“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls.” Anais Nin 
“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” Ryunosuke Satoro
“No place is ever as bad as they tell you it’s going to be.” Chuck Thompson
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” Helen Keller 
Sometime Later
“So how is she?” Eyrn asked wide eyed.
Niall looked up from his position lying on his back on the sofa arm. He was exhausted. Beyond exhausted. But he didn’t want to sleep. He couldn’t remember being this happy in his whole life. He wanted to savour it for as long as he could.
“Which she?” He grinned.
Eyrn smiled. She could feel how happy he was. Niall rarely showed much emotion, and he really wasn’t showing much now. But his joy was as plain as the nose on his face. “Well…both really.”
“Naskia is exhausted obviously. She just wanted to hold her for a bit…but she ended up falling asleep with the baby still in her arms. Good thing I have these holoprojectors!” Niall smiled an exhausted smile.
“And your daughter?”
“Big, even for a Titan. Bright blue eyes like her mother and thick dark hair too. So beautiful. So, so beautiful…” Niall smiled again and looked off into the distance.
“Awww, Niall. You must be so happy!” Eyrn beamed and bent her legs lowering herself to a better angle.
“Happy yeah…terrified too though.” Niall yawned.
Eyrn half smiled. “Well I got on ok with no Titans around. You have Naskia and all these holoprojectors. You’ll be fine!”
Niall yawned and stretched and blinked. Eyrn noticed his blinks lasted a lot longer than they should have. “Thanks, that helps actually…”
“Want me to take you through to bed?” Eyrn offered.
“No…no…you could pass me that bottle of whiskey though…it’s all the way on the table…” Niall yawned again.
Eyrn shook her head. Human men and their alcohol. Whether whiskey or moonshine they were all the same. She walked to the table and located the bottle no taller than a nail on her finger and returned. Niall was asleep, lying on his back with a small smile painted on his face. Eyrn picked up a small blanket and placed it over him.
“Sleep tight Niall. You’re gonna need all the rest you can get.”
Eyrn looked around feeling slightly uncomfortable. All the members of the Freeman household were asleep. She really should show herself out. But she’d come here to see her niece for the first time and she wanted to get one little peek before she left. She quietly left the front room and walked down the hallway towards the master bedroom. She put her head round the door, spotting Naskia lying on her back, dead to all The Empire.
Her eyes tracked to the end of the bed where she saw a small white crib, with a small white blanket and something small lying beneath it.
Eyrn couldn’t help herself. She crept in through the slightly open door and quietly walked over to the crib. She gasped and covered her mouth with outstretched fingers as she looked down at the occupant of the crib as she slept peacefully. Eyrn had been married into the Bass family for some time. She loved them, she adored her husband and she loved her life. But seeing her niece for the first time flipped a switch in her head and her heart swelled. She was an aunt. She had a relative. Someone who would look to her for affection, comfort, amusement and advice. Eyrn was close with people, Darren was pretty much her brother but this was different. She was part of something she’d never been part of before, a family.
“Hey little one…I’m Eyrn, your auntie…” she whispered softly “It’s nice to meet you. I thought you’d be smaller, being half-Human n all but you’re a big’un. Your poor mother…” Eyrn was nervous. She wasn’t exactly sure what she should say to the sleeping Sorcha but she felt compelled to say something.
“I suppose you might be Human in other ways…feel a bit out of place in this strange world…” she wiped a stray tear away as she remembered how much she felt out of place on Earth. How fast everything seemed to whizz by around her. And then how much more out of place she felt after arriving on Archavia, going through slow, gradual adjustment to life among her own people. “I’ve spent most of my life feeling out of place. I grew up on Earth. Everyone was smaller than me, ran around really quick, got old really quick and died far too quickly.”
“And now I’m here, and there’s a lot that makes sense now. But I know there will be a lot that doesn’t and that might be tough for you. But I promise you, I’ll always be there for you. When you need someone to confide in, to listen to how you feel, to give you advice or a cuddle or whatever you need. You can always come to me. I’ll always, always be there.” She whispered.
She stood quietly for a second just staring, dumbstruck, into the crib. Without even realising she was doing it, she moved her lips mouthing words. No sound being made just yet. She felt another swell in her chest as she realised what she was saying. The lullaby. The one memory she had of her mother. Her eyes blinked quickly as she wiped away stray tears with her fingertip.
“Sleep on… sleep on… sleep deep and sleep strong
Sleep on… sleep on… the road of life is long
I whisper a prayer, may your path be clear…
Sleep on…”
She sang quietly, barely above a whisper.
“May you be wise,
In answer to your call,
May you still rise,
If ever you should fall.”
She continued slightly louder.
“Sleep on… sleep on… sleep deep and sleep strong
Sleep on… sleep on… the road of life is long
I whisper a prayer, may your path be clear…
Sleep on… sleep on… sleep on!”
Eyrn stopped and breathed slowly and deeply trying to keep herself under control. She looked up quickly as she heard rustling and Naskia shifted in bed. She turned to leave, deciding she’d said her piece.
