After discovering she has a powerful vein of healing magic, Willow has also been charting her own path, setting up sites inside Heart and throughout the rest of Ouranos where anyone can come for healing whenever they need. Her goal is to make sure every person on the continent can access help. She’s also very close to discovering a cure for the Withering.

Tristan and I share a look. After the events with Herric and the Empyrium, he forgave me for everything that happened. I’ve gained a second brother alongside Mael, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

“I wondered how I’d feel seeing it again,” Tristan says as Amya and Willow look back at him. He stares around us, his expression contemplative.

“And?” Willow asks.

He pulls his gaze away from the high stone ceiling.

“I feel strangely at peace,” he says. “The man responsible is gone. We saw our parents one more time, and I forgave them for everything. Plus, all of us are destined for so much more. I never thought we were ever getting out of here.”

Willow nods. “I feel the same.”

“This place will no longer define who we are, and I think we can leave it behind once and for all.”

“I wish Lor were here,” Willow says. “But I understand why she isn’t. I know we all lived in misery, but I think it nearly broke her the most.”

She looks at me, and I nod in understanding. Lor is a force that was never meant to be contained.

“Then let’s leave it behind,” Amya says. “They’ll start the demolition immediately, and we’ll allow the forest to reclaim this land.”

Over the past few months, Amya has made other changes, including closing down the Savahell Mine. She freed every low fae from conscription with outrageous amounts of gold in compensation. She also ordered new protections for every worker, including restrictions on hours, proper healthcare, and increased pay. The Aurora will continue to rely on its remaining mines for trade, but our security will not come at the cost of blood.

The virulence caves are currently being sealed up and hopefully forgotten forever. Beyond the trouble it caused, we also need to protect Tyr from its effects. We owe him so much.

We also cleared out the forest of my father’s unnatural creations. It didn’t take long to realize these creatures could still remember who they had been, all of them living in misery in their mutilated bodies. Though we tried, we couldn’t turn them back, and in the end, their deaths were the only mercy we could offer.

“Then let’s go,” Amya says.

My sister, the queen, who should have been the one from the very start.

We all walk out of Nostraza for the last time, vowing never to make the same mistakes again.