A/N: Here you go guys. The last chapter of Story of the Nameless Shang. Read, read, read!

Disclaimer: Alas, even as this draws to an end the world belongs to Tamora Pierce still.

x...:...x

Arra stared at the ceiling from her bed.

She didn't know when or which servants were the first to find her. Or if they were servants at all, they might have been healers. She did not know. But they had found her and everyone else and from then she could not remember.

But here she was now, safe in her bed.

Arra groaned and flipped her feet over the side of the bed. The whole ordeal had been a two weeks ago and since then the surreal feeling had only grown.

Arra herself had slept for a day and a half before she woke and would rest no longer.

Besides her Kingdom needed her.

Arra had been surprised at first to find that nobody in the palace thought she had killed Zedar to eliminate any threat to her position as heiress; they had said, more or less that they had already known of Zedar's evil. In fact, they were happy he was gone. Arra did not know exactly what to think of that. They had known but had done nothing?

Arra changed into her most comfortable, newly made, black clothes and put on her favorite pair of boots.

She still couldn't believe what had happened. After she had awaken, she had cried and cried for hours still. She had lost too much in that one night.

She had ordered Damien be buried like a hero and it was done. The burial was on sacred ground, or at least it was sacred to Karucians.

Emereth, of course, was buried as a King and would have gotten no less. They had found his body exactly like Zedar had coldly explained it.

Not many people had remembered Adelle in the confusion. She had been pushed to the side. Arra had confronted her and asked what she would like. Adelle, Arra could tell, was a broken woman. The paleness from before turned more sickly and she cried a lot. The only thing she asked for from Arra was to return back to her fief where her brother still lived with his family. Arra granted it.

Arra walked down the long hall and down the stairs to the infirmary. She had formerly ordered the infirmary moved from upstairs to downstairs and was thinking of making another one on the other side of the castle. She visited him everyday in hope he would wake up and every day she was saddened more. But that was how she started her day.

Arra heard a sliding sound and a light thump come up behind her.

"Still not awake?"

She shook her head. That had been the one light point in her days, that Andy had come from his comatose. He walked with a cane, and would for a weeks still, but he was mostly fine.

"Come on then, walk with me." Andy urged her gently.

Arra stood and touched Liam's face tenderly before nodding to Andy and following him. They walked for a long moment in silence but Arra didn't mind.

"He'll be alright you know." He said suddenly.

"I know." Arra whispered. "But its not that, I'm going to have to tell his family in Tortall. I wanted him to be awake before then, so I could talk to him."

He turned a smile in her direction. "I always knew you would make a good Queen. You still know your duties." He paused. "I hear a lot has happened while I slept."

Arra nodded her head. While he'd been awake for a week or more, they had not touched upon this. "Yes." She said quietly.

Andy knew better than to prod at this particular wound. Of course he knew the twins were gone but as of yet, as was his King, the only one who knew exactly what happened, the full and complete story, was Arra herself.

Arra decided to speak and ask a question that had bothered her to no end. "Why . . . why didn't you tell me it was Zedar all along? We could have been spared—I could have been spared a lot of pain."

He sighed. "I didn't know that things would turn out this way. I didn't know you would lose so much. But if you could not think on your own, you would make a pitiful Queen. I had to be sure. If you didn't come to the right conclusions, then our future would have been doomed. Doomed if you failed."

"Why would you take that risk?"

"The way I saw it, Zedar would have destroyed Karucia anyways what had we to lose?" Andy explained.

Arra sighed not really in the mood to become angry. "You think in an odd way." She said. "I've been meaning to ask you something though. We are currently without a Commander for the army. The space does need to be filled."

"And you want me." Andy seemed slightly surprised.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I trust you." Arra said simply. "More than the rest of them at this point. You were the only one who stood against Zedar, even if it was in a subtle way, where no one else dared. That proves something to me."

Andy thought for a moment. "I'll do it."

