Chapter 18

Driven by survival, Una (the knight) and Owen (the scholar) run through centuries by foot, coach, ship, and eventually automobiles, learning how to blend into shifting eras. They minimize use of the magic book because every jump returns them to the yew woods, which become their safest refuge from Vivian’s pursuit. They establish caches, repair the old cottage, and begin to think of the woods as home, breaking their rule against settling.

As their intimacy deepens, Una twice misses her menstrual cycle and, with Owen’s anxious help, ends the pregnancies—first with herbs, then with pills he time-fetches. The third time, Una confronts her lifelong denial of a future beyond service and bloodshed. Encouraged by Owen’s faith in her enduring self, she rejects the pill and chooses the possibility of motherhood, despite the danger of being found.

To protect their future, they decide to flee further back in time, before Dominion exists. Arriving when the yew is young, they discover a sword-hilt already embedded in the tree but without the Sinclair mark—evidence that the queen may not have seeded this far past. Concluding Vivian cannot reach them without the book or a reason to look, they commit to staying hidden.

They build a cottage using era-appropriate labor augmented by minimal time-cheats for tools and dry weather, and Una adapts to pregnancy with mixed pride and grief for the armor-clad self their child will never see. In spring, they time their moment for warmth, and their son is born beneath the yew, healthy and distinctive with pale curls and a berry-red birthmark. Owen feels he has something worth dying for; Una, something worth killing for. They keep the child’s name unspoken to preserve mercy and secrecy.