A/N: Hello! So, this is to be the final installment of my Torn in Two trilogy. Lots of stuff is going to happen and I am very excited! It's all getting a bit complicated now, though – I had to work out a family tree just for this chapter! So I hope you all find this okay, and please review! Thank you. This chapter is just a catch up of where all the characters are now.
"Are you sure you don't want another pillow?" Lorkin fussed, trying to wedge a sixth cushion behind his wife's back. Melody laughed, swatting him wearily away.
"No! Honestly, Lorkin, I'm fine" Melody, eight months pregnant and feeling extremely lethargic, had decided that all she really needed was peace and quiet.
Their marriage had started off with rather a dilemma when Lorkin and Melody discovered that it would be difficult for them to have children. Both wanted a large family and this thought had greatly upset them both. It took them a good few years before their first child was born – a boy, named Akkarin after Lorkin's father. Another couple of years passed before their second child, another son, this time named Korsten. The child Melody now carried would be their third and probably their last, and they were desperately hoping for a girl this time around.
"Are you sure? I don't want to leave you if you're feeling ill again" the boys were hovering behind their father, waiting patiently for him to stop worrying. Lorkin had trained as a Warrior, and had organised basic Warrior skills classes for any children under student age who wished to participate. The classes were extremely popular among the children of the Guild, and Melody loved them because it was the only time of the week when she was completely alone.
"Go on, go!" Melody stretched up to kiss him gently, fondly, "The boys are dying for you to get a move on"
Lorkin turned, and saw Akkarin and Korsten looking at him hopefully. He grinned.
"I hope you're ready to be beaten, kids" he taunted childishly, "Race you to the arena?"
They didn't even say goodbye, they were so caught up in the race, but as the door slammed behind them Melody closed her eyes and smiled herself to sleep.
"Dorrien, I'm too young to be a grandmother! Look at my eyes, look! No wrinkles" Aurelia was scrutinising herself in the mirror, brows furrowed with anxiety.
"I know, darling. You're as fresh and lovely as a spring daisy" Dorrien had been at the receiving end of these anxieties since their first grandchild, Akkarin, had been born eight years ago, and he was getting used to not really paying attention to Aurelia's rants.
He paused, suddenly realising the small problem with Aurelia's worry, "Lia, you're already a grandmother three times over"
"I know! But four is just too much. Do you think I look old?"
"I told you, no, of course you don't! You look just as beautiful as you've always done"
The worry melted from Aurelia's face, to be replaced with a loving smile, "You really are the best husband in the world"
Dorrien shrugged, feigning modesty, "I know. You're lucky to have me"
Aurelia kissed his cheek, "I am indeed. I'm going to go and check up on Mellie, okay?"
"Sure. I'll come too" Dorrien linked her arm and walked with her, the two of them just as happy as they had always been.
Dannyl and Tayend surveyed the library that they had always frequented with a whole new sense of responsibility.
"Is it really ours now?" Tayend sounded doubtful, as if he didn't believe that the proceedings that had led them to take control of the library had actually taken place. Dannyl laughed, a grin spreading across his face.
"Yes! Yes, it is. I think we've been given a little too much power"
"I guess it's no different. I mean, we practically live here anyway" Tayend still looked a little dazed. When a wish had been expressed for two people to run the library they so loved, they had volunteered at once, and been accepted almost instantly.
"Yes, but..." Dannyl waved a key, listening to it jangle with a wicked glint in his eyes, "Now we get to go to the restricted books"
Tayend's face lit up, "Really?"
"Yes, really!" Dannyl paused, "It's a really good thing Melody's all grown up now. You couldn't have a child running around here"
"I quite agree. The grandkids are definitely not allowed" Tayend said firmly, then smiling, "Come on, what are we waiting for?"
Eden was leading a secret life that no-one in her family could have imagined.
She had graduated long ago, but the affair with her old Alchemy professor had begun much earlier than that.