Arra smiled thankfully at him. Feran had not been seen since that night but she already had search troops out for him. Duties had been given to her that she hadn't been ready for but she was dealing with them. She'd have to since she was about to become Queen.

oOo

Arra sat in the garden that her balcony overlooked. It was peaceful here, maybe she could learn to tend it. She would have to ask someone to teach her, she had never known much about plant lore. Arra heard the same combinations of slide and then a soft thump coming up from her side but did not turn.

"The servants told me where you were." Andy explained and took a seat on the stone bench that was at her back as she herself sat on the ground. "I would sit next to you, as is required, but I'm not sure I'd be able to get back up."

"Why would you need to sit next to me?" Arra asked.

"Because, you are Crown Princess now and no one can sit higher than your level." Arra gave him a look that meant wouldn't that be hard because of her height? Andy laughed. "Same level or lower. Not height. It has nothing to do with height."

Arra swatted her hand as if she wanted to throw away that idea, finding it stupid. They sat in silence but Arra knew Andy was getting ready to say something. He always took his time if he was going to say something important as opposed to if he were trying to make you smile.

"You love him don't you?" His voice finally sounded.

Arra had not expected him to say that. She blinked, once, twice. "You worry about having to sit at the same level as me but you don't care if you ask personal questions or not."

Andy shrugged and flashed a grin. Arra just shook her head. He certainly was odd.

oOo

Arra hadn't thought she would miss seeing him that much. But Joel came and she realized she had, in the way a friend misses another friend who has been angry at them for too long. He had come, he said, to visit Damien's grave.

"So, its true then." Joel said as he looked upon Damien's grave. "He's really gone."

Arra nodded solemnly she had told him somewhat about what had happened and he'd accepted it and accepted he was a hero. She waited a few moments before finally spitting out her question: "Joel would you like to stay here? In Karucia? I could set up a position for you."

But he shook his head. "Arra, I'm just not ready. Not yet." His eyes were bright. "I think I always knew you never loved me the way I did you. But I held on to hope. I can't stay here, I might hurt someone. Whoever you choose to love that is. I'll visit from time to time but I can't stay, it hurts too much."

Arra nodded again, this time in understanding. She had wanted him there because he was the only person left from her past and she needed someone here. She had hoped he would stay but she would never force him to do something. Never. I can not keep him tied to my side forever, that would be unfair for the both of us.

oOo

Arra walked, somewhat aimlessly, down the hall. She felt a pull, not anything physical but from her own curiosity. So she walked on if only to rid her mind for only a moment of the impending duties falling to her.

She knew where she was going. To see the sword that had once belonged to King Vincent the First.

Arra sat in front of the glass encased sword on a conveniently placed stack of books. This was the last place I spent with my father alone. Arra thought after a moment of mindless stare.

Then a jolt ran up her back and she realized what it was she felt. She had the sudden urge to touch the milk-white blade.

She reached up and when her fingers came close to the glass a sound Arra couldn't really describe as a voice, spoke. It seemed more a combination of thick sounds that somehow she came to understand.

"Not the one. Close . . ."

Arra stepped back from the glass, that sudden urge quelled. She couldn't make heads or tails of the situation and was most confused by the voice, if it could be called that. Close? Close to what?

oOo

That morning Arra had visited Damien's grave alone. She'd cried and wished he were not gone. But he was, and she couldn't change it. In Karucia, bodies were burned to set the soul free and then the ashes were buried in remembrance. Arra thought it had been fitting for him since he had been the Shang Phoenix. He still felt lost to her though.

Two, she reminded herself. One who raised me, and the other who wished he had. Both parental figures and I lost them both.

To rid herself of excess feeling she went to the practice grounds. The men were nicer, but she didn't trust them. They could very well be trying to suck up to the next powerful thing that waltzed through Karucia. She would decide for herself when she trusted them or not, but until then she stayed on guard.

Arra was in them middle of practice with a bow when the messenger came.

"Princess," He gasped for air. "H-He is waking up."

Arra knew there was only one 'he' they would be bothering her about and she left for the palace at a dead run. Was he really waking up? Or was it just another twitch here and a fluttering eyelash there?

