Epilogue

As Skull Rock Island disappeared below and the first of the billowy clouds began to surround them, Princess Nataleigh caught herself wondering if indeed this was the last time they could ever visit Darrowold. Had Chrysolis been right? And if so, could she ever be satisfied again just watching her friends through a magic mirror, knowing she could never talk to them again?

And now she realized the biggest trap that her sin had created for her yet. If she was not satisfied with watching Darrowold through a magic mirror before, how much harder would it be to ever be satisfied with watching them in the future when she now knew them as friends and would miss them so dearly?

“Oh, what was the point of coming back from near-death only to say goodbye forever anyway?” the princess groaned, wiping a tear from her eye. “I should have just stayed in Amiera rather than returning to say goodbye. This hurts more than getting sucked into a magic portal or anything else I’ve had to endure on this quest! Why was I such a disobedient fool in the first place? If only I had understood the price of disobedience then like I do now?”

And that was a consequence that the princess of Amiera would have to live with for the rest of her long life. But such was the grace of the High King that failures could not be remembered forever and the joys of her home in the clouds and the other mysteries that her father had reserved for she and her brother as mature young people would one day overshadow her regrets with fullness of joy and adventure unending.