Alaron told the Empress his story. She was amazed by his words and his not one, but two meetings with the Maker.

However, the tale made his altered appearance make sense. His white hair had been gained by meeting the Maker while visiting the Mystic Spires, and his now silver eyes were earned in answer to his call.

"A Guardian," the Empress mused. "It is a high honor."

The young man lowered his head humbly. "Not an honor I deserve, but one I will try to be worthy of."

"But…it has been a year since all this happened." Aurora looked at him with a thousand questions in her eyes.

Alaron nodded. "The Fates thought it best if I remained gone for a time. Let the world begin to heal. I spent the last year among the Fates in the Mystic Spires and got to know some of them quite well. But I knew that my time there had come to an end, and before I could return to take my place as a Guardian to help mend the world, I needed to mend our family first. That is, if you will forgive me." He bowed low again. "Will you?"

There was a long painful silence. So long, that Alaron wondered if he had made a mistake in coming. But then the Empress's voice answered him barely above a whisper.

"Is…is it really you?" In the back of her mind, Aurora doubted her senses. This could not be. She must have nodded off on her throne and fallen asleep. It was only a dream. All too soon she would wake up and feel the pain all over again.

"It is really him," Hanna answered with a bright smile as she appeared on the opposite side of the throne from Nurlan. Her eyes were lit with excitement as she took up and squeezed the woman's hand.

"You knew!" The Empress glared at the Fate.

"Why do you think I made you get up this morning?" Hanna winked, undeterred.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Aurora insisted.

The glowing Fate shrugged. "Would you have believed me if I told you he was alive? And if you had, surely you would have gone traipsing off to the land of magic to find him. In the condition you were in, that could have been fatal."

"I asked her not to tell," Alaron added. "Please add that to the things for which I need forgiveness. Oh, and my accidental theft of this. I am sorry for that also." Holding out the Fate's chain to return it, Alaron brandished a lopsided grin. She had never been able to resist him when he did that.

"It is you!" At last convinced, the regal Empress abandoned her throne and threw her arms around the caped figure. "My son!" She hugged him, and he bent down to allow her to kiss his cheeks and inspect his face. He looped the necklace over her head and let it rest on Aurora's shoulders.

"Mother," he called her, the word music to her ears. "I have missed you."

"Not as much as I have missed you! And of course I forgive you! I know in time, the world will too." Aurora stroked his cheek, still trying to process what she was seeing. That is when she noticed his face turn sad.

"It is best to leave me dead as far as the world knows. I may have saved it, but I also caused the destruction in the first place. When I leave the palace, I would like to be able to work without people knowing who I am." The new Guardian's eyes flashed silver.

Aurora's lips parted in surprise. "You aren't staying?"

A warm sense of belonging filled the white-haired man, but he shook his head. "I will stay for a few days, a week if you will have me, but I will need to move on and finally go to fulfill my calling."

Although her son would not be staying, Aurora could not help but feel overwhelmed with gratitude for any extra time she received. "Mairwen and your father will be overjoyed to see you!"

"I cannot wait to see them," he admitted. "But there is one other person I am hoping to meet…" his voice raised at the end of his words.

The Empress glanced at Hanna.

"I will let Devrim know," the Fate answered the unspoken request with a cherubic grin. "And we will meet you outside." Hanna disappeared.

Aurora took Alaron's hand. "Come, let us go to the Spring Garden."

The young man smiled, flipping up his inscrutable hood to follow her through the halls.

————

Even though it was winter, hints of spring filled the air in the garden named after the season. With all the servants having been cleared from the area, Alaron had thrown back his hood and met the glistening eyes of his twin sister, Mairwen.

"Brother?" she whispered, barely able to form the word. Then in a more confident tone, "Brother!" she yelled, dropping her bow and running headlong into Alaron's arms. "How?"

Alaron gave a hurried explanation to his twin, promising to explain in more detail later. Together they waited by a stone bench in anticipation of Devrim's arrival.

"Mother, isn't it wonderful?" Mairwen said. Slender and beautiful, the princess stood beside Aurora in her red and gold brocade gown, her blue eyes shining.

Aurora could not help but smile and nod. A memory began to emerge from the mist in the back of her mind. The Empress had seen this scene before.

Indeed it was all something she had seen before. The Empress glanced to her side and as expected, next to Mairwen stood Alaron, tall and broad-shouldered. His eyes became wet with joy as he watched Devrim enter the far side of the garden. The girl grabbed her twin's arm and pulled him forward. "Come on!" she beckoned. He obediently complied.

Together the pair ran toward Devrim and the bundle in his arms. The chubby baby lavished a toothless smile on the newcomers. Mairwen cleared her throat and became serious. "Alaron, I would like you to meet our little brother, Prince Colvyr."

Alaron smiled and bowed deeply. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness. I look forward to serving you one day when you reign." The new Guardian then hugged his father and the group fell into a flurry of questions and pleasant conversation.

Unable to move, Aurora watched with great wonder as the scene she had witnessed once before replayed before her.

Hanna and, more curiously, the Fate Justum appeared on either side of her.

"The Maker showed me this so long ago, but I thought the opportunity was lost…" The Empress whispered. "I never thought I would see my whole family together."

