Spring’s thaw carved new rivers through the tundra—rivers that hadn’t existed in maps or memory. The land shifted, quietly, as if it too sought to forget what had burned and remember what had survived.
Atop the glacier bluff where her story had once begun, Freya stood with wind tugging at her cloak, the dawn spilling across the snow in gentle silver.
This time, there was no army behind her.
No tribunal. No hunt.
Just the clean breath of cold morning and a steady pulse within her ribs that no longer hummed with fury.
---
The Silver Watch academies opened their gates across the realm.
Children once marked as cursed now trained in open fields, guided not by bloodline, but by purpose. Wildborn, noble, exile—all learned side by side: how to track a lie, how to speak truth, and how to protect those who couldn’t yet protect themselves.
Theo, now Watch Commander, rode between villages weekly—sword sheathed, voice listened to not out of fear, but trust.
He no longer wore the pendant.