Mint blinked and looked up at Valen.

"Excuse me?" she asked, confused. Her voice was a bit more mature, a bit less whiny, but not completely different from how it had always been.

"Mintazene," Valen breathed, still in total shock. "It's you…But how…?"

"Don't look at me," Mint said, equally bewildered. "I have no idea what's going on right now." She blinked again. "And what do you mean 'Mintazene'? My name's Mint!"

"'Mint' is short for 'Mintazene'," Maya said softly.

Everyone turned to her.

"Since when?" Mint asked, still baffled.

"Since always." Maya couldn't look at Mint, or anyone else. "My dear sister…we are…not related."

Mint shook her head. "I don't…"

"Father found you," Maya said. "Valen left you as an infant suspended in space and time; Father had you brought to life and took you in. But you were too powerful, and everyone feared you…so they put a binding spell on you to make you human. They kept it a secret from anyone who didn't already know, including me…and you."

Mint looked down at herself again.

"Humans put a binding spell on my daughter?" Valen asked, rage rising back past the shock.

"Actually, it was Ruecian who did it," Ruenis spoke up. "He altered the doll-binding spell to work on her."

"He was given a place among our kingdom's most elite magicians in return," Maya added, still looking at the floor.

It was hard to say who present was the most stunned or confused - the three human bystanders, Valen, or Mint. No one could say another word; what else was there to say?

At last, Mint bent down and picked up her Dual Halos. As soon as she touched them, a jolt of electricity sizzled through her - it was as if she'd never actually touched them with her bare hands before (which, in a way, she hadn't). She could feel all the magic she had gathered into the golden rings over the years literally at her fingertips, sensing and understanding it in ways she could never have imagined before.

Even bending down and standing up again felt strange. It was as though she'd always put extra strain into every move she made, and now the need for that effort was gone and everything felt too easy. Her mind, conversely, felt sluggish. Nothing made any sense. In barely two minutes, everything she thought she knew had been shattered. Not only did she not know who she was anymore, she wasn't sure what she was, either!

"What am I?" she asked at last, addressing no one in particular.

"You're an Aeon's daughter," Maya said tonelessly.

"Meaning what?" Mint exclaimed.

Maya sighed. "I don't know," she admitted.

"I didn't know Aeons had kids," Belle commented.

"We didn't," Valen said, still collecting himself. "Mine is the only one." He flickered out of existence, then back in next to Mint - because he was a spirit, walking was pointless.

Mint turned and stared at him. He stared back, his expression unreadable.

"You look just like your mother," he said softly at last. "Except for your eyes…My eyes…"

Mint shook her head. "My mother?" she repeated. "Didn't you make…me…out of thin air or something?" Damn, that's weird to say out loud.

Valen shook his head but said nothing.

Maya walked over to her not-sister, still staring at the ground. "Here," she murmured, not looking up, and she held out the king's diary to Mint. "This was in the locked drawer in Father's desk, along with a note Valen left behind explaining what you were."

Mint took the book. She glanced around hesitantly, unsure if this was really the time to read it, but everyone, including Valen, still looked too shocked to do much for a while, and she decided she might as well find out what was going on.

Reading had never exactly been hard for Mint, but she'd never really had much patience for it, either. Now, though, she was willing to take time to make sense of whatever was happening, and once she opened the book, she found herself processing the written words much faster than she normally would have. As she learned why - that her attitude her whole life had essentially been due to perpetual grouchiness from fatigue - she began to wonder how much of the person she'd been for so long was really her. Apart from her mind being clearer and her body seeming a little more cooperative, she didn't feel that much different, apart from being utterly confused…but…

She read the last of what she needed to know, then let the book simply drop to the swirling rainbow floor, closing her eyes. This would take a long time to come to terms with, perhaps forever. Everything she'd known was a lie - as cliché as it was, that was the truth. Although…she remembered that little doll that had burned up in her hand. It had been one of her favorites, with pink hair and a blue dress…She had all but forgotten about it, though…

She lifted a hand to her face and touched her forehead, wondering. There was the life stone - pink, if nothing had changed since she'd been bound (which it hadn't), but otherwise basically identical to the ones Rue and Ruenis bore. Except, nothing had been broken apart to make it - instead, it had been created just for her, and had grown with her body. Her 'heart, mind, and soul', all encased in a thing that she didn't understand…

Wait.

