Primrose lost track of how much time she spent standing in front of Geoffrey's grave just staring at the flowers she had grown around it. The rest of the travelers seemed similarly apathetic to the crawl of the hours around them, and they only remembered to find a place to rest for the night when the sun began to sink over the horizon. Primrose knew she should have paid Revello a visit to say that she had completed her goal of avenging her father, but she couldn't find the energy. Being around anyone but the travelers was so endlessly unappetizing at the moment that Primrose just wanted to go back to an inn room and collapse. 

So the rest of the travelers managed the process of getting the group a few rooms at the inn, and Primrose fiddled with the blade of her dagger in the silence. She couldn't say she was entirely at peace, but she felt better after admitting to herself that she had changed her perceptions of Geoffrey to suit her own goals. Primrose had been idealizing him for years when the fact of the matter was that he hadn't been there for her when she needed him. She wished that revelation hadn't been given to her by Simeon of all people, but she couldn't be too picky with the details. At least she had gotten there eventually. 

Primrose, just as she had expected, crumbled onto her bed as soon as she was given the chance. H'aanit took to locking the door behind them, and Linde prowled over to Primrose before sitting next to her bed. The dancer couldn't hold back a smile, and she dangled her hand over the edge of the mattress to scratch at Linde's ear. The snow leopard purred against her hand, and Primrose smiled despite her exhaustion. Linde had always been sensitive to the emotions of the travelers, and she was right there to comfort anyone who needed it. Primrose couldn't have asked for a better feline companion. 

"How art thou feeling?" H'aanit asked as she sat down on her own bed. "Dost thou want to talken about all that has happened?" She watched Primrose for a long moment only for the dancer to cast her pleading eyes, and H'aanit sighed playfully as she crossed the room and sat down next to her girlfriend on the bed. Primrose repositioned her head so it was resting in H'aanit's lap, and the huntress pulled her ponytail free before starting to absentmindedly comb through her hair. Primrose felt electricity race through her body at the touch, and her smile grew ever wider. 

Unfortunately, it didn't last for long, and Primrose's smile flickered and faded when she realized she still had to answer H'aanit's question. "I... I don't know." H'aanit hummed in response, and Primrose continued to stroke at Linde despite the melancholy tug at her heart. "Simeon was right about a few things. I was changing my view of Geoffrey to fit what I needed at the time. After he died, I... I was so alone. He was the only family I had for a long time. My mother passed from sickness when I was young, and Odette was so much older that she had practically permanently moved out by the time I came around. She sent letters when she could, but a lot of the time... It was just me and Father. He was the only one I could turn to, but he was so busy running Noblecourt. I never blamed him for that since he couldn't help it, but... I still wished he had more time for me." 

"As I understanden it, thy father loved thou greatly, but he was a flawed man as well," H'aanit said simply. Just like always, she saw through to the heart of the matter without any need for pretenses. Primrose appreciated it, though it caught her off guard to hear someone refer to Geoffrey through such blunt terms. She had almost thought him immune to that due to his position as the head of House Azelhart. "There were some things he could not do for thou, and thou hath every right to be upset with how it unfolded."

"Yeah... I guess so," Primrose murmured. "I felt bad for thinking that he failed me. I didn't let myself think about it for a long time. Father was strict on me because he had to be. I was going to inherit the house one day. I had to be strong. I had to be ready. Still..." Primrose's fingers went still on Linde's head. "I wish he had been there more. I wish he had realized what Simeon was doing and tried to stop it. I don't know if he would have seen it, but..."

"He should have," H'aanit pushed, her voice straining with an indescribable emotion that made Primrose's chest to tight. "Pardon me for saying this, Primrose, but thy father should have looked out for thee. Thou suffered greatly under Simeon. He was much older than thou, and the adults in thy life should have seen it. They should have tried to keepen him away from thou." 

