Secret Novel Epilogue

Flora looked around at the three other mages that stood to her sides. Professor Simon, Sarah, and grounds-keeper Monet. All of them stood in the center of a circular lecture hall, but there were no students in the rows looking down at them. Instead sat a number of professors from not just this campus. There were even two members of the high council. The resources used to get all those people here must have been monumental. Flora felt fear and apprehension about how this was going to go. She wasn’t used to feeling fear anymore, but her sis—brother baring fangs and growling at her like a demon, had brought back those deep terrifying feelings that she hadn’t felt since visiting the chained demons. Even then it wasn’t as bad as what she felt with Edwin.

“Then what did she do?” One of the council asked Monet.

“She deflected my attack back at me. I was too surprised to counter and got hit. Then she blew something in my face—”

“I think it was a nightcap flower,” Sarah added.

“—and then I fell asleep. Woke up without my cloak or even any of my shoes,” the grounds keeper said angrily.

“Are you sure she stole them?”

“Yes,” Flora finally spoke up. “Sh—he told me he did.”

The audience then looked to Sarah. Sarah was the most frightened of them all. She hadn’t been here half a year and now she had helped someone who wasn’t a mage. “Madeline then used a spell to tie me to the ground… Then she made me tell her where the hent was before she put me to sleep, too.” The poor girl was shaking with fear as she spoke, though whether it was from Madel—Edwin or the council, Flora didn’t know.

“You also said she had a demon’s eye, large animal-like ears, nose, and tail?” Sarah nodded in response

“As well as fangs,” Flora added. They didn’t pay her any mind.

“Then she—”

“He.” Flora wasn’t sure anyone was paying attention to her trying to correct their pronouns and names.

“—went to the laboratory, and why weren’t there more people there besides you, Simon?”

The mage in question stepped forward. His hair was entirely gone, and most of his body was covered in healing bandages. It was a little suprising he was able to get out of bed. “The hents were attacking in a group, and everyone left to either go see it or fight them.”

“I still find it hard to believe that hents can work together,” a professor said.

“One of them killed nearly thirty of us in one attack,” another said. “I saw it with my own eyes. And the naturalist said that hents were more intelligent than we previously thought.” There were a few scoffing sounds from around the room.

“Either way, we must accept that there was an attack on us by both the hents and this naturalist,” one of the council members said. He turned back to Simon. “Then she burned down the hent we had captured, as well as you and the laboratory? Why didn’t you try and stop her?”

Simon sneered. “I tried at first, but she— he was far stronger than I expected, and appeared to be trained to fight. I tried to send the hent after he—him, but that appeared to be what she wanted. Then he breathed fire like a dragon, and when I say dragon I truly mean like a real dragon. Then… You know the rest.”

The council member nodded at him, before turning to Flora. “So this Madeline is your sister?”

“No,” Flora hissed through clenched teeth. “He is my brother Edwin, not my sister.”

“But physically she is now female, if with animal-like parts?” A professor asked.

“Yes.” Flora almost spat the words out.

“Then you tried to fight the naturalist?” Another asked. Flora nodded. “But she was still too strong for you.”

Flora wished she could growl like Mad—Edwin, but even just the memory of the growl scared her to her core. Flora had to steel herself from the memory of the growl. “Sh—He tied me to the ground, and deflected any magic I fired at he—him. We then talked…”

“About what?”

“She is able to have bloodmoons. I mean he!”

“Naturalists can use magic and still have children?” The second council member spoke up.

“It sounds farfetched, but it could be true,” said a member of the audiance. “There isn’t much information on them anymore.”

“He was telling the truth. S-he is a terrible liar.”

“Did you talk about anything else?”

“Madeli—Edwin also has made friends with a demon and his family.”

“She is powerful enough to chain a family of demons?!”

Flora paused and shivered hard remembering how casually Ma—Edwin had talked about befriending demons. “She said that they weren’t chained.”

Another scoff. “She had to be lying. No one can be friends with a demon, let alone an entire family.”

“Like I said before, my sis—sibling is a terrible liar. They are extremely easy to read.”

“So you believe her about the demons?”

Flora felt a shiver run up her spine again at the idea of meeting an entire family of unchained demons. “I wish I didn’t, but I do.” There was some light chatting around her before she spoke again. “He said that the Maze can think and feel. That when you're a friend with the Maze you can do strange things.”

“Like what?”

“She walked through the hedge as if it wasn’t even there, just like hents.”

There was a long pause before the council members all looked at one another. “We need to do more research into naturalists.”

“She said naturalists are called witches,” Flora spoke once again.

“Whatever they may be called, we need to know more. Someone walked straight onto our campus without our knowledge and was able to burn down a laboratory, destroy one of the only hents we have ever been able to capture, attacked four of us, injured one of us heavily, and left before we even knew she was there. That is unacceptable.” There was a sound of agreement from all around the room, even from the four of them standing from the center. “I suppose we have a lot of work to do now. Go on,” one of the council members said, waving her hand to disperse everyone. “Get to it.” As everyone was leaving, she pointed back at Flora. “You need to tell us everything you know about your sister.”

“Brother,” Flora tried once again to correct them, even when she knew she was struggling to call Mad—Edwin what he was.

[I can't believe its finally come to an end. This story has been such a massive part of my life for over four years and I'm still shocked I even shared it at this point. I have so much I want to ask you guys, but I'm afraid of asking too much and overwhelming you. So I guess I'll just keep it to three questions if that's not too much for you. Please don't feel pressured to answer if you don't want to.

First I would just like to know if there were any moments that were really memorable?

What did you think of the story overall?

What do you think I should do with the story? For a long time I've thought about trying to get this more traditionally published. I still think I would like to be able to hold a physical copy of this story, but some people have really been pushing me to publish, specially focusing on the money making aspect, and I'm tempted to put this on scribblehub just to spite that.

Thank you all so much for reading my story! I really appreciate it more than I can describe.]