Nothing was broken apart to make this, she thought, but Valen broke apart a pane of the Dewprism to give life to his dolls. His precious Dewprism, which he cherishes like a child, and which he would never go anywhere without or let anyone else use…

She opened her eyes and glanced around the room of color and light quickly. Everything shone with different colors like a prism, and the ring she'd taken still glowed with grass-green light on the floor…but Valen's precious Dewprism was nowhere to be found, even though he floated right next to her.

"Maya," she murmured, willing no one else to hear her (and thus making it so without realizing it).

Maya finally looked up at her, her eyes wide.

"Get Klaus, Belle, and Duke out of here," Mint told her not-sister quietly. "Now."

"Wh-?" Maya began to ask.

"Because the Dewprism isn't here," Mint said, anticipating Maya's question. "Get them out while I distract him."

Maya blinked, then ran over to where the other humans stood by.

Mint turned to Valen. "Father," she said, commanding every bit of his attention with that one word.

Valen's eyes widened; he wasn't used to being called that, as only Ruenis ever had before, and that had been but minutes earlier.

Mint tilted her head. "Were you really going to completely destroy the world with me still in it?" she asked, not angrily.

Valen flinched and recoiled. "I…I didn't think…" he stammered, not at all the high-and-mighty all-powerful Aeon he normally tried to be. "I didn't…think you might still be waiting. I was sealed away for so long, and you…"

The humans were almost back into the study, but Mint needed to make sure Valen stayed focused on her. She shook her head. "You should have," she said. "I shouldn't exist."

Valen's eyes widened even more, suddenly blazing, not only with surprise, but also with anger. "You don't appreciate-?"

"I know you thought what you were doing made sense," Mint said, "but you shouldn't have, is all."

The great Aeon's ghostly fists clenched, rage twisting his expression once more. "Even you?" he whispered thunderously. "Ruehi betrayed me, my own dolls rejected me, and now even you insist on standing against me?!" He flickered out of existence again, then reappeared back over the rift through which he'd reentered the world.

Here it comes, Mint thought, quickly reaching down and scooping up her mother's [relic], far from sure what she was planning but not about to let that stop her. The ring's glow brightened in her grip, perhaps recognizing the daughter of its maker, but Mint couldn't tap into its power like this - she had to wear it.

Rue and Ruenis, meanwhile, were running at Valen, apparently having also guessed what was going on…just barely too late.

"I've had enough!" Valen declared, casually tossing his dolls across the room with a flick of his not-hand. Rue and Ruenis hit the far wall and dropped to the floor heavily. Valen then raised his insubstantial arms, and out of the rift rose his pride and joy, the all-powerful Dewprism.

"You still can't use that without a body, though!" Rue exclaimed, pushing himself to his feet. "And you can't make it your body! Remember what happened last time? You lost control!"

"Silence!" Valen thundered.

Mint slid the glowing green ring on her left ring finger, and suddenly, it was as if a lens had fallen into place. With just a glance, she could see the madness in Valen's eyes, read what he intended to do. He didn't care about control anymore, about using the Dewprism to rebuild the world according to his vision; he wanted only to destroy.

And she knew the one way to stop him.

The daughter of Ruehi raised her hand, holding her mother's [relic] to the ceiling and the sky above. Ancient words, word she hadn't even known she knew, sprang to her lips:

"Lah-kou-tae!"

This intonation got Valen's attention. The Ring of Life grew bright, shining once more like a grass-green star, just on the verge of drowning out the other colors of light that filled the room. Energy swirled around Mint like wind as she called on the ancient, powerful magic. She couldn't see it, but the pink stone in her forehead glowed almost as brightly as her new [relic].

Her eyes met their twins in Valen's face. "I will not let you do this, Father," she told him.

"You will not stop me!" he howled, madness finally drowning out even his regal demeanor. "There will be no more!"

"Only for you," Mint replied. She was about to close her eyes, but just in time, she remembered Rue and Ruenis. Quickly, her eyes found Rue. Run, she thought at him desperately.

Suddenly, it was as though time froze for all but the two of them, as Mint inadvertently called upon the power her father had used to create and distribute all of his dolls across the world in the moments before his body was destroyed and his spirit was sealed in another dimension, so long ago.

Mint? Rue's question was perfectly audible, though nothing moved. What are you going to do?

I can stop him, Mint told Rue, but you and Ruenis need to leave. I have to do this alone. Hurry - you'll have seconds at the most.

Thoughts that couldn't be captured in words flitted between them in less than a millisecond, and they reached an understanding.

Rue hesitated. Sister… The unfamiliar word echoed across the aether, and Mint saddened momentarily.

