The world had become a sort of powder keg he had never expected to experience. Maslakhat dead, he was now in charge of much more than running his brothers lives and inviting others to live - he was in charge of checking every border, seeking out every flaw in his own plans, shouldering all the weight and blame -- and keeping it away from his already too burdened Wife. Depression was not lost on him, nor were the effects that could sometimes take hold if stress was not removed from the situation. Being Mira had been her birthright, for all intents and purposes, but he wondered now if they hadn’t been granted leave by their gods in order to be something more simple, something less powermad and warmongering.

It felt strange, having to come to this conclusion - that he may have been bred from greatness, but he was destined for something so much less. It was humbling, but bewildering too. He swore to himself that he would own that new feeling, that new identity. He allowed the last bit of Mira to burn out of his soul and moved into the night so that when he returned by morning, he felt baptised by the sands that he had so foolishly tried to tame and wound up tamed by.

So instead of returning a King as his father might have demanded, that the weight of royal breeding had always forced of him, he returns even more of a Common Man. He returns only as Man to Wife, to Child, to Family. Not home, because even as he returns, he knows he will lose this place and he would not miss it if it meant bonds tying he and his Mira to a sacrificial alter.

She is worn, so tempered by strain and downtrodden feelings, but beauty is all that he perceives in spite of it. "We came here, ran away here, to finally be free. I will never choose kingship over what we had hoped to make here. Kingship I crave is only over my beloveds and my kingdom is only their happiness. I have freed Aldebaran of his last obligations to me already when I passed him by. I should never have tried to hold his spirit in check -- and when I realized I was jealous of that freedom, I knew what I needed. What we both, I think, still need..."