"Aurora?" Kantos mumbles.

He moves forward, but can't. His body is frozen as if he had just seen a ghost. He had seen a ghost. His face falls at the sight of her pushing through the soldiers on the first ramp.

"Is it really you?" he manages to speak, the words only just audible over the din of battle. "Is it—" He gets cut off as he is pulled to the side by a meaty fist. He turns and almost slams a fist into the man's face, but stops himself as Rickton stands before him. "Why, Captain?"

"We have to pull back, Commander. They are closing in on us, there are too many even for our combined forces."

Kantos wrenches himself away, looking round to find her again. Was she real? Did I imagine her? No, she shouted to me. "She shouted to me!" he shouts.

"Who?" asks Rickton as he stares around.

"Kantos!" a voice shouts.

He turns, his eyes searching for a single face in the crowd.

"Commander!" shouts Rickton. "What are we to do? Do we pull back, or—"

"Look." Kantos speaks softly as he points with his great broadsword, but it cuts Rickton off as he witnesses.

They both watch as a woman jumps higher than any human should be able to, then flip forwards and land softly on the balls of her feet like a cat.

"Is that..." Rickton begins.

"Yes. Yes, it is. I do not know how, but I am glad it is not only me that sees her."

Then he is off. Leaving Rickton, Kantos sprints towards her, he runs past resistance soldiers and royal elites, even past Neymar. He sprints as if nothing else mattered in the whole of Antar. Not a battle or the Oskari that came to wipe them all out. It was just him and Aurora.

She is alive!

They can both see each other now and head towards one another. Both are grinning, and he can see a tear rolling down her face as they get to with five paces. She collides with him in an almighty wack, almost knocking him to the ground. But they just hold each other tightly, then they find each other's faces and kiss. He covers her with kisses as he lets himself cry freely.

"How? How are you alive?" he says aloud. "How are—" He is stopped as she plants another kiss on his lips. They hold it for a moment, then part. She smiles at him and gazes into her emerald eyes, absorbed within them as if tricked.

"Valdor, I think," she says.

"Valdor..." He pauses at the tone of her voice, then notices the subtle difference in her face. "What did he do to you? You were dead in my arms. How?"

But the din of battle returns him to the present and hears the shouts from his men and the gargled cries of the dying. He stares around himself, a sudden surge of guilt invading his thoughts.

"There will be time to speak," she whispers.

With a nod, he smiles at her. "Can you fight?"

"You have no idea."

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