This is the last chapter and it's not as good as I'dve liked it to to be, but I'm eager to get onto my next fanfic.

CHAPTER 13: Epilogue

King Captus the Unifyer ruled with a just and kind frame of mind. Throughout the realm, it was said that he had ended the reign of the Bloody Throne, along with the warlord title that went along with it. The scarlet gift that Elijah had given him was passed on to his children and their children. Captus passed the brown hair and blue eyes to his posterity; Maggur's characteristic white-blond hair and stone cold blue eyes were lost.

Captus married one of the noble's daughters. She was young, kind, and intelligent. Before long, they had a son whom they named Elijah. Elijah was the most honorable name you could give a newborn, the new Scanran custom dictated. After the Crown Prince Elijah, came many more princes and princesses.

Kodi never changed back into Katoryn again, or even used her Shifting powers again. She hated the person she had learned to become whenever she looked like her father. By the way of explanation to the people about why their princess disappeared and was replaced, Captus told them about her Shifting.

The people might not have completely understood about the rare Shifting, but they could understand an alliance with Scanra and Tortall. Captus would have made the alliance anyway, but a wedding between the only Scanran princess and one of the younger Tortallen princes made it more exciting.

After a few years of helping Captus with improving Scanra, Kodi and Liam returned to Tortall for a lengthy stay. They introduced their young children to all their friends. Kodi had been worried about not recovering her friendly relationship with Tobe. She found that they got along like they had when they were children and she liked his strong, hardy wife as well.

Part of the marriage contract between King Captus and King Jonathon was that the newly weds spend equal time in each country. Liam and Kodi did just that, spending a year or two in each country, then in the other. Their children were known to be educated, yet understanding of commoners and their hardships.

Kodi was successful in her motherhood, although her children gave her a run for her money. She flatly refused to spank them, even when they misbehaved horribly. Her oldest was named Anneke after Kodi's mother. Anneke was very headstrong, unlike her grandmother, but she shared the dark hair, light eyes, and the wild magic.

Anneke refused to obey her mother and was six when she ran away from the inn where they were staying. It took many men and many hours to find her. When they did, Liam had to punish the young girl, because Kodi refused to lay a hand on her. Liam ended up spanking her loudly but not hard, because Anneke did feel guilty about scaring her parents. Liam was really a softie for a father, although he hid it well.

Anneke didn't lose any of her headstrongness when she grew up and forcibly rejected all of the many marriage offers that came her way. Luckily, they were all in the form of letters or quite a few noblemen would have discovered that the innocent princess wasn't so innocent. She had expanded her vocabulary in curses and used them frequently, to her parents' dismay. Anneke did fall in love though, and Liam and Kodi gave her permission to marry the man. As Kodi half-jokingly told Daine, it was either that or deal with Anneke eloping. Anyway, their daughter's new husband was kind and responsible.

Their next child had the Conte hair, eyes, and Conte gift. Captus II was mischievous and loved to play tricks on others. His parents had to sit him down when he was a child. They told him how people felt when mean tricks were played on them and they told Capt that any trick that hurt somebody was mean. The lesson stuck and Capt returned to his tricking ways, but he always made sure that they never hurt or angered anyone. Even still, Kodi pitied his page friends when Capt began training at the Hamrkeng palace at the age of ten.

Yngve was a mage, who shared both the Conte gift and his grandmother's wild magic. Kodi had a soft spot for him. Yngve was her youngest and he looked almost exactly like her, only in a mannish fashion. Unlike some mages who only cared for themselves, Yngve cared for others, noble or common. He was trained in his strong magic since it was discovered on him, which was when he exploded the toy that Anneke teased him with at age five.

When Yngve was twelve, he went for further training with Numair and Daine. Worried for her shy, quiet son, Kodi kept up a very frequent correspondence with Daine. Daine wrote her about Yngve's studies, problems, and fears. Kodi was glad for this insight, since Yngve would never tell his mother those things.

So as Daine told her, Kodi knew that when Yngve was fifteen, he almost died. Luckily, Daine had written to her after Yngve was out of any trouble, or Kodi would have shown up the next day. Anyway, Yngve had single handedly protected a small village from bandits. Using his wild magic, the brave Yngve had pitted the area's animals and birds against the bandits. He employed a shield that didn't let the bandits in the town's temple, which was where the villagers had fled to.

Once Yngve and the villagers were rescued from the remaining bandits by the King's Own, Yngve had collapsed for a week. By the time Kodi had received the letter, Yngve was up and working again. Kodi swelled with pride every time Yngve's adventure was mentioned.

