A/N: Ok, people, don't get too excited! This is purely a once-off thing, which will maybe happen if I have 2 chapters of a new story again. Having it this soon, means that the next chapter will be a bit of a wait. Nothing I can do about that, sorry. Now here's the Interlude I promised, before my A/N is longer than this chapter.

Interlude

Years passed by, and Uzuri had retreated deep into herself. Alexei, Glafira and Evgeniya returned to Russia, and were never heard from again – at least not by Uzuri and her family. Her parents, Adair and Ziraili, had tried almost everything to make Uzuri open up, even going so far as to arrange for suitors to come court her – mortals and elves alike. But Uzuri had turned them all away, and when an elf with raven hair and ivory skin knocked on the door, Uzuri had screamed, slamming the door in his face and locked herself in her chambers, refusing to come out for weeks. When she eventually did come out, her eyes were red, swollen from crying. 1914 came and went, along with the World War, and Uzuri was sent to Kenya to wait it out in safety. Poetry filled her journals, some of it beautiful, and light, but most of it was heartbreaking. Each poem was filled with her hopes, dreams, fears and grief over losing Varen. Uzuri travelled throughout the regions close to Kenya extensively, enjoying the warmth, the sun and its strange peoples and customs, and its wonderful animals. Her heart had healed enough for her to smile again, perhaps not yet easily, but naturally, at least. 1937 saw her join her family in Britain, but she had insisted on buying and living on her own property – something decent, but modest, in the countryside with a few horses. Starfire had joined his dam, Epona, in the Undying Lands of her people. Uzuri knew she would see him again, one day.

London, though, was very different to Paris, as Uzuri was to find, regardless of the years gone by….