Professor Larkin liked Eden from day one – pretty but without knowing it, unlike her ditzy twin sister, and extraordinarily clever. She'd been put in for early entry. Soon she was having extra classes with Larkin to gain a higher standard of expertise in the area than her classmates.
The affair had begun during one of these classes. The age gap between them, although definitely present, wasn't as huge as Eden had always thought, and both of them were beginning to think about acting on their feelings. Larkin wasn't married, so Eden decided she had nothing to feel guilty about. They had been sitting at his desk, heads close together as they looked at her Alchemy textbook. Eden remembered feeling Larkin's hands on her soft golden hair, and had turned to look at him, finding that their lips were so close they were almost touching. It was she who breached the space between them, she who kissed him first. That was when it had begun, and it showed no signs of stopping.
All Eden was waiting for now, after eight years together, was a proposal.
Arbella had been a complete and utter fool when she began her schooling.
She had expressed little care for any of her lessons, instead throwing herself into a life of student parties, mostly hosted by herself. She was beautiful and she knew it. She slept around while Eden threw herself into her schoolwork. She liked being wanted, and no matter how many times her parents cautioned her, yelled at her, tried to stop her, she continued to live the crazy lifestyle she had become accustomed to.
Then she fell pregnant.
This happened after she had graduated, but she was still young and had no idea who the father was. Dorrien hadn't spoken to her for weeks, and Aurelia's disappointment had been painful to be subject too.
They had only forgiven her once her daughter – dark haired, dark eyed and adorable – had been born. She named her Talluali, and she was as good a mother as she could be. She settled down and realised that she loved her daughter and didn't actually mind the thought of spending every day with this child for the rest of her life.
Liliana was still sweet and shy, though she had grown a little prettier over the years. She was average in everything she did, she felt - averagely pretty, averagely clever, only vaguely noticeable.
She had liked the same man for years, since they first met in her Warrior skills class. His name was Dorian, and he was the only person who seemed to consider her worth talking to. She hadn't ever plucked up the courage to tell him she liked him, but she planned on doing so very, very soon.
Arius and Rothen, despite the age gap, were as close as brothers could be. This had led to a little bit of a problem in that they were both completely besotted with Sonea and Osen's daughter, Yena, and she was caught between the pair of them.
Arius tried to charm Yena with his good looks and the fact that he was slightly older than Rothen, which he felt made him look appealingly rebellious beside his younger brother.
Rothen tried to charm Yena with his kindness and his looks, which he felt made him a much more reliable bet than his older brother.
And poor Yena? Well, she couldn't quite choose between them, and instead left them both dangling on a string.
"Happy anniversary" Sonea pressed a light kiss to her husband's lips and smiled, "I made dinner for us"
Osen looked sceptical, "You did? Hm"
She laughed, "I've gotten a lot better at cooking lately! Honestly. Just try it, will you?"
Sonea's cooking had become a joke between the two of them over the years – in fact, they had a lot of jokes between them. Sonea had never, not for one second, regretted marrying Osen. Neither had she regretted having Yena, although she initially hadn't wanted another child. Osen and Yena were her second chance at happiness, and she just felt grateful that she had been given a second chance in the first place. Of course, she still thought of Akkarin every day, and tried to tell herself that that was natural when she wasn't sure it was.
Osen didn't know she still thought of him, and she wasn't about to share it.
Rothen was getting old. And tired. But he was happy.
He was a father, a grandfather and a great-grandfather. He was the advisor to every member of his family – he was generally besieged with visitors looking for comfort and a hot cup of Raka. And Rothen liked living that way. Maybe he missed the companionship of his wife, even after all this time; but everytime he felt that way Dorrien would turn up to moan about Aurelia's latest tantrum, or Arbella would turn up and ask him to look after Talluali, or Dannyl and Tayend would visit and ask to stay with him. He was never alone and, unlike his granddaughter, he rather liked it that way.