As they stepped foot on the beach, every elf bowed the knee and waited until their new king and queen ushered them to rise again. As one people, they passed into the woods and began the trek to the city of Elandril, a place of splendour, elegance, and serene beauty. Reyna didn’t realise how much she had missed it until the towering spires, surrounded by waterfalls, were within sight. It was a place of eternal wonder, a heaven on earth. She saw all that reflected in Nathaniel’s eyes. In that moment, the queen knew they could make their home here, together.
There had been much talk of celebrations upon their return, but Reyna had insisted upon a pause. Her first act as queen was to make a special request of the city’s elders. Only after that, Reyna knew, could she enjoy the celebrations that marked the true beginning of their reign.
And so, later that first night, under a starlit sky, every elf who called Elandril home gathered outside the palace. At the centre of their attention was a simple stone altar, its top carved into a shallow bowl. The elders had engraved the rim of the bowl with the necessary spells to meet their queen’s request.
Reyna stepped forward, into the open space around the altar. She wanted to cast that final spell herself, but the currents of magic had failed to flow through her since the Moonblade’s creation. Having come to terms with her way of life, the queen was content to give one of the elders a nod. A wave of the hand brought flames to the altar, flames that would never die.
“My mother, Adilandra, was a queen of sacrifice,” Reyna began. “She was a queen with a vision - a vision for our people. It is our duty to continue her work, so that we continue to be a whole people under one banner. Like our memories of her, these flames are eternal. May this fire be a place we can come to mourn her, and a place to come to remember her.”
Reyna stepped back to join Nathaniel and turned her gaze to the stars with the rest of her people. They held their silence for some time, paying their respects to one who would surely be noted as one of the greatest queens of the elven nation.
For Reyna, it was a time to seek peace and finally let her grief go. She stared into the flames of her mother’s memorial. As important as it was to walk into this new world, the queen also knew how important it was to always carry a piece of the old world in her heart. Now she would always have a place to come and reflect on what had been, a place where memory could never be allowed to fade.
Epilogue 17 Years Later…
On the cusp of summer, Namdhor was finally beginning to thaw after a long winter and a cold spring. Though most of the realm would still call it uninhabitable, Inara Galfrey called it home. After nearly twenty years, the harsh winds, relentless snows, and freezing plains were a familiar comfort.
Not that the north’s brutal temperament ever stopped the queen of Illian. Freezing or cold - Namdhor’s only temperatures - Inara would always find time to collect her thoughts on the south balcony.
She also enjoyed looking up at the sky, whatever the weather.
I await you in the next life… where the sky is endless… and the dawn is everlasting…
She heard those words every day. Not a single one had lost its clarity in her mind. Sometimes she even heard Athis say other things to her: whispers from down an empty passage or old conversations replayed perfectly in her dreams. Even now she could recall the feel of his warm scales beneath her hand.
Today was a good day, she decided. They weren’t always good days. There were times when she felt trapped, her feet tethered to the ground when she should be soaring through the heavens. On those days, there were only one or two people in the entire world who could return joy to her heart.
But today was a good day. Her thoughts of Athis only took her back to happy times with the dragon. And, as morbid as it was, Inara knew she would, indeed, return to him on those eternal shores. Though she felt as strong as ever, there was no denying the ageing her body had undergone in the last seventeen years.
As Alijah had been before his bond with Malliath, Inara too was mortal, her fate as inevitable as any human’s. Such was the coin toss of any half-elf’s life. Any fear of death, however, had long been relinquished by the queen. Now she strived to find the beauty and joy in every moment she could. And what joy she had found over the years.
One of the reasons for that joy burst through her chamber door and the moment of peace Inara had found.
“Mama! Mama!” came the loud call from a very small mouth.
Inara left the balcony and closed the doors behind her, preventing her daughter from feeling the chill. Bounding over the stone, her dark hair bouncing on her little shoulders, the queen’s youngest child crashed into her legs.
“Mama!” she exclaimed, before her words all blended into one unintelligible language.
“Adilandra,” Inara said calmly, focusing the young girl. “A little slower,” she bade.
Adilandra took a breath and held up a small green scale. “Gideon gave me it,” she blurted excitedly. “It’s one of Ilargo’s!”
“I see that,” Inara replied, mirroring some of her daughter’s glee.
“Now I can wear it like yours!”
Inara unconsciously gripped the red scale hanging from her necklace. “That sounds like a great idea.”
“Can we do it now?” Adilandra pleaded.
“We don’t have time right now,” Inara said apologetically, if firmly. “Our guests will be arriving any minute.”
“Look!” Adilandra’s attention had been drawn to the nearest window, where a familiar green dragon flew around the city. “I love Ilargo!” she declared.
