Nope, this isn't the last part either, but I promise next part will be lots and lots of Sparksize nostalgia. xD There are some piratey reunions and grog in this part though! And Jem, I see you there. Go write your paper.

The night was blissfully uneventful for me, and I left with the tide. Sonja shoved Tom off a cliff sometime in the night, but she didn't find my hiding place in the old spleef arena the wizards built. I turned my comm off, stowed it in my bag, and turned away from our island to look at the open sea ahead of me. The others would hardly recognize me in the tatty old outfit I wore today, even if they'd known to watch the docks for my departure. A worn and patched blazer covered a much abused shirt that might have once been called "white". Faded black trousers torn about my knees completed my shipboard outfit. This was actually the original outfit I'd worn when Tom found me washed ashore on the island.

I'd clean forgotten I still had it until I found it yesterday in the bottom of a chest. It would serve me well here; I was working my passage to Ianarea aboard a Mianitee owned galleon. Ianitee ships didn't make their way out here often, and I wasn't sure I trusted a ship captained by one of the Modesteps. This captain seemed competent and looked to keep an orderly crew and vessel when I requested a tour earlier in the week.

True my attire earned a few sneers from the oh-so-properly-uniformed greenhorns at first, but no one said anything after we hit a squall on the third day out. They didn't look so prim and proper then. The captain and more seasoned crewmates thought it was rather funny too; they had wisely saved their dress uniforms for dock days. So it was the few veterans and I who were properly dressed when the galleon pulled into the harbor at Ianarea on the eighth day.

Ianarea was a site. Last time I'd been here it was decimated by Dianite's attack and utterly lifeless. Now it was quite the opposite. The place looked almost as busy as Dagrun had been in Ruxomar. There were people everywhere, forming a bustling community. There was a windmill running on one hilltop and a lighthouse on another. Ianite's tower rose in the distance, rough and clearly unfinished. Some of the houses, businesses, and harbor had been rebuilt out of local spruce and oak wood and cobble—some of it visibly charred from Dianite's attack. Other buildings had been built entirely out of new materials—I guessed these were the more recent builds. Part of the harbor was in the process of being torn up and renovated with these newer materials, though work had stopped for the festival tonight. The harbor was packed with empty ships, and we just found an open dock at the very end. It was almost like someone knew we were coming.

To my surprise, Rupert the Grey was waiting for us at the dock when we pulled up. He still wore his signature red coat with gold shoulder stitching and looked as spry as ever. He and a few dock hands helped us secure the ship before I bid the captain farewell and disembarked. I waved at the harbor master on my way off and met Rupert with a firm handshake. I didn't expect him to pull me into a hug though. After nearly crushing the air from my lungs, he released me and looked me over with his one eye. "Yar can't have been gone eleven years, matey! You don't look to have aged more 'an a season's turning."

I chuckled. "Yeah, I've been getting that a lot. And what about you? You haven't aged a day either," I pointed out.

"Aye, but that's because I be undead, laddie," He corrected with a hearty laugh, lifting his hat to show places where his exposed skull had been chipped and cracked. Rupert had been saved from his zombie state by Ianite when he was much further gone than Tom. He didn't exactly smell, but he was a bit unsettling to be around until you got used to him.

I wonder, If Ianite had had her full powers when she tried to revive Capsize, if she would have turned out like Rupert or Tom? I discarded the thought before I could dwell on it long; envy was not an emotion I needed. Ianite had done everything she could at the time. "So how long have you been alive, anyways?" I asked as we strolled casually down the dock.

"Alive? Forty years. Undead?" Here he fell silent to consider. After about ten strides, he'd finished figuring. "Aye, I reckon it's been over three hundred years now."

"WHAT?!" I choked out, stopping in my tracks. How in Mianite is that possible?! Yeah, he's undead, but he was mortal before. Tom still ages normally. Why wouldn't Rupert?

Rupert shrugged and stopped to wait for me when he realized I wasn't beside him anymore. "That's my perk for having some of the goddess's power. It be different for each—yar, what are they called?—acolytes! That's the word."

Wait, so he's like Steve? "So you have powers?" I asked, still trying to get over the fact Rupert was so old.

We started walking again, meandering our way into the town, as Rupert shook his head. "Nar, laddie. Me lady's gift is all tied up keeping me as you see me," He said, holding his arms wide and grinning as best he could with the skin on most of the left side of his face missing. I knew that eye patch covered an empty, boney socket from Tom daring Rupert to take it off on our last voyage here. Sonja had almost been seasick at the sight. His right eye was black like Tom's were. I tried to focus on that one, lest I get queasy at the memory.

