The guards had escorted Anjarah out of the room as their king had commanded them. Lundas and Jammas had dozed off at the foot of the bed and on the curtain rail respectively. Esmera and Tauram were as good as alone, and for the first time in that situation, she wasn't sure what to say to him.

There had to be something. The silence of slow-falling sleep demanded it, as did the pressure inside Esmera that told her there was something yet unsaid.

"I'm proud of you." Esmera squeezed Tauram's beautiful hand. She cuddled against him while the purple-robed continental pillow at her back kept her exhausted body upright.

Tauram seemed to know exactly what Esmera was referring to without her needing to elaborate. He had done something he didn't usually do. He had heard out a traitor and treated her gently.

Tauram took a moment to consider before speaking. "Forgiveness is difficult, as you said, but I want to try." He took a deep breath, closing his eyes as his mouth trembled. "I think it's what Belaren would've wanted."

"I think so too." Esmera folded him into her arms, and he rested his head on her shoulder.

They fell back into the quiet melody of expanding chests and beating hearts, of life, one only for Esmera's ears. She was grateful and honoured by such a gift. The night deepened and darkened around them, and there didn't seem to be anything more to say.

Esmera slid under the covers, holding Tauram close to her. She had expected that her fatigue would pull her straight into the land of dreams, but it took a little longer for her mind to quieten enough for her to drift towards sleep. Just then, a familiar green glow filled the room like sunlight as it rose, the glow of the earth and its plants and the goddess who presided over them.

"By the scales of Ganamari's hundred-tailed lizard," Tauram murmured as he sat up beside Esmera, blinking in the sudden brightness that greeted his eyes.

"He has a hundred and one tails now." Jilhari smiled where she hovered on her flower stool in front of the door to the bedroom. "He grew an extra one for the extra year he and my daughter aged together, and she was as thrilled as always."

Esmera blinked at the goddess. She can't have decided to pay them a visit solely to talk about her daughter's lizard, but that was all she said, merely gazing at Esmera and Tauram with a faint, divine smile on her perfect face.

So much about Esmera and Tauram and their lives had changed since their last meeting. They had fallen apart more than once and out themselves back together. Esmera could sense the cracks between the pieces of them, but maybe that was because she knew they were there. Maybe they both looked perfectly intact to Jilhari. Maybe that was why she didn't comment on it.

All the same, it seemed unfair that they had been damaged and changed by the mission Jilhari had given them while she was untouched by it. It was the privilege of divinity, Esmera guessed.

"Well, at least I know how the tails work for future reference," said Tauram, breaking the awkward silence with a subtle tension in his voice.

Once again, Jilhari didn't comment, only smirked. "There's a lot you need to know for future reference." She exhaled slowly, seemingly ignoring the suspense she left Esmera and Tauram soaking in while she treated this conversation like a meditation.

They exchanged a look. The last time they had spoken to the goddess, she had changed their lives forever, even marred parts of them. Maybe that was why Esmera bundled the sequinned covers in her anxious hands while she watched Jilhari, waiting for her to condemn her and Tauram once again.

"Milatanur has been spared for now, but the gods are unwilling to tolerate another tyrant." Jilhari's eyes turned intense, fluttering between Esmera and Tauram. The artist king frowned. "That wasn't part of the original agreement we discussed a week ago."

"No, but it is what the council has decided is the only way to protect Milatanur from ever being ravaged by a usurper again." Jilhari tilted her head, her waterfall of silken hair obscuring part of her beautiful face as she did so. "A decade may be nothing more than a sneeze to us, but it is too long for a tyrant to rule. Our kingdom is wounded and scarred because of his actions." Her eyes found Tauram. "Because of yours."

He looked down, and Esmera knew why. It was because he knew what the Earth goddess meant, the Ruagu had taken over his kingdom because of the choices he had made even though that was never his intention.

"We will not endure another usurping." There was an edge to Jilhari's voice. Esmera had to wonder what her stake in this matter was. She was acting as a mouthpiece for the gods, but surely she had her own views on all of this.

She must've read the question in Esmera's eyes, because hers flared. "A decade may be nothing but a sneeze to me, but it was far too long to watch my flowers wither, my trees rot, my animals waste away. I stand with the rest of the council. We will destroy Milatanur to purify our land and recreate it according to our wishes should the throne ever again be seized by a wrongful ruler."