Primrose felt H'aanit's fingers pause for a moment in her hair, working out a tangle that neither one of them had realized was there until just then. H'aanit moved on again as soon as she was able, and the moment died away in the back of Primrose's throat. "You're right," she agreed softly. "There should have been people looking out for me. I... I guess there's a part of me that wishes Odette had been there with me for all those years. Would she have seen it? Would she have taken care of me? Would she have known how to help me?" A breath passed in silence. "Should I even tell her about Simeon at all?"

"The choice is yours," H'aanit replied simply. "If thou doth not wish to tellen her, then I will not forcen it. That is thy decision to make. I will standen by it no matter what thou decideth."

"Thank you, H'aanit," Primrose whispered. She pressed her cheek a bit closer to H'aanit's leg, and the huntress continued to comb through her hair gently. "This entire situation with Simeon has really gotten me thinking... About Sunshade. I know you weren't there when I was working in Sunshade, but... It was bad. I started working there when I was about sixteen, and there were a lot of miserable people there. I told myself it would be alright. I kept saying that it would all be worth it if I was able to find the truth behind my father's death... But it isn't okay. I don't know if it was worth it. I feel like that's hard for me to decide on now that everything is over and I'm on the other side of it... But after what I realized about Simeon... I realized that he wasn't the only person to take advantage of me like that. It was practically all I knew back in Sunshade, and I kept telling myself it was okay, but I don't think it was. But I feel bad about making a fuss over it now when it's over." Primrose only realized how long she had been talking after she fell silent again, and she sighed, pressing her free hand over her face. "Does any of that make sense?"

"Of course," H'aanit nodded. Her fingers drifted away from Primrose's face to instead settle on her cheek, and Primrose tilted her cheek up to press at H'aanit's hand. "I think thou hath every right to feelen however thou doen about it. No one can controllen thy thoughts on this. Thou went through something terrible. Thou deserven the room to exploren thy thoughts however thou choosen. I will listenen for as long as thou needen me. I will always been here. I swearen."

"Thank you, H'aanit," Primrose forced herself to say, not realizing how stiff her voice sounded until after she had managed to push the words out. She almost checked at her throat with her fingers, pressing to see if there was anything holding her back, but she restrained the effort. Instead, Primrose let herself get lost somewhere between Linde's silky soft fur and H'aanit's hand on her cheek. Sitting there in that inn room, nothing seemed to matter anymore. It was like for a few fleeting seconds, Primrose wasn't captured somewhere between Sunshade and Everhold. Her body was hers and hers alone, and she didn't need to give anyone the pleasure of looking at her as anything but human. She was worth something there in H'aanit's gentle grasp, and Primrose loved it more than she could ever hope to say. 

Primrose's mind remained a dull cacophony of static that rattled against her skull like an animal trying to escape a cage. She hadn't realized just how broken she felt until she took a second to breathe it all in... But strangely enough, Primrose didn't mind it as much as she would have thought. If anything, she felt like there was finally a chance for her again. If she tried hard enough, she would be able to pick up the pieces. H'aanit and the other travelers were proof. They would never leave her to pull everything together alone. She had gone down that road once before, and they would always make sure she didn't do it again. That was what friends and family were for. 

Primrose wished she could have properly conveyed just how much they all meant to her. Each time she tried though, her words caught in her throat and refused to fly free as song or speech. The travelers were the only reason she hadn't completely fallen apart by now. She had wanted to let the world cave in around her when she learned the truth behind Simeon, and that was before she realized just how much she had distorted her images of Geoffrey and Sunshade in the name of a survival that had always held her back. The travelers had given her something to fight for when she was certain there was no way for her to ever pull herself back into something whole again. She didn't know what she would do without them, and she hoped they knew how much she loved them. She didn't know if she would ever be able to describe it out loud, but she needed her emotions to be strong enough to explain the point in the absence of her voice. 

