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“Another beautiful thing about Rhyanaes,” she said. “The power from the river and the remnants of fae Source make everything grow faster. I usually get two full harvests out of the garden before fall. Means I can feed myself, and you guys, much more easily.”

“It really is incredible here,” I said. “Have you lived here your whole life?”

“Born and raised. In this very house, actually.”

“So this house belongs to your parents?” I asked.

“It did, yes. Now it’s mine. They… disappeared when I was a child.”

“I’m sorry El.”

“It’s alright. It was a long time ago now.”

“Do you have any idea what happened to them?”

“Yes and no. My mother served on the Council, and my father was a Ranger. They were both fae, obviously.” She gestured to her own face and features. “They either stayed behind or were left behind when the Veil was sealed all those years ago, and they were interested in opening it again. Or at least being able to cross it. The Council supported them, and they put a lot of their time and energy into researching it. They uncovered books and old texts from this city and others, ancient Archfae scripts and notes about the weave of the Veil. I guess they thought they were getting close to their answers, because one day they left to travel to an area that had once been a fae city. They never came back.”

“I imagine that must have been terrible as a child, with no closure. Did anybody search that city for them?”

“Yes, several crews of Rangers went after them when they didn’t come back. But the city they were in isn’t really a city anymore. When the fae left this plane, they sometimes took entire cities with them, and that was one of them. Nothing more than a shadow of a city now.”

“I’ve heard of that, but it seems so impossible I was never sure if it was true,” I said.

“It’s more possible than you’d think. When many fae cities were built, especially ones that held their political courts, they were sort of… anchored to the Fiadhain. They were built on sites of naturally concentrated Source, with specificdrurunaes, or gatestones, in them, which are directly linked to the Fiadhain. They function like bridges or portals between the two.Sometimes they’re arranged in small circles, and sometimes those individual stones are scattered around an entire city. In the cases where the stones were arranged around the edges of a city, that city could be transported to the other side of the Veil, and into the Fiadhain.”

“Is Rhyanaes one of those cities?” I asked.

“Not one that has the gatestones all the way around it, no. But we do have one.”

“The water spiral in the center of the river.”

El nodded. “Quick learner.”

“I mean, the Source there feels so strong, it was an easy guess.”

“For those who can feel it, at least,” she said with a smile, then continued her tale. “So my parents went to one of the cities that had long ago been moved to the Fiadhain... But those places are dangerous now. When the cities moved, they left behind something. Moving that large of an area with that much natural Source was never meant to be permanent, so when they moved the city, they left behind a sort of dark reflection of what they were. A rift where they should have been.

“I’ve never seen them, but rumors say they’re haunted now, empty craters, but shadowfiends are drawn to them like magnets. And if you’re there at the right time, ghostly apparitions of the old city and its inhabitants can be seen. Travelers say you can see the city in the dim light at dawn or dusk, just before the sun rises or after it sets, but it’s a dark, twisted approximation of what it once was. They’re dangerous, malignant places now.

“I think my parents went in for the relic and were in over their heads. They didn’t get back out.”

“I’m so sorry El,” I repeated, unsure of what else to say, how best to express my compassion to her. “The Rangers who went after them never found anything?”

“Not a trace.”

“Is it possible they found the relic and went through the Veil?”

“Mmm… Possible, I suppose. But certainly not probable. Not even close to probable. The Veil was sealed long ago by beings far more powerful than them.”

“Have you ever thought about going to look yourself?”

“I think about it all the time. But it’s a cursed place, Hal. Two of the Rangers who went after my parents died there. I couldn’t do it alone, and it’s too risky to ask anybody to go with me. Although I’ve always known Crow and Byrgir would do it if I asked them. But I won’t subject them to that. My parents made their choice. I’m not going to repeat their mistakes, and I’m certainly not going to drag anyone else into it if I do.”

I realized I had no idea how old El was. She looked no older than her mid- to late-twenties, but her otherworldly fae complexion made it impossible to tell.

“You said it was a long time ago… How long, exactly?” I asked.

She looked up from her work. “Over seventy-five years ago now. I’m much older than I look.”