"They said they would rather die where they stood than accept their lives at the cost of their principles. I cursed them for a gang of illogical nitwits. I derided their infantile elvish fancies.
And now I understand. Now I sympathize."

And amazingly, an ending that fits just as neatly and smoothly as with the first series set in this universe. It was predictable in outline, but in a good, fuzzy-feeling sort of a way that makes you glad rather than with an air of inevitability which sometimes permeates such work.