Okay, I'm not entirely sure I'm going to use this ending for the story, nor am I even done with the story in question. I just thought it was a cool ending, because it's like an ending at the beginning sort of thing. It's the Lord of the Rings type one. So yeah.
Faug and Valin decided to go to the Lazy Dog on Midsummer's Eve the next year, exactly five years after their adventure had started. Strangely enough, they were seated at the exact same table as they had been that fateful night.
Then Faug noticed a shadowed figure dressed all in black in the corner, with a hood over their eyes.
Faug grinned. He kicked Valin under the table and pointed discreetly. Valin turned cautiously, and grinned once he saw where his brother had been pointing. They knew the drill from there.
They sat there talking very late that night. Then Faug glanced over to the corner again, but the figure was gone.
Then he heard a soft voice in his ear.
"Room fifteen," whispered a voice he recognized. "Five minutes. Don't be late, or else suffer the consequences."
Faug nodded, and grinned.
Valin looked questioningly at his brother.
"Upstairs," he muttered. "Five minutes."
They obliged.
Entering room fifteen, they saw the figure exactly as they had seen her on the night they had met her five years ago-her back to them, staring out the window. She turned at the sound of the door. She was visibly grinning now.
The two brothers grinned back, glad to see the fairy-elf. She didn't seem very different, except for maybe a bit taller and filled out.
"I've got something to show you," she said.
"What?" Valin wondered.
"Do you remember my scars?" she asked.
They both nodded, remembering the scars that had marred her entire face for thousands of years. Now, Shyasha lowered her hood.
The scars had disappeared.
"Where did they go?" Faug wondered.
"I unfroze," she explained. "And I guess that activated the magic. If I'd learned to move on, they'd go away."
"But you and Telsiel are still...?" Valin asked, his voice trailing off.
Shyasha grinned again. "Yes, we are," she said. "In fact...."
She held up her left hand. A small gold ring shone on her fourth finger.
"Seriously?" Valin laughed. Faug just gaped. Somehow, marriage and Shyasha did not seem to go together in his head. He could not see her in a white dress at all, just as he could not see how his brother could do something as weird as knitting. But, as he had come to realize, people could surprise you.
"Yes," she said, laughing as well. "I couldn't believe it either, at first. But it's set for about two weeks from now."
"But how did your scars disappear?" Faug asked.
"I just had to forgive him, basically," Shyasha told him. "And unfreeze. The two had to go together. If I forgave him but didn't unfreeze, they'd still be there, and if I unfroze but I didn't forgive him, it wouldn't work either. But I only unfroze for about a year."
"So you're sixteen now, then?" Faug asked.
"Actually, if you remember correctly," Shyasha said, her grin broadening, "I'm technically four thousand seven hundred and eighteen. But yes, one can call me sixteen now."
"Did Telsiel de-freeze?" Valin asked.
"Yes," Shyasha said. "He's frozen as sixteen as well. It would have been awkward, you see, if he was still 45 or something."
Okay, that's all I can do for now.