"Well then... So, uh..." I struggled to find a different topic, looking around me for some help. A little boy with a ball ran past with a shaggy terrier chasing after him. The two ducked into an open doorway, and I could hear a mother's scolding soon after, making me grin. "How have things been here? It looks like rebuilding is going well."

"Aye, things be going swimmingly. That Spark fellow's got a good head for building and organizing, though he be a bit progressive for my taste." Rupert went on and on about the changes Spark had suggested that bothered him, like the windmill and lighthouse; apparently Ianarea wasn't very tech savvy before it was burned down. He started nitpicking smaller details that all seemed like improvements to me, and I held back my laughter with an effort.

As the afternoon rolled on, we left the town behind and crested the last hill before we could see Ianite's tower across the inlet. Construction here appeared to have stalled as well. The bridge had been rebuilt and looked very solid, making me think of winter storms rolling along the coast. The damaged tower blocks had been removed and set to one side in a haphazard pile, and the cleanly cut blocks of new stone rose about three stories high with pink marble twining about the exterior in a pattern I couldn't make out yet. A boat with a pulley system was anchored beside the small island the tower stood on, and another pulley system and stacks of scaffolding lay disassembled near the stack of new blocks. According to Rupert, Ianite had insisted they finish building the town back up before they bothered with her tower. Her temple itself was untouched, and she wouldn't hear of her followers living in tents while they built a monument to her. Her proper temple was in Aethoria, but this was a good place for her followers to offer prayer or petition if they didn't have a way to get to that part of the End.

Speaking of which... "Hey, Rupert, how are we getting to Aethoria? I thought Redbeard said you need a magic ship to get there."

Rupert's black eye gleamed as he motioned me back towards the town. "Aye, that he did." I followed him as we trekked back through the town by a much shorter route. I noticed that the streets were nearly deserted now. As we approached the dock, I saw that the Mianitee vessel had already left. They were a day behind now because of that storm, and the captain must have decided to make up for lost time. I knew I'd have to find a different ride home when I came here.

Strangely, now the townspeople were all gathered at that empty dock, waiting in what I could only assume to be their party finery. Women in dresses, men in suits and uniforms, kids in uncomfortable, miniature versions of their parents' clothes. What the...?

I shot Rupert a confused look, and he grinned smugly. "Yar remember how that scallywag Brokkr stole Redbeard's ship?" How could I forget? That jerk was the whole reason we'd had to jump into the Void. He marooned us in Aethoria. "Well, me lady didn't want a repeat of that. So she bound a new ship to one person. Me!" He said triumphantly, snapping his fingers as we walked up the crowded dock.

I stared in amazement as a large vessel materialized in the water before us. A few of the children giggled or squealed in excitement at the trick, and I let a short laugh escape my mouth. "Now that is something."

A hull sleek and dark as obsidian rode the waves lapping against the dock, and masts with furled, purple sails towered overhead, creaking gently in the evening breeze. The dock hands placed a gangplank and started helping people aboard as I stood gaping at the massive ship. A thought suddenly occurred to me as I stood there. "Wait, does that mean you're a captain now?" I asked.

Rupert was positively beaming as he nodded. "Aye. It be about time. I be no gentle hand at the wheel like Capsize, but I'll be steering her true." Captain Rupert slapped me hard on the back and led me towards the gangplank. "Come along, laddie; we be losing daylight."

The deck of Rupert's ship was packed, but I managed to squeeze my way to the starboard railing where I didn't feel quite so pressed in on. The ship moved like a dream, though the turns were a bit jolting the way Rupert steered. I half suspected he did that on purpose to make the children scream and laugh in mock terror; he was certainly grinning wide enough to make me believe it. I chuckled and shook my head, looking to the horizon for some sign of the portal we'd be taking.

"Yar won't be finding the portal there, Captain Sparklez," Rupert called from the wheel, grinning mischievously. "We've improved on travel since then." Before I could do more than furrow my eyebrows in confusion, Rupert pressed a button I hadn't noticed on the side of the wheel. The whole ship started humming beneath my feet, and the hull—which actually was obsidian, I now realized—started glowing. Light shown through the planks in the deck as the beacon engines sped up to an air-shaking whine. The purple sails filled as the sun touched the western horizon, and with a bright flash, we were no longer in the Overworld.

I blinked spots from light-dazzled eyes to see a familiar and haunting land—Aethoria. The land had been wrapped in autumn oranges and yellows when last I was here, but now bright greens and floral whites, blues, and pinks were everywhere I looked. The quiet was the same though. A sense of peace and safety hung in the air like incense, and I could feel myself relaxing despite the memories I had here. I took in a deep breath of the scented air as Rupert smoothly pulled the ship alongside the floating island's dock.