Hanna hooked her arm through Aurora's. "Although things did not play out the way we hoped, the Maker still fulfilled your desire."

The Fate was right that this was Aurora's desire. Her deepest dream was for all of them to be together, happy. And here it was!

"Before you join them," Justum broke her train of thought even as she was stepping toward them. "I wanted to let you know that the Fates will be returning to live among humans. We can do far more good among those we are supposed to guide and protect than we can in our ivory towers."

Aurora was stunned by his words as her lips parted slightly. "What caused the change of heart?"

"Let's just say we have had a human living with us for the past year who reminded us why humanity is the Maker's favorite creation. We are sorry that we abandoned you for so long." Justum bowed his head before the ruler, his wide white sleeves bushing the ground as he did so.

Pausing to process his words, the Empress swallowed. "I see. May I ask, in what area of the world will you find your auspicious self?" She silently hoped that the most prominent of Fates would not select himself to be in the most prominent of places: her palace.

Justum seemed to guess her thought. "I will be accompanying our newest Guardian for the time being, at least until he seems to get a feel for things." He held his head proudly like he should be given an award for his sacrifice. "Hanna will remain here with you as she has been. There must be some reward for doing the rest of the Fates' jobs in our absence."

"Indeed there must." The Fate held her nose in the air, but her impish smile showed she held no ill will. Releasing Aurora, Hanna pushed the Empress toward the rest of the royal family. "Don't keep them waiting any longer."

Not needing to be told twice, Aurora joined her family, who had found a circle of benches and had seated themselves happily. Devrim was handing baby Colvyr into Alaron's arms.

The older brother radiated pride as he held his younger sibling. "Look at your boys, mother!" the elder prince cooed.

"Two of the most handsome men I know," Aurora agreed. She flicked her eyes to her husband and amended her statement, "Three of the most handsome men I know." She kissed Devrim on his pouting lips and sat beside him.

Alaron pretended not to notice their affectionate display. "This little one even has your eyes," he commented as he admired Colvyr's blue-flecked irises.

"At least he didn't get my fiery hair." Aurora ran her fingers through her colorful locks while she peeked at her child's mostly bald head. "At least not yet, I mean."

On the bench next to Aurora, a long, thin package appeared.

"Thank you, Hanna." Aurora whispered.

"What is it?" Mairwen asked.

"Alaron's long lost birthday present." She proffered the gift to the young man. "Open it."

Unwrapping the cloth, Alaron gazed upon a beautiful ancient sword.

"It is the blade of the first King of Valiant. I thought you would like it," the Empress smiled. "Better late than never."

"This was your special gift? And then I went and failed you!" Alaron tried to hand back the sword.

"None of that. You are a Guardian now." Aurora smiled at him gently. "And every Guarian needs a special tool or weapon. It was meant to be."

Alaron could not refute her words. He sheathed the sword and belted it, enjoying the feeling of it around his waist. "Thank you, mother."

The sun made its daily trek across the sky and except for Nanny coming eventually to fetch young Colvyr (for of course she would let no one else be fully in charge of his care), the group seemed unaware of the passage of time. Finally, the world began to grow dark.

"I cannot believe with all the mistakes I have made that I still got to have a day like today," Alaron mused as he placed his arm around his sister's shoulder and pulled her close. "A screw up like me certainly doesn't deserve all this joy." Lest he seem too sentimental, he poked Mairwen in the side to make her squeal. She jabbed him back, and the two began a childish poking war.

"We all make mistakes," Aurora said, causing the twins to pause their silly quarrel. With a gentle tug, Devrim pulled the woman next to him closer on the bench before rubbing her arm. "We all make mistakes," she repeated, "but those mistakes should not define us. Instead, they should motivate us to be better."

'Be better? Be better!'

Those were the dying words that Empress Zephyra had spoken to Aurora. It was something that the fiery-haired woman had tried to achieve since that day, but never felt like she had grasped. Now Aurora understood that being better was not a destination, it was a continual journey.

It was a journey which her mother had decided far too late to take. In her last breaths, she had urged Aurora to take a different path. It was Zephyra's one and only loving act.

"Be better, hm?" Alaron considered her statement. "Wise words."

"Yes, if only I had understood them sooner," Aurora smiled sadly.

Nanny returned to the garden with a freshly changed and well-rested princeling. "Are all of you still out here?!"

Mairwen stood, took Colvyr and spun him around with her gently in a circle as she answered Nanny. "Where else would we be but together?" The others nodded their agreement.

Nanny wanted to scold them, but her own joy overrode her cantankerous scowl. She smiled at them. "Come in then, chickadees. You cannot live solely off of laughter. Come in and eat dinner. If you are lucky, I may even join you." The old woman winked.

"Please do," Aurora stood and kissed her former caretaker on the cheek. Nanny was family, however much she tried to deny it.

The Empress, Emperor, Princess, Princeling, New Guardian, and Nanny all made their way into the palace. Though their time together that evening was all too brief, they knew that their love would hold them until they could meet again.

As Aurora closed her eyes before sleep took her, she reflected on all that had come since she took the throne. Though there had been strife and heartache, there had also been joy. In the end, both her kingdom and her family had been saved. And now that the heir had finally been born, there was hope for an even better tomorrow.

Or rather, a tomorrow where they could all, "Be better."