Behind Fahreeta and Torasul marched Ellysetta's three hundred lu'tan, and as they stepped into the streets of Dharsa, their voices rose in a song of their own, called "The Star of Chakai," which several of them had composed to celebrate the shei'dalin who restored their souls.

Finally, it was Rain and Ellysetta's turn to enter the city.

"Are you ready, shei'tani?" Rain's eyes were aglow with a mix of tenderness and pride.

Though the shy Celierian in her wanted to turn and flee, Ellysetta drew a deep breath and put her hand on his wrist. "Aiyah, I'm ready." Together they stepped from the sheltering avenue of trees onto the broad, white stone streets of Dharsa.

The moment she appeared, a deafening roar arose from the Fey.

"Ellysetta Beilissa, Eiliss o Chakai. Ellysetta the Bright, the Star of Chakai!"

The reverberant cry stole every ounce of breath from Ellysetta's lungs and startled thousands of birds into flight.

Ellysetta froze in dazed surprise. Fluttering wings filled the skies of Dharsa, and fragrant petals rained down from the blossoming orchards of the surrounding hills. From every road and rooftop garden, every path and walkway, the Shining Folk sang her name with breathtaking, boundless joy. Thousands of Fey hearts opened to her in an outpouring of love and welcome so abundant, so genuine, it stunned her to her soul.

The hand on Rain's wrist began to shake. Tears filled her eyes, turning vision to a watery blur until she could no longer see the faces of the thousands gathered to greet her. Never had she dared to dream of such a welcome.

"Meivelei, shei'tani." Rain's Spirit whisper sounded oddly choked. "Meivelei ti'Dharsa."

Somehow she kept walking, though her knees were quaking so hard she thought she would crumple in a puddle to the paving stones. The outpouring of love drew out her own magic, lighting her from within until she glowed bright as the star the lu'tans had named her.

Behind them, Ellysetta's bloodsworn quintet followed in a protective semicircle, while Steli paced at the rear as the self-appointed sixth member of the quintet. The tairen strode like the chakai she was, proud, stately, her eyes gleaming sapphires in the pure white of her face. Her claws, half extended, clicked on the paving stones as she walked, and she held her wings unfurled in a show of protective might.

The procession halted at the base of Dharsa's central mount, where the five lords of the Massan and their shei'dalin truemates stood waiting. The warriors burst into their final song: a booming, joy-filled rendition of "Ten Thousand Swords." As the Fey voices built to a soaring crescendo, Fahreeta, Torasul, and Steli reared up on their hind legs, pawing the sky, roaring, and shooting jets of searing flame upward as their great wings beat the air: tairen rampant, the symbol of the Feyreisen's power. The three held their pose as the lu'tan sang in perfect, stirring pitch the song's final verse: "Ten thousand swords protect you, beloved of us all."

With a final roar that shook the ground like thunder, all three tairen leapt into the air. Mighty wings beat hard and fast, gaining speed and altitude until the tairen were circling the city overhead, the first true tairen to do so in a thousand years. They filled the skies with roars and flame, then soared north and disappeared from view.

Rain lifted his arms and called out both aloud and in a Spirit weave that carried to every corner of the city, "Mioralas, Fey! Mioralas, kem'ilanis! With pride, this Fey presents Ellysetta Feyreisa, truemate of the Tairen Soul, she who shines light on shadowed souls, restores hope where none remains, and brings fertility back to the Fey." He lifted her hand and raised it high. "Miora felah ti'Feyreisa!"

The former rasa took up his cry: "Miora felah ti'Feyreisa! Miorafelah ti'Feyreisen!"

The crowd burst into explosive cheers and applause, and thousands more Fey added their own voices to the exuberant cries.

Rain let his gaze sweep over the crowd, finding dozens of faces he knew, seeing the subtle nods that told him the message of this carefully orchestrated show had not gone unnoticed. And as his eyes met and held the gazes of the five Massan and their mates on the podium, he knew they had not misunderstood either.

If they had truly been considering Challenge, they'd just realized they were outmatched. Ellysetta had saved the rasa and been accepted by the tairen and, thanks to her powerful fertility weave, had brought the promise of life back to the Fading Lands in the form of Marissya v'En Solande's unborn Tairen Soul son.

Despite the looming threat of war, the gods were clearly smiling on the Fey once more. Thanks to Ellysetta Feyreisa, the Star of Chakai.

With a faint, deliberate smile, Rain leapt into the air, his body dissolving in a swirling cloud of rainbow-shot mist. Moments later, pure black, magnificent and deadly, his tairen form wheeled overhead. He swooped low over the crowds, and Ellysetta's lu'tans spun a whirling jet of Air that lifted her high and deposited her smoothly onto his back as he passed overhead.

«Hold on, shei'tani.»

«Rain, wait. What about the Massan? Are we not going to meet them?»

«They will join us in the palace in a few bells, before the banquet to celebrate your arrival begins. For now, let them celebrate Marissya's joy and the return of the rasa, and let us enjoy what I fear will be the last chimes we will have alone for many days. I have a feeling all of Dharsa will want to greet you personally and ask for your blessing.»

Rain circled one final time over the crowds before soaring towards the palace at the top of the city's central hill to give Ellie an unimpeded view of her new home.