Goodbye, brother, she said. Then she mysteriously added, Don't ever doubt that you have a heart. Follow it - though you may end up like my father, if you don't try, you will always wonder.

Even she wasn't sure why she said that.

Then the millisecond passed, and Mint returned her focus to Valen and the magic she was calling on.

Valen was already shedding what remained of his person and changing to a form of pure light, ready to surrender himself to his creation of infinite power and infuse it with his madness, thus bringing about ultimate destruction. Mint quickly tossed her Dual Halos around her left arm even as she lowered it and held it out at Valen. Normally, she aimed her magic with her left arm and channeled it through her right, but this time she needed to combine the magic of her mother's [relic] with her Dual Halos - which, she took a split second to realize, had actually always been a [relic] in their own right. But there was no time to think about that now.

"Stop!" she shouted, firing magic between Valen and the Dewprism to keep them apart. It would only last for ten seconds, but that was enough time. Behind her, Rue had grabbed Ruenis and was sprinting out the portal in the wall with his brother in tow.

She tossed her Dual Halos back into her right hand, and raised the Ring of Life to the sky once more. "Lah-kou-tae!" she cried again. "Lah-kou-tou!"

The green light of the ring and the pink light of her life stone grew brighter and brighter, until they merged together, forming a blinding light of pure white. Too late, Valen realized what Mint was about to do, but nothing could stop the magic now, not even the Dewprism. There was a flash, and then a swirl, as the entire room was scooped out of existence and pulled through the rift in the floor, which then turned in on itself and vanished in a massive implosion.

Rue and Ruenis barely made it out the blue-and-gold doors to join Klaus, Belle, Duke, and Maya before the anti-explosion rocked everything and sent everyone tumbling to the floor. Order returned surprisingly quickly, and when the remaining attendants opened their eyes, there was nothing but a crater where the central chamber of the Ruins of Ephlesia had been.

Everyone stared in silence for a minute.

"So…that's it?" Belle asked at last. "It's all over?"

"I guess so," Rue said. Even in spite of the forewarning he'd had, his mind was reeling in the face of everything that had just happened. It had all gone by so quickly…

Klaus stood up and ran towards the wreckage. Luckily, most of the study had escaped the dimensional shift, if not damage, and to his relief, a lot of the ancient texts there were salvageable. He started gathering up books without a word. When he had more in his arms than he could carry, he put them all in a stack just outside the door, then went back in for more, as everyone else just stared at him.

Finally, Rue stood up and went to help Klaus gather the books. Ruenis soon joined him, followed by Belle and then Duke. Between the five of them, they could just barely carry every single tome that had been inside, and they all started walking back out in silence. They didn't need to follow the spiral path anymore - every enchantment on the ruins had broken, leaving a clear passage straight to the exit, where the first rays of dawn light began to shine through the doorway, lighting up the ancient building at last.

~o~

The following few days were very strange.

Mira, Elena, and Prima Doll were relieved when Klaus finally came back to the inn where they'd been staying, but this relief was quickly replaced by shock and awe as they were told what had happened. The other inhabitants of Avalon were the next to know, and quickly became curious as to what this would mean for them; sure enough, when night came, the unease that had once enshrouded the land proved to have lifted - insects and owls made as much noise as they pleased, and even the sounds of some of the less-friendly inhabitants of the nearby wilderness could be heard occasionally.

Maya quickly returned to East Heaven, feeling almost rushed to let the general public of the world know everything that had happened. When about a thousandfold of the normal amount of tourists began to flood Avalon in the wake of her news, Rod's business also bloomed, and he chose to stick around a lot longer than normal.

Klaus and his family had a hard time arranging for all of the books from the ruins to be transported back to Carona, but Klaus was adamant about having all of it. He would be the one to possibly fill in several blanks in ancient history, as was his dream, and it would probably help him make a living a lot more easily, too. However, during the arrangement for transportation, a few of the books mysteriously vanished, and wouldn't resurface until ten years later, after the new chunks of history had become famous with the public, in a few pawn shops across the continent. Belle and Duke vanished mysteriously as well, never to be seen again, though somehow, their various debts all over the world would eventually be paid in full by unknown means.

As for Rue and Ruenis, they weren't sure what to do for a little while. Ruenis wanted to return to Claire immediately and continue his relationship with her, hopefully in a much more normal manner, but Rue was torn. Mint's final words haunted him with surprising persistence. Finally, as Klaus and his family left for Carona, Rue decided to part ways with his brother and visit Carona himself. When Ruenis asked why, Rue told his brother, "You and Claire will probably want some time alone, and…there's something I need to…take care of."

