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When his gaze met hers, she stepped closer and hugged him tightly. “I’m glad you’re back safe.”

After a moment, Dacha embraced her. A quick human-style hug that changed into an elven shoulder grip as he stepped back to peer into her eyes. “And you, sena? Are you all right?”

He wasn’t merely asking if she’d survived the last two weeks physically unscathed. He was searching for the toll of being the lone Laesornysh.

“I’m fine. Truly.” She held his gaze, hoping he’d see that. And on the days when she wasn’t, she had Merrik.

Perhaps he read that too because he nodded. “Good.” After another pause, he squeezed her shoulders before dropping his hands back to his sides. “I am proud of you, sena, Laesornysh.”

She drew in those words like a breath. She’d always known that her dacha was proud of her. That had never been in doubt, and he’d reiterated as much throughout her time in the war.

But now he was proud of her, not just as a daughter, but as a fellow Laesornysh warrior worthy of the legacy he had created.

It was all she had ever wanted.

Yet the war was over. Laesornysh warriors were no longer needed. She’d fought the war and been the Laesornysh with all its terrible bloodshed and weight.

Now what did she do, now that she’d accomplished the one dream she’d always clung to? Despite her talk with Merrik, the loss of that dream still churned within her.

She slumped back against the hangar behind her with a sigh. “So…what happens now?”

Dacha tilted his face upward once again, though the aeroplanes were well out of sight. A smile played at the corners of his mouth. “Now, sena, we go home. We return to peace.”

Peace. She had chafed at it for years. She hadn’t figured out how to thrive during peace during the decades leading up to this war. How was she going to do it afterward? She was a Laesornysh with magic that wasn’t meant for peace. Would Merrik be enough? Or would she hurt him with her restlessness as she’d hurt him with her magic?

“How do you do it? Live in peace?” She let her head fall against the metal side of the hangar.

“You learn to be at peace.” Dacha glanced at her before he gestured toward the sky. “And you build a life.”

He made it sound so simple. And yet he had done just that for seven decades. He had the same, powerful magic she did. He’d had similar struggles with losing control and losing himself to the magic. Still, he’d raised a family, founded a company, and transformed three kingdoms with this magically-powered mechanical age.

Maybe it was just that simple. Being at peace wasn’t something that just happened. It was something she would have to actively choose again and again when her magic felt like too much inside her.

No, that didn’t mean she should suppress herself or make herself smaller. But she would choose to find fulfillment in the things that truly mattered and seek healthy outlets for her magic so that she didn’t become restless.

She didn’t know what her new dream would look like just yet. Maybe she’d go back to the AMPC and work alongside Dacha and the rest of her family as she’d done before the war. Perhaps she’d find some other use for her magic that would fulfill her more.

Either way, she already knew that the heart of her new dreams for the future would involve a certain pilot currently soaring in the clouds high above.

Adry sat on an overturned bucket in a circle of makeshift seats in the aeroplane hangar, a teacup in one hand, a donut in the other, while she waited for Merrik to collect his own teacup and donut from the tables a few yards away.

The tea party for Ellie and Kari had ended up a tea party for Merrik’s whole squadron, emphasis on party.

The elven half of the squadron sipped tea from the various teacups they’d produced from who-knew-where, their expressions blissful and content. They’d talked several of the human flyboys and flygirls into trying the various teas Kari had brought, walking their squadron mates through the process of making a proper tea in the tin cups from their mess kits.

Kari currently held court at the end of a table, dispensing tea and discussing how to make a proper cup with Capt. Rothilion. Ellie sat next to her, helping to measure out tea into the strainers for the line of pilots still waiting to try a cup.

Tiny’s girlfriend had arrived from Defense City with a delivery of donuts while Fieran had somehow finagled a crate of sodas for those who didn’t want to join the tea tasting.

Tryndar sat on a nearby table, assembling one of the wooden puzzles that Adry hadn’t gotten around to building. Louise had joined him, building a wooden puzzle of her own in between assisting Tryndar.

Adry had heard Mama, Louise, Ellie, and Tryndar had experienced some kind of trouble back home while Adry had been fighting at the front, though she had yet to hear the full story. Thankfully, her siblings seemed all right, and Tryndar’s smile was undimmed as he chattered with Louise and Pip, who had halted by the table to talk with them.

Adry took another sip of her tea, taking in the chaos that was the Half-Breed Squadron celebrating the end of the war. Merrik had paused by Kari, laughing as he talked with her, Capt. Rothilion, and the flyboys waiting for a cup of tea.

Merrik, laughing. It had been far too long since she’d seen it.

Fieran sank onto the makeshift bucket seat next to Adry, a bottle of soda in one hand, a donut in the other.