They were starting to pull out, the fae and all their allies.
Arturin had watched the long line of fae passing through the veil, two or three at a time, each taking a whisper of magic away from the world. Most were more than happy to go, but a few ... a few of his friends lingered at the bottom of the hill. Like Arturin, they had all been born to this world, and they would be the last to leave it behind.
"Nothing more we can do," Talitian said with a shake of his head. Arturin had never seen such a look in his uncle's face as the elder fae lifted a hand to touch the world one last time. Magic played at his fingers. "So much potential wasted."
Arturin kept silent. His views were too well known and had never been popular. However, he was now vindicated in those views -- too late to help the fae or the humans. The magic would be gone soon, and there would be no hope to help the humans find a better way -- to find salvation and even survival.
Talitian looked at him with one eyebrow raised but said nothing at all.
"It seems a bit rude to say 'I told you so' at this point," Arturin finally admitted when his uncle didn't turn away. "I'm sure we all have regrets at this point."
"You've ever right to be rude," Talitian said and turned to watch the fae heading through the veil and back to the lands that many had not seen in centuries. Most appeared happy enough to go home, as though all the time they'd spent here meant nothing, and the humans were already ghosts in their eyes -- left behind and forgotten. "I always thought the humans were wiser, Arturin. I honestly did."
"So did I," he admitted. He knelt and picked a flower -- a dandelion, a simple memory to take with him. Arturin could not imagine why Talitian wanted this discussion now.
He stood again, cupping the flower in his hand. He brushed a touch of magic over the petals, and now the flower would be yellow forever. Almost all the fae were through the veil, just a few of the younger ones lingering. Those were mostly friends of Corden's who had taken up the battle with him when they still thought there would be a chance to bring magic to the humans and help them past their own destructive tendencies.
Too late now. Too late as fae after fae passed back into their own world --
"Arturin," Talitian said, a hand suddenly on his shoulder. "What would you do if the veil closed right now?"
"Do? I'd go home to my house and join my human friends --"
He stopped. The look on Talitian's face told him that this was not a 'what if' question at all. He felt a shiver pass through him and didn't know if he came from fear or hope.
"Uncle?" he whispered.
"You were right. A little magic spread to the others, and not hoarded for ourselves, would have changed everything here. Do you think it is too late?"
A serious question and not much time to contemplate. Arturin's friends still lingered at the edge of the veil, looking back at the two where they stood on the hill. They knew the question he'd been asked.
"Arturin?"
"I don't know," Arturin replied. It was the only real answer he could give. "Could a handful of us make a difference when the humans are already so firmly on this path? There will be war -- we know it. And more wars after that, ever more destructive. That path is set. Can we still nudge them another way? Maybe a few. Maybe enough --"
"Your choice, Arturin," Talitian said. "I can't say how long it will be before another veil might come this way. I can't say you'll survive -- the humans are volatile. Even your friends might turn on you if you start to show them what you can do."
He nodded, but his heart had settled suddenly. "It's a chance I'll take."
Talitian smiled. Honestly smiled for the first time in years. "Then I'd say we have some work to do, don't we?"
"You will stay?" Arturin asked, surprised again.
"If you will have me," he said. "This is your work, Arturin. I'm not going to step in now and pretend that I hadn't opposed even the best ideas that you've had down through the years."
"I would be honored to have your help."
Arturin turned toward his friends -- about twenty of them, he thought, we acted as though they only waited for him to join them. The last of the line of fae started through the veil, including Scoland, the eldest. He had also been the one most opposed to any link with the humans, despite living in the same world with them.
Scoland stopped and looked back, a frown on his face and his shoulder's straightening. Oh, he'd picked up the plan without a doubt, and he'd never agree. Arturin's friends were starting to back away from the elder fae, a whisper of worry coming from that area. Scoland lifted a hand --
But it was no attack that came. Instead, he took a chain from around his neck and sent it flying through the air -- and not to Talitian. Arturin caught the chain -- and the key that it held. The way to open a gateway back to home.
Scoland stepped through. The veil shimmered and disappeared, leaving the last of the fae standing in the light of a summer sun. Birds began to sing in the tree nearby, and a rabbit's head appeared in the grass.
He saw hope in those animals.
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