Fate:

After a snack of which she was able to enjoy almost nothing and a bath with smelling salts, Umara went out into the backyard that she had helped to repair. The flowers swayed in the evening breeze exhaling a veritable cacophony of aromas.
From the marble fountain water flowed again, pure and crystalline and everywhere fireflies danced to the rhythm of the breeze. Nearby, on one of the branches of the great tree, an owl hooted.
Minutes passed, which turned into hours, and after just five hours of waiting, Umara's heart turned to stone.
She didn't even want to imagine that he hadn't come because he was with someone else…but what other explanation was there for his absence?
Pacing back and forth inside the imperial quarters, Umara once again faced the main cross of her existence. Alessios was not only hers, never had been and never would be. The years to come opened before him, a succession of days hiding his work in the market, and nights fearing that he would prefer the bed of another.
However, and that none of his five remaining wives would be able to give him offspring, that would not rule out the possibility that he might seek to enjoy passion with one of them.
*When he loved you, was he tender and sweet with you or passionate and possessive?*
*Did he whisper in your ear, did he kiss you in forbidden places, perhaps...?*
It was incredible, that right at that moment Umara's treacherous memory was able to summon the words of the other Moons just the morning she met them, the dreamy expression on Cítiê's face, the praises of Burya... everything, came to her mind to torment her.
There were only a few hours left before the sun rose above the horizon, and Umara had a decision to make... She could stay here, hidden in the royal chambers, hiding behind a smile the disappointments and pain that Alessios' constant lies caused her, or she could return to her beloved desert.

“…Until the arrival of the seventh Moon,
Outshining the first and banishing it,
Bringing with it a stronger light,
recovering what was lost
And restoring life to what had died.
The lines of the prophecy echoed in her mind.
By restoring the empress's garden, Umara had fulfilled her part of the predestination, as she had literally "recovered what had been lost and brought back to life what had died."

Furthermore, with the victory over the rebels, the first wife's reign of terror had ended.
The prophecy said no more. It did not speak of the future, it did not explained her role in the fates of the Empire,it only went so far, therefore, Umara concluded that her participation in the events only went so far.
She had to go.
For her own good and for everyone's. During the training sessions with the other Lunas during war, she had learned to give life to things, making plants grow to unsuspected limits, but she had also mastered how to take it as well. Just this afternoon she had been terribly tempted to extract every bit of life from Cítiê's body, not only because of the arrogance with which the little woman had treated her, but because of the treacherous kiss that she, Umara, had witnessed between the Japanese woman and Alessios.
She had already thought about it on more than one occasion, and she herself knew it in her heart of hearts she had to leave, because otherwise, she would end up a more vile murderer than Cassandra.


The sun rose several hours ago and the capital city of Tarmen is already ten miles away from where our caravan is located.
My father feigned great surprise when he saw me, waiting for him at the entrance of his inn. I was dressed completely in black, covering my face with a burqa; however, his happiness at my decision was more than real.
I rode the camel in silence, and in silence we left the city. The guard who had always followed me to the market took a horse for himself and set off with us in the caravan. Bengi is a nomad, like us. She had not left Tarmen before because she had no family to return to, but at my departure she decided to accompany us, having fallen to her knees and sworn her loyalty to me for the rest of her days.
I have kept my heart quiet. I don't want to think, I don't want to suffer for what I never really had. Looking back, I was willing to die from the moment I knew I would be one of the Merciless's concubines, and in a way…I have died.
Behind, in Tarmen, my innocence, my love, my illusions have remained.
Tears run down my cheeks, my chest seems to be on fire, my body feels heavy and my soul is in mourning.
Along the way, the caravan raises songs of gratitude to the Merciful, for allowing us to see the birth of a new day, and prayers to the Guide, to take us safely where our hearts have set out to go. Our party has been joined by the last nomads still remaining in Tarmen, including the ex-slave Ikbal. Yes, the trusted man that Alessios wanted to be my guide in the escape before the trial.
She sighed, saddened.
Ahead, the high mountains open up and behind them lies the desert. Father has explained to me that we will travel until we reach Sibiú, the tribes have met in the conclave. In a few weeks we will catch up with them and from then on everything depends on the designs of fate.
The trip back to the desert seemed strange to Umara. She was returning along the same route that had taken her to the Empire's capital a year ago, yet even though the rugged landscape of towering mountains and impossibly tall desert dunes remained exactly as she remembered, the biggest changes weren't. the landscape had not suffered but herself.
On the second week of the trip, a strong vertigo gripped her, preventing her from continuing the journey and delaying the caravan's itinerary. Then he experienced terrible nausea every morning for the next four weeks it took him to reach the conclave site.
The meeting with the elders was not easy. They were too stubborn and too established in their opinions to give in easily, but when the towns found out that the woman who had worked for the freedom of so many of their brothers walked among them, many parents expressed their willingness to follow "Cimbel ” wherever the liberator chose to go..
It took another three weeks to organize the departure of all the tribes, and in that time, Umara sought the advice of the midwives. She had explained her morning sicknesses with the great stress to which she had been subjected, many transcendental changes had occurred since she had left Tarmen; He even came to believe that he had contracted a disease during the return trip, but when his belly began to grow, he realized that his illness was of another nature.
"Two beasts grow inside you," the midwife whispered trembling, removing her hand from Umara's belly as if the contact with her skin had burned it." Your children have inherited the curse of the wolf, and you must know that the first to be born will be the weakest."
Umara shuddered.
*Only the fertile land will bear fruit, only the blood moon will bring with it new life, the curse of the wolf will be my ruin. It will be my downfall...*
The words she had heard Cassandra utter had not been the ravings of a feverish mind, but a vision the woman had involuntarily shared with her. What was growing in her belly was the final victory against Cassandra.
*What can I give you that you value more than jewels, trinkets or precious stones?*
The new leader of the nomadic tribes caressed her belly delicately, while a weak smile played on her lips. The Kurani Emperor had kept his empire, with its riches and with his four remaining Lunas; but she, Umara, had left Tarmen taking with her something much more valuable: the heirs to the throne.