hosts. I don't know what it means. But maybe they're why Lleyton was sparing all of you. Maybe he wanted these found."

Calysa looked at him with wide eyes and said, "You're a Host?"

Luka modestly nodded, and the other Hosts vouched for him. Luka told her his entire quest. How he was chased into the Ring. How he made his way home, discovering who he was, his family and the jewel. How he saved Tristan and Rosaya, then Adrian and Signey, and then Laplan and Talia. He didn't have the heart to tell her who he really was – not right now. What his relationship with Lleyton actually was. His crew noticed this, too, and kept his secret. Calysa felt she was looking upon some sort of war hero, yet he simply felt lucky. Lucky to have the friends he had.

The Orcas sang a somber song as Luka looked upon where Aimos was buried. He wished he could have said more to him. He wished they had a future together. Now, they had to rebuild without him. Aimos would have wanted Luka to stay with his people, fight for them.

After the burials, Eeva, Calysa, Goddard, and Julien summited the steps in the Square back towards where Calysa and Luka sat for the Champion's Feast. Luka and his group watched.

The people looked towards the New Gen leaders. It was the group of the next leaders, primed to take over after Aimos or the cabinet was gone. He trained them for such a moment, and now it arrived too soon, whether the young adults wanted the responsibility thrust upon them or not.

The crowd watched as they deliberated, for at least half an hour, with so much to discuss. Julien seemed unhappy, but he seemed to relent to his three other members over a certain topic.

Eeva stood, and addressed her people, her voice strong and confident through the sorrow she felt in her heart, reaching the very last person in the large crowd.

"Tonight, we have lost people braver than we can comprehend. Who sacrificed themselves to save me and my brother," she began, pointing to Mikkael in the crowd who was collected after the group trapped Lleyton in the sea. The people also looked to Luka, who they saw running on his own, diverting the soldiers away from Eeva and Mikkael, fighting the soldiers on his own, ultimately saving them all.

Many nodded to him, and he uncomfortably nodded back. He was not at home in the spotlight. And he wondered deep down, if he hadn't provided the idea to his former comrades how to smuggle in the weapons, would he have been needed at all. Would Aimos still be alive. Him saving them was meaningless if it was his fault to begin with.

"In that loss, we have also gained new friends," Eeva continued, her hand directed towards Luka and his group of Hosts. The Hosts gave a gentle wave to the crowd of people, and many in the crowd gave them a gracious bow despite their sorrow.

"As you know, I do not have my father's powers. It is something I cannot control and can't forgive myself for. But I have my mother's, Thaia's, Gifts. I have your Gifts. I am one of you, my siblings, and I will die for each of you as we move ahead through these dire times."

Eeva paused as the crowd clapped.

After breathing in deeply, and to the shock of the crowd, she said, "That is why I will not lead at this time. I cannot take the Sea Crown. I am no military mind, but I am a good leader. And good leaders must know their weaknesses," she began, the crowd exchanging glances with each other.

"Once my younger brother acquires his powers of the Six, he will be King. Until then, I call upon Luka Fenria, the Lone Wolf, the last Host of his kind, but a son of Orconia City, to guide us through these times. Luka, we ask you to take this responsibility. To help us."

It was the first time he heard her call him by his real name, and it added a surrealness to it. The thousands of people went silent and looked at him. They looked at their interim leader. They looked at the one who risked his life for them, knowing he would try his best, knowing he was capable of things that they couldn't fathom, glad to have him in their ranks, and even more glad to have him at the helm. Yet, they felt somewhat uneasy giving control of the province to a non-Orca.

Some, including Julien's father, as well as Goddard's father, sat down disgusted with the choice of the New Gen leaders to appoint Luka their leader. The New Gen had deferred to the man who had been through hell and back, expecting his experience to best move them forward through the hell that may await them.