The room was crowded with healers when she reached it.

"OUT! NOW!" Arra roared over the multitude of voices. They stopped and immediately left in a neat line all except for Ilandere.

"I sent the message." Ilan said. "I think this might be it, Princess."

"Arra." She corrected absently. She went to stand by his side. Arra touched his hand lightly hoping, praying, he would open his eyes and they would stay open.

Liam's fingers twitched against hers. His eyes fluttered slightly. Please, Arra begged tears already forming at the thought that this might not really be it. It could just be like the other times. But Liam's eyes continued to flutter and finally they opened to reveal hazel eyes. Those beautiful hazel eyes Arra had missed looking at.

Liam stared into nothingness for a while, then he turned his head slightly, ever so slightly, until Arra came into view. His hand twitched again and he grabbed her hand. The threatening tears spilled over.

"What's the matter, beautiful? Don't cry." Liam whispered. And at the sound of his voice Arra couldn't help but cry harder.

Ilan gave him a small check up to make sure he was alright, passing her hand in front of his eyes to make sure he could follow them and then checking with her Gift that the back of his head was doing fine. And then Ilan somehow left the room too quietly for Arra to notice.

Liam was staring into nothingness again when he spoke, "So it wasn't a dream was it?"

Arra knelt by his bed and pressed his hand to her cheek. She shook her head. Liam looked at her and then tried to move over on the bed. "Come next to me. You look tired."

Did she really? The gods knew she got sleep even if they were littered with nightmares. But she slept.

Arra crawled in next to him and clung to him. He was awake, he was talking. Someone was not gone from that horrible night.

"Arra," Liam's voice broke her thoughts. "Say something, anything."

She thought for a moment then said, "I'm sorry," The tears came harder, "I'm so sorry."

Suddenly she stood and backed away from the bed. She bowed, "I'm sorry, Liam." And then ran out of the room. Why, exactly, she was running escaped her. But she ran and ran. Because that's what I'm good at, she thought bitterly, running. Arra's legs stopped moving. I can't tell him now. I can't. I have to inform Tortall and he has to go home. I can't give him a reason to stay.

Arra shook her head. She would give him time to rest, time for her to get her emotions and thoughts more under control, and then she'd visit him again.

It was two days later when she decided she had to see him again. This time he was sitting up in a comfortable chair away from the infirmary beds. When she approached him he seemed to be deep in thought but he spared her one glance before returning to that state.

So he would be like that. She couldn't blame him. She had run away and not said a word to him for two days after her only words to him being, "I'm sorry."

Arra didn't try to touch him, to reach for his hand or get close to him. Instead she bowed again. Had he been more open she would not have settled to be so formal. "Prince Liam," Her voice was soft, "While your welcome here is never ending I'm sure your family will want to be informed of your condition and where you are."

Liam shot her a look, "And I thought we had passed the formalities long ago, Arra."

Arra nodded once but didn't let that stop her, "Would you like us to inform your family as soon as possible?"

Liam shook his head. "No, I'd like to impose on your hospitality a while longer. Or at least until you stop being so much like a princess with me."

She walked over carefully to him and sighed. She reached out her hand and carefully skimmed the back of his head. He winced slightly. Ilandere had healed it as best as she could but she said it had magical residue and needed time more than anything. "I did that to you, you know." She paused. "I had lost control of my Gift and it hurt you. And it still hard for me to control it now." Arra opened her hand and immediately there was fire there to meet her, where before she had to concentrate much harder than that to make it appear. The ball of fire was still blue but instead of the exact shade of crystal blue as her eyes it was one shade darker.

"I'm so--" Arra tried to begin but Liam snapped around and gave her a hard look.

"Stop saying that to me." She had never heard Liam's voice hold such a commanding tone. "Arra have you told anyone what happened that night in that room?"

Arra shook her head.

"Then I'm right, I know more about what happened than everyone else—yes, I remember." He looked her straight in the eye. "And I think I know better than everyone else how much you really lost. You lost the man who raised you your whole life, I know you loved him. And not only that but you lost your father."