Before she knew what she was doing, Primrose turned so she was looking up at H'aanit. The angle was graceless and one that Primrose was sure no one else had seen on the huntress. H'aanit had never been one for affection, not before the travelers, and she certainly wasn't the type to let someone lay across her lap while she combed out tangles real and false in their hair. Down there, Primrose could see just how beautiful H'aanit was, and she wasn't just talking about appearances. She could see the level determination and hardened honesty that H'aanit had developed in the face of more betrayals than any one person knew what to do with. H'aanit was gorgeous, and Primrose wasn't afraid to admit it, but there was so much more to her than that. She was everything, and Primrose couldn't believe there had ever been a doubt about who she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. 

Primrose swallowed dryly, pretending there was any sense of purpose to the words she was about to speak. "Can I dance for you?" she asked softly, and H'aanit jolted out of her trance all at once, nearly throwing Primrose from her lap in the process. H'aanit's shock exploded through her gray eyes, and Primrose cracked a smile that she didn't think she would ever share with anyone but her new family. "I feel like there's so much I want to tell you, but... I can't figure out how to say it. Would you let me show you instead?"

H'aanit remained still for a long moment, a war waging in her mind as she tried to iron out the logistics of a proposal like that. Primrose hadn't been open about her struggles regarding her craft with the rest of the travelers, finding that it was perhaps too personal for her to share freely. Then again, she supposed, they had probably figured it out anyway. She could see the revelation in H'aanit's eyes now, proof that Primrose had never been the actress she pretended to be. H'aanit knew that Primrose had grown uncertain in her skills after everything that happened both with Simeon and Helgenish. Primrose's dancing had been twisted into something she did not love, and even though she had told herself it was for her own sake rather than the desires of others, there was only so much she could do to convince herself. There was always something else to the matter of Primrose dancing, and the dancer herself was ironically enough the one who least liked to admit it. 

When Primrose first took up dancing, it had been at her father's wishes. He hadn't said it openly, had framed it instead as her needing to know how to dance in order to sway with suitors at balls held by their noble family, but Primrose knew it was because he wanted her to dance. It was for the sake of House Azelhart, but beyond that, he loved seeing her happy. Primrose had continued the cycle because she knew her dancing was enough to capture his attention in turn, and so, their waltz of love but never admitting it continued for as long as Geoffrey yet lived. After his passing, dancing felt like the best way to carry on his memory in his absence. It was far from a perfect solution, but it was all Primrose could think of, and so, she had let it fuel her. Helgenish had requested her services in other ways though, and Primrose knew that she had fallen out of love with her art due to no fault of her own. 

But at the end of the day, she was an artist. Simeon had been right about that too, though their art forms couldn't have possibly been more different. Simeon performed and wrote plays because he loved seeing the misery of others, but Primrose danced because she loved to express herself. She had lost that ability after her house fell, but it had always been close to her heart just as her memories of Geoffrey had been. Perhaps this was what healing was meant to look like for her. Maybe all she needed to do was take the first step. 

That resolve must have gleamed in Primrose's eyes, because an eternity later, H'aanit finally nodded. "If that is what thou wouldst liken." 

Primrose didn't waste a second in pushing herself to her feet, suddenly renewed with an energy she hadn't realized she could possess. She smiled at H'aanit like she was the sun itself, and the huntress returned the gesture with a muted grin of her own. As long as they were there together, they would be happy, and neither one of them would ever dare to forget it. 