“Sleep on little Sorcha…sleep on…”
“Not all those who wander are lost.” — J. R. R. Tolkien
Fin
Is this supposed to be in the Exile chapter list? (It isn’t there.)
Yes and epilogue 3 is also missing from there but here you go https://thetitanempire.com/epilogue-part-3/
Ooh, thanks! I hadn’t seen that!
An excellent way to end this story. While it’s bittersweet to see Eyrn and Darren go their separate ways, it was long past time for them to start living their own lives instead of having it revolve around the other.
Closing the story with Eyrn singing a lullaby for newborn baby Sorcha was also an excellent idea. It felt similar to when someone arrives at the finish line and passes the torch.
This is really the 4th epilogue to Physics – delayed for obvious reasons.
Its truly a bittersweet ending for our main Exile protagonists. In the end they both went their separate ways. – As is often the case in life… They both knew that they couldn’t really exist in each other’s world, and both are quite happy despite this fact…
Aww man… that’s really the truth of it, isn’t it. 🙁
At least we know they’ve kept in touch.
I didn’t think Dann could top the last one, but this one does it. And it brings a nice close to the story.
We told you all he would 😛
Also, I don’t feel right not directing you all to this extremely talented musical artist, who’s song I stole for Eyrn’s Lullaby. Hayley Westenra is one of my favourite classical artists, so “Sleep On” is a song she wrote to celebrate the birth of the Royal Baby…wassisname…you know…Prince wassisname and princess whosserface?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3F3eDd7GMA
Listen to it how it was meant to be heard, from the lips of an angel!
An excellent and heartfelt ending to this epic story. Kind of mind-boggling to finally have it finished. Well done, Dann
This was a sweet way to end both Exile and Physics. Congratulations on finishing this.
And now the circle is complete…
Nice
Still missing how Eyrn met Aerti.
Sure, he was captain of the ship that captured her, but Exile doesn’t have them talking to each other at all after he dropped her off at Titan station. So how did those two get together?
Presumably at one of the points when Eyrn was traveling across the galaxy and seeing new worlds, after all Aerti has a ship and is liable to travel a great deal himself.
Perhaps as Tig might say it was love at first “touch”. With Eyrn and Aerti married for some time at Sorcha’s birth, the wedding had to be between 2102 and 2106. Eyrn as a xenosociology student probably did bum a ride on the Gyfjon and with Darren out of her life, and likely Naskia playing matchmaker too it’s easy to see how this played out.
That would be a good vignette.
I should make it clear, that this afterword ending bit was written by OHH nearly a year and a half ago, we held on to it all this time. The renders are of course brought to you by OHH and D.X.
First I want to thank J.S, he allowed me to play in his sand box, and I think I got a lot more out of it than he did to be honest. Writing for Titan has been an adventure, one I don’t plan to stop any time soon.
D.X and OHH for their constant editing, and patiently correcting my repetitive mistakes, errors and blunders. They are patient beyond words!
And of course everyone reading! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for staying with me for almost two years, its been a blast!
Look forward to starting my next project, and I hope you are all enjoying Contact!
Well done. Great way to end a wonderful novel. You might want to have OHH or DX do one more render…of Eyrn fulfilling her promise to Sorcha, singing her the lullaby again in the Titan Station detention cell while the Lem crew sneak by the sleeping guards 😉
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for staying with me for almost two years, its been a blast!” It’s been a pleasure, reading these stories in this book club.
“I should make it clear, that this afterword ending bit was written by OHH nearly a year and a half ago, we held on to it all this time.” The timing is good, since we were just reading about Sorcha and married Eyrn.
“I hope you are all enjoying Contact!” Does a bear…
I did a count, and Exile has ended at 335 059 words. For comparison http://fantasy-faction.com/forum/fantasy-book-discussion/word-counts-of-epic-fantasy-novels/
Where’s that gif with the guy clapping when you need it? The titan raised by humans bonding with the first hybrid, her niece. Well done.
http://media2.giphy.com/media/b9aScKLxdv0Y0/giphy.gif
like he said http://media2.giphy.com/media/b9aScKLxdv0Y0/giphy.gif from me too
Thanks you guys. Also, I forgot to add one of the renders, go look again to see it!
I particularly like the one on Hive Prime. They give us a good idea of each species average size. Knowing the numbers is one thing, visualizing it is another.
When Eyrn gets those old photos from Mulan she could assemble a remarkable photo album to illustrate the next editions of The Wild Girl and Wild Worlds. The Titanverse wouldn’t be complete without a quote or two from her books showing up somewhere along the way.
I notice that Eyrn isn’t wearing her grav compensators. Those would have been necessary on Hive Prime and Fribbulus Xax as well as Archavia unless her implants were removed or modified.
Like Dune, which has quotes from in-universe books instead of chapter breaks.
Eyrn’s implants let her survive in higher gravity. Her bracelets are meant to counteract that, but she doesn’t have to have them activated.
Always wearing her inhibitors was in the pre-nup agreement with Aerti 😉
After a false start, an awesome end to an awesome story.