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Epilogue

The trip to Altair IV was uneventful. In an effort to raise funds for transport back to Thanagar, Nurdan Pal and Paran Dul hired themselves out as maintenance and janitorial workers in a local hostel. Nurdan could have made lots of money quickly as a hired assassin, but he honored his promise not to kill for Paran. Within fourteen standard months, they'd saved enough that they could either buy transport back to Thanagar or make a down payment to purchase the inn they'd worked at.

It took Nurdan and Paran about ten seconds to decide what to do. After they bought the inn, Nurdan purchased earrings for Paran.

The two former warriors of the Thanagarian Empire became innkeepers, running a small hostel, occasionally frequented by the local Green Lantern who had enabled their rescue. They'd hear first hand from this Green Lantern, who became their friend, about the death of the Justice League's Green Lantern and his Thanagarian teammate.

They would surprise their friend by not grieving for the loss of their fellow Thanagarian. They did grieve, however, when their Green Lantern was killed by members of the Legion of Fire during the Oan Civil War.

The two Thanagarians would have a son, whom they would name Nurda after Nurdan's father. Dul and Pal would remain on Altair IV, as widely respected members of the community, until Nurdan's death twenty-three years later from Teaposin Chills. Paran was inconsolable and after Nurdan died, she and her son returned to Thanagar where the Gordanian High Council allowed her to teach mechanical engineering in the secondary schools - after ensuring she was properly re-educated.

Paran would die on Thanagar six years later in the classroom as a result of an explosion caused by a student teacher in the next room mixing two mislabeled chemicals together. Paran and the student teacher were the only ones killed in the resultant blast. Rumors circulated for years afterwards that Paran Dul was killed by surviving members of the old guard for failing in some covert action during the War of Liberation.

Nurda Pal left Thanagar two weeks after his mother died and wandered that quadrant of space for five years taking odd jobs. During his travels, he stopped on the planet Galtos, and unbeknownst to him, sat at the same table with the woman and her child that his mother had sworn a blood oath against.

Nurda didn't ask the woman about her family line because he recognized his mother's family crest on the woman's helmet. This woman and her human mate would feed Nurda that day, press coins in his hands for transportation back to Thanagar and wish him a long and peaceful life.

Nurda Pal would return to Thanagar using the money the woman provided and within thirty years would become a respected public official who would lead Thanagar into a new cultural golden age.

Nurda would keep his mother's broken helmet on his desk as reminder of something his dad had said more than once: "The difference between success and failure in life often depends on how fast you can do the math."

END