Primrose pulled the sheath containing her dagger off her hip and looked at it for a long moment. She smiled at the knife, and she set it on the bedside table without a second more of debating. Once she was free of the weight it carried and the treasure it gave her, Primrose cast one last smile at H'aanit and began to dance. 

~~~~~

Therion didn't know what he was thinking. 

For reasons he couldn't even begin to put a finger on, his mind had been far from the battle with Simeon ever since the group left Everhold. Instead, Therion was thinking about Alfyn and how much he had never had the guts to say to the apothecary. Now wasn't the time to think about his bet with Primrose, and yet, it was all Therion could think about. What was his damn problem? 

No, he couldn't ask for an answer to that. Therion knew exactly where this was all coming from. Now that he was out of his downward spiral, he had the space and the safety to think through everything he had been forced to shove down and bottle up. That meant confronting the last thing he had been struggling with before Miguel walked into his life and ruined everything: his feelings for Alfyn. Therion's casual bickering with Primrose felt so far away now, but he knew he needed to reach out and try to find a way to close that distance. Unfortunately, Therion didn't know what to do about any of it. He had never been the best with emotions whether they were his or someone else's, and he was confident it was showing now. 

After the group finished at Geoffrey's grave, they had turned in for the afternoon, retreating to their various inn rooms to try and recover the energy that had been lost in the darkness of the Everhold amphitheater. Alfyn had taken this chance to look through all of the supplies in his bag, though Therion knew better than to think it was a matter of him wanting to make sure everything was there. This was how Alfyn calmed himself down when he grew stressed, and Therion wasn't going to push him in any direction over it. 

Therion watched Alfyn work from across the room, his mind throwing itself back to Saintsbridge. Back then, H'aanit had needed a distraction from her own miserable thoughts, and she had asked Alfyn to teach her how to heal people so she escaped her mind's prison every once in a while. Now, Therion was starting to wish he had done the same. It would have prevented him from getting into this ridiculous bet with Primrose, and it would have given him something to do with his life aside from just steal. Therion didn't know when his grand larceny had grown to be too little for him to bear, but he was certain it had happened around the time he realized just how much the travelers meant to him. 

Deep down, Therion knew he was using his bet with Primrose as an excuse. She probably didn't care about if he confessed his feelings to Alfyn or not. She was too drained after the battle with Simeon to think about much aside from her relief, and she especially wouldn't be able to tease Therion as long as she was in her current state. In other words, he could have run away from all of this if he so chose, but he didn't let himself. Instead, he stared at Alfyn from across the room, tapping one foot anxiously against the ground. If Alfyn could see how nervous he was, he had chosen to not comment on it, and Therion was eternally grateful for that mercy. 

"Alfyn?" Therion asked before he knew what he was doing, and the sudden shatter of the silence sent him reeling. Therion forced himself to recover before the apothecary could look up at him, praying he looked as level headed as he knew he needed to feel. 

Alfyn smiled up at Therion, and the exhaustion in his eyes seemed to subside in favor of something sweeter. "What is it, Theri?" Therion resisted the urge to shudder at that. Alfyn had only started calling him by that nickname recently, but it meant everything to him. Therion couldn't have asked for a better name to be called if he was being honest. Alfyn just had a way of bringing out the best in him, and Therion loved it more than he could ever hope to say. 

But now that Alfyn's eyes were on him, Therion couldn't back down, so he shoved all of his anxiety aside and swallowed against the knot in the back of his throat. "I had a question for you," Therion started. Alfyn hummed to prompt him to continue. "Do you think you would be willing to show me how to heal people as an apothecary?"

"Of course," Alfyn replied with a wide smile. "I can teach you and H'aanit together if you'd like. I need to pick up my lessons with H'aanit again now that everythin' has started to calm down again." Alfyn took to blending together a few ingredients, and the scrape of mortar against pestle echoed in the silence between the two men. 

Therion nodded slowly. "Yeah... I would like that." He was halfway tempted to back out there, to not let himself admit to everything he had been feling toward Alfyn for as long as he could chart, but he couldn't do that. Therion had made a deal with Primrose, and if there was one thing Therion would never dare to do, it was break a promise. It didn't matter if that vow was just an excuse to make sure he actually committed to talking to someone he cared about. Therion needed to see it through for his sake and so he could tell Primrose he did it. "There's something else I wanted to tell you too."

