Rowan calls over her shoulder to her father. "I'm going to the river!"

He flashes a mischievous grin at her in turn. "Is all your free time going to go to that kelpie boy?"

Rowan scowls at him. "You know his name, Da. Don't tease."

He shrugs. "Am I wrong? You finish your training and you immediately go to the river, to the kelpie realm. Every time."

"I visit Darach too!"

"Not enough, considering how she hounds on me every time I pass your clearing."

"She hounds on you?"

"Yes! Every time I pass through, she appears from her tree and asks when you'll visit again."

Rowan laughs. "Tell her I'll visit soon, if you see her."

"I shall. Be back at the house by sundown."

Rowan flashes a grin at her father. "Of course, although it would be nice if Mum would give me some of my freedom back."

He scoffs. "You'll be free in another month or two - if she's generous. Your mother's going to hold everything against you for quite some time."

Rowan mutters, "I wish she wouldn't."

"Just go, Rae. You're losing daylight."

Rowan doesn't need to be told twice. She's off through the trees, racing for the river rushing past just beyond them. She fords into the water and opens the passage within a heartbeat, on the other side in a blink. Andrian is waiting for her on the bank, as he is every day at this time. But his smile is wider than it normally is, just shy of being too wide to fit on his face. Rowan quirks her brow at the sight.

"What's up with you?"

"Someone's come to visit."

"Who?"

Andrian motions towards the trees, where a girl with silver hair steps out. She has a torque around her neck, black beads threaded on silver wire to form what looks to be branching coral that wraps around her neck and stretches down on either side. Strung between them on a shimmering chain is a blue teardrop with white tendrils spiderwebbing over it. Rowan beams.

"Wave!"

She laughs. "I think you can call me Kyma here, Ro."

Rowan darts forward to hug the other girl. "What are you doing here? It's been a month!"

"I'm sorry, my mother's been hesitant to let me leave the island. For multiple reasons."

"Does it have to do with your new piece of jewelry? I remember you talking about what these pieces mean to your people."

Kyma smiles, touching the coral. "It's my profession token."

"Really? What profession did you choose?"

"It's one that will let me visit more, actually. I'm the ambassador of my people."

"Heir to the throne and ambassador? That's a big task."

Kyma shrugs. "I know, but it feels right. I've always been good at negotiating, mediating. This fits with that."

"Are you staying long?"

"No, I have to be back home soon, and I still have to let Astrila know. I just came to say hello and tell you the news."

"Will you come back to really visit again soon?"

Kyma nods. "In a week, to speak with the Eastern Merrow Kingdom about my new role in the community."

"Good."

~~~

Rowan slips through the gate, latching it shut behind her. The path is cool beneath her bare feet, the protective runestones casting a faint glow in the dim light of dusk. To be honest, she still isn't sure how she managed to get the runes to bypass the protective enchantments around her house without that same protection being hindered.

She is especially confused about how she managed to get the protections of the runestones keyed to specific Aos Sí, allowing some of them safe passage and others none. She would have thought it to be an impossible task if the results of it weren't right beneath her feet. But it doesn't really matter how she did it, it worked and now her father can come and go.

He still spends half his time at his court, but half with them is better than none. Rowan steps through the doorway of the house to be enveloped by the smell of baking shortbread. She pokes her head into the kitchen to see her mother humming a soft melody, her long hair drifting from side to side in the faint breeze wafting through the open window.

There is a second tune to the melody, a lower set of notes that provide structure and harmonize with the first. But something is still missing, a piece of the melody doesn't feel right. Rowan joins in the song, her voice weaving between the layers of her parents' melody.

Without her training at court, she would never have known about the inherent love for music that the Aos Sí possess. But every day there is a new melody spinning through the forest as she trains and it is honestly one of the only things she finds enjoyable about the whole tedious process. When the song eventually slows and stops, Rowan peers at the oven.

"Are you making shortbread? Can I have some?"

Arwen clicks her tongue. "That's for tomorrow, Rowanberry." Rowan frowns in disappointment and her mother laughs, reaching across the countertop to tap Rowan's nose. "We have cranachan tonight."

Rowan's eyes brighten at the mention of the light dessert. Her mother hands her a clear glass filled with the stuff, diced apples taking the place of the traditional raspberries this late in the year. Arwen hands a glass to Coillen next, the dessert traded for a snuck-in kiss on the cheek. Rowan wrinkles her nose at the sight and ignores it in favor of digging a spoon into the layers of oats, honey mixed cream, and crushed apples that fill the glass.
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Oh my goodness this series is done. It's hard to believe. It's even harder to believe I wrote all four books in less than a year.

What do you think of this final chapter? Was it a fitting end to the story? Did you like how Rowan's family has come together? What do you think of Kyma's chosen profession? Were you expecting it? Tell me your thoughts!

So this series is done, for now(because of course I'm going to come back and edit somewhen) but if you want more books to read, I implore you to check out one of the books on my page or better yet, Frosted Dreams, which I will start posting next week (There are a few chapters up currently, but they're old and need to be replaced with the finished story)Whatever you choose to do, happy reading!

~ Goddess of Fate, signing out