Rupert and I waited until everyone was off before leaving the ship. As soon as the gangplank was brought back to land, the ship vanished as if it were never there. That sure makes it harder to steal, I thought appreciatively. Rupert wandered off to talk to some of the citizens, and I followed the general flow of the crowd as they proceeded up a large causeway towards Ianite's temple. The buildings here had been built up and repaired too. Vines and damage from several centuries' disuse had been stripped, paint had been reapplied in vibrant purples, accented in obsidian, and grounds had been tidied and gardens planted. It looked like there were permanent residents now that transport between the End and Overworld had been reestablished, as several of the houses had lights lit and smoke rising from the chimneys.

I was so busy taking everything in that I almost missed when I walked past the building where we fought Dianite. I still wasn't sure what that building was originally, but it looked to be a museum now, or at least a memorial. The ender crystal Dianite had warped into his personal shield still sat at the center of the circular space, though it had been reformed now. I looked a little more closely and realized there was a bloodied arrow encased in the rotating crystal. The arrow Tom shot Dianite with...I didn't think Ianite was one to keep trophies. That thought troubled me as I walked around the next bend.

The gates to Ianite's temple were open when we arrived, and people streamed through, laughing and talking. The fountain in the center of the courtyard splashed merrily in counterpoint to the rising and falling voices and the sharp notes of instruments being tuned. Lanterns hung about the walls and torches lined the stone brick space marked out as a dance floor. Tables of food and several bars and punch bowls had been set up. I heard a familiar raucous laugh across the crowded courtyard and spotted Redbeard behind the main bar, tapping a fresh barrel. He had a hint of grey showing in his beard, and his skin had lost the tanned leather quality a seafarer's life had given him, but he seemed almost...happy.

I smiled at the sight but didn't have time to work my way over to him. The temple doors swung open, and a hush fell over the gathered throng. Here was our Lady, resplendent as always. Everyone simultaneously kneeled, and Ianite's light voice told us to rise and enjoy ourselves.

Someone shouted a toast to Lady Ianite, and drinks were quickly passed around. I cheered just as loudly as the rest. Any reservations the crowd might have had didn't last long. Redbeard's rum and wine made certain of that. I indulged myself as well, thoroughly enjoying the fast pace of the foreign music. When was the last time I didn't have to worry about the world ending or some evil threatening everyone I loved? At some point in the merrymaking I spotted Spark standing next to Ianite's throne beside the temple entrance, talking with her. Good for him. He's a better champion than me anyways, I thought bitterly before downing the rest of my drink, light mood suddenly gone. I wasn't sure how many I'd had by that point, but I was sure one more wouldn't hurt.

When I stumbled away from the dancefloor toward one of the bars, an older woman stopped me and handed me a fresh pint, taking my empty one. "Here you go, Jordan. You shouldn't run dry on a night like this." The lady gave me a wrinkled smile and raised her own mug of wine in a silent toast to me. I toasted back and drank, a bit surprised by the earthy taste of the—was that wine? It was good but didn't seem quite right for wine. I examined the dark contents of my pint in confusion for a moment before shrugging and downing the rest of it, enjoying the pleasant warmth it brought.

When I looked up to thank the lady for the drink, she had vanished. I spun around but couldn't spot her in the mass of people. After standing there lost for a minute, I remembered that I had been on my way to the bar. Redbeard's red face met mine at the counter. "Yarr! If it isn't Sparklez! I be hearing rumors that you'd returned, 'an aren't ya a sight for sore eyes...well eye!" He said with a guffaw, flicking the patch over his right eye as if he'd forgotten it.

I laughed back and leaned against the bar. "Good to see you too, Redbeard. Isss been ages," I slurred.

We chatted for a little bit, and I drank part of another pint before Redbeard looked at me funny. "Yar feelin' alright there, Captain?" He asked.

"I'm fine," I insisted. "Are you fine?" He was leaning at an awkward angle that didn't look at all comfortable. Huh, the sky's at an angle too. Funny. I leaned back to better see the black sky as fireworks started bursting overhead.

I kept leaning and felt someone grab my wrist and pull my arm over their shoulder. "I think ye be a bit far in your cups tonight, Sparklez. Let's be putting you somewhere safe to sleep off that grog."

I wanted to protest and stay for the fireworks, but walking was taking all of my concentration just then. The floor was rolling fit for a gale. When did we get on a boat? I was about to ask when I spotted a familiar face holding a side door into the temple open for us—the old lady from earlier. We passed her and entered a cool, dark hallway, and my eyes grew heavy. An odd thought drifted through my mind as I stopped feeling the floor beneath my booted feet, I've never met that lady before. How'd she know my name?