Epilogue 2: Horizon

Ten years later

 Horizon had finally found the source of the hollow feeling in her chest. She didn’t quite belong here. Even though she had helped establish New Haven, she’d never really felt a part of it.  

She’d worked an apprenticeship with both Noah and Matilda. She’d loved working with science as well as working on company logistics and strategy. She’d studied under Rin and had learned the ancient alien language and the fighting forms only passed from mother to daughter. 

But something deep inside knew that she had something else she was meant to do. 

On her eighteenth birthday, Rin gave her a red book. She explained that Matilda had found it on the space station and that it had belonged to the alien whose language Rin had been teaching her.

 The book felt warm in her hand. When she’d opened the book to a page in the middle she’d seen her name at the top of the page.

 ”Horizon, you were meant for something more. Follow the directions and discover what you were meant to do.

“ Below was a map of Kalecca. There was a trail to an X at the edge of Falcon’s Folly. 

“I only gave you this book because I see that it’s right.” Rin hugged Horizon. “We all must find our path.” 

Horizon said goodbye to her friends and family and hiked across the jungle. She could have taken a shuttle or the transponder, but recognized that she needed to do this on her own. 

She crested the hill and saw the tree. Was this what she had been looking for? She was vaguely disappointed until she remembered the stories Willow had told to her young children about the magical tree that could go through time.

Horizon hadn’t thought of other timelines in years. Sometimes she woke up from dreams with a vague feeling of regret.

 The tree was big and old and full of holes. Some of the holes looked big enough to walk through. When she got close to it, she could see the other timelines. 

Horizon’s heart raced. She’d found what she was meant to do.