Luka felt slightly angry with Eeva for burdening him with and thrusting upon him this impossible task. He did not want it. He would stay, and fight, but he was no tactician. He was smart, but not smart like Maeve or Lleyton or Eeva even. He was trained as a tool of war, not the wielder of the tool. It was Eeva who devised the plan to capture Lleyton, not him. He felt no more fit for the role than any, but all eyes turned to him.

With eyes gazing upon him from all around, and his crew of Hosts pushing him towards the stage, he slowly walked towards it. The people cleared as he made his way there, some nodding towards him as he walked, others averting their gaze. Luka could tell Eeva wanted him to provide the people some answers for what had happened, but he felt as though he knew just as much as them.

He scaled the steps, and softly smiled at the new leaders when he summited, Julien not meeting his eyes. Eeva sat, which confirmed his suspicions. He would have to address the people. How much could he tell them, mere hours after their invincible leader was stabbed to his demise?

"I will take this responsibility, if you ask it of me," he started, yelling below. "I promise that the actions I take, whether the decisions I make are right or wrong, I promise that... to the best of my ability, they will be decisions I think will keep us safe."

He paused a moment, looking back at Calysa and Eeva. A sudden wave of warmth washed over him. The night could have gone so much worse. Both of these angels seated behind him, so different yet so alike in so many ways, could have been empty seats.

He then said, "I can confirm that my Host friends, their cities, their people, they suffered a much worse fate than us. Wiped out. By the same man we have trapped tonight, who has united Outlanders against us. Us trapping Lleyton is a small victory that we should be proud of. Even with trapping him at the bottom of the ocean, however, I fear that we still have enemies we will have to come together to defeat."

He continued, "I want you to hug your loved ones. I want you to sleep, I want you to rest, I want you to try and laugh. Nothing will happen within these walls tonight, except for being thankful we have each other. It is what Aimos would want of us. Tomorrow, at midday, we will meet back here. And we will tell you our plan, how we move forward," He finished, motioning to the leaders of the New Gen behind him. He would not take this responsibility alone. He needed help.

The crowd silently saluted the last Wolf as he sat down. Luka knew he had to give them a night with their families. The road ahead would be long and hard. He had planning to do, decisions to be made. Maeve's words weighed down on his conscience as he thought about the threat she said was worse than the Outlanders. Travel east, she had said to him.

How could they, with the remaining armed Outlanders outside? How could he convince the people to vacate the walls, now? How could he convince them something was worse than the horrors they just endured? Luka was even starting to doubt Maeve's grave warning. Nothing could be worse than the horrors he witnessed tonight.

The citizens began to clear the Square, back to their homes with their families. Goddard and Julien returned to their remaining families and walked home, slowly.

Calysa hugged Luka and kissed his cheek, hers was wet on his with tears. "Thank you," She whispered in his ear, before walking down below to her teary-eyed mother.

Luka wanted to chase after her. He couldn't bear to think of her being alone, broken and grieving with only her mother, but he knew better to impose. As he watched her walk away from the Square in the darkness of the night, her arm around her mother and her dress dancing in the moonlight, Luka realized he didn't deserve her friendship, nor her gratitude.

He could try and run from his feelings for Calysa, but he couldn't run from his role in her brother's death. Redemption seemed impossible, but he would fight for it. For her.

Eeva and Luka walked down the steps to the lower stage which was connected to Eeva's facility. Mikkael and Luka's crew were waiting there.

"Eeva, we would be very grateful for a bed, even if in the prison complex," Laplan said awkwardly, the crew punching him in the shoulder, with Tristan offering an extra slap atop his head.

She looked at the strange assortment of Hosts Luka had collected, and said, "Come with me. No heroes of the city will be in any such bed, Laplan."

They followed Eeva and Mikkael to the grand chamber, the spiral staircase, and the royal guest chambers of Eeva's facility.

"Each one of these rooms was where your leader once stayed, whenever they visited my father. I hope it provides you some solace. Some peace. You are welcome to stay with us for as long as you need."

