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“He abandoned you here, alone, it sounds like. Why didn’t he just come with you?”

“I begged him to, but he couldn’t live with the guilt of what it would do to his father.”

“A father that willingly sacrificed his son into an eternity of misery in a court he never wanted,” I said.

“It’s funny...” She smiled. “I told him the same thing.”

“But Fenodyr was an Archfae. Doesn’t that make him far more powerful than any queen or court? Why didn’t he just kill his betrothed?”

“He wanted to. Oh, he wanted to. And it was well within his ability. We talked about it many times. But an open attack on any of the courts by an Archfae could make that Archfae a threat, and an enemy, to all courts.

“See, when the fae from the Midjalend, this plane, came back to the Fiadhain for good during the last war, they brought their courts and crowns with them. The concept of organized governance was new to the Fiadhain then. The Archfae had never had any need for it or interest in it. Their own powers were enough for them, they didn’t need crowns or boundaries to fight over. They enjoyed the leniency of a lawless land.

“So when those crowns and court boundaries arrived, there was a… tension between the courts and the Archfae. Many of the kings and queens welcomed the allyship of any Archfae, wanted their powers on their side. But an open attack on a court by an Archfae, on the other hand, could lead to another war. And while an Archfae is powerful, they’re no match for an army by themselves. Not to mention multiple armies, if other courts got involved.”

“Still… It sounds like he could have done more, in the end.”

“He could have.” Her eyes were on the dark sea. “He could have. But they tamed him, Hal. They took the wildness from him. And all the love he had for me, and for you, brought him so much fear. He was so scared to lose us to death that he lost us to distance instead.”

A pair of Arctic terns swept by, flashes of graceful white against the storm-healing sky. Their long, forked tails and pointed wings painted trails of sunlight where they flew through gaps in the clouds.

“So you ended up here by yourself. And then you met Father,” I continued.

“Then I met your father. I told him I was pregnant, but he said he didn’t care. He didn’t know the story, didn’t know where I had come from or who your real father was. Just that I needed somewhere safe. And he opened his home to me. He said he would raise you as his own and we would never speak a word of it again.”

“But he must have known I was different.”

“He did,” she said. “I think at first it didn’t bother him. When you were a child you were much easier, more innocent, less to contend with. But as you grew, you developed such a spirit of your own. So much of your father’s wildness in your blood. And I think it scared him.”

There was quiet while I processed. Then I asked, “So when you came through the Veil, did you come through near our home?”

“No, actually. A standing stone near Skeioholm. There was a little steading there with just one woman living in it. She saw me arrive and didn’t seem surprised at all. She gave me tea and dinner, and let me stay with her that night in a little bed in an alcove by the fire. Her home was so small, I remember thinking how kind it was of her to let a total stranger into such a tiny space. She listened while I cried to her all evening. I was so upset, I’m embarrassed to say I told her everything. She told me I could stay as long as I needed, but I left for the sea the next day. I needed to orient myself with something familiar.”

“Her name was Eilith,” I said. The realization dawned on me at last, like it should have so long ago. Of course, Eilith knew who I was more than I had all along. I smiled and shook my head.

My mother looked at me in surprise. “You’ve met her?”

“I’ve been living with her. Sleeping in that same little bed by the fire in the same tiny cottage for the last year.”

“Ha.” She huffed an incredulous laugh. “There truly is no such thing as a coincidence.”

“I felt the same way when I arrived there,” I said. “Like I was meant to.”

“Did she tell you about me?” my mother asked.

“No, never a word. I told her about you, though, about my home and family. She must have realized who I was, who you were. She probably knew it right away, knowing her. But I think she knew that was not her secret to tell. She never said anything about it.”

“Still has the same integrity as ever, then,” my mother said.

“Byrgir told me she said that I was important, that he must protect me. That I was the key to it all. I had no idea whatshe meant, or what she could possibly know about me. But I understand now.”

“How is she doing?”

“She was doing quite well. But recently she was… arrested. Or kidnapped, really, by the Paragons of the Light.”

My mother hissed at the name. “Damn Paragons. They’re the ones who drove me out of the market last time I was in Skeioholm. What did they want with her?”

“I don’t know for certain yet. We went to try to retrieve her, but they said she was being held for practicing Sourcery.”