Maki was a Guard. Protection spells which came with that class all had a little, seldom-noticed detail in them: they wouldn’t fail if the caster became unconscious, but would if the caster died.

  All Maki’s protection spells had failed during the earthquake.

  He shook his head, dismissing the warnings as he got to his feet. He was fairly certain he was alive now, and he had a job to do.

  “Echo? You ok?”

  Echo sat up, stretching. “Yeah. I think- …Yeah.”

  Maki nodded. “Maeve?”

  Maeve keeled over and upchucked her lunch. He’d come back to her.

  “Cali?” he asked.

  “We died,” his cousin stated. “What happened?”

  “Yep,” Maki agreed. “I don’t know. I’m trying to not think about it. Luke?”

  “Erm.” Luke was… flickering. He was obviously trying to cast a high-level spell, but he was also trying to watch Maeve as she recovered. With that much magic, things were at risk of going very wrong.

  It took Maki a moment to remember: they were supposed to be stopping a tsunami from forming. Cursing, he jumped over to them and grabbed his sister’s arm, dragging her up.

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  “Maeve! The water! Focus!”

  “The wha-” Her eyes landed on Luke. “Water! Sorry!” Lifting her hand in the direction of the ocean, she leaned on Maki as her whole body began glowing with blue magic.

  Luke’s spell solidified and became visible, reaching out into the ocean. Maeve’s magic intertwined with his, making the spell stronger as they worked together to… do whatever they were doing.

  It took a good four minutes before their spell faded. Luke leaned on his knees, panting from the effort. The ocean didn’t look much different to Maki, but that might have been the point. Without them doing whatever they’d done, he might have seen a giant mountain of water heading away from them.

  Maeve slumped against Maki, knowing he’d catch her, then awkwardly patted his face. “Good job, Guard.”

  “You’re heavier than the last time I had to drag you somewhere after you barfed your guts out in public,” he grumbled.

  She smiled sweetly. “No, you’ve just lost muscles.”

  “Oh, damn, you’re right, I’m so weak now… Can’t… hold-”

  “Maki!”

  He stepped away, and she fell, grabbing his arm and wrist so she didn’t land flat on her back. They glared at each other.

  Echo snickered. Maki hauled Maeve to her feet, embarrassed. Luke chuckled, taking Maeve’s hand. Cali giggled, and then somehow everyone was laughing.

  There wasn’t anything particularly funny. But once they started laughing, it felt like all the tension from the past week was being drained away by it.

  Sure, there was a tsunami coming in eight hours, but the earthquakes were over. The continent had cracked, and they were alive. They didn’t have to worry about getting hurt any more. Everything bad that was going to happen, had happened.

  They didn’t have to warn anyone. They didn’t have to prepare. Life could go back to normal. People could rebuild and relax.

  Maki laughed until he couldn’t breathe.

  It was over.

  They were going to be ok.