The Scanran armies dispersed without the strong force of Rhian and the king to unite them, never to fight alongside again. The refugee camps Kel had helped to build became towns and hostels. Neal and Yuki were married less than a year later, when they knew that Kel was not going to disappear again.

Dom spent the next five years fighting with the Own, but settled with Kel in the end. He and Kel announced their engagement soon after Kel was healthy again, and when they did, everything seemed to fall into place. Dom was given permanent leave from the Own and was offered a high position in the Tortallan army, which he accepted. Due to his experience and expertise from working in the Own, Dom was promoted often over the years, until he found himself General of the Tortallan army at the age of forty, only ten years after he accepted his first position in the army.

Mia did end up marrying. She didn't know what to do, and she ended up allowing her father to arrange a marriage for her. He arranged a marriage with a middle son of the nearby fief of Jesslaw.

Kel's scars receded and she was soon able to fight. She never forgot that war, or the effect it had on her; not that anyone ever would. She was a knight for the rest of her natural life, and was offered the honoured position of training master to the pages at the palace, a position that had been held by Lord Wyldon when Kel herself was a page. Great controversy surrounded her appointment, as it did everything she did. Kel persisted through it all, and not one squire failed his – or her – exams or tests when Kel was training master.

She and Dom married exactly seven years after Dom had first asked Kel for her hand. Their two daughters, Ilane and Kaori, both became knights, while their son, Zorion, became a member of the King's own.

Kel and Dom grew old together, happy until the end of their days.

Kel never looked back.