This is-obviously- the final chapter. Thank you for reading and reviewing.

EPILOGUE: FIFTEEN YEARS LATER

Flavia Hastur-Letton entered Leonie's room at Arilinn. Now twenty-nine, she was tall and slender, with flame-red hair coiled high in a ceremonial coronet. As she had wished, she had stayed at the Chalet until the June after her sixteenth birthday- and since by then Len, too, had left- Flavia had reminded her father of the promise she had made her kinswoman, and they had returned to Darkover. The next years had been long and hard, but Flavia found the work deeply satisfying and never regretted her decision. This, she felt, was her life.

Now, wearing for the first time the elaborate ceremonial crimson robes and copper ornaments of a Keeper, she bowed, deeply and formally, to Leonie of Arilinn.

The older woman came forward from where she had been standing with Damon, Callista, and Damon's nedestra daughter, Cleindori.

Leonie smiled at the girl before her, and Callista felt her own eyes fill at the warmth of that smile.

When she herself had taken the Oath, Leonie had been remote. Her time at the Chalet School had changed that, and while she would always been impassive in her work, she had learnt that she could feel emotion and affection without endangering herself, her Circle, or her work.

Flavia was repeating the terms of a Keeper's Oath- necessarily modified now, for even Leonie had agreed that it was no longer necessary for a Keeper to live alone and unloved.

Slowly, Leonie raised her hands and Flavia came forward to touch them- the feather light touch of a telepath.

"Will you abide by the terms of this Keeper's Oath, Flavia Hastur-Letton?" Leonie asked.

"I will abide, my Lady," Flavia returned, as she had been taught.

Leonie stepped back and bowed. "Then, as Lady of Arilinn, I declare you Keeper." She turned to the audience, and indicated Flavia with a crimson gesture. "Flavia of Arilinn!" and the room exploded into congratulations.

Flavia, as she swung little Cleindori into the air, met Damon Ridenow's eyes. One day the child she held would take this same oath, and because of what had happened at the Chalet School, she would be permitted to live her life as woman and Keeper both. The Forbidden Tower had been avenged, and was no longer forbidden. Triumph at what they had all accomplished surged through Flavia, backed by all the power of the Hastur Gift.

In the study at the Chalet School, Hilda Annersley looked up from her lists to meet the eyes of her deputy, Len Entwistle. This was her last term. In June, she would step down and Len would take her place as Headmistress.

"She's done it," Len whispered, looking at the glowing fires within her matrix.

Hilda smiled as she cupped her own matrix in her hands.

"I am glad. She will do well- as you will, Len!"

Len flushed. "Len of the Chalet School doesn't have quite the same ring as Flavia of Arilinn, though!"

The Head laughed, and went to refill their cups. "Maybe not. However, I have a toast to propose," she continued, raising her cup. "To the new Headmistress of the Chalet School- and the new Keeper of Arilinn!"

Their matrices flared again, and the two women smiled. Somehow, they knew that Leonie and Flavia had repeated that toast, in their own ways.

THE END