Sagan returns to Valera and invites her to join him

Sagan returns to Valera not merely to renew their relationship, but with a proposal that joins private love to public purpose. Magnus has shown him a path away from the priesthood and toward a life with Valera: together they can travel among the Nightwalker courts, where her recovery from necromancy might persuade others that people like her can be reclaimed rather than killed. Valera accepts the invitation, the danger it entails, and Sagan’s promise to stay with her for the rest of her life.

Magnus’s Proposal and Sagan’s Choice

Magnus frames Sagan’s departure from priestly life as a change in how he serves, not an abandonment of service. Valera is an exceptional human who has been cured of necromancy, and her experience could offer Nightwalkers evidence of a form of magic they have reason to fear but might learn to understand. Magnus argues that she could become a teacher, and that her testimony could offer hope of repentance and reclamation for necromancers whose souls have been stained. The proposal places her knowledge at the center of a larger effort: persuading other Nightwalkers that natural-born Witches and other people drawn into harmful magic may still be worth saving.

For Magnus, the undertaking also gives the Nightwalkers an opportunity to lead by example. He proposes that Sagan resign, seek forgiveness for breaking priestly rules, return to Valera free of those rules, and bring her to the Nightwalker community. The two could then make a circuit of its courts, with the Chancellors involved in presenting the offer to other Cultures. Magnus sees more than a private accommodation in this plan: a community accustomed to being regarded as a troublesome younger sibling could demonstrate that it is capable of setting a humane example.

Sagan’s first response is not uncomplicated confidence. He worries that Valera may be afraid to accept and that, as a mortal, she could be easily killed if he failed to protect her. Magnus counters that vulnerability cannot be a reason to refuse a life together: Nightwalkers, despite their supposed immortality, can also die, including in a streak of light. Sagan’s answer reveals how much the time they already shared means to him. The nine days with Valera remain precious, and he says that any further time with her would be more than he had dared hope for. His sudden, delighted leap to kiss Magnus on the temple makes his relief visible before he can contain it.

The conversation also tests whether Sagan understands the practical consequences of the choice. Magnus suggests that Valera and Sagan might instead make a life entirely among the Nightwalkers, where a hybrid child could be safe in the darkness, though that would mean leaving the human world out of their lives. Magnus does not demand an immediate decision about children or where to live; he acknowledges that there is time. He also points to other ways Sagan could serve, including work as a trusted guard for the Chancellors and, especially, Malaya, whose religion matters to both Malaya and Sagan. Magnus says the priesthood is not the only means of serving their gods. Though Sagan worries that Magnus needs him amid the deaths of many priests, Magnus takes responsibility for that shortage: younger priests can advance, while replacing Sagan as a penance priest will take time. Sagan can help train the first penance handmaiden.

The Return to Valera

Magnus’s advice becomes action when Sagan runs to prepare. Magnus has specifically told him to take proper clothes, supplies, and a snowmobile; the exchange establishes the practical terms of setting out again, rather than treating the return as a wish without consequences. At Valera’s cabin, Sagan finds no sign of life at first. The windows are sealed and the bulbs have been removed from their sockets, leaving the small house dark as he searches it urgently.

He calls for Valera and takes comfort when he trips over Fat Baby. The cat’s presence reassures him that Valera has not left, because she would not abandon the cats. Sagan finds her beneath covers and pillows in the bedroom. He takes off his coat, kneels on the mattress, and touches her, relieved simply to feel that she is there. Fat Baby and the other cats do not greet him as a welcome rescuer: they accuse him telepathically of making Valera cry, and Fat Baby even hisses. Their hostility registers the hurt his absence has caused, and makes clear that his return must answer for more than his own longing.

Sagan tells Valera that he wants her to come with him and be with him. The cats’ challenge—whether he might change his mind again—puts the unresolved risk plainly into the reunion. Valera responds with desire, but also demands an explanation before he can expect her to trust his return. Sagan tells her that he loves her, cannot let her go, and has found a way for them to keep one another if she wants that future. His appeal is therefore an invitation, not an assumption that affection alone settles the practical and emotional questions between them.

Valera’s Mission and Her Consent

Valera can imagine the appeal of learning who the Nightwalkers are and letting them learn who she is. But the prospect of entering a crowd after ten years away from people frightens her; the thought of facing Vampires and Demons intensifies that fear. Sagan does not promise that everyone will welcome her without suspicion. Instead, he acknowledges that some may distrust her and argues that her experience gives her a role in answering that distrust. She can show that natural Witches and other misguided humans may be saved if a way of reclaiming them can be found, rather than continuing to die because they made a mistake and became addicted before understanding what they had taken.

Valera recognizes why the work matters. She had the cats, and she withdrew from bad magic by herself; she wonders about others without her strength and whether that makes them less worthy of rescue or more in need of guidance. She cannot turn away from the chance to help them, just as she cannot turn away from the love Sagan offers. The choice is not presented as fear vanishing. She understands the distant future remains frightening, and Sagan cautions that she will still be afraid. His confidence is that she can overcome that fear, as someone who has already survived and recovered from necromancy.

Valera finally tells Sagan that she loves him and agrees to make a new future together, one intended both for them and for people who need help. She says that the work will be better than hiding in fear and that Sagan’s presence will help her feel safer. He promises to share every instant of her life, admitting that he had been wrong to think their nine days together could ever be enough. Their reunion thus resolves the immediate separation without pretending to erase mortality, suspicion, or danger.

A Shared Future Beyond the Priesthood

The invitation changes the shape of Sagan’s service while leaving the proposed work ahead of them. He has not yet completed the resignation Magnus recommends, nor has the account established what reception Valera will receive in the Nightwalker courts. What the return secures is their agreement to attempt that future: Sagan can serve outside the priesthood, and Valera can turn the history that once isolated her into knowledge that may help others. Magnus’s plan gives their relationship a public consequence, while Valera’s acceptance gives the plan its indispensable consent.

The scene’s movement from sealed windows and a hidden figure beneath blankets to a decision to leave fear behind makes the invitation a threshold between isolation and participation. Its hope is deliberately qualified. Valera may face suspicion; she and Sagan must still confront the implications of a human–Nightwalker life, including the possibility of children and the conditions of raising them. Yet neither uncertainty cancels the decision they make. The return matters because Sagan does not ask Valera simply to follow him into his world: he brings back a way for her to contribute to it, and she chooses both that difficult work and the love bound up with it.