Alfyn stopped grinding away at his newest blend of medicine, and he looked up to meet Therion's gaze. Before he had the chance to inquire as to what Therion was trying to tell him, the thief cleared his throat and launched into his speech. He hadn't planned this out at all, but Therion wasn't going to take the time to outline what he wanted to say either. He just needed to say it. He had come this far. There was no going back now. "Ever since we met... You've done a lot for me. All of you have, but with you... There's something about it that just feels different. You've changed me for the better in ways I never thought possible. After Darius, I... I thought I would never be able to care about people again. You and the others taught me differently. But with you... I realized I could love the way I once loved Darius. I don't know if you could ever call that love, but..." Therion cut himself off with a sigh, realizing too late that he was rambling. "I like you, Alfyn, and if you're willing to have me... I want to stay with you for as long as I can. I want to be with you. I... I love you."

For a long moment, the air between them was silent, and Therion could hear nothing but the racing of his heart in his chest. Alfyn was staring at him with wide, shocked eyes, and he seemed to have almost forgotten how to breathe. Therion felt his heart skip a beat. Had he overstepped and not realized it? It would barely surprise him if Alfyn was upset with him for saying something like that. In cases like this, confessing to one's true feelings could very easily tip over the edge into causing more problems than it solved. How could Therion have forgotten about that? He should have just--

"I... I can't believe it," Alfyn murmured, and Therion felt as if he slammed face first into hard, stony ground. "I didn't realize you felt that way about me. If I'm bein' honest... I've felt the same way about you for a while." Before Therion had the chance to so much as gasp in shock, Alfyn raised one hand and scratched at the base of his neck. "At the time, I didn't really register what was happenin', just that my feelings toward you started changin' around the time we left Saintsbridge. But now that you've said it... I don't think I could go back to lyin' to either one of us about it."

"You... You feel the same way?" Therion felt as if ice water had been poured down his spine. Alfyn couldn't truly mean that... Right? But why would he say that he liked Therion back if he didn't mean it? Lying wasn't exactly something Alfyn was known for, and Therion doubted the apothecary would ever be able to lie about anything so significant in good conscience. 

Alfyn nodded readily. "Yeah. As long as you're willin' to have me... I'd be happy to be in your life permanently. I love you too." He continued to rub at the base of his neck, and Therion recognized it as a nervous habit that Alfyn had never quite found the ability to break. "I guess it makes an awful lot of sense now. I reacted so strongly when I first heard about everythin' Darius did to you all those years ago because I wanted to do what I could to protect you. I... I didn't get much of a chance to interrogate it further, but... I've felt this way for a while. Thanks for tellin' me, Theri. It means a lot."

Therion stared at Alfyn for another few seconds, and the shocked nerves in the pit of his stomach only seemed to grow deeper and harder to outrun. "I didn't think you would feel the same way," he admitted. "After everything that happened in Saintsbridge, I... I was going to tell you back then. I was planning on being honest with you as soon as I could. But after everything happened with Miguel... I found every reason in the world to not talk about it anymore, so I stopped thinking about it. Well, I say that, but I think i was always thinking about it. I just didn't want to have to admit it."

"I don't think you should worry about it too much," Alfyn admitted with a smile. "I've cared deeply about you for a long time, and... I wish I had taken the initiative to say somethin' first if I'm bein' honest. I'm glad the truth came out eventually for us both, but I could've saved us a lot of grief if I had just been upfront with you a while back." 

"Don't worry about that," Therion cut in with a shake of his head. "We got there in the end, and that's what matters most." He found himself crossing the room before he could hold back, and he took a seat next to Alfyn. The two shared a soft but vulnerable smile as Therion reached out to hook his fingers in between Alfyn's quietly. "Primrose is going to love hearing about this in the morning."

"That's what Tressa meant when she said the two of you were bickerin' back in Saintsbridge, right?" Alfyn asked, and Therion nodded slowly. Alfyn laughed, and Therion thought it was the best sound in the world. "I was really hopin' that was an indicator that you felt the same way about me that I did about you, but I didn't want to assume too much. It felt wrong to think there was somethin' there without talkin' to you about it first."

"You weren't assuming anything. I don't think I was all that subtle about it," Therion huffed playfully. He squeezed a little tighter at Alfyn's hand. He couldn't say the confession had gone as well as he had hoped, especially since he tripped over his own words so many times, but at least they had gotten there in the end. That was all that mattered. "Thank you for all of this, Alfyn."

"Of course," Alfyn replied, and before Therion knew it, he had been pulled into a tight embrace. Alfyn's breath tickled against the side of his neck, and for the first time in ages, he felt perfectly safe in the embrace of something green. "I love you, Theri."

Once he managed to break out of his stunned stupor, Therion nodded and sunk into the hug. "I love you too."