Ruenis didn't question this, and they parted. Rue wasn't entirely sure what he was doing, but he knew he didn't want to say goodbye to Elena, at least not yet, and that was enough.

~X~

Silence, that was full of sounds. Prismatic triangles forming and shattering in all the colors of the rainbow and more. No weight, no up, no down, no left or right, no near or far, no right or wrong. Thought and emotion sang, while everything physical was muted, hazy.

Father…

Mint's thought drifted through the space, a lavender ribbon slithering through the prisms.

Mintazene. Valen's reply was a midnight blue, almost black, a sharp contrast to the bright colors that filled the shattering and reforming prisms.

Silence passed in a tremendous cacophony.

Why? Valen asked at last.

Because you weren't thinking clearly, Mint replied.

You joined me here…

You've been alone for way too long, Mint said. Alone with your thoughts…with your heartbreak…it's driven you mad.

Valen's azure voice became lanced with red lines like lightning bolts. I have done nothing but suffer at the hands of others. Everyone I respected, even everyone I created, all of them turned on me for things I never asked for.

People fear power in others, Mint agreed, and some bright-pink bubbles of laughter began popping in her lavender voice. Maya was sure scared of the idea of me becoming more powerful than her. And for good reason, I guess.

To be powerful is to be alone, Valen said, the red fading, replaced with pale blue rivulets like tears. With all the power I was born with, I could change everything.

But all things as they are now have a right to be as they are, Mint said.

She reached out, and their minds touched, exchanging thoughts faster than time could measure. Mint felt Valen's sadness and pain, and caught glimpses of his memories of her mother. Likewise, he felt her own sadness. She wasn't angry, and she wasn't hateful; she was still confused, but no longer uncertain. Mostly, she was sad that she'd never be able to be a full-grown Aeon in the real world, never learn what she could do, how powerful she was.

In this dimension, feelings manifested physically, like all immaterial things - Valen's heart had literally spent centuries beating in agony, broken as it was, Mint could see that now. But it was still there. Mint could see that, too, without any doubt.

You thought all things as they are now were yours to conquer, Valen said at last.

Mint did laugh this time, and bubble-gum pink bubbles flew around and burst, shattering the prisms of color everywhere they popped, putting on a dazzling display of color and light.

I guess I got that from you, she said. Thoughts took their time to form in her mind for a moment, then came out: I would still like to rule the world, same as you. I guess I just never really thought about how anyone else might feel about it.

And now? Valen asked, odd violet swirls appearing in his words.

Now…I think I'd be a lot better at being queen of the world, Mint said, little flashes of pink still lacing her voice. I wouldn't be focused only on having everything for its own sake, like humans so often do.

I don't want to rebuild the world for the sake of my own gain, either, Valen said. I just want to fix everything broken in it, and there's so much…

Not as much as you think, Mint said, a strange tenderness, unfamiliar to her, turning her lavender voice a soft mint-green, like her mother's eyes had been. Mother was surprised by the way you dumped everything on her so suddenly. She could see this in the little glimpses she'd caught of Valen's memories, made clearer to her by her mother's [relic], and possibly also by the essence of her mother that was part of her being. You were very sudden, and very…passionate. You scared her. But she didn't hate you.

Ruehi always understood everyone, Valen said, a bit of red flashing through his words again, and when she encountered something about someone that she didn't understand, she refused to rest until she did. But she didn't even try to understand me.

You scared her, Mint repeated. She didn't know for sure that Aeons were actually subject to the same emotions as humans - your abrupt and overwhelming display surprised her too much for her to even try to make sense of it.

And how do you know this? Valen demanded, a pale yellow mixing with the red to create an even more menacing undertone. You weren't there.

I'm her daughter, Mint said, and that was all there was to it.

Existence continued for a bit. Both Mint and Valen thought, but both kept their thoughts private from one another.

We may be here forever, Valen said at last.

Maybe, Mint said. Or maybe one of your dolls will reach another access point one day.

If they do, will they only release one or the other of us, or will we both be able to escape? Valen asked.

I don't know, Mint replied truthfully. I only hope it doesn't happen for a long time. A few more pink laughter bubbles scattered through the unspace. We have a lot to catch up on.

And Valen's mood changed from a storm cloud to a cloud lined with silver. Elsewhere in the unspace, the Dewprism and the Ring of Life waited together - the [relics] of the two greatest Aeons who ever lived, together at last, as they always ought to have been.

Credit goes to penname "ReLiC AnGeL" for Mint's pink life stone.