"And then, Liam, I almost lost you, too." She tried not to let the growing tears bother her. "I don't want to lose more people but you've got to go home back to Tortall."

"Then come with me."

Arra shook her head. She knelt down at his feet and looked up at him. "Liam, I can't. Karucia needs me. I am the only one left who can rule without there having to be some huge war to decide who would."

"Then let me stay here with you."

Arra shook her head again.

"Why not?" His voice was calming as he gently prodded.

"Because you have to go back to Tortall." She said stubbornly. But he waited. She gave him no other answer.

"Why are you pushing me away?" There was the slightest edge of frustration to his voice. "Why are you pushing me away back to Tortall? I came here when you said you needed me and now your trying to push me away."

The words left her mouth before she could think about them. "Because I love you."

At the sound of her own voice saying that Arra flinched and averted her eyes.

Liam reached out and grabbed her chin and made her look at him. His hazel eyes were full with emotions she didn't want to notice. Compassion, understanding, love. She almost didn't catch his whisper. "Is it hard to love me? Is it really that hard?"

Arra shook her head signaling a 'no'. Of course it wasn't! He made it too easy to love him with little everything he did. How could she not love him?

Words were tumbling from her mouth before she knew what to do. "I want you here with me, always. I don't want you to leave. I need you here with me. I want you to be my King."

Arra clamped her mouth shut. She had gone too far.

But Liam did not seem to think so. "Then why don't you ask?"

This time she was the one who was frustrated. "It's more confusing that that, that's why! You are tied to Tortall. You are Tortall's knight, bound to that land. You are their prince. That would be going backwards wouldn't it? To bring the prince to the princess's Kingdom? And if we were to m-marry my Kingdom would not find it acceptable to change my name from 'Silver Crest' to 'Conte'. Silver Crest has ruled too long over Karucia for them to accept that. And I can't go back to Tortall, I belong here. Liam, there's so much that still keeps us apart."

"We could work through it, strike up a deal with Tortall."

Arra shook her head, "Chances that that would work are slim. Kingdom's hardly ever want to give up their prince's where they'll give up their princesses."

Liam made Arra look at him again. "I don't want to go back. All that really awaits me there is a title I don't want. Duke of Conte. I was told long ago that it would fall to me. I don't want it, Jasson can take it."

But Arra was still shaking her head. "I ask too much."

"No," Liam corrected. "You haven't asked anything. You've talked, but you haven't asked anything. Ask. Now."

There was not the commanding tone from before but it was firm. "Liam will you stay here with me? In Karucia? Will you be my King? I will give you anything you want, anything that will make you happy. You can have you woman in the land, and all the land you want, anything to make you happy if you stay here with me."

"Arra," Liam warned. "Don't you dare start that. Don't you dare. You should know by now that the only woman that could ever make me happy is you. You should know that land could not possibly make me happy seeing as how I turned down the Duke of Conte title. You should know that all I want, the only thing that could ever make me happy, is you. I don't know when, though I'm sure no body ever does, but fell in love with you. And I think I've loved you for a long time."

Arra rested her head on his knee from her kneeling position next to him. "Liam, there's is still something you don't know about me, about my life. If your going to consider staying here with me I think you need to know about it."

Arra explained about Fate. She tried to tell it completely and fully so that he understood everything. She told him about the seer who had come to seal her fate and explained to him that's why her three year old self fell into the depression in the first place. She told him that the seer said she would marry a Tortallan prince that, when she came to Tortall, she feared was him. She revealed the times Fate had visited her and what Fate had said. She told Liam everything, the complete story of her life. The Story of the Nameless Shang. For that was what she would always be.

"And I think after I became Shang my fear of fate wasn't helped. No Shang likes being tied down and fate is the ultimate rope to be tied down with." Arra finished.

For a while neither of them spoke but Liam's hand continued to stroke her hair. Liam broke the silence. "That . . . explains a lot." He said simply. Then he laughed. "I'm glad someone was on my side, gods know you were fighting me tooth and nail."