"Understood," Tauram said to his lap.

Esmera curled her hand around his. She knew more than anyone how easy it was to keep beating oneself up after a mistake. She wanted to tell Tauram to be easier on himself, but before she could, Jilhari spoke.

"We see you've banished the usurper's heirs from the palace." The goddess nodded her approval. Her hair drifted around her, waving as if trapped in water even while the mortals in her company only breathed in air. "That's a safe move."

"Banished?" Esmera's head snapped to Tauram, her eyebrows drawn together in a frown.

She wouldn't have expected the man who could laugh almost anything off to take such a harsh line, especially when it came to children, but Ruagu had definitely hardened Tauram. And maybe that was better, safer, as Jilhari had said because it meant Ruagu couldn't hurt Tauram or his kingdom anymore, not even in death.

Tauram's entire body tightened, even the hand that held Esmera's. "Yes, Esmera, the illegal princess and princes have been banished to the furthest corner of south-western Milatanur, where their delightful mother hails from."

Esmera blinked at the revelation. The double-traitor queen had crossed her mind, but her fate had not. "And did Ghallia go with them?"

"She did." Tauram's face betrayed nothing but distaste for the woman he had once adored.

An irrational fear took hold of Esmera that the love between her and Tauram would one day go the same way. If he loved her as hard, surely he'd be able to hate her as much too? But only if she hurt him as badly, which she would never do, and that thought gave her comfort.

Jilhari shook her head, graveness where there had been approval just a moment earlier. "Those children are dangerous. They may be young, but they will grow up quickly as mortals do, and they may think they have a right to the throne. Your throne." Her eyes fixed on Tauram, her gaze arrow-like. "It would've been better to remove them entirely."

Remove them? It was a slightly more polite way to say "murder", but it punched Esmera in the gut in the same way.

Tauram bristled. "There are many things I would do to protect my kingdom now that I have finally reclaimed it. Killing children isn't one of them."

Jilhari watched the newly-returned king with indecipherable eyes, eyes that had seen forests rise up and collapse, rulers be born and die, humanity evolve and begin to degrade itself.

Esmera imagined the goddess was telling them that they would regret the choice... but she was in agreement with Tauram. She could never support the murder of children either, no matter the reason for it, not since she had watched her brothers die.

"Then consider this fair warning," said the goddess where she hovered on her flower seat. Her jaw tensed. "You are not safe until the tyrant's children are either dead or have forgotten about you and how they feel you've wronged them. Either way, I believe congratulations are in order." The goddess's face relaxed into a slight smile. "You did the impossible. You ended the usurper's reign."

It was as though the room had released a breath around Esmera. This was over. No hidden surprises or forgotten traps. If Jilhari said Ruagu was gone, he was gone.

It seemed a bittersweet victory with the losses and trauma she and Tauram had endured just to complete their quest, but it was better than the alternative. It was better than paying all the prices the mission had demanded from them and still failing to defeat him.

"Why, thank you." Tauram's voice was as tight as the gaze that rested on the goddess, and Esmera could guess why.

The gods had the power to remove Ruagu. They could've done it in an instant, with a snap of their divine fingers. They could've saved Esmera and Tauram their week of trouble, saved Belaren's life. Instead, they had inexplicably chosen to let Ruagu reign and forced Tauram to perform the act of dethroning him.

"We do not meddle directly in mortal matters," said Jilhari as if she could read Esmera and Tauram's minds or possibly their facial expressions. "It has never and shall never be our way." And with that meagre explanation, the Earth goddess disappeared, taking her green glow with her before Esmera could ask her if an ancient sorcerer could actually be considered mortal.

"These gods." Tauram huffed out a breath aimed at the space Jilhari had just vacated. "They're impossible to please."

"I think you did please them, though." Esmera tried to kiss his cheek, but he turned to her, and her lips landed awkwardly on his nose.

He merely smiled and pulled her closer, brushing his thumb over the line of her jaw. "We pleased them."

The softness curving his beautiful mouth filled Esmera with warmth. She wanted to bask in it, fall against him and remain there until the demands of the next day pulled them apart, but she pulled away from him, as hard as it was. "Tauram..."

