It took Violet more than a full day to get across Ipsit to its border with Basharr. As dawn rose over the pass to Toreva, with smoke still hanging in the air, she rode her horse into her homeland. Hestia and Olivia were with her. They’d found her outside the gates of The Bastion, brought her to the stables, and their friend had given them three horses. Fatigued by the war and rejected by Curzon, the animals were just as despondent as Violet.

Neither the dead nor the living had ...