They returned to Omio at dawn.
The elders judged Agnes according to the law of the land. For attempted murder and deception, she was banished from the village forever. She was sent into the forest with nothing but a small sack of grain and the coins she had counted so greedily.
John spent the rest of his days trying to earn his daughter’s forgiveness. He built Sarah a small house of her own with many windows to let in the light.
Sarah did not marry a prince or a wealthy trader. Instead, she remained in the village and became a healer, using the herbs and wisdom Bram had taught her in the mountain cave. People came from distant villages for her help, and she became known as the Woman of the Mountain—a healer of wounds, broken bones, and even broken hearts.
Isidora stayed too.
She worked quietly beside Sarah, fetching water, scrubbing pots, carrying bundles of firewood—the same labor Sarah had borne for years. Through hardship she learned humility, and through Sarah’s mercy she began to change.
Peace returned to Omio.
And every year, on the anniversary of her fall, Sarah climbed halfway up the great blue mountain to the shelf where she had landed. She stood above the mist and smiled, knowing that even the deepest fall can become the beginning of truth.
Because the mountain had not buried her.
It had returned her.
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