Arra's head snapped up. "You don't care? You don't care that you may only love me because it was your fate?"

"Arra," His tone was infinitely patient. "That only makes me more sure. And not only does it explain why you were sort of . . . cold towards me sometimes. It explains the way I felt, too." He smiled. "I didn't know why but I saw you and I was attracted, by something more than your looks, I was sure. I didn't know why, but I was. Don't get me wrong there is plenty to love about you but I couldn't understand why I would feel so strongly just by seeing you. Its like something was pulling me towards you."

"That's exactly what I feared when I came to Corus, you know. Exactly that." Arra said.

Liam shrugged. "Nothing you can do about it now. I love you and you told me you loved me so I'm never letting you go now." Arra blushed, Liam was the only one who ever had that effect on her. "I might as well fulfill what Fate had in store for me."

Why didn't he want to fight it? Arra wondered. Why was he perfectly fine with it? Arra stood and before she knew it Liam pulled her into his lap.

"Besides, I want to know what its like being married to the Shang Firebird." He nuzzled her neck and wrapped his other arm around her waist.

"I'm not the Shang Firebird. That is what I could have been. I will always be the Nameless Shang, Liam." Arra said.

"That works, too." Liam said chuckling against the tender skin on her neck. "Either way it's you that I want."

He turned her head so he could kiss her. And this kiss was different from any of the other ones he'd ever given her. This one was full of wanting and hunger. Arra gasped and Liam smiled against her lips using her open mouth from the gasp as an advantage.

Arra was sure this was what she wanted—no, what she needed. If Liam had died that night she knew a part of her would have gone too. The important part of her that made her live. If he had died, she would have died too. She needed Liam here and not just for her emotions but to help her rule.

Arra smiled and kissed him back with just as much fervor but she avoided touching the back of his head. She wouldn't let him go. Let Tortall try.

oOo

Arra stood back in that gray plane, the one belonging to Fate, and she knew she was asleep. Or rather her body was and Fate had pulled her to her Domain.

"You've done well, girlie." The voice Fate used was not the cracked old voice she had to use in the mortal realm but the powerful yet soft voice that hurt dimly in Arra's ears.

"Does this mean your done with me?" Arra asked.

She could hear Fate laugh. "If only the both of us were so lucky. No, you're still able to cross where ever you wish on the Paths and as long as you have that ability every choice you make will affect everyone around you. That Mark is going to be there until the day you die. And I'm going to be somewhere in your life until that time too."

Arra sighed. Somewhere inside she had expected that.

"And being Queen of Karucia, you will affect a lot of people." Fate added.

"I'm not Queen yet."

"But you will be." Fate said and there was satisfaction in her words. "You will be."

x...:...x

A/N: I have got to tell you. This is an odd feeling. I have never finished writing a story before, I always get distracted with the possibility of another story idea or lose interest but there you are. I finally finished one.

The prequel . . . probably not going to happen. Sorry!

Now, some of you may be confused as to certain open ends I have left. Like Joel and Lianne (which one reviewer pointed out. I'm glad someone caught that!) And like the sword. There were really two endings I had in mind for this story and because so many of you wanted a sequel I had to leave some open ends. This doesn't mean I've decided to actually post the sequel, but if I do, I can now.

I don't think it is as appealing as this story (to be expected I guess, sequels are hardly ever better), it will probably be shorter, and it will most definitely be a spin-off. So keep that in mind.

The story would be about Arra's daughter, mostly. Her and two of her brothers. I'm actually kind intimidated by what I have planned . . . I don't know if I'll do the storyline justice but i can try! The POV will change a lot. I think you might even be surprised at how many sub-plots ( I hope) will be in the story that aren't even important. lol. AND I haven't decided but it might be tragedy . . . probably not because I'll just make myself sad! So keep in touch with my bio page. I have the first chapter ready, I'll probably spend a couple of weeks writing a few more chapters and then I'll post it. So there you are.