After Liam and Kodi had raised their three children, they traveled all throughout Scanra and Tortall. Meeting with all the people, they sent back reports to both kings of what they could do to improve their countries.

Although Kodi had adventures of her own before her marriage, she would always be known to say that she liked things calm.

"Raising children must be equal to what soldiers call 'seeing the kraken.' I've no desire to do that again." Kodi honestly told Daine, Kel, and Alanna, much to the women's mirth. "I don't want to fight, or kill anyone. I just want to sit at home and knit."

Kodi never sat at home or knit, although she always threatened it. Up until her last days, Kodi worked to improve Scanra. Later in the history books, scholars would hear slight mention of Maggur's son: the king who repaired Scanra, his lost-and-found Scanren princess, her Tortallen prince and the selfless wizard Elijah. They would pay only brief notice to it, thinking that it was boring and they would swiftly flip to the tales of Alanna the Lioness, the Protector of the Small, Fianola the Fierce, Burch the Guardian and other such heroes.

Maybe someday one such scholar will read up on Kodi's story and take interest in it. Maybe that one such scholar is yourself. Maybe.

Thank you everyone for all your reviews for this story; your compliments and criticism. I'd been told that Kodi was a bit of a MarySue and I know that's kind of true. In my next story, Kiyra isn't a MarySue at all. If she is, just tell me and I'll fix it. Anyway, here is a kind of preview for Kiyra.

Kiyra groaned. She leapt off of one of the many pallets in the small room. She slipped out of the overlarge shirt that the slept in and pulled on her too-large grey breeches. Over that, she pulled on an off-white shirt and a brown vest. She had a pair of shoes, but she only wore them where the weather turned cold. Her feet were as tough as leather. She did have a sheath knife, which she stuck in her rope belt. As the last touch, she pulled a grey cap over her short hair. Then, she left the room.

The figure that was thumping down the stairs wasn't remarkable. She was of average height for her age, which happened to be fourteen. She had light blond hair. The only uncommon thing about her was her blue-green eyes that changed slightly with her mood. Although she had only woken up a minute before, no trace of sleep was left in Kiyra's movements or her face.

A fat nobleman was looking at scrolls, a large pouch hanging from his belt. This should be easy, thought Kiyra. She walked past the nobleman, but she "slipped" in a puddle and fell backwards. No one saw her whirling hands grab the pouch and slip it into her pocket. Stammering apologies to the nobleman, she scurried up and ran away, the picture of an embarrassed child.
Grinning proudly, Kiyra walked back to the Dancing Dove. Waving at her friends, she felt on top of the world. What could be better than having a pocket full of money, pick-pocketing skills, and Market Day besides?
"Why?" Kiyra whirled on Dillus. "I send them enough money to get though, don't I? They're provided for, aren't they? They don't need me, anymore than I need them!" Furious with herself for losing her temper, Kiyra stormed out of the Dancing Dove.
Kiyra walked away from the daggers, stealing one last covetous look. She walked further away, turned around and walked quickly back. Looking sideways, she crashed into the Baron of Pirate's Swoop. At the same time, she cut the ties and had the purse in her pocket before she hit the street. The Baron extended an arm to help her up, which Kiyra took gratefully.

"Thank you, milord. M'sorry. " She bowed clumsily and walked back into the crowd, being careful to 'disappear' from them. She reached a hand into her pocket and felt the purse. It was heavy and didn't even jingle, which was a sign of it being full to bursting. Inwardly, she beamed. She must be the best pickpocket in Tortall! Well, probably just in Corus, she reasoned.

It was really a stroke of luck, even though Kiyra slammed into the stone wall. A child lay crying, huddled up between the wall and a crate. Kiyra sat down next to the girl and gathered her into her arms. The girl looked to be about three. Kiyra tried to get up, but the wind whipped her down again. Moaning, she almost prepared herself to spend a night in the cold, but got back up again. She picked up the girl again. Leaving the alley, Kiyra walked for what seemed like hours.
White light lit around the stone egg, so bright that the pickpockets jerked away from it and covered their eyes. Cowering in what could only be explained as fear, the pickpockets waited until the searing light stopped. They uncovered their eyes slowly, just in case the light started again. The light was over though and they were still alive and intact.
"I don't think they're going to be for the better." Geoff confided. "He's a hard man, this Iago. He's killed one of the Rogue already, just for forgetting to call him his Majesty." Kiyra winced; that was harsh.

"Thanks for the warning. I'll watch my back." Kiyra said, turning and padding down the stairs. Near the end of the stairs, a hand grabbed her shoulder and spun her around.

Thats only a bit of the first chapter of Kiyra's story, which is tentively called Rogue's Rat. For now.