Some mild spoilers for the ending sections of book 4: Broken Empires. Read forward at your own spoiler peril!
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The New Hordos War nearly broke Taylor. Her last, final expenditure of energy dismantled the imperial behemoth... and then everything else. The last thing she could recall was waking up days later with her belly flatter and two cubs in an incubator beside her. She had no recollection giving birth. It was like she was a stranger to them and did not feel like a proper parent. The days wore on as peace finally returned to Talkar and the nation began to rebuild itself after centuries of war preparation.
Taylor languished within country, aimless and adrift with no purpose or drive. She was now forced to stay put where she was by the new emperor - taking care of cubs she did not feel were hers, even if all evidence pointed to the contrary. She had family nearby, but felt it hard to confide in them the feelings she tried so hard to express. She used to be a metal rock goddess in Zabokar, but here, she was a lost cause without a melody to her thoughts.
It was here that she was given a guitar by her brother Max when he finally came down to visit her in Talkar that some semblance of motivation began to creep into her fingers. She was itching to reveal her inner thoughts through song - and so, one day, bringing out the kiddos onto the porch of her appointed home because she had to, she began to strum the first few chords of a melody she had drumming around in her head. She was going to find this feeling and she was going to put it down through song. She needed her passion back.
