Heartwarming / Circleverse

aka: The Will Of The Empress

• From Shatterglass, Tris taking in an orphaned Glaki. Planning on bringing her to Rosethorn and Lark when they get back home.
  • For that matter, Tris taking in Chime. A strange magical creation after protecting it from its frightened creator... A man who she later genuinely apologizes to and protects vehemently from potentially being tortured to give the local legal authority the answers they want.
• Keth giving Tris a necklace made from Chime's flames, then telling her that he has no intention of taking her back.
  Keth: I think she (Chime) belongs with you.
• Briar's reasoning behind the date he chose for his birthday at the end of Briar's Book/The Healing In The Vine. "The girls would be vexed at having so little time to prepare, but they would adjust. They would know, as he did, that his life began when Rosethorn had invited him into her world."
  • And before that, when Rosethorn was dying, she said to Daja "My boy. You three girls—look after Briar. When I'm gone." She doesn't stay dead, but it doubles as a Tear Jerker and a moment of heartwarming.
• The last lines of the last book. Briar explains the little mind palace created for the four in his dreams.
  Briar: It's us.
  All: It's always us.
• In The Will of the Empress, when Sandry first gets kidnapped, Briar and Tris, despite not getting along with her so well, instantly drop everything and go to help as soon as they find out what's happened.
• Briar and Rosethorn getting several familial Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other moments in Battle Magic.
  "He is a faithful son," the First Dedicate said […]. "You have been unstinting with your own love, that he is so unstinting with his love for you."
• Briar and Evvy reuniting after Briar thought she was dead, complete with Cry into Chest.
• Daja, Briar and Tris all working together to make a magical light-giving crystal to help Sandry with her fear of the dark.
• In Daja's Book, Daja has encounters with another Trader, Polyam, who at first can't stand to be around Daja for her outcast status. Gradually, she begrudgingly warms up to her, and at one point, reveals that she lost her leg in a mountain slide. When Daja and friends help to put out a bad fire, saving Polyam's caravan from certain death, they offer to convince the powers that be to remove her trangshi status. But that's not the best part. At the end of the book, Daja and the gang reveal they made a special gift for Polyam: a magic prosthetic leg made of metal and brass, all for Polyam's use. It's this act of kindness that finally makes Polyam decree that Daja is her friend. Awwwwww.
• Just the whole story of the main four characters. When they started Tris and Briar hated everyone, and Daja only liked Sandry - who was the only one trying to be at all friendly to her, and later the only one of the group, trying to bond with the rest at first. They grow into the greatest friends ever, even calling each other siblings.
• Gorse plying everyone who comes into his kitchen with food, no matter how minor their errand, is pretty heartwarming.
• Tris offering to teach Briar how to read and him accepting (and offering to teach her how to fight in return), keeping in mind they spend much of the book angry and hating pretty much everyone.
• It's a tiny moment, but in Cold Fire, a messenger gives Daja a message while she's working with a smith, at lunch time. The messenger, who works for the Ladraduns, is hungry (his boss doesn't feed her workers), and so the smith Daja's working with gives him some food and tells Daja to read the message carefully. Daja, getting his idea, keeps rereading the message until the messenger has finished his food and is given more. Then she gives him a huge tip.
  • The messenger later tries to return the tip, saying that Daja, being foreign, might not know the normal amount for tipping. She commends his honesty and tells him to keep it, adding that if he has some extra in the future, to give it to someone who needs it.
• During Briar's Book Tris has to accompany Niko into the sewers. She hates this and complains vigorously and with great horror, balking as they have to wade into deeper sewage, until Niko snaps at her and recovers his equilibrium enough to say that he hates it too. She notices that he's trembling - and remembers what a Neat Freak he is, and how concerned he is with proper appearance, and realizes that this is even worse for him. Then Tris remembers that she can control water and just does that so they can at least walk a dry path, and tries to be gentle with her teacher.