At last the sun was setting, and Yenni was home. A new type of home, curled up with Weysh on the rooftop, watching the sun paint Imperium Centre gold and pink. Who knew home could also be a feeling, rather than a place?

“I received a reply from my parents,” Yenni told him.

Weysh perked up. “Oh? And?”

“They have told me to bring you home, to the Yirba islands.”

“En? But that’s wonderful!”

Yenni bit her bottom lip.

“That’s not wonderful?”

“I’d expected more resistance. I’m happy they are being so accommodating, but I’m nervous as to why.”

“The threat,” Weysh said darkly.

“Yes.”

He sighed. “I hope that I can be of use as I am.”

Not for the first time, it saddened Yenni to hear him talk like this. Before his injury Weysh had always been so sure of himself, too sure of himself at times. But these days he often had episodes of melancholy and self-doubt. He’d never completely bounced back after he’d lost his sense of smell, but she hoped that with time he would.

“I couldn’t even track you when Noriago snatched you away.”

“And yet you saved us, and used your runes to do it. Whatever you may think, I’m proud to call you Given, Weh-sheh. I love you.”

He rested his forehead to hers. “And I you. So what’s the plan?”

“Well, tomorrow I’m meeting Deedee’s sweetheart Nanette for the first time.”

“Nanette—but that’s a woman’s name.”

“Yes.”

“I see. Well, I quite like Diedre. We should all go four go out together sometime. But I meant the plan for our future?”

“I think once final exams are done, and we’ve graduated the year, and you’ve graduated your schooling, and you’ve taken your post, and my Orire N’jem is complete, we make for the Moonrise Isles, so you can meet the rest of my family.”

“The rest of your family, my heart?”

“Yes,” Yenni whispered. For in her time at the academy, Weysh, as well as Diedre, Harth, and Zui, had become her family, her home away from home. They had been with her through the most trying year of her life. And whatever challenges awaited her in the future, whatever the Gunzu might throw at them, she’d have family to help. Her iyaya. Her n’baba. Jayeh and Ifeh and Dayo and Jumi.

And Weysh.

Though she stood at the chasm of something great and unknown, she knew she wasn’t standing there alone.

The End

Acknowledgments

Thank you to my family: my parents, immigrants from whom I derive my adventurous spirit, and who worked so hard to give me the best shot they could at success. To my sisters, Nik and Lee, and my cousin, Thayne, who indulged my earliest writing attempts with wonderful enthusiasm.