~~~~~

The travelers moved slowly and lethargically toward the tavern once the sun had vanished over the horizon. They were still exhausted from their battle against Simeon early in the day, and as they settled into their seats around the table, they let a comfortable silence rush in around them. The travelers had learned how to sit in silence with one another, and the quiet was one of the best places for them to stay with each other. 

Primrose sat down next to H'aanit, her fingers intertwined with the huntress' all the while. As the other travelers filed into their own chairs, Primrose's gaze caught on Therion and Alfyn. The thief and apothecary were holding hands and no doubt hoping no one would notice it. Primrose wasn't going to let them get away with it though, and she smirked. "I see you two have had a great day."

All eyes swiveled over to Alfyn and Therion, and the thief's face went hot and red with embarrassment. He pushed out a glare at Primrose, and she snickered behind her hand. "I... I finally followed up on our bet," Therion bit back. It was his best way to deflect from the subject at hand, though Primrose didn't know if she would call it an expert change of topic. "But it doesn't matter. We should think about what we're going to do tomorrow now that we're done here."

"No, we're not done just yet!" Tressa exclaimed, and Therion winced at the sound of her voice. "Tell us everything about you and Alfyn! Are you officially dating now? Did you confess your love? Is it everything you dreamed it was going to be?"

Alfyn stumbled over his words for a few seconds, only seeming to remember that he needed to respond when Therion squeezed at his hand. "Theri was real sweet about it," Alfyn replied, pretending it was the answer Tressa was looking. "We've felt this way about each other for a long time, but we didn't know what to do about it. Now... I'm glad we finally talked about it."

Therion's cheeks went impossibly pinker, and he nodded stiffly. "Yeah... That sounds about right." He coughed in yet another poor attempt to change the subject, and he cast a shifty glance over the table. "We really should figure out where we want to go next. Any volunteers for what we do from here?"

The table fell silent, and Primrose glanced around with a muted frown. There were some paths that were entirely closed off at the moment, such as with H'aanit and Tressa. No one knew where Redeye was, and the Merchants' Fair was still a short while off. That left the encounter with Werner in Riverford, chasing Lucia through Duskbarrow, and following Darius up to Northreach. Primrose didn't have much of an opinion on which one they chose, but she was fine with anything the others decided on. It felt like the least she could do after all they had done to help her stop Simeon. 

"I would like to suggest that we go to Riverford," Olberic said slowly. "I would feel much better after we could see him stopped. I do not know what he could be planning now, but I would rather not leave him unattended for longer than necessary."

"Then that settles it," Ophilia declared with a decisive nod. "Tomorrow, we can go to Riverford and stop Werner. As for what comes afterward... That's our choice to make when the time is right." She cast everyone across the table a smile, and they returned the favor. Primrose felt her chest go light too. She hadn't realized how much of a weight off her shoulders it was to know that she could make her own decisions about what she did next. She didn't need to worry about chasing the crows for the sake of revenge. The future was hers to make, and Primrose couldn't wait to see what she did with it. 

At her side, Primrose felt H'aanit squeeze at her hand. She glanced over to her girlfriend, and she let out a slow, long sigh. This was exactly what she needed. It had only been a few hours since the end of her quest, and Primrose already felt much better. It was a peace like nothing else, and Primrose adored it. 

