Magic Maid II epilogue

Achel and Adeline, enraged and despairing at Theodore's death, have decided that they should first return to Hauterres and reclaim the magical mechanical military that is one of the few legacies it still possesses. They ride the golem that carried them back to the palace, Adeline and Eld alternating control of the body they share. Adeline's distraught mental state and an increasingly unimpeded partition between the two has let them communicate freely and voluntarily hand off control to the non-dominant personality, or allow the non-dominant personality to take control if the mental state of the dominant one becomes too unstable. The journey to Hauterres, taking some three-and-a-half or so days, takes Achel and Adeline to the former base camp: it is abandoned, and falling apart as the elements take their toll. There is no sign of River or of the reinforcements she ordered.
Proceeding past the mountain ring, Eld has little trouble retracing their steps, in part guided by the rift through which her father entered. Achel and Adeline locate the underground chamber holding Hauterres' golem army: it is still standing at attention, as they have been for the entirety of the generation that Hauterres has lain dormant. Called up from the great cellar in which they've been stored, they form a majestic and intimidating sight, their ranks gleaming in the badlands' sun. At Eld's request, they visit the rift, leaving the army standing. Moneldro is glad to see his daughter again. He has already brought through a contingent of his people, who are shaping the earth to craft a village after their fashion. They are yet few, only a village, and not yet ready to make their presence known.
Achel and Adeline leave the settlement and proceed back towards the palace, the ranks of the golems of Hauterres' marching in perfect unison behind them. The sound of so many metal, lifeless boots meeting the earth at the same moment is terrific, and doubtless intimidating to those who hear them pass. In fact, the battalions of metal soldiers marching to the Palace with thunderous noise does not fail to attract attention, and Achel and Adeline are accosted by a Coalition messenger under a white flag, who requests a parley and warns of the consequences should he not be allowed to return from the conference. He is surprised to learn that Adeline is planning to bring the machines to the aid of the Coalition; he is allowed to leave, and returns the next day with a small contingent of mounted Coalition personnel, who accompany them on the road back to the Palace.
The Palace is now in open mourning, and everywhere preparations are being made for war. In the interval that Achel and Adeline were departed, the announcement was made that Theodore had been slain by an assassin whose identity was not revealed, though there were many cries that the killer be brought to justice. An interim government consisting of dignitaries and senior bureaucrats from various nations have assumed control of the Coalition, which has caused understandable friction in places. Many dignitaries, upon the news of Theodore's death, have simply left with little or no notice, with dignitaries from Sarahaa being especially well represented in the exodus.
Isabella, glad to see Achel again, has been continuing her duties as a maid in the service of the Palace. Though the place is in a state of upheaval, its wheels must be kept turning, and her position has offered her an opportunity to hear many things and be in places that not everyone could. She believes that she has discovered the facility in which Zirren is imprisoned, though her exact location is yet unknown. Achel and Adeline are glad to hear it, as they have decided upon a plan to help them get revenge for killing the man that was so important to them: Achel will turn Zirren into a vampire, making her into the most loathsome thing she knows.
This will be no easy task, as she is imprisoned in the most heavily-guarded part of the palace. Isabella, having overheard soldier's chatter, reports that at least one attempt to break her out has already been thwarted. Achel, Adeline, and Isabella, however, have some advantages that outside parties do not.
Isabella is able to wheedle her way (through means that she does not entirely disclose) into serving the dungeon that holds Zirren. She is able to use her access and her skills at remaining unnoticed to gain more detail about Zirren's holding, and communicates them to Achel and Adeline.
Adeline is routinely questioned on the nature of her powers and the golems she commands. The Coalition seems uneasy to accept these strange troops from nowhere, but also glad to have any additional power available. Eld is dominant during these inquiries – she and Adeline have agreed that she, the more level-headed of the two, should be the one to command them should the opportunity arise.
In the meantime, the Coalition has tightened its grip on its territories, placing harsh restrictions on travel and assembly. The presence of occupying troops, almost always from lands other than the ones they occupy, increases dramatically, in part to enforce these restrictions. Sarahaa is increasingly belligerent, and is also mustering forces. They have already cast out Coalition officials, and have completely withheld support for the interim government. What Sarahaan officials remained in the Palace are quietly dismissed or taken into custody.
The evening comes when the plan to transform Zirren is to be executed. It is an emotionally turbulent event: Adeline has discovered that her sisters are at the Palace, having been returned with the convoy that was originally sent to investigate Hauterres. After returning to the Palace to request the troops that River demanded, they were denied their request and taken in for further questioning. Odette and Colette have been released, and have been granted comfortable quarters and access to the library. Wanting to be a family with her sisters and needing to stay to command the golems, Adeline will stay at the Palace after the mission, while Achel has declared her intent to leave. Isabella, still somewhat lost after Theodore's death, is resolved to follow Achel. This will be the last time that Achel and Adeline work together in the Palace; the evening announces their parting. Achel assures Adeline, “If you ever need me, send word. As long as your message reaches me, I will come.”
