The sky darkened and clouds swirled overhead. The change was sudden, and sailors who were about to embark abruptly shook their heads and moored their boats once more. They could not be paid any money to go out under conditions as ominous and mysterious as these. Istaerih was in a mood, they said, and it would not do to test her. For once, the marketplace fell eerily quiet as all its patrons stopped and looked up towards the palace, many wondering what kind of ill omen this foretold. And yet a roving band of children, often found together roaming the streets and beaches while their parents worked, looked up with awe and wonder. Somehow, they knew. The eldest and tallest of the group stopped, put a hand on the shoulder of the boy nearest her age and said with a soft gasp, "Astra-Sol..." 

Ajoran was breathless. What began as a soft but noticeable change in the wind picked up quickly to a swirling torrent that flung his ponytail skyward and snapped the fabric of his uri. Just beyond the circle of Darin's storm, a few swirling, indistinct figures appeared from the vast dust before them. They came first as tiny whirlwinds of sand and dust, and then the particles began to take shape, forming the suggestions of rippling hair framing faces with bright, sunlit eyes. The Azurei called them 'architects', or [I]itis'ri[/I], for it was said that they were the spirits of the wind, and that they shifted the landscape of the Dust Sea to their whims and fancies. The figures seemed to bow to Darin, and then faded away. Ajoran had always believed in the legitimacy of the itis'ri as more than just a legend but truth be told, he'd never seen one for himself. Nor had he seen firsthand Darin's power. Ridahne had mentioned it, of course, but the description did no justice to the real thing. 

Tears still wetting her face, Ridahne snarled gleefully, hatefully, reveling in the absolute erasure of the woman who had done so much evil, so much damage to Azurei, to Astra, and to her. She could feel the wind and the stone and the lightning. Not like Darin could, and she could never command them, but she felt their presence as a faint tickle in the back of her mind, a suggestion of not being alone. Strange things happened to  her senses whenever Darin did things like this. Whether it was a dream, or a vision of what Darin was doing a few seconds before it actually happened, or some extra sensing of the world, Ridahne's connection to the seed meant that grand gestures like these touched her too, in a way. Ridahne stood, feeling, and perhaps even indulgently imagining that the lightning strike was her wrath, the wind was her grief, and the stones her resolve. It made her feel like her impotent rage actually had some bite, like she could still strike out against the woman who had so wronged her. 

What was her name, again?

The storm eased, slipping back into normal tranquility as the pillar of fused stone crackled a little as it cooled. Ridahne wiped her face clean, but her mouth was hanging open. What was her name? Khal...Kha..no. Did it start with an S? Ridahne could no longer remember. Shocked, but also immeasurably and darkly pleased, she turned to Ajoran. "Ajoran! The woman who is buried here...what was her name?"
He blinked. "You know that..." 
"Just answer the question. You know her name, yes?"
"Obviously...It's..." He'd started out with confidence, and then it was as if the breath was stolen from his lungs. His shoulders drooped a little as he frowned in concentration. "Her name was...ah...[I]oh...[/I]"
Ridahne shouted in triumph and threw her arms around Darin. She squeezed her hard for a moment, then drew back enough to press her forehead to Darin's while she cupped the human's face between each of her hands. It was a deeply sincere and intimate gesture, especially in public, but Ridahne meant it. "Thank you. Ai! Thank you! This is a gift! I'm free, I feel free! Stars above, it's like I'm breathing for the first time!" Her voice hitched in a small sob. "Consider this my wedding gift. It is the best thing I could ask for, what you've done. Thank you!" 

Behind them, standing in the doorway to the palace, were two elegantly robed figures: Hanasa-Sol, Khaltira's replacement, and Amaiera-Sol, the Sota-Sol. They'd come to see the commotion, and now looked at Darin with silent expressions of understanding. Amaiera-Sol nodded once, as if in approval, and then she and Hanasa-Sol disappeared back inside. 

Ridahne sniffled, still shaking with adrenaline from joy and rage and anger and grief. "Well um," she couldn't help a little laugh. "What do you want to do? Climb trees for coconuts?"