Jordan and Tom were both bright red.

"You didn't..." Tom trailed off as he searched for his words in his embarrassment. "You didn't, you know... stick around, did you?"

"Oh gods no!" Sonja shouted.

"Sick," Tucker added, doubling over in laughter. Tom smirked whereas Jordan grew an even deeper shade of red.

"I think that's enough of that conversation," Dianite said. "Glitter Lap's gonna turn as red as me if you keep this up."

"What are they talking about?" I whispered to Orchid, who laughed in response. Jordan's eyes darted over to us, scowling.

Tom seemed to notice something in the distance and stopped laughing immediately. I followed his gaze and saw Gaines crouched over by the covered body. He seemed to be looking through a bag of some sort.

"Hey!" Tom shouted, sprinting towards him. Jordan began to look worried.

"Tom relax," he said. "I'm sure he's-"

"What the hell are you doing?!" Tom shouted at Gaines, ignoring Jordan.

"I found this on Alva," Gaines said. "I thought maybe there would be something to explain... You know..."

Tom snatched the bag from his hands possessively.

"If you had stuck around with the rest of us while we were waiting for Tom you'd know why she did it," Jordan snapped angrily. Tom turned to him, wide eyed.

"Jordan," he said, "are you alright?"

Jordan's glare at Gaines remained as he took the bag for himself. "Martha," he said more softly, finally looking away. "Did she have Ianita with her?"

Martha nodded. "I believe so. Is there a golden box in there?"

Jordan began rummaging through the bag until recognition sparked his eyes. He reached in and pulled out a small box.

"How do I get her out?" He asked immediately.

Martha held out her hand and Jordan gave her the box. She unclasped the latch and gently pulled up the lid, pressing the small button underneath the lid twice. Purple particles swirled around us before clumping together and forming two dense figures. Mot began to back away slowly, reaching to pull something up around his neck that was not there.

When the purple cleared I could see a small child and a soft white cat. Mot looked absolutely furious as he watched the cat swish its tail proudly, rubbing its head against the red scarf tied loosely around its neck.

The girl smiled and cocked her head, looking fondly at Jordan.

"Sperioles!" She said happily.

Tucker backed away slightly, as if he had seen a ghost, whereas Jordan looked like he was about to burst into tears. "Ianita!" He sounded excited but it came out as a whisper. He set down the bag on the ground so that he could pick her up, causing something small to fall from it and into the grass.

"What's that?" Tom asked, stooping down to retrieve the item. "A ring? Why did she have a ring?"

"Mommy and daddy're gettin' mawied!" Ianita said cheerfully to Jordan, gesturing happily with his hand in hers.

"W-What?" Tom stammered. I noticed Declan had woken up and was now standing behind the group, which was now eyeing the engagement ring curiously.

"Dec, what-" Tom turned around to wake the other man, surprised to see him already looming over his shoulder.

"What are you doing," Declan asked flatly.

"Daddy!" Ianita yelled, wriggling for Jordan to put her down. Declan smiled sadly and lifted her up into his own arms. "Daddy, Katherine found a scarf!"

Mot growled softly, but said nothing.

"What's his deal with the cat?" I asked Orchid.

"He has a disease that turned him partially into a creeper," she said without looking at me.

"And?"

"Do you even know what creepers are?"

"Not really..."

Orchid sighed and did not answer my question, instead returning her focus to the group. Declan was holding Ianita, staring at the ring at the center of the group.

"You proposed?" Tom asked. Declan nodded once, not revealing an ounce of emotion. Martha walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him.

"I'm so sorry," she said.

"I was wondering when they'd find out," Orchid said.

"Why didn't they know?" I asked her.

She turned to me, annoyed. "Declan didn't want to tell them because he was afraid that it would upset Tom and Declan is kind of scared of him because as a priest he was taught not to trust Diantiees and Tom never really got over Alva, and Alva understood and didn't even wear her ring around them, okay?" She said in what seemed to be a single breath. "Can you stop talking now? It's finally starting to get dramatic in here!"

"It wasn't dramatic before?! When Alva sacrificed herself for them, that wasn't dramatic enough for you?"

Orchid ignored me, instead paying complete attention to the soap opera that was unfolding in front of us.

"Martha," Sonja said suddenly through the tension, "Could you summon us some sandwiches? I'm sure Ianita is starving."

Ianita nodded enthusiastically. "Samich!"

"You should have one too Dec," Sonja said softly as she handed him two sandwiches. Declan shrugged and kept his eyes on the ring, finally resorting to grabbing it out of Tom's hand.

"Hey!" Tom shouted.

