The Guardians - The Collapsing of the Wall (Book 3)

Time passes differently for each of us, but also in each of the worlds. While the Human’s World was careless, a war had taken place in the Guardian’s World, one in which took part the other two Worlds, against the legendary creatures which could have destroyed everything.

The time has stopped for the first time when Claire has sacrificed herself for Lily, and the second time when the Great War has begun.

A sunset, a sunrise, another sunset, and then a breeze of the wind. Between those was silence, and only an echo resounded far away, within the Human’s World. An echo that only those who believed heard, the ones who knew that something terrible was going to happen, and they were also the only ones there who knew there has been a victory, for the echo has stopped slowly with the first rays of the sun.

All the worlds are connected somehow, in one way or another, and this is due to Lily Hunt, the Great Guardian, and the Marked One, the leader of what had become now, after six months, the New Unity.

Dozens of Bases rebuilt and gathered in one, with tunnels and magic connections, with windows and a lot of doors, with views outside, balconies, families but, most importantly, with feelings. All the battles and loses were now revenged, for history had been written by the Magicians, and the names of the ones who died in the Great War had been reminded, so the new generations would know how they had escaped the tyranny.

In the back of the New Unity, not quite far away, they could see a huge tomb where the bodies of the Guardians were brought, and carved in stone the names of those whose bodies turned into dust and ash in the shadow of the war. Here, Lily used to come every evening, and she was remembering each one of them, but especially Brook, Alice, Gloria, and she got incredibly sad when she remembered she was now alone, without her childhood friends, and that she couldn’t share with them the feeling she had every time she set foot in the new Base. She also remembered Sam and Leo, Claire and Earl too, thinking of a world where they could be with her.

It had become a habit for her to walk among the carved stones in the evening, to touch them gently, and it was so much as a habit for the Guardians to see her there as it was for her, and to offer her those couple of minutes she needed so badly. After that, Lily stepped out and continued doing whatever she was doing, her business, leading her New Unity.

The costumes were different now because black didn’t fit among them anymore. In fact, nothing that reminded them of Zoltan and Leonor had its place among them. These being said, there were now Guardians walking in the Unity as they pleased, and for training and fights, they were using orange costumes, in the memory of the girl with the hair on fire, who had sacrificed for their freedom.

Addison cuts Lily’s path when she is returning from the tomb, throwing sand and dust on her.

“Hop up!” she says proudly.

Lily rolls her eyes and keeps walking near to the car.

“I’m not even considering it!” she says trying not to laugh.

“I will never understand why you’re not getting in her car!” says Irene from the seat next to Addison.

The two of them exchange some looks, and they pretty much sound like: And you will never find out!

“Seriously now, Addison has this car for like three months, and it’s breaking apart already because she won’t stop using it! You should really take advantage of it because the color is amazing!”

“Isn’t it? That’s what I’ve thought when I picked it! Lily worked on it with her bare hands!”

“Well, I think that I could have done a better job, so I will try again with another one!” says Lily still walking.

Addison accelerates laughing, with Irene by her side, while Lily ties up her hair and nods some pretended disapprovals, which are erased by a big smile after they get away.

Yes, Addison truly was capable of changing people’s minds. She preferred to say that Lily did that through her simple behavior, but in this case, she didn’t deny that she had a huge contribution.

Lily continues with small steps to the New Unity, admiring from a distance what she had managed to do. She never said that she did all of it by herself, and she didn’t even dare to think it because she was honest and fair, maybe one of the few Guardians who was blessed with those qualities since they were children. She had never betrayed these two qualities when it came down to the others, but when it came down to herself she always had doubts. One thing she knew for sure though and that was that feelings were always first for her, a motive for which the new motto of the New Unity was: Feelings make you stronger. Regardless of what had been written on the Base’s walls for so long, Lily feels extremely proud to read those words when she walks in the hallway. They give her comfort, an internal peace which gives her shivers of happiness.

Like she does every evening, she passes by the room where the children are playing, for they had one now, not only fighting lessons. Here, Matt makes them laugh using several tricks, and she can see Addison and Isaac watching him interested from a corner. She waves at them discretely, when Addison makes her a sign to join them.

“You were fast”, whispers Lily without disturbing the little ones.