It was a truth Esmera was only beginning to accept, after the week she had gone about pretending that believing it was all that was needed to make it true.

Esmera and Tauram couldn't be a "we" until she was a "her" and not a "her and Stephan".

It was time now. Esmera was braver than she had been before, and that was how she knew that she was ready to close the door on her past. Maybe it would never be locked. Maybe some of the sights and sounds behind it would still filter through the gap when it stood ajar, but this was the first step to turning her back on everything it contained.

"I meant what I said before, Tauram."

He frowned, adorably concerned and confused in a way that told Esmera that she remembered well what she had said to him in the heat of her anger, but he didn't.

Esmera took Tauram's hands in hers, gentle in the way she should always have been, in a way that she hadn't been when she first said these words to him. "I'm going back to Arkōsāra."

Tauram shook his head, his brows knitting together. "Esmera, there's no need for you to—"

"There is." She squeezed his hands gently, taking a moment to revel in how soft they were even though she knew how strong they could be. "I have to go back, and I want to." Esmera took a breath. "I'm going to start divorce proceedings. I'm going to clear up all my affairs there, and then, I'd love to come back to Milatanur, if you, as the king, would permit my passage onto your land."

With that half-smile that made Esmera's heart feel so full, Tauram kissed her head. "We have an academy of music here in Parnakshi. I think your parents saved up enough for your education for you to go there. So, you kind of have to come back to Milatanur."

"Kind of." Esmera smiled up at Tauram before pulling him to her for a kiss. Her hands closed around his collar as their lips locked. It gave her safety and comfort no other had ever given her.

Esmera pulled away just to listen to Tauram breathe and murmur her name, and then she kissed him again.

"I want you to stay in my apartment," he said as he withdrew from her.

"Oh, Tauram." Esmera shook her head, resting her forehead against his. "I still have my apartment for a month."

She hated the thought of going back to the poky, dank space, but she had paid for it with her own money. This was her problem to solve, not Tauram's. He didn't deserve to be dragged into it or inconvenienced by it in any way.

He broke away, holding Esmera's eyes firmly with his, as firmly as his fingers held her jaw. "I insist. I want you to live somewhere your husband will never be able to lay a hand on you again, and there are few places in the city more secure than my apartment."

Esmera paused to give that some thought.

Tauram was right, as much as she didn't want to admit it. He was, after all, royalty. He could afford security Esmera probably couldn't even imagine. Besides, she could tell he wasn't going to give up on insisting that she stay there. It was one of the few times someone had convinced her to do something for her sake and not for their intentions.

"Thank you." Esmera blinked away tears despite herself.

She had to admit that it would be nice not to have to check her doors and windows every night to make sure Stephan couldn't find his way in in the grasp of her unreasonable fear that he had tracked her down, that he knew where she lived, that there was no outrunning him, not now or ever.

"And I'll come in to check that you and Jammas haven't trashed the place every weekend, naturally." Tauram nuzzled Esmera's neck.

How much damage could one woman and a bird realistically do? She knew enough about the king to figure out when he had ulterior motives.

Esmera pulled a face. "You know, you can just admit that you want to come by just to see me."

"Touché." Tauram kissed her head. His arms closed around her, and she sank into his embrace.

Jammas fluttered down from his perch and came to rest on Esmera's head. She smiled. The weight of him was so reassuring. She couldn't imagine being without him even though she had known him for barely a week.

Lundas hopped onto the bed and stretched out beside Tauram and Esmera. He peeked up at her with his luminous eyes, then closed them slowly in what Esmera recognised as a feline kiss. It emboldened her to reach out and touch her hand to his furred head. To her surprise, he didn't snap at her, merely purred while Tauram watched them and smiled.

Esmera had started this journey alone and out in the cold. Now, she had a family.

She had people and creatures who loved her with all her flaws and all her wounds, who would fight death and gods and immortal sorcerers for her. After the battle of a lifetime that she had fought over the last week, she felt that this was the happy ending she deserved even though she felt like the luckiest woman in the world.

Or maybe it wasn't an ending as such but an interlude or a prelude to the prosperity and safety that had once been only a dream to her.