[quote=@Tatterdemalion]
[b]Adila![/b]

A hand, gentle. A legacy, observed. The Captain stands with you, Adila. She’s there, leaning on her walking-stick, and she’s resting her hand on your wing.

“You did good, Adila,” she says. That’s... it’s equivalent to her setting off fireworks and throwing you a parade.

“You’re still a princess to me,” Juniper Blue pipes up, on the other side of you. Like that’s what is breaking your heart! The idea that you might no longer be a princess, not that your family has just officially been dissolved, its ultimate purpose fulfilled.[/quote]

+Thank you, Captain. Thank you, everyone, thank...+ Adila blinked her eyes and looked around. Her thoughts were so raw right now that they had carried much further than she'd expected them to and everyone was looking at her. The Captain. Juniper Blue. 

For a moment she hesitated. The Watch didn't normally go in for emotional displays much - quiet words aside and notices put up on boards rather than dramatic speeches. Even their disbanding had followed that quiet, precise, professional logic. Adila I's spirit had suffused everything right up until the final moment. An attitude of deeds over words, quiet acceptance and comradeship and the shared satisfaction of work well done. She admired it, the restraint and control, but the colours in her crest told her it was okay to express her own heart as well.

+Thank you, everyone+ thought Princess Adila in her first and last speech to the Watch. +We were all called here for different reasons. Some of you joined for pay, or the sense of order in your lives, or to protect the community you loved. Some of you were like me, raised by the Watch because there was no one else to care for you. Some of you have served for weeks, others for lifetimes. I don't know what's in your heart here, at this ending... if it feels like you did all you came to do, or if you feel like..."

Her thought trailed off into her own confused tangle of emotions again. She blinked her eyes clear.

+I don't know what I should do... how I should feel...+ she thought. +But I know how I feel about each of you. The furthest, most distant of you who I've never spoken to, I see and think of safety. When I walk through the dark and see your outline in the fire, my heart eases and my pace slows because there stands a unknown friend who'll raise their spear and stand besides me against any peril. I don't know all of you, but I know that I could trust any of you with my life. So remember that, when we see each other again... remember that this is a person who is worthy of trust.+