Chapter 100: Good Bye to Eldoria

Kai went to Milo first.

He found him near the middle platforms of the Elder Tree with the canopy light all over his hair and that familiar half-smile already forming before the conversation even started. The smile thinned the moment Kai got close enough for the truth to become obvious so he caught on immediately.

"So you are going to just leave me?" Milo asked.

Kai was not surprised that he clocked it "Yes. Unfortunately."

"That hurts for real."

"I am so sorry."

Milo looked at him for a long second, then exhaled and tipped his head back toward the enormous branches above them.

"Do not be. I understand. I cannot stall your growth out of selfishness, even though I genuinely considered kidnapping you and locking you in the crown-house until you forgot the capital existed."

Kai huffed out a small breath.

"That is illegal."

"Only if the palace catches me." Milo’s mouth curved again, softer this time. "Go. Become larger than the version of you that needed three weeks under my tree to breathe."

They hugged, and the hug lasted longer than a casual goodbye. When Milo pulled back, he kissed him once, firm and lingering, then reached up and unclasped the necklace from his own neck. The pendant was simple and warm from his skin, it was made of crystal wound in metal.

"Take it," Milo said, fastening it around Kai’s neck before Kai could argue. "If you forget me, I will fly into the capital and make a scene."

Kai touched the pendant and met his eyes.

"Be a good boy."

Milo’s expression changed immediately. Heat flashed through his face so fast it was almost funny.

"Say that again and you are not leaving on schedule."

Kai should have stepped back. He did not. Milo was already pulling him into the nearest private room with zero interest in dignity, clothes coming off in a rush of urgency and leftover attachment. They had a quickie there against the wall and the edge of the bed, all heat and breath and no time for romance to pretend it was not also farewell. When it ended, Milo rested his forehead against Kai’s for one second and then shoved him lightly toward the door.

"Go before I become selfish again."

Kai fixed his clothes, kissed the corner of Milo’s mouth once more, and left.

The children were harder.

They gathered on one of the lower bridges when they saw him, a noisy cluster of little nymphs, fairies, and one dryad still holding an apple like a emotional support object. The second they understood he was leaving, the complaints started.

"You are going away?"

"But Air Tag!"

"Brother Kai said he would teach us a new rule!"

Kai crouched so he was closer to their eye level.

"I have to go for a while. That does not mean forever. When the opportunity presents itself, I will come back."

A small fairy squinted at him.

"Promise?"

"I promise to try very hard," Kai said. "Which is the only kind of promise worth anything."

Dria sniffed and held up her apple.

"I will save you a yellow one."

"Please do."

They hugged him in an uncoordinated swarm, all small arms and bright voices and the sticky sweetness of fruit. When he finally rose into the air and flew from under the Elder Tree, they waved hard enough to look like they might take off after him from pure feeling alone.

Back in the palace, Kai packed without ceremony. The Ring of Infinite Storage made the practical side easy. The harder part was walking the corridors and letting people release him one by one.

The royal maids caught him first near the guest wing. Several of them lined up with the stiff sadness of staff who had decided he was less trouble than most noble visitors and were offended he was leaving before becoming permanent.

"Safe travel, my lord."

"Please remember Eldoria kindly."

"We prepared extra travel bread."

Kai accepted the bread because refusing it would have caused a second goodbye.

"Thank you. All of you."

Ayan was next, alone in his room with a half-organized bag and the look of a person who had been bracing for this since the announcement. When Kai entered, Ayan stood too quickly and then did not seem to know what to do with his hands.

"So this is actually happening," Ayan said.

"It is."

"I still do not know what I am supposed to say."

"You do not have to say anything impressive."

Ayan’s mouth pulled tight. Kai stepped forward and gave him a mild hug, brief and steady, enough to acknowledge him without turning the moment into collapse. Ayan froze for half a second and then returned it carefully, as if too much pressure might make Kai vanish faster.

"Do not die," Ayan muttered into his shoulder.

"I will do my best."

When Kai stepped back, Ayan nodded once and looked away before his face could do anything more revealing.

