Whole and beautiful and perfect. He smiled.
“Enzo.” She could barely whisper his name. “You’re free. You’re home.”
“Thanks to you. And to our friend, the captain,” he said. “How is our son?”
“He’s fine. He’s perfect.” She swallowed. “What was it like? When you were trapped in the seireiken, did it hurt?”
“No, but it wasn’t pleasant.” He smiled sadly. “It was a bit crowded.”
“I don’t know what to do now, Enzo,” she said. “The boys will all leave soon to find other teachers. I’ll probably sell the house and move south somewhere warmer, and cheaper. But after that, I don’t know what to do. How will we live? I don’t know how to earn a living for us. I don’t know anyone here. We’re all alone now.”
“No, you’re not.” He nodded at the gate where the masked girl and her young man were waiting. “You have them. And you have me. I’ll always be here for you. For both of you.”
She shook her head slowly. “You know that’s not true. And I know that’s not true. Death is still death, even in Espana.”
“I know.” He nodded at the old medallion on her chest. “But I could touch that triquetra and be with you always. If you asked me to, I would.”
“I know you would. But it wouldn’t be right. Not for you or me or Javier.”
He nodded again.
“I still know a few people at court,” she said. “Perhaps someone could use a Quechua translator for the merchants visiting the New World.”
“Perhaps.” He winked. “See? The future doesn’t look so impossible after all, does it?”
“No,” she said.
Not impossible. Never impossible. Just long and bleak and hard and lonely.
She looked down at the fat-cheeked baby in her arms and then she looked up at the sound of Mirari’s laughter.
Or maybe not so lonely.
“I’ll look in on you, from time to time,” he said.
“I’d like that,” she said.
Enzo came forward, and the shape of his long black hair and long black coat shuddered in the wind as long streamers of aether tore away from him on the freezing wind. He looked down at her and then down at their son. “Good bye, Qhora. I love you.”
She looked up at him and then down at their son. “I love you too, Enzo. Good bye.”
Qhora bent down to kiss Javier, and waited a moment to be sure that her lover’s ghost had vanished before she turned and left to go home.
