The surf washed over her ankles and tried to pull her back as it retreated into the sea. It sucked at her feet and she felt herself sinking deeper into the sand.

She fingered the robe hanging limply around her legs that had so recently been new and bright, now torn and muddied. Ruined. Her eyes scanned the horizon for something, anything that reminded her that she used to have a home, that she was once princess of a castle, but there was nothing. The stones that once housed her ancestors, her grandmother, her mother, were lost to the sea because she had wished it. All the wisdom of her family, the knowledge and lore and power were destroyed because she had made it so. Eilonwy had never hated Achren more, and had never doubted herself so strongly.

The surf washed over her again and she sank even deeper. The sea is trying to claim me as well. She struggled to pull herself free of the wet sand. Well it can't have me. The sacrifice had already been made and it was more than enough. She could still salvage herself. Eilonwy turned her face to the sun and felt its warmth on her skin. She had thought that she would never feel again, so certain in those last moments of awakening and fire that she had destroyed herself as well. Just everything around me. But she had saved them, her truest companions, and it would have been enough. And yet here she was, standing in the sunlight, full of life.

Hope crept back into her heart.