Thank you for keeping on reading. It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to end this.

The landscape was a prism of colors dancing all around. She felt a starving ache and she was so close. Distantly she heard someone say there was no place for her in their vision for the world. It didn't matter she curled in on herself ready to explode.

"Shana….Shana!" A hand was on her shoulder, shaking her. A man with a blonde mullet.

"Zieg!"

"No No No. It's been a decade, it must have been one hell of a nightmare."

"Dart, I'm sorry. I've not let it go."

"Well with Rose's necklace you have plenty of time." Her best friend smiled at her.

"I should be taking care of you." Shana stood rubbing sleeping out of her eyes.

"You got in late. Besides I only woke you because breakfast is being set."

"I'll join you in a minute." Getting dressed she internally bemoaned that her friends only saw each other every few years because of marriages, births, and now funerals. She was first greeted by her travel companion Guaraha who, understandably, was avoiding the breakfast scene. Before she could say anything to him. She was half tackled and wholly hugged by a 10 year old.

"Auntie Shana!" The boy was a light brunette and amber eyed young man.

"Little Lavitz."

The boy jumped backwards with the clumsy grace he must have inherited from his mother "Not so little."

Albert gripping his son's shoulder, "Give Shana a chance to eat."

"Food! Bye Dad."

Albert smiled warmly, "Shall we."

Breakfast passed smoothly and Kongol was sharing a story of Haschel. Dart's jaw was clenched, and Shana could tell he was holding back tears. Shana rested her head against his shoulder. So quietly, "It's okay to cry with us." She didn't need to see but she knew Dart's wife had stiffened out of distaste for Shana. Shana accepted her moonchild sway over everyone. She had to admit that it was nice someone finally disliked her, even if it was Dart's wife. She was startled out of her thoughts feeling his tears run into her hair. "Haschel was a good man. I wish you two had more time together."

XXX

Guaraha was talking to a man about a boat with Meru. Shana sighed, "You two could fly over there."

Meru rolled her eyes, "You have for years worked to integrate the Wingly and Human communities all over."

Guaraha, "Except the Broken Isles. We are here, so I say we go."

Shana couldn't decline, her two friends were willing to bear the awkwardness of each other's company for her sake. "Do you think we'll recognize Lloyd's family?"

Guaraha pulled her necklace out from under her shirt. "They will see this for what it is. This pendant that you have kept close to your heart is a family crest, likely Lloyd's"

Meru giving her ex-fiance the side eye at the comfort between him and Shana.

With the signet spheres gone most Wingly cities couldn't maintain the cloaking to hide their cities. Every town was wary but never attacked because Shana always had Guaraha with her. She could feel Meru's eye's on her and knew there would be some probing questions about him, but that was later.

The sentries flew over their boat asking what their business was. Shana calmly stated they had news of Lloyd.

Wingly's crowding around a pier, out of curiosity Shana assumed. Meru clenched her hand and Shana followed her gaze, a woman whose glaring brows screamed she was related to Lloyd. She felt the urge to scoot back and turn the boat around. Meru whispered she was by her side and Guaraha briefly gripped her shoulder. Shana summoned her poise and authority as she moved from the boat to the pier, greeting the oldest wingly first.

"I am Shana these are my friends Guaraha and Meru-"

The woman reminiscent of Lloyd stepped forward and Meru made a startled sound at her rudeness. "I'm Gwyn and you have news of my son." Her eyes fell to Shana's chest and she grabbed Lloyd's pendant breaking the chain as she ripped it from her neck. "Why would cattle have this?"

Meru "He gave-"

Shana raised her hand, silencing her friend. With a warm smile, "Perhaps we can have this conversation in private."

"Shana what are you-"

"Guaraha perhaps you and Meru should speak to the ancestor. I believe it is best I speak to Lloyd's family on my own."

The elder wingly, "Miss, it might not be safe."

"I can take care of myself." Turning back to Gwyn. "Now please do you have someplace private we chat."

Meru follows Guaraha to the ancestor's home, "How is Shana so formal and polite?"

"She is used to it. Shana has this thing about acting out of integrity no matter how she is provoked."

"I'd love to take a mallet to her."

Guaraha nodded firmly.

XXX

Shana took in the sight of Lloyd's childhood home, or at least the outside of it. It was smaller than she imagined, if she ever did imagine it. She certainly did not expect Lloyd to have a mother who was so blatantly racist. Gwyn gestured to her to a chair on the porch. "Are there any other relatives? Lloyd mentioned his father and that he was an only child."

"Du'rfiel will be back soon."

Shana's lips quirked, "Gwyn means white and Du'rfiel means black. Correct?"

Gwyn's brows furrowed, "Lloyd means grey. When we fell in love we couldn't help it when we named our only child. Lloyd told you he hated puns?"

"He seemed good humored about them. No I didn't learn much of the wingly language until years later as I was trying to help transition villages that wanted to work with humans."

"Who would want that?"

"Not many, but a few villages have made that choice. With magic dying some think it wise."

She looked over her shoulder hearing a man's voice "So you share this utopian ideal with my son" He looked at her warmly and produced a kerchief, Shana hadn't realized her eyes were watering.

"Thank you, your voice was so like his."

"My son is dead." the man did not look surprised.

"Yes, he died protecting me and the world."

Gwyn crossed her arms, "He died cleaning up his own mess."

Shana couldn't argue with that and she nodded.

Du'rfiel gave a concerned look to his wife, "Would you make some tea dear? I am a bit parched."

Shana, seeing the chain dangle out of Gwyn's fist, "Before you go in, I'd like my betrothal necklace back." The woman dropped it on the ground before leaving.

Du'rfiel returned it, "She wasn't always like this. This boy named Diaz came into our lives. Lloyd left without a goodbye. He visited us once in the past 30 years saying he met the human woman who would help him bring equality to all species. Gwyn was bitter saying that human cattle don't deserve him. I imagine you were this woman? I didn't think he meant it as a wife but as a tool."

Shana blushed, "At first I think I was a means to an end. There was a moment after a tournament where he could have kidnaped me and used me as a tool. We couldn't have stopped him, we weren't strong like him. Instead-" She paused at a loss of words.

"Instead he was Lloyd and took delight in a charming woman."

Gwyn came back with tea and was pouring it, "My son was driven and always had a goal in mind. It couldn't help himself though to enjoy the moment from time to time."

Shana solemnly looked at them, "I am sorry it took me a decade to work up the courage to see you. To tell you your son is dead."

Both looked at each other puzzled, "It's only been a decade. You'll see when you have centuries to live time isn't such a precious resource."