A/N As promised, and by popular demand, an epilogue to A Mutual Acquaintance. It is, seriously, done now. Thank you to all of my reviewers and to Sweet Sassy Sarah and LunaSphere for betaing.

Sarai stood by the railing, unaware of the picture she made. Her dark hair was struggling out of its ties in order to fly free in the sea breeze, shining in the sunlight that glinted off the waves. The same sun made her copper skin glow as she closed her eyes against the spray and relaxed on her arms against the railing, enjoying the calmer seas after a rough week's travel from Carthak.

They were sailing into the Rajmuat port now, but Sarai kept her eyes shut to the beauty of the Copper Isle's capital. She had seen it before and it had always meant 'home'. Would it be different now that it belonged to all of her – to the raka and the luarin? Would it be different now that she had left her home behind in Carthak?

She couldn't resist, regardless, and opened her eyes, drinking in the familiar sight of the city where she had grown up. It was bittersweet, this homecoming that was not a homecoming at all. Sarai mulled as the sailors worked around her to bring them into the harbour safely.

One of the sailors got her attention, bringing her out of her thoughts as he bowed. She followed him to the small boat that would take her ashore. She would not deny that she was excited, more than excited, to see her sisters and Winnamine again, but everything would be different than it was when she had left. She had expected to be the one to make the changes, not the other way around. She tapped out a rhythm on the boat's edge, watching the city get closer as they rowed.

She used the tapping fingers to grip the side as they hit the harbour's dock, holding herself steady as they swayed, trapped by ropes tossed between the boat and the shore and unable to follow the sea's rhythm any longer. Sarai nodded graciously as she took an offered hand and was pulled up, another first step onto her native land, where she was now a visitor. She wondered if Kally ever felt this confused.

I should think myself lucky, she thought. Empress Kalasin, after all, would be unlikely to go home again and ever face these confusing feelings. Kally, tied to her throne and the security the palace offered would probably never again venture across the Great Inland Sea to Tortall. Sarai took another hand, this time of a palace guard, and was helped into a royal carriage. She would get to see her family, and would forget that it was only for a time. Be grateful, Sarai.

She had expected Rajmuat to look different, and it did. But mostly it didn't. They were the same faces, the same transactions. Raka servants still bought goods from luarin merchants for their luarin masters. There were building burned and there were statues down but business went on just as she had always remembered and she wondered if anything had changed at all.

And then she thought of Dove, sweet sensible Dove, and all the choices she must be making. I would have been a very bad choice for queen, indeed, Sarai thought.

The palace was not how she remembered, and she was afforded only momentary glimpses of repaired walls and gates, reorganized gardens and a boarded up balcony before she was ushered into the guest wing, her bags carried around her like a choreographed dance as she walked up the steps and into the cool of the hallway.

"If my Lady will follow me to her rooms?"

Sarai frowned at the woman who tried to lead her down a hallway. "I wish to see my family."

"Of course," the woman smiled. "After you freshen up, of course, my Lady."

Sarai touched a hand to her hair and frowned. She had gotten away with herself. She was not going to be presented to the queen (the queen, not Dove – the queen) just off a ship, her hair windswept and her travel-clothes wrinkled. This was neither a country estate nor their city manor. She tried hard not to grumble as she followed the servant woman through the hallways and to a closed door which the young part-luarin woman unlocked and flung wide.

The blinds inside were opened on the wide windows and double doors and Sarai blinked against the sudden light.

"She's here, Duani," the servant said.

Sarai blinked again to find Aly sitting on one of the long couches in her room. She stood as Sarai took a step towards her.

"Hello, Lady Sarai," Aly said, dipping a curtsy. "I trust your travels were pleasant?"

"Oh, we have to talk." Sarai's dark eyes flashed.

Kally had rushed over to reach Sarai, who tried to catch her breath, leaning against the back of her chair.

"What is so funny?" Kally asked, staring down at her friend, who could barely breathe let alone answer the question. Kally glanced at her friend's cup of wine, picking it up subtlety and moving it away from Sarai's seat, which only made the other woman laugh harder. After a moment, she was able to explain just why the description of Kally's cousin – the Lioness's daughter – was enough to make her laugh.

"That certainly sounds like the Aly I know," Kally said, laughing herself as they talked about Aly's arrival and their exploits in the country. "But I do not understand what she would be doing there... as a slave. What could she have been thinking?"

"She told us she was a servant of Mithros."

Kally's mouth twitched. "She just would draw that kind of attention."

"This is too bizarre," Sarai said, taking another drink of wine.

Kally just smiled, her lips against her glass. If anyone would be the one to end up hiding as a slave in another country, in the employ of the gods and somehow involved in a rebellion, it was the Lioness's rebellious daughter. She was suddenly quite happy she had been in Carthak for that entire episode. She could just imagine the chaos that had erupted when Aunt Alanna had found out.

They sat together on the couches alone, Aly nonchalantly picking at embroidery as Sarai stared at the girl she had thought she knew.

"Kyprioth?"

Aly nodded, her smile small and knowing.

"And you're the Lioness's daughter and... and a noble in Tortall and..." She trailed off and Aly nodded again. Sarai shook her head. "You're an ass for fooling me."

Aly laughed out loud, which Sarai joined in, reluctantly. She had only been half kidding.

"It was only supposed to be for the summer," the former slave said, tilting her head to one side in a way she surely learned from her new husband. "Can you blame me for being tricked by the god of tricksters?"

"No," Sarai said, ruefully. "But I still feel silly for bossing you around for all those months."

Aly laughed again, and then stood and stretched. Her hair was long, now, and glinted red and bright gold in the sunlight. Sarai hadn't noticed her belly until they had gone to sit down, but stretching like she was, Aly's bump was evident under her clothes. She doesn't stand like a servant, anymore, Sarai realized. But neither did she stand like a noble. Sarai suspected that if she were to ask just what Aly's job was in the palace now that she would agree Aly stood just as one of those were supposed to stand. She wondered who the real Aly was.

"Kally says 'Hello'," Sarai said. A ghost of a flash of homesickness passed along Aly's face and she smiled a true smile – not a grin meant to distract or a smirk to seduce. Sarai nodded, content.

"You should get ready. Dove and Winnamine will be waiting in Her Majesty's rooms for you in five minutes," Aly said. Sarai rolled her eyes slightly, acknowledging another point for Aly, that she was able to orchestrate the entire conversation to such perfect timing. "Good day, Lady Saraiyu."

Sarai matched her curtsy.

"And to you, Lady Alianne."

They grinned and then Sarai was left alone to the sunlight, without even a click of the lock to mark Aly's exit. She closed her eyes in the sunlight as a slight breeze shifted the curtains and the strands of loose hair around her face.