What a great landmark chapter! Their first(?) mutually oral "I love you"s. Good for you both!
A shame we still have a few darkness in the story. I assume Mil (and the emperor) will be one of the few people she won't be able to save since there are barely any spoilers of him. Just the end ship and epilogue kid(s) and judging from the previous chapter, I guess/assume the few people who had a hand in her execution would be the nobles last chapters? I mean old Elise may have been a spoiled b*tch but her family was certainly well liked AND allied with Linden so we have potential motives