Using Isabella's information and access, the three manage to enter the dungeon, disable the guards discreetly, and, with Adeline's help, disable many of the magical barriers that present obstacles to them. Swinging the doors to Zirren's cell open, they can see that her figure is gaunt and haggard, as well as heavily restrained by thick cuffs and chains that are encrusted with dull metals that spell enchantments. Achel asks for a moment alone; Adeline and Isabella leave her in the cell with Zirren. After no more than a minute, Achel reappears, wipes her mouth, and the three of them leave the dungeon much as they came.
Achel collects a few possessions, embraces Adeline, and departs with Isabella in tow. They will soon have their pick of battlefields to patronize. The woman who goes with Achel is never again called Isabella.
Sarahaa makes an ultimatum: dissolve the Coalition, or prepare for war. The Coalition gives a response: you are a part of the Coalition. You cannot leave. We will fight. This development surprises no one.
Sarahaa has friends that have also resisted the Coalition. A few other nations and territories break off to fight the Coalition alongside Sarahaa, and many anti-Coalition sympathizers desert their native lands and defect to Sarahaa or one of its allies. Both sides have had an opportunity to muster: the war will be long and brutal.
Thus engaged in war, the identity of Master Theodore's assassin is revealed: the Sarahaan princess that he had so graciously invited to live at this Palace, to whom he had shown nothing but kindness, who had heartlessly cut him down in his quarters. Her execution is a widely publicized and attended event, accompanied by much oratory and pageantry. The long-awaited moment comes when she is to be beheaded: the executioner's sword passes through her neck, and blood is spilled, but she does not die. The crowd, the executioner, and all the officials are astounded. The executioner tries again, with the same result. Beginning to panic, the executioner hacks at Zirren only to see her heal each blow. The crowd is in an uproar. The executioner makes an expert judgment that this calls for some of the special tools. A specially-crafted stake is fetched out of some special store, with an accompanying mallet; the stake is pressed against Zirren's chest, the mallet raised; with three loud cracks, each producing a small flurry of magical sparks, the stake is driven into Zirren's heart. She shouts with rage and pain at each blow, until, after the last, she shudders, rattles out her last breath, and crumbles to dust on the scaffold, her chains making a dull clank as they meet the wooden floor.
The news that Zirren was actually a vampire spreads fast throughout the Coalition and Sarahaa. The Coalition cries outrage that Sarahaa should never have disclosed that their own princess was a vampire; Sarahaa outrage that the Coalition should have made her such. The war continues.
Sarahaa and its allies make a brave showing, and hold out for a long time. Ultimately, it becomes clear that the Coalition has done too good a job of crushing internal resistance. The rebellion cannot escalate as the war goes on. Sarahaa and its allies have trouble coordinating given that they are geographically discontiguous and each bent on being independent from the others. The Coalition closes in, and recaptures them one by one.
From the start, the Coalition had decided to make an example of the rebels. To ensure continued unity, the message needed to be clear: you cannot leave the Coalition. See what will happen if you do. The Coalition's occupation of the rebel states is iron-fisted and exploitative. By that time, however, it was not terribly different from its treatment of most of the other states. The war had increased the central government's power many fold, and wartime exigences had allowed many regional governmental seats to be replaced with foreign dignitaries. The leaders of the rebel states were all publicly executed, and Coalition officials from other lands took their spots.
After the war, most of the occupying troops are recalled from the non-rebel states, and martial law subsides. A Coalition military force continues to occupy the rebel states, nurturing discontent and inequality.
In all this commotion, the Islands were one territory that was almost wholly absent. Not long after Achel and Adeline left River at the Hauterres expedition base camp, a party of Islanders came to escort her to the coast, and thence to her homeland. River, having been accomplice in the plot to assassinate Theodore, had informed her homeland that it would soon be an excellent time to expedite a project they had long been planning: the migration of the Islanders to another land across the sea. The political situation had become too unstable for the People to be certain that their way of life would persist unmolested, and their discovery of another, mostly unpeopled land offered the out they were looking for. By the time that the Coalition began to introduce a heavier military presence throughout their territories, the capital Island was already deserted, the city left very tidy, with everything put away neatly and all sensitive documents and most important cultural artifacts gone to the new land. Knowing they would not have been supported by the Islanders and desiring to avoid what conflict they can, the Coalition allows them to leave in peace.
On their way out, a couple of Islander agents approach a maid in the Palace. They say that the maid caught the Islander princess's eye, and that she would like to make sure that the maid is safe during the coming turmoil. The maid very humbly, if not eloquently, appreciates the gesture, and says she would very much like to accept their offer -- but she's concerned about her family, and requests that they enjoy any protection she does. The Islanders agree to this, and provide for the relocation of her and her family to a small village not unlike the one they've always known, but farther from the Palace and the coming conflict. The maid spends the rest of her life with small, sharp horns jutting from just above her temples. They are not very noticeable, and easily mistaken for an adornment, especially from a distance.