“Of course. I have a really good car”, she replies proudly.

“What’s with that car anyway?” asks Isaac curiously.

The two girls look at each other amused, and he understands that he will never find out that secret.

“Where is Irene?”

“Oh, here, there, doing some stuff. She’s walking on corridors to avoid Matt”, laughs Addison.

“Oh, so it seems she is really over, isn’t she?”

“You know me”, she laughs again.

Lily feels on her shoulders some cold hands, but she doesn’t turn around anymore. She would recognize them from thousands of hands.

“Here you were”, says Dean touching her ear with his lips.

She puts his hands around her neck, and she holds them tight right there. When Matt approaches them, without knowing his intentions, she feels a shiver.

“Now I will teach you something, little Magicians. Be careful though, for this is not a trick, it’s very much real. So you will learn to predict the future, but only for those who are truly fulfilled and pleased with who they are.”

Matt chooses little Jasmine for the experiment, and he tells her to put her palms close to Addison’s body.

“Like this. So, now you open up and feel a positive energy, the vibrations, close your eyes and let yourself carried by my powers.”

Jasmine does as she is told and she is soon covered by a red aura, which stays around her hands. She opens her eyes enthusiastic, waiting like the others for an answer.

“I believe that no one in this room knows this trick”, says Lily amused.

“You don’t know what this means?” asks Matt surprised.

When he receives a negative answer from those around him, he kneels next to Jasmine, grabs his small hands with his, and he whispers kindly, but also amazed:

“This means that the future will bring Addison a little girl. A little Guardian.”

Addison covers her mouth and, in an impulse of happiness, she jumps at Isaac’s throat, and then she starts agitating and running around the room.

“I can’t believe this!” she shouts excited, still running around.

This magic from Matt makes the children curious, so Lysa doesn’t wait for her turn and approaches her hands on Lily’s body.

“Lysa, what are you doing here?” asks Matt when he sees Lily speechless.

“I believe that I know how I can do this”, she says determinedly.

“Let’s see. Do you? If you succeed this, I will make sure I will train you personally from now on and I will initiate you among the Magicians sooner than you expect, if you want this, of course.”

“Fine”, she says still determined, under the other’s eyes.

But in her hands gathers an orange color, one that induces Matt in error for a while. His face brings concern in the other’s faces as well, but he comes around quickly and takes the control.

“What does this mean?” asks Lysa curious.

“I will do it again because I don’t think it went right”, he says.

“What means orange? A boy?” asks Dean.

“No. Now silence. I’m trying to focus.”

“Brothers?” Isaac asks in the background.

But Matt is too focused to hear him, and when he opens his eyes he has the same color around his hands like Lysa.

“You were not wrong”, he says with goggled eyes. “You did everything right, Lysa!”

“And what does it mean?” she asks insecure.

Matt approaches Lily and takes her hands, which she was holding near her chest emotionally.

“This hasn’t happened for a long time in the history of the Guardians, but you, my dear Lily, need to throw a party this evening. You are the first in so many generations who will have twins, but with different sexes.”

Lily reacts completely different from Addison, and she remains still, speechless, staring at Matt, who asks her curiously:

“Aren’t you happy?”

She clears her voice, wipes her eyes, and says in a breath:

“Of course I am happy. This is why I am left without words.”

She starts a lot of laughs around, and she is lifted up by Dean, Addison, and Isaac, who are sharing her happiness in their own ways. Soon, she is only in Dean’s arms, and she whispers touching his back:

“Oh, God. We are going to make history.”

“I hope that together”, he laughs.

Matt insists on saying that his magic works only on those who feel fulfilled and happy with their actual state, a thing that brings him peace of mind.

So, the evening starts with a party thrown by Lily for a better future, one without murders and tyrannies or traitors and total control. And even if there were some voices telling her that this freedom can destroy her someday, she truly believed that it wasn’t going to be like that. Freedom means everything for her, and she knows damn well that when you are deprived of it you tend to turn into your darkest part of your soul, and even if you are under total control, you will find a way to make yourself heard, just like she did. And she didn’t regret anything of what she had done, but only the loss of her loved ones, for she missed them every single second.

