Caria held countless stories in her heart, of all that she and her brother had been through, and she guarded them fiercely, for some day, she’d tell them to her children, and her children’s children. And when her time in this place was over, she’d seek out her mother’s spirit among the stars, and tell Shahrazad of all that she had seen and done in this world - of how the strength and keenness of mind that Kahraman had instilled in Yıldırım had served to save them both, and how Shahrazad’s own Story had led them to a place that was safe, a place that had become Home to them.

Of all the stories Caria treasured up within the deep well of herself, the ones she cherished - even more than those of her brother finding light and love again in the most unexpected of places, were those of the youngest brother. So bright and bold, ever strong and spirited. She still remembered the first time she had seen him racing across the sands… And that night, tucked close to her brother’s side, she dreamed that it had been her, chasing after the warm wind that sang its sonorous melody over the dunes, just as she’d once danced across the barren desert lands where she and Yıldırım had been born.

None here had ever been anything other than welcoming, and in part Caria knew that her mother’s history with this People had something to do with that. Shahrazad had almost belonged here, once. But she’d left the safety of the Sadim to follow her heart, so that one day her children would follow the trail of love back to the Oasis in the East of the Dune Sea.

Above all else in Caria’s eyes, though, was the way Aldebaran had gentled himself for her. When first she’d shied away, the soft golden mare had feared that would be the end of things, that his interest in her would wane like the moon, that he would see only her weakened body and broken spirit, and none of what she had been in the past - what she had the potential to be in the future. But she needn’t have feared for a moment. Looking back, Caria could see it all so clearly now. Whatever distance Aldebaran had been careful to maintain, it was for her own sake, and as the days slipped one into another, so, too, did he draw nearer, considerate always, and taking his lead from her demeanor.

For all this, she’d loved him from the start, because he filled her with hope, and whenever he was near - watching over her from a small distance, or running wild and free through the ever-changing Dune Valleys, with her trailing him from above, high up on the crests, Caria was pulled from dwelling on all that had been lost. More than anyone, even Yıldırım (who worried about her too much, and was not half as good at hiding his worry from her as he thought he was), Aldebaran made her feel like she wasn’t as broken as she’d felt when her brother had first dragged her ashore. The Ending hadn’t been an ending after all, but an unexpected Beginning.

She is at peace, resting, when he approaches her now, and she lifts her narrow, delicate head, her shallow-water-blue eyes sweeping over his form in the darkness as she watches him draw near with head bowed low. A soft, warm, genuine smile lights up her face, and she reaches - boldly, for her - to brush her lips tenderly along the line of his cheek, moved by his concern for her. “I am not,” she murmurs in reply, but when he speaks again, she listens and considers. Where once she might have brushed off this type of concern, now she knows better, and she fears no judgment from the bay stallion resting near her. “Nearer to the time, I think that may be wise,” Caria says at length, and twists her ivory ear toward Aldebaran. “But if I feel I need aid sooner, I promise to tell you.”