The royal family received him in one of the brighter formal chambers. Lucien’s father stood with the composed authority of a king who had already accepted the departure and was determined to control its presentation. The queen looked softer and more openly reluctant. Claire and Cassandra were clearly sad in the unhidden way of people who had decided formality was a waste of time.

He gestured, and attendants brought forward departure gifts: sealed travel materials, a slim royal pass token, and carefully packed supplies. Then came the larger gesture.

"Rhydian has not returned," the king continued. "For your journey, accept the red kite birds. They will carry you farther and faster than ordinary mounts."

Through the open terrace doors, Kai saw them. Enormous scarlet-feathered birds with sharp intelligent eyes and saddles already prepared. They looked half myth and half weaponized mail route.

"Thank you," Kai said.

Claire stepped forward and pushed a small charm into his hand.

"For road luck. If it fails, blame Cassandra. She picked the ribbon."

"I did not," Cassandra said, then immediately handed Kai a folded letter and a crystal hair clasp. "Ignore her. Write if you do not die. Or even if you almost die. Especially if you almost die."

Kai smiled despite himself.

"I will keep that in mind."

The twins hugged him one after the other, tighter than palace manners preferred. Claire’s embrace was firm and brief. Cassandra’s lasted an extra second and came with a fierce little whisper.

"You better come back.... married!"

Kai playfully gasped and whispered back..

"I will try to manage both."

The queen took her turn last among the family line, and when she leaned in under the cover of a formal farewell her voice dropped against his ear.

"Please consider the proposal. Lucien has not been himself since that day."

Kai rolled his eyes where only she and the nearest wall could receive it.

Then he turned to Lucien.

The special goodbye sat between them before either spoke. Lucien looked composed in the way of someone holding himself together by policy. The healed face from the old beating still made the memory of that corridor feel unreal, but the weight under his eyes was current.

"So this is the part where you walk out," Lucien said.

"Yes."

"I could come as far as the lower gates."

"You could," Kai said. "I would rather you did not."

Lucien accepted that with a small nod.

"Then give me one thing."

Kai waited.

"A kiss," Lucien said, and there was no princely packaging around it. "I am asking. I am not taking."

For a second Kai almost refused on principle. Then he looked at him properly, at the man who had apologized, bled, waited, and was now asking instead of assuming, and the refusal lost some of its sharpness. He stepped in and kissed him once, small and deliberate. Lucien made a soft broken sound into it and kept his hands light, as if any harder grip might shatter the permission.

When they parted, Kai picked a flower from the arranged display near the chamber wall and held it out.

"Here."

Lucien took it like the thing weighed more than a flower had any right to. Overjoyed was the only honest word for the expression that broke across his face, and he did not even try to hide it.

"I will keep it," Lucien said.

"I know."

That was enough.

Elias was last on purpose.

He waited near the terrace with his pack already settled and that familiar half-smile that always looked one second away from becoming a provocation. When Kai stopped in front of him, Elias glanced at the red kite birds and then back at Kai.

"Solo hero exit. Very moving. Should I clap?"

"Please do not."

"You are really not taking anyone."

"I am really not taking anyone."

Elias studied him longer than the joke needed, and for once the humor thinned enough to show something under it. He tried to play the next line off casually, but the effort itself gave him away.

"Fine. Go be difficult in the capital. If you die, I am going to be violent just so you know."

Kai nodded once.

"Goodbye, Elias."

He said and walked off without kissing ir hugging him.

Elias’s mouth twitched, and the hurt passed through his face so quickly that a less attentive person might have missed it. He covered it with a shrug and a crooked grin that did not fully land.

"Yeah. Bye."

Outside, the red kite birds shifted and snapped their wings open in the bright air. Handlers brought one forward for Kai and another for Elias. The capital road and the Dome road were already diverging before either of them left the terrace stones.

Kai mounted, settled into the saddle, and took one last look at the palace mouth behind him. Milo’s necklace rested warm against his collarbone. The flower was in Lucien’s hand. The twins were still watching. Ayan remained farther back in the shadows of the archway like he could not decide whether standing closer would help or hurt. Eldoria shone around them all, beautiful and temporary.