Beyond the garden, at the back corner of the compound, Adara saw Phoebus with Emrys who was showing him how to shape a block of stone with a hammer and chisel. Phoebus looked up and waved at his mother, an enormous smile on his face.
Adara choked back her weeping.
“What’s wrong, my girl?”
She turned to see her father standing there, reaching out to her, and she hugged him tightly. “They’ve been through so much, Baba.”
Publius squeezed her, not wanting to let her go, the only daughter he had not seen in years, the only daughter who now wanted to see him. “You’ve all been through so much. I thank the Gods you’re here now.”
“This world is no longer recognizable to me. My children will never know the peace that I did growing up. They…”
Publius squeezed his daughter’s hands as the pain su