Lily had managed to inspire herself from the worlds she had visited and, after five years, she had made the Guardian’s World to look completely different. A mix between the four worlds, with music, flowing waters, but also something that looked like a sea, on which the Magicians had worked better than three years, and everything looked exactly like in the Human’s World, at least how she remembered it. The flowers and the greenery were inspired by the Sun’s Children World, and the arrangements from the rooftops where they could see the moon at night time from were inspired by the Moon’s Children World. The sand that was everywhere was obviously a part of the Guardian’s World, a view which had remained there for good. As about the Wall’s Portal, well, it had turned into an intense color of violet, which was lightening up the sky and the surroundings, without giving any signs that it would create another problem for at least the next one hundred of years.

Just like it is said in legends, the Guardians who have feelings cease to get old, so the New Unity, which had become in the meantime the Unity, could be proud of its young and fresh souls. Regardless of what she has been told, there was no revolt in the past five years, and the Unity was a big happy family, where the Guardians were learning to fight, to be prepared for their true meaning, but also learned how to love and help each other. The feelings were their motto, and as they were alone in this world, there was no chance that others could invade or destroy them anymore.

In other words, Lily had written history, one which already had appeared in the Magician’s books, and which the Guardians were telling their children. So did Dean and Lily, who were sitting on the rooftop with the view to the moon, explaining to Liam and Evelyn about the whole feel and life thing.

“You know… love is when you…” Dean tangles, trying without any luck to answer his children’s questions.

Lily is so amused by his nonsense, and she stands up, pushing aside the veil that was blocking the view of the Wall’s Portal.

“You already know what love is for it is something that you can’t describe in words. Liam, you feel it when you want to go to bed earlier, but you sit here with Evelyn to see the stars, even if you are exhausted, just because she really wants this. Evelyn, you have felt it too every time you fell asleep with the lights on, because Liam wanted to read the legends books, and you never said anything to him.”

Dean looks confused at Lily because this moment was overwhelming him.

“And I feel it every time when I’m looking at this beautiful place and when I see you by my side.”

Lily would have continued the explanations, for she always had her words, but Addison interrupts her pushing the veil from the other side.

“Isn’t it late for you guys?” she asks looking at Liam and Evelyn.

“She’s right about that”, laughs Dean getting up.

“Is Alice waiting for us in the bedroom?” asks Evelyn.

“Alice is going in the bedroom with you guys because she has followed me all the way up here”, Isaac says appearing holding his daughter.

Addison laughs while Isaac puts down his daughter, and then the three children disappear down the stairs, running and racing with each other to the room where they have slept the past few nights together.

“Did it ever cross your mind that we would be here seeing this, sister?” asks Isaac getting close to the edge of the balcony, where Lily was admiring the view.

“I was dreaming about it”, she says. “Now I know that dreams become reality.”

“I say you go down there and show the Magicians how to write the history because you have a special talent about it”, laughs Addison.

“Oh, shut up”, Lily rolls her eyes.

Addison had come prepared though, and she pulls out from her back a bottle of wine, which she opens quickly, under the eyes of the curious who didn’t notice it by then. She heads to the cupboard from the balcony and grabs three glasses because only three were left there, and she opens the bottle and pours wine for the others.

“I say to make a toast”, she says.

“What for?” asks Dean holding the glass.

A smile appears on Lily’s face, who decides to take over the word.

“For new beginnings”, she says rising the glass.

“And for the lives, our children have now due to someone’s stubbornness”, adds Isaac looking at his sister.

The evening ends with the sound of glasses, and the laughs of the four of them can be heard from the hallway. The full moon leaves behind the impression of some long shadows, which can be seen from the stairs too, hugging each other, two by two, among the echoes of the lost voices in the silence of the night.

This is how the Guardian’s Worlds looks like now, with the view the four Guardians lets everyone to see, full of everything the hadn’t ever imagined, but of everything that Lily wanted as well. She’s looking at the horizon now, at the light of the Wall’s Portal, and she smiles at peace. Yes, she has lost a lot, and she can’t get back what is gone, but she had won the most important thing that all the ones who had died had ever wanted: the freedom of the Guardians. And she felt damn good now when the nights were peaceful, the days were bright, the sand was finally stepped on by the Guardian’s feet, and the windows let the view on sight because this was the thing they had started a war in the first place.

