Epilogue

At the end of this correspondence, Keladry of Mindelan was still too mortified to write to her mother. However, with the excitement of Neal and Yuki's announcement, Lady Ilane and her daughter forgot about their brief correspondence until an afternoon drinking green tea at the townhouse, where Keladry revealed she was in fact courting Sergeant Domitan, but neither wanted to give up their freedom just yet. And that was the end of the subject as far as Lady Ilane was concerned.

With the coming Spring, Keladry's parents began their preparations to return to the Yamani Islands for a final term as Tortall's ambassadors. They hosted a ball at the townhouse to bid farewell all of their Corus friends, including Lady Lavinia and her daughter Lady Irenie. With Domitan's suggestion in her mind, Keladry took it upon herself to introduce all of her eligible knight friends to the daughter and sing their praises to the mother, and in the process found she quite enjoyed the company of Lady Irenie.

Keladry continued to correspond with Sergeant Domitan, though distance made the time between letters so very long. When reports of fighting started to trickle back to Corus after the spring floods on the Drell subsided, Keladry kept herself busy helping Yuki and Neal set up their own townhouse in the city while she waited for orders.

Domitan, much to his chagrin, found himself considering his mother's advice more seriously the further he got from Corus, and for the first time in a long time, began thinking about life after the Own.