The Tigers knew immediately which room belonged to Panza. Same with the Bears knowing which belonged to Aaron, and the Ravens knew which one was once Nik's, as they peered inside the dimly lit rooms which the servants were preparing, a magnificent bath of colors and rich aromas awaiting them, with dark golden towels and beds which they hadn't seen for days.

Eeva had provided them an amazing gift, an incredible gesture. A night, with the last of the people from their cities, feeling close to their former leader who they tragically lost, while in a strange foreign place. Eeva displaying her tact and grace.

The more affectionate Adrian and Signey hugged Eeva tightly and thanked her. Talia kissed Eeva's outstretched hand politely, and Laplan gave her a nod. Tristan and Rosaya warmly shook her hand, and offered their deepest condolences and thanks. The Hosts wished goodnight to everyone, Tristan giving Luka an extra nod, and the Hosts disappeared into the rooms together.

Luka dreaded the thought of his new friends leaving in the morning. He needed them, yet now with Lleyton stuck at the bottom of the ocean, it would be natural for them to want to return to their provinces and gather their rural citizens, and exact justice on the other caped Generals.

Mikkael hugged his sister goodnight and wrapped his arms around Luka. He thanked him. It prompted tears to form in all their eyes. Mikkael entered Eeva's chamber, not wanting to be alone tonight. Sorrow and exhaustion sent him into his immediate slumber.

Eeva said to Luka still in the hallway, "I'm sorry for springing that on you. We agreed that we need someone with... experience in what we face. Everyone has seen what you're capable of. I've seen what you're capable of. We need that experience right now."

Luka replied, "Eeva you would be a fine leader. I will help as I can. I owe it to Aimos."

And he felt he did. He was brainwashed as a child to think Aimos and his siblings were monsters. That Eeva's people were oppressors. He gave the idea to Trent and his men how to get the weapons inside. Each bullet that struck an innocent person was partially because of him. The guilt weighed heavy on his heart, and he couldn't tell her tonight. Not yet. Probably not ever.

He could fight trained soldiers, he could face the Creatures of the Night, he had fought Remainers and an Imposter in the depths of the Ring, he could face the immortal Lleyton on the pier. But he didn't have the courage to tell Eeva his role in what happened. He felt like a coward.

Eeva slowly nodded and looked at her feet. "My brother is fifteen years of age. If he gains my father's powers, he will be the only one on the planet with his abilities. I promise he will be leader if that happens, and I'll relieve you of this task I can tell that you don't want."

Luka nodded, and averted his eyes from her.

"So... are you going to tell me about your quest? Your memory?"  She said to him, leaning against the dark hallway, her arms folded.

Her words cut through his thoughts like a sword.

"Didn't Calysa fill you in, on what happened to the other provinces?" He said to her, ignoring her second question.

Eeva said, "She did. It was brave of you, saving all your friends. Why did you do it?"

Luka hesitated a moment, and then said, "I thought of my parents, my brother. How they must have felt when they were killed, screaming for help but no one coming. I had to."

She absorbed what he said, and then noticing he dodged her second question, she said, "Your memories, Luka. Have some come back?"

He couldn't tell her everything. Not his role in the city coming under siege. But Eeva was smart, she knew he was hiding something. He had to reveal a piece of him.

"My childhood, Eeva. Lleyton raised me. He raised me as a soldier."

Her eyes widened but she kept listening.

"Somehow, I was spared when all the Wolves were massacred. He must have taken me with him somehow when he went into hiding. We lived in the underground, he bred me to hate the people on the surface, told me they were monsters and he never let me come up from under. Not until his quest was complete, he always said. When they were sent here to destroy Orconia City, I wanted to help. I secretly followed some of Lleyton's men, here, outside of these walls. It's when I saw you, Eeva."

Eeva looked up at him, stunned. Her emerald eyes glistening in the moonlight. What he was telling her was heavy.

"I saw you with your students,