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Bowing to her, I said, “Indeed. Do I have the pleasure of speaking to Seren?”

When I stood, she was watching me closely.

“Good guess, my human friend. Nerithia tells me you wish to