"You have no right..." Declan shook his head and walked away from the others, hugging Ianita as she happily ate her sandwich, holding the other out for Declan. He shook his head again and sat down with her against a tree, avoiding the stares from the group. The cat followed behind them as Ianita happily unwrapped the second sandwich and started munching again.

"We need to do something about him," Sonja said softly, so as not to be overheard. "At this rate he'll end up starving himself."

"He's just too broken up over Alva," Martha said. "I'm not sure he'll ever be able to fully heal."

"Yeah, it's not like we can remove his memories of her or anything," Tom said. He raised an eyebrow at Martha. "Right?"

"Well..." She trailed off, not wanting to admit that such an invasive thing was possible. "Let's just hope it doesn't come to that."

"You're kidding, right?" James said. "You would honestly think of manipulating someone like that?"

"Only as a last resort," Martha said defensively. "He's nearly killed himself before over her, We can't let that happen again."

"Gods," James scoffed under his breath so that Martha would not be able to hear.

Jordan ran a hand through his hair, clearly uncomfortable with the standoff. "Well what should we do in the meantime?" He asked.

"I suppose we should get some houses built," Tucker said. He seemed more relaxed now that Declan and Ianita were further away.

"Now that's something I can get onboard with," James said happily. "I've missed being a building wizard, and I somehow feel much more powerful now that I'm out of Ruxomar."

James held out his left hand, creating a small gray ball of light that slowly shifted into a block of stone brick. Smiling, he walked over to the center of the small hill they stood on and started marking out a hexagon through the grass in brick.

"This can be our town square," he said cheerfully. "We can put our farms and animals and such over here, and we can all build paths out to our houses."

Martha walked up beside him and started placing spinning purple lights all around the hexagon.

"This is going to be so nice!" Sonja said, rummaging through her bag. "Oh I hope they're still in here... Aha!" She triumphantly pulled out a clump of pink roses that all still had their roots and a bit of dirt attached.

"How on earth did you manage to keep those in your bag all this time?" Jordan asked.

Sonja's eyes seemed to sparkle as she answered. "Magic!"

James chucked at her answer and she began digging up small holes around the town square, planting the flowers as she went. "There, it's beginning to feel like home already!"

Andor stood quietly off to the side, taking in everyone's actions. As the others broke off into groups to begin on their houses, he instead quietly slipped away to where Declan lay against a tree. Sensing potential drama with the wizard and his god, Orchid followed the two of them, leaving me alone to follow Andor without risk of judgment over not knowing some new obscure fact.

Andor sat down against a tree opposite Declan, smiling and scratching Katherine's head when she wandered over to him.

"What do you want," Declan asked in a scratchy voice. I noticed he had been crying silently as he watched Ianita pick the flowers around them.

Andor looked down at his hands sadly. "You... When were you going to tell me you were marrying my sister?"

Declan looked guilty when he regarded the other man. Andor met his eyes with more concern than anger.

"I'm sorry," Declan whispered.

Andor gave him half a smile and stood up, walking over to sit next to him at his tree.

"It's alright," he said quietly. "I'm not mad, I'm just... Sad that neither of you trusted me enough to tell me."

"It wasn't Alva's fault," Declan said. "I just didn't want Tom to find out. He'd probably want to kill me if he had found out before she..." He choked on his words slightly, knowing that Andor would understand what he was implying.

"Why would he do such a thing?" Andor asked innocently.

"Because he hates me," he said, continuing more softly, "and he loved her."

"But he has Sparklez," Andor said. "Wouldn't he have wanted her to be happy?"

"I guess," Declan said, unconvinced.

Andor put his arm around Declan's shoulder. "Please don't worry about Tom. You can't live your life trapped by a fear of someone else. Trust me; I learned that the hard way."

Declan nodded and I thought I could just barely see him begin to smile. Andor hugged him a bit more.

"I'm here for you by the way," Andor said. "Regardless of how the past played out, you can always think of me as your brother. You would have been, and I see no reason to change that."

Declan nodded and Ianita came running over, holding out a bundle of flowers to them both.

"Flower?" She asked them.

"Why thank you Ianita," Andor said as he took a bright purple one from the side of her bouquet, placing the stem through one of the buttonholes on his jacket. She smiled and pulled out a yellow one, sticking it behind Declan's ear. He laughed and wiped away his tears before picking her up in a hug. It made her drop her flowers, but she appeared not to mind in the slightest and just seemed happy that her daddy was happy again, however briefly.

[Author's Note]

RIP Tucker. Haha, GEt iT? 'CauSE IT's chAPTER ThreE? AM I FUNNY YET?!