All around me are familiar faces

(A/N: Yet another one, I know! I intend to write these challenges (some of them anyway) with our lovely cast of characters from TG and STD. For now, they're Tamora Pierce. This challenge is about a homecoming. In mine, we talk about two figures- Kalasin and Kaddar. Kalasin is the daughter of the king that most of Tammy's books are based in. Kaddar is an enemy Emperor whom Kalasin is married off to as part of a peace treaty.)

Kaddar watched his wife, concern etched in his features. He'd been told that losing a child was hard on women, and indeed, Kaddar himself felt the loss of his child. He didn't care if he'd been told it was only a daughter. It had still been his daughter, and he'd wanted to hold her, love her, name her. As hard as he was taking this, Kalasin was undeniably taking it harder.

Kaddar had only just begun to fall in love with his Empress, enchanted by the ice in her eyes and the fire in her heart. It had been a long road, full of many concessions and arguments, and many other things that need not be thought of just now. There were more important matters to be considered. Kaddar had felt ridiculous about secreting his wife away to visit her parents. It would have been a sign of weakness, or disapproval to send his wife away. There was no way he could take her himself, either.

Instead, Kaddar had written a letter to an old friend, feeling like an idiot as he'd patiently coaxed a bird into taking a letter do Daine, explaining over and and over again that it was important. There was no way that he could send Kalasin's court- Emmaline of Naxen or any of the other Tortallan ladies who had come with her. But he and Daine had managed a plan to take Kalasin home. Under the cover of darkness, a large winged horse flew Kalasin away, with Kaddar's fervent prayers that perhaps her mother could make things right.

It wasn't to Queen Thayet, however, that Kalasin went as soon as she thanked the horse who had deposited her into her old bedroom window. Kalasin had gone to her father, knocking on his door and entering his study, shedding her black veil at the door. Jonathan of Conte watched his daughter sadly, before opening his arms to her. Kalasin ran across the room, dropping all sense of decorum. As she had done many times as a child, the Empress of Carthak curled up on her father's lap, sobbing into his chest.

They sat like this for some time, Kalasin sobbing and Jonathan stroking her hair. It wasn't the homecoming that either of them would have wanted, but it was what they both needed. Kalasin needed to know that her father would always open his arms to her, and Jonathan needed to know that she would always come.