Slowly, without the ambient magic keeping it frozen, the snow and ice across the server thawed, until all that was left was what was meant to be there, and a few drifts up against some of the colder (or, as Cub insisted, objectively cooler) builds. Slowly, plants began to grow again, and the server somehow underwent a spring in the middle of summer.
Tango, for his part, hadn’t really been there to watch the transformation. He’d been hiding himself in the nether, absorbing as much heat as possible. It was doing him good, to be fair. He hadn’t even noticed the aching chill around his heart until it had thawed, like a weight being lifted off his entire body.
“I talked to FWhip.” False’s voice came from behind where Tango was sitting, his legs dangling dangerously close to a lava lake. “He can get a portal to the hub for Jimmy working on Tuesday, if that’s a good day?”
“Yeah, that’d—that’d be good.” Tango didn’t look up at her.
“He’s also easing back the story magic a little in Empires. Jimmy will remember who you are, don’t worry.”
“He’ll remember what I did.”
“He never blamed you for that, you know.” False sat down next to Tango. “He knew it was something else, and, unknowingly, clued the rest of us in to that fact.”
Tango laughed, a bitter, wounded thing.
“We don’t blame you, either. You weren’t in your right mind.” False rested an assuring hand on Tango’s shoulder. Despite himself, Tango leaned slightly into the touch.
“What if I had been?” Tango whispered. “I—I felt those feelings, and—and—” Tango’s voice cut off with a choked sob, the tears on his cheeks fizzling to steam. “Sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“But—”
“And if you do, then I forgive you. And I’m sure everyone else would, too.”
“It’s so messy.”
“I know.” False was quiet for a moment. “Do you want me to get Impulse or Zedaph?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
———
All the hermits were in attendance when Ren was finally crowned (re-crowned?) king, even Tango. Even the hermits who’d been against the concept of monarchy agreed that having someone to fill that throne, to block another incident like what had just happened, was for the best, even if Xisuma had implemented a datapack to limit the sway of story magic.
When Ren decreed that the hermits should throw their diamonds in a hole, however, a horrified memory flashed through Zed’s head of Tango predicting this very decision. He shot Tango a look, who returned a simple shrug with a weak smile. They maintained eye contact for a moment longer, before a small laugh ran through Tango, his shoulders shaking and, at long last, his hair reignited.
Maybe there was still residual guilt and pain. Healing wasn’t linear, after all, and everyone had been put through the emotional ringer over the course of the incident. But maybe, Impulse thought, as he watched the scene play out, there was a chance that something just as beautiful as what had been before could grow from its wreckage. Maybe, someday, things would be okay.