"I wonder what will be waiting for us in Riverford..." Cyrus hummed. He had been distracted ever since Erhardt first revealed that Werner was responsible for the fall of Hornburg, but it had only gotten worse since Mattias was revealed to be a so-called prophet of Galdera. Primrose was halfway tempted to push him on what he had taken to theorizing about, but she knew Cyrus well enough to know that he wasn't going to share his ideas until he was ready. Once he set his sights on something, Cyrus practically couldn't stop talking about it. If he was holding off until he had proof, then Primrose was going to respect it. She could only hope the news wasn't too miserable when he finally came out with the truth. 

"We'll just have to see tomorrow then," Primrose announced. The rest of the travelers nodded their agreement, but before they could say anything else, the waitress from the tavern wandered over to pass out their food. Primrose could have sworn she saw relief flash in Cyrus' eyes with gratitude for the distraction, but she didn't call him on it. The time for that would come, and she would be ready when it did. 

But for the moment, Primrose wanted to enjoy her family's company for as long as she could. That was exactly what they were regardless of blood ties. Primrose would not survive solely for Geoffrey again, but she would always thrive for the travelers.

~~~~~

Late that night, Primrose laid silently on H'aanit's bed in their shared inn room. After her performance earlier in the night, H'aanit had wanted to hold her for a little while longer, and in the end, they never separated to go to their own beds for the night. Even after they got back to the inn after dinner, they couldn't bring themselves to go their own ways to the beds on the opposite sides of the room. Instead, Primrose was curled up against H'aanit's chest as the huntress slept. Primrose didn't think she had felt this safe sharing a bed with someone in ages. Then again, this was different from Sunshade. Everything had changed since then, and Primrose was beyond relieved that it had. 

Primrose pressed herself a little bit closer to H'aanit's chest, and the huntress drew her into a slightly tighter embrace even in sleep. Primrose smiled into the silence and the darkness and forced her eyes to fall shut. She wasn't truly tired yet, and she doubted she would be ready to turn in for the night any time soon, but she didn't mind it at all. Sitting there with H'aanit, nothing seemed to matter aside from the fact that she was safe. This was everything Primrose had ever wanted, and she loved it more than anything. 

Primrose pressed her eyes shut, a content smile on her face. The group would be setting out for Riverford the following morning to stop Werner, and Primrose knew she needed to get as much rest as she could before then. It was hard for her to calm her mind when she felt the best she had all day, but Primrose needed to try. Simeon was gone, and the time had come for Primrose to dedicate her attention to stopping someone else who would put the world in danger. She didn't know much about Werner, but she was willing to uncover whatever she had to in order to see him stopped.

H'aanit's breathing was even above Primrose, and the dancer wondered if she had felt this safe in years. The travelers had given her a peace unlike anything Primrose could have ever experienced in Sunshade or even Noblecourt. They had proven to her that she could survive anything. No matter how dark her days became or how desperate she grew, she would be supported. There was no place in the world Primrose would rather be, and when the morning came, she would prove it. That was what family was for, and Primrose knew the travelers were her family in a way that not even Geoffrey could compare to.

But until then, Primrose would smile into the shadows and be glad that she had finally found a place to belong again. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And there's the official end of Primrose's final chapter! 

I think this is one of my favorite chapters because of the way I wrote it. The scene with Primrose and H'aanit at the start of the chapter is easily one of my favorites in a long time because of the writing style. I just love the way it turned out. 

Also, we finally got a confession from Therion! And Alfyn has felt the same way for a while! You can kind of see this when you go back even though he doesn't outright refer to it as romantic love. Alfyn gives Therion a new nickname and starts calling him by it exclusively in Wellspring, and you can just feel the beauty of their interactions afterward too. They were meant to be, and I love them for it. 

As the end of the chapter implies, our next final chapter will be Olberic. I hope you're all as excited for that as I am. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!

-Digital