On the lonely corridor, right next to the statue raised in the name of Brook’s sacrifice, Irene and Matt are sharing some tender moments. She looks sadly at the statue that seems to be watching them from all the angles, and she remembers the times when she used to share the room with Brook and Lily.

“Those times…” she whispers more to herself.

Even if he has no idea what she’s talking about, Matt replies with a special tone:

“The long gone times are reflected by the present times. So, my dear Irene, enjoy what you have now, for one day you may be looking back at this moment and you may say the exact same thing you’re saying now.”

“Oh, how you find your words for everything I say”, she says grabbing his hand.

The statue’s hair is the same color as Brook’s real hair, and it seems to portray her in a true way. in fact, this is what Lily had wanted, and she had worked hard along with the Magicians to build that statue in the hallway. She had thought of many ways to bring some respect and honors to Brook, and she understood that in this particular way, having her always there with them, she could have thanked her daily and have her close. Now, the girl with the hair on fire was the main hero from the books with legends of the Guardians, and she was remembered in every story that taught them about how they got away from tyranny.

In the same Unity, under the same roof, but only at heights, specifically at the last floor, Tamara is arranging her hair in the mirror. She seems pleased and fulfilled with her life, and that’s why she smiles tenderly. She puts on her lips a red lipstick, over the shirt a white jacket, and then she steps out of her room and finds her way to the office where she has spent her last years. She had managed the main problems of the Unity, for she had remained Lily’s right hand. And she wasn’t alone, but with Artemis, whom she was sharing the same office, but also the same jobs.

Artemis shows up soon, and she sits next to Tamara, on the chair with the view at the horizon.

“Another night when we look at the sky from here”, says Tamara peacefully.

“Another one”, Artemis approves.

“If someone would see us dressed like this and sitting in here during night time, they would say we are crazy.”

“Maybe there’s a trace of truth in what you are saying, my dear Tamara.”

“Do you think we went mad after all these years?”

“I believe that each of us has a little madness ready to come out to play.”

Tamara bites her upper lip tenderly. A knock on the door makes her eyes glow, and on Artemis’s face appears a smile.

“Is he here?” she asks Tamara.

“Yes”, she answers and rushes to the door.

When she opens it, on the doorstep appears a tall and handsome man, with brown hair, wearing an elegant suit, and a smile that covers all the accessories.

“Good evening, Andrew. I am so glad to see that you have come to take her away from here sooner. She started to become melancholic”, says Artemis laughing.

“Hello, Artemis. Tamara, shall we go?”

“Absolutely”, she replies with a childish enthusiasm, which she manages to hold inside in the end. “Artemis, see you in the morning.”

She nods, and Artemis shuts the door. Soon, the echoes of their steps disappear on the hallway, to the new dining room opened by Lily one night before, and Artemis closes her eyes pleased. It’s quiet and she couldn’t ask for something more. It’s perfect now for her, and she is at peace with herself. In her green eyes staring at the horizon are reflections of the Wall’s Portal. It’s fascinating to her, even if she had seen it closely, but she couldn’t have enough of the beautiful things around her.

With Dean’s arms around her body, and looking at Isaac hugging the woman he had chosen to share his life with, thinking of their children who were sleeping together in the bedroom downstairs, with the memory of the Guardian’s faces who were passing by her daily, Lily looks up to the sky and takes a deep breath.

“Thank you”, she thinks to leave herself carried by the Universe’s energy.

Between all, she had ever wanted and all that she had received wasn’t a big difference now. She closes her eyes and imagines her life from now on. This time she sees things clearly, for she has a future ahead, one created by her, for which she had worked and fought hard. The history had been written with fragments from her soul, and she was so proud of it. On this particular night, under Lily’s smiling face lies an enthusiasm she never had before regarding the future.

What was her? Many had wondered this, and others couldn’t discover it by now. The Great Guardian? Yes. The Marked One by the Dragon’s Sign? Definitely. The leader of all the Guardians? Absolutely. But the truth about who she really was is hidden in two simple words: Lily Hunt. That innocent girl who had managed to travel all the worlds and to change something in each of them, and hers entirely. She was a real mystery, a great warrior, and a loving and strong woman. This is how Lily Hunt has been described in the history books.

THE END