Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and sexual content.

The theater falls silent, but the audience does not leave. They want to know what happens next. The dancer begins again. Shan finds the spear in the city’s rubble. For days, she and others try to save people from the ruins of the city. The man she rescued from Joyrock lives for seven days before dying. She looks for Keema and Jun, but they are lost to the ocean. The rain continues for two weeks. Shan becomes the new head of the Induun family and consolidates her forces with survivors of the other families by marrying the son of another lord. They become leaders who help the country recover from centuries of despotic rule.

The spear travels down the family line. One owner of the spear becomes a historical chronicler who travels the land, preserving the old stories. She learns that the line of tortoises mostly died out after the fall of the emperor. However, some escaped to the Thousand rivers and lived in peace. The Induun family gradually gains control of much of the country. Eventually, an army from the north invades. Hoping to survive, the Induun family offers the spear and marriage to their eldest daughter to the invading army’s general.

Eventually, the spear comes to the grandchild’s great-grandfather, Lola’s father. When Lola is a young girl, her father moves the family across the ocean to the Unified Continent, hoping to expand their textile business. However, he struggles to establish himself in this new world. The spear hangs in the grandchild’s living room for decades as Lola dies, their father leaves, and then their great-grandfather dies as well. Now, the spear is gone, as the grandchild gave it back to Keema.

The dancer stops again and looks at the grandchild. Embarrassed, the grandchild recalls Lola’s words and says, “I thought this was a love story” (503). The dancer smiles and agrees. Then, the dancer speaks to their parent, the Water, and asks for mercy.

At the end of two weeks of rain, Shan finds the two boys lying in a clearing of trees and takes them home to treat their wounds. In answer to the dancer’s request, the Water has given them back their bodies. Keema wakes. Shan summarizes the events since he and Jun stopped the tidal wave. She adds that Jun is awake elsewhere and has asked not to see Keema. She and Jun have agreed that despite what he has done to save the country, people will still want to kill him because of his past, and it is best if he disappears. He asked Shan to keep Keema there until he is gone.

Keema is hurt by this rejection. Shan explains that Keema means to be kind, saying, “The road that lies ahead of him is likely a short one. […] he knew there was a chance you would want to come with him on this journey, and, in his words, he had inflicted enough pain on the world, and would not add your name to his list” (509). Shan offers him a choice. He can leave with supplies and their thanks, or he can remain with her and help rebuild their country and be rewarded with honor and riches. Keema prepares to leave. She gives him a spear and sends him on his way.

Keema runs until he catches up to Jun. Jun warns Keema that he is headed to the Gathering in the Thousand, though he does not tell Keema that he intends to offer his life to the woman he met there, as promised. When they arrive, she will not kill him, deciding to let go of her revenge, but he does not know that yet.

Keema reaches for Jun, who cries. He hoped that his death would serve some purpose, and he does not know why he is still alive. Keema suggests that there is no why, that it simply is. They embrace. In the woods, they make love, in patient steps like a dance, for the entire night, resting between. Keema keeps watch while Jun sleeps. He hears something approaching from the trees and warns, “[M]y name is Keema, the guardian of this sleeping warrior. And tonight you will not have him” (517). Jun wakes, and they make love again. The dancer stops, and the tale ends.