Hello, readers! It's time for one final author's note.

Let's begin with a list of thankyous! Of course, the first and most important thanks goes to you, the lovely reader who's currently putting up with my happy gibbering. I'm so grateful to everyone who stopped by to read this story, it means so much to me that people are enjoying my writing. Special thanks to those who gave up the time to leave some reviews – your feedback has been so helpful and spirit-boosting to read. And to all those who followed and favourited either me or the story, it's so great to see my work appreciated.

In particular, I have to thank a few special people: ShoutFinder, PrimoVictoria, AedricDaedra, Trishy Fishy, Yoyocrazy3 and Blaxconiox, all of whom helped and supported me in particular ways. And also everyone at thuum. org, for their help with the dragon language, and all my friends on DeviantArt for their support and lovely comments on my Dragonheart art.

Now, some people have been asking me what I'll be writing next now Dragonheart is finished. The answer: it's complicated. But I can promise you this: my next major project will be the sequel to this story, and the final instalment of the Tygra Trilogy. I don't want to give any spoilers, but it will be called Divine Blood, and will feature Sha and Amar's child as the protagonist (of course.) More information will be revealed in this very epilogue…

I intend to go and post the prologue of Divine Blood right now, to give you a taster, and a story to follow if you like it. But I won't post anything more for a while for two reasons: one, I still need to work out some elements of the plot, and two, I have a whole load of oneshots and short stories I really want to write before I get involved in another long story. These short stories will feature my Dragonborns, and most will be no more than five chapters. There's one more thing I want to do before I start Divine Blood –finally rewrite Night Eye, because I wrote that three years ago and by the Nine, does it need some polishing!

All in all, it will be a couple of months before Divine Blood begins. So if this epilogue and the prologue grab you, I apologise in advance for the wait, and hope you enjoy it when the rest follows. It won't be too long, I swear.

OK, I will now put an end to this final, huge A/N. I've written this story over the toughest year of my life so far, and I think I've grown and changed along with Sha, Amar, Vulgrahskein and all the rest. And just like Sha, I've found it a journey that was tough at times, but in the end, very rewarding, and very fun.

And so, one last time I will say my catchphrase: Thanks for reading!

EPILOGUE

J'shana's life on Nirn had been long and, in the end, happy. And it had let her see so much. She'd been born in the forests of Elsweyr, among the dappled shade of leaves and beside the smooth brown rivers. She'd spent portions of her life among the green woods of Cyrodiil, and the ashy wildernesses of Solstheim. She'd lived most of her years in Skyrim, the land she had come to love, treasuring its shining white peaks, its sweeping plains and its gold-leafed woods.

But no place on Nirn she had ever seen could compare to the place that was now her home. The sky of Sovngarde alone held the combined beauty of every province she had ever set eyes on during her mortal life. It had been five hundred years since she had first set foot in this realm, and yet she never tired of looking at that sky, at the spiralling stars and the gentle swathes of red and purple.

Tonight, though, even the sight of that sky though the arching windows of the Hall could not comfort her.

She'd learned, during her time on Nirn, that it was rare for any tale to have a completely happy ending. Her own story was a perfect example. She had defeated Alduin, saved Skyrim, married a wonderful man and had two beautiful children, lived among the best of friends, and died content. But then her legacy was forgotten for centuries. A bitter twist in a tale that had ended with so much warmth and hope.

She'd been so proud, as she watched her descendants' endeavours on Nirn, as A'jira put right their bloodline's broken history. And then there was her young namesake. Everything Sha had done was incredible. Braving the wilds of Skyrim alone. Finding Dragonbane. Defeating Qoyoliiz. If J'shana had ever worried, since A'jira's coming, that someday the Tygra might be forgotten again, she ceased to as she watched Sha. With people like this carrying on their legacy, their future was in safe hands.

J'shana saw brilliant prospects for young Sha, and for her new order of Dragonhearts. With Sky Haven Temple rebuilt and more and more dragons turning to the Way of the Voice, Skyrim would have stronger protection than it had had in centuries. But why, J'shana thought, why did it have to need those protectors so soon?

Here was the sting in the tale, the shadow cast over the happy ending. The knowledge she now carried of what she yet to come.

She sighed, rose to her feet, excused herself, and hurried away from the banquet table. By now, her message should have gone around; her friends would be waiting.

The inhabitants of the Hall of Valour would take any excuse to throw a feast. There was a more-or-less permanent one going on anyway, but whenever someone in Skyrim, and sometimes someone elsewhere on Tamriel, did something especially heroic, the golden goblets and the best mead would be broken out (no one bothered to ask about where they came from, this was the afterlife) and the Hall would be filled with laughter and song. J'shana had happily joined them, setting her worries on one side for a while, as they celebrated the Sky Haven Dragonhearts' first victory over a feral dovah. It was odd, being in an afterlife surrounded by all these boisterous Nord warriors. She did feel at home here, but sometimes, she needed some quiet.

That was why she sent out the message. And so when she slipped outside, she found them all waiting beside the whalebone bridge, their faces serious and their eyes expectant. The people she trusted most, and the people who had the strongest links with the Dragonhearts.

There was Derkeethus, of course, her beloved husband and companion through so much. He was the only Argonian here, the Gods having granted him an afterlife here with her, and there were no words to describe how grateful J'shana was for that. Entry to Sovngarde had been given to her as a reward, but it would have been nothing but torture if Derkeethus hadn't been there. The Nine must have sensed that.

Beside Derkeethus stood Serana. That was another thing to be grateful for, J'shana realised - that Serana had chosen to remove her vampire blood in the end, making herself a full Nord, eligible for entry to Sovngarde, when her time came. It was comforting, not to mention plain fun, to have the presence of one of her two closest friends with her here.

There were others, too, Nords she had known and befriended during her past life. Lydia, her Housecarl for all too brief a time. Erik, Mjoll and Uthgerd, her companions in the Blades. Arngeir and the other Greybeards, and Esbern, her wise and patient teachers. And the heroes of Sovngarde who had stood beside her when she faced Alduin at last.

And then there were the others, the ones who she had never known until their arrival in Sovngarde, who had been born to this new age. Jarl Brandor of Whiterun. His half-Nord Bosmer friend and Housecarl, Faenlor. Two Dragonhearts, only residents of the Hall for a few mortal years – Tholund Storm-Shield and Sviri Eagle-Heart.

'Thank you for coming,' J'shana said quietly. It made a soft glow spark in her heart, seeing them all here, ready to listen, to offer their advice.

'We'll do anything we can to assist you, Dragonborn,' Arngeir replied, and the others murmured their agreement.

'I wish it were me who needed the assistance.' J'shana grinned ruefully. 'Our friends in Skyrim… they're the ones in danger.'

Serana's eyes narrowed; she'd always been able to read J'shana like a book. 'You've seen something, haven't you?'

'Yes. And it's not good.' J'shana let out a sigh. 'Come with me.'

They crossed the whalebone bridge together in a long line, each of them carefully watching their step. You couldn't die in Sovngarde, naturally, but the endless fall (J'shana hadn't ever made it herself, having a tail helped her keep her balance, but several of her companions had) was only fun for so long; you were eventually bound to get bored, and you'd have to go through odd process of willing yourself back up to Sovngarde's surface. It was, apparently, an extremely peculiar feeling, to be suddenly whisked away to be deposited at the start of the bridge again, earning a frosty gaze and a stern, 'Watch your step in future,' from Tsun.

Now, though, Tsun had nothing to give them except a respectful nod as they made the crossing and strode out together into the land beyond. They stuck together in a chattering clump. J'shana didn't need to take the lead – everyone knew where they were going.

The Waters lay beyond one of the mountain ridges. There were a variety of ways to observe the happenings of the mortal world from Sovngarde – often, J'shana found herself just knowing what was happening there, without any real effort or explanation. But this was her favourite way to watch the deeds of her descendants. Gaze into the shimmering depths of the Waters, and whatever you wished to see, you would see. You were guaranteed to find someone there, examining the lives of the people and the world they had left behind. It was a quiet place, removed from the clamour of the Hall, and it was the place where J'shana had seen what was to come.

The others drew back as they reached the vast lake, allowing her to move down to the water's edge and dip a grey-furred finger into it. She focused her mind on the place she wished to see, and sent out a mental suggestion to the Waters that it throw up an image. The glowing liquid swirled and churned, colours appearing on its surface, forming a picture piece by piece. A sweep of pale azure sky, a swathe of grey stone, the moving forms of figures. She willed the image to become larger, and the others crowded around her, peering down at it.

'Sky Haven Temple,' Erik said, a trace of wistfulness in his voice. J'shana had to smile; those had been good days, when she and her friends among the Blades had carried out similar duties to those the Dragonhearts took on themselves now. The Waters were showing the Temple courtyard, where Amar practised his knife-throwing, and Kaaldunir and Juskahrath shared a piece of meat, and Arnor sat contentedly in a corner, her nose buried in a book and her devoted Wingbrother keeping an eye on her from a distance.

Sviri let out a pained sigh and drew closer to the water, as close to the image of her daughter as she could get. 'They're doing well,' she said.

'Yes,' J'shana said quietly, watching Malleus chiselling out the eyes of his newest statue. 'They are. And they're growing strong.'

She touched the waters again, pulling up a new image. This one was a snow-filled, rock-strewn landscape, whipped by wind, but nonetheless the steadfast home of the original Dragonhearts. There they were – Lorn and Uniliel laughing over some joke as they walked towards the monastery, Laaskriiah and A'jira returning from a hunting trip, and Odahviing on his Word Wall at the summit, his eyes clouded with thought.

'He hasn't seen what I've seen,' A'jira said. 'And I don't know if he will. If he doesn't see it in time, the Dragonhearts will be completely unaware of what's coming. I can't even contact A'jira through her dreams the way I used to. I could only do that because Alduin's return was weakening the gaps between the worlds. Now…'

'Shana.' Derkeethus's gentle voice was enough to instantly ease the knot of worries tangling her insides. 'We don't have anything to worry about just yet. Tell us what it is you saw.'

J'shana sucked in a long breath. 'Skyrim's come under threat from Alduin, and then from Qoyoliiz,' she said. 'Those were enemies they knew. This land has weathered wars with dragons before. But now…'

'There's another enemy coming?' Tholund huffed. 'Hasn't there been enough mortal peril already for this age?'

'You'd think so,' J'shana said heavily. 'And most people of Tamriel would agree. Because there's been too much fighting, too much death. Who on would want to cause more of it?'

Serana rolled her eyes. 'I'm not sure if this is really the time for theatrics, Sha. Obviously someone wants to, so… who is it?'

'That's just it. Nobody on Tamriel wants to cause any more conflict.' J'shana reached down to the waters again. 'But this is an enemy whose coming no one could have predicted, because they were and are completely unseen. And they don't care about bringing another war to Tamriel, because… Tamriel is not their home. There's someone who's been waiting a long time to bring on what's coming. And now his time has come.'

She willed the image to change, to move, and it did, sweeping away from High Hrothgar, over the northlands. The landscape of Skyrim flashed by faster than any dragon could ever fly, out of Skyrim, over the ashlands of Morrowind, past them, further still, out across the ocean beyond. Water that stretched on and on, in every direction, filling every horizon, wild and endless.

'Alduin returned,' J'shana said. 'He was never meant to. I was meant to kill him. We learned how he returned - Veldarion and his followers returned him to Nirn. But we never truly knew how he survived. I looked for the reason, and... I found it. I found it here.'

And here it came, first a thin line on one of those horizons, then a blur, then a thick blot, coming closer and closer as J'shana moved the image nearer. And then she willed it upwards, so that they looked at this new land from above, seeing the chaos of snow, the thousand islands, the mountains and forests. The people.

From behind her, J'shana heard a sudden, collective intake of breath from her companions. She rose to her feet and turned to face them.

'This is why I need your help,' she said. 'We need to find a way to save our own people. Because this… this is the land that will give birth to the new danger. It's been brewing for centuries, and now, it's about to be unleashed. This is the land that is about to strike. This is the land that could be the end of everything we love.'

For a long, long moment, there was silence. And then, in a hoarse whisper, Faenlor said the name.

'Akavir.'

END OF BOOK TWO

THE TYGRA TRILOGY WILL CONCLUDE IN DIVINE BLOOD.