I admit that the last chapter ended on a lacking note (lol). So here, as a peace offering:

Afterword

"This is the place?"

"Just a bit farther." Both faces were unusually solemn, especially when the rest saw one cheerful, the other obscenely snarky on most days. But today was not one of most days, that was clear. It was the one time for him to open his eyes—figuratively and literally.

This time was only different in that he wasn't going alone. In other words, it made all the difference.

"I didn't think it was possible for this land to be…buyable." Rin wrangled a branch from her hair. "I'm surprised someone owned this patch of land at all."

"People slap a claim on anything they can hold." Asin leapt onto a low-hanging branch. "You need to work to remain that clueless."

"I know how money works, dumbass." Rin rolled her eyes. "But this land isn't good for farming or even building anything. Who owns it?"

"Don't know." Asin avoided a mudpit, tossing her a glance to do the same. "Don't care anymore."

"I guess." Rin hopped over the mud. "Just the one place?"

"Yeah."

She now knew him well enough to recognize the finality in his voice, the distant eyes that kept her from saying anything more until they arrived.

Aside from the bitter rain two days before that left a slight chill in the air, the weather was favourable. Autumn that year had painted the forest with a moderate hand, bathing the landscape in vivid shades of saffron and turmeric, and the other days were clear and crisp under harvest sides.

"Ow! Shit!" Asin lost his footing, saved from splatting onto the ground face-first as a hand roughly righted him. Rin gripped his elbow with a half-smirk.

"What, you're not going to say anything?"

"Should I?" Rin swung through the trees, a tailwind strengthening her movements. The trees were thinning now, the shadows retreating before a small area that, despite the towering foliage, remained unstrangled by the neighbouring plants and trees.

"It's a nice place." Rin spoke up after a pause.

He raised an eyebrow. She must be joking. Despite the onset of autumn, hedges and herbs remained a defiant green. He was grateful for the sun, but it did little to ease the chill he felt eating at his bones. He brought up a hand to his face; his fingers felt frozen, brushing his face with ice.

He half-regretted that she was with her. He could easily send her back if she had insisted on accompanying him—which she did—but only after he brought up the issue at all. This was on him.

"There's nothing written here." Rin thought for a moment. "A smart choice, if he still had enemies."

They stood before the humble grave of Asin Tairin.

No matter how Jin bested Asin or menaced him (though the instigator was never Jin), this was one detail that Asin would always have over Jin, a spiteful consolation: Jin would never know Tairin's final resting place.

He wondered if his master would've been pleased with his final resting place.

"How often do you come here?" she asked.

He put on a poker face. "When I have to."

He didn't stop her when she brushed off the decaying leaves over the burial plot. A careful wind blew back the dead grass and pieces of rubbish that had settled since his last visit.

"May he rest in peace." Rin turned to him.

Asin nodded, face sombre.

"Hey."

"What?"

"Just…is it okay if I pray for him?"

Why, what would it change? He wanted to know. How would some insincere words make the dead rest easier?

"Do what you want." He turned his back. He could've said more, but he didn't. A thousand emotions passed between the two living without another word exchanged.

But instead of making an ostensible show of prayer, as he had seen many figures of the faith do that seemed to further insult their subject of praying, she stood up and stalked off to the side. He heard the rustling of grass as she walked through the reeds that went up to her waist.

She didn't take long enough for him to question her; she came back with a fistful of wildflowers, laying them gently in front of the gravestone. She knelt, face solemn, gesturing for him to do the same. Even now, he still rejected attempts at sincerity unless necessary.

Rin didn't know if this person rested well. She couldn't sense the anger or sorrow a malignant spirit might leave behind, or the terror of a soul unable to move on.

"Did he pass peacefully?"

"Not exactly." He was stone, still knelt beside her. Sunlight played with the shadows on his face, making him look fairer than usual, as if the peak of boyhood stole back into his features. He looked thinner, too, than she remembered.

He didn't talk anymore, so she reached out for his hand.

Not finding it within himself to reject her wordless attempt at comfort, he resisted the urge to snatch it back, letting his hand lie limp and cold in her grasp. She looked years older than her face implied, or was it a trick of lighting?

But even as he pulled his hand from her, he saw her eyes were bright with unshed tears.

"Stupid girl," he muttered, "why are you crying?"

"I'm not!"

"He was a warrior." Asin focused on the grave. "He fought with honour to the last breath."

"But…?"

"But what?" He scoffed meaninglessly. "But nothing. He's gone regardless."

"It wasn't for nothing."

She clasped her prayer beads now, head bowed in silent prayer. It was shorter than he was used to; religious services always seemed to drag on and on (He had seen Lime preach to the Grand Chase just once; it was not fun) and then she turned to look back him, a steady gaze.

"He made you, after all." She poured a pouch of incense into a bowl at the foot of the gravestone, lighting it with a match. A shame she didn't know how to manipulate fire as well as wind. Fragrant smoke rose into the air.

"You don't know him." You don't know me, either.

"I don't." Rin admitted. "I wish I did. I think it'd have been nice."

"So why are you doing all this?" He gestured to the rising smoke, the flowers, the homage paid to a person that she couldn't have possibly known.

"For you, for me." Before Asin could interject, she spoke. "I never got to do this for Gaon."

"You're joking." But he allowed her scoot closer.

"I never go to bury them, at least." Rin's voice was soft but firm. "I never got to go back."

Asin drew an uneven breath, found it hurt to breathe, as if he'd taken a jarring blow to the midsection. When he spoke, however, his voice was very much his own,

"Sorry." He took a deep breath, an action he regretted almost immediately; he had taken a generous whiff of perfume that made his lungs uncomfortable.

"This is a nice tribute for him…and them." Rin looked up as a sweet-smelling wind carried the incense above the trees and beyond where lost things went. "I hope you don't mind."

After what seemed like an eternity, she rose unsteadily to her feet. She had knelt for so long that both feet had fallen asleep. "You want some time alone?"

"Now why would I want that?" His feet too were prickling with pins and needles, which he masked behind a blithe smile. "I wouldn't want to miss out of the company of the great goddess girl."

"Stop calling me that." Rin spoke even as she knew that he'd never listen. "You know, because of you, everyone's calling me that now!"

"And you should be thanking me for it. It's a fine title."

Rin rolled her eyes into a glare before respectfully bowing towards the grave. "Was your master as annoying as you?"

"Nah." Asin chortled. "It's just my specialty."

"You little…"

Asin gave the burial sight one last gaze. Would Master Tairin be pleased with where he was now? His skills, only having the bare structures of the Silver Knight training, had evolved into an entirely different set. But as he admired and loved his master, it didn't change the fact that he was gone.

He probably would've liked the goddess girl. And, well, he didn't kill Jin yet. He knew Tairin would've adored the Grand Chase.

Thank you.

His thoughts garbled off into a bumble of awe and confusion as he felt arms wrap around him, too quick for him to register.

Hugging. Him.

Why in the gods was she hugging him?

"Are you drunk?"

"You looked like you needed a hug, Mister Sad."

"I am not sad." He tried to pry her off.

"Oh, don't be like that." Rin sighed. "Can't you be honest with yourself at least once?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, but you do." Rin grabbed his wrist and they tottered along not far from the grave, where a small tree overlooked a grassy cliff. "But I'll let it slide, just for today."

Asin gave her a withering look; as if she was the one in control.

"This is a good place." Rin sat down.

"For drinking?"

He had meant to be sarcastic, but he wasn't completely surprised when Rin did, in fact, bring out a bottle.

"This is a drink to celebrate the dead." Rin responded to his incredulous look. "Not plum wine, but it'll do."

"Is this another one of your Gaon things?"

"I don't know." Rin cracked open the bottle with minimal effort. "I never had to arrange a funeral and when I did, there was no one to teach me."

"Better late than never."

"Haha! Yes." Rin poured a generous cupful for him. "Sieghart said it was tradition to drink a toast, to celebrate lives well lived. I think," Rin poured less for her own, "your Master Tairin lived a life worth celebrating."

Asin gave her the sideeye, but she now knew as well as he did, that her words had more effect on him than any other.

"Didn't we do this before?"

"Not with this wine!" Cups rang as they banged against each other. Rin linked her arms with his, and this time, he didn't jerk away.

Asin rolled his eyes too, but a small smile lit his features.

"Cheers."

It was a nice day to pay respects to the fallen.

But it was an even better day to get hammered.

End

And there we go. A story that closes on the most important themes that were fleshed out in the story yet open enough to let readers know that Rin and Asin will have many more splendid adventures in the future (not that I can write them like this, lol)

A lot of the other themes weren't finalized into epiphanies (e.g. Asin's preference for power over the sentimental, Asin and Jin's conflict that actually never resolved into a cooperative stance, Rin's eventual choice of her heritage) because those make entire arcs in Dimensional Chaser, so they're grand stories for another time, another writer. Lazy on my part, but Dream Chaser was never meant to cover the full details of the characters. So I'll leave that to the other more capable writers.

I will no longer be creating new stories on this account, or on this website for that matter. I've left too many unfinished stories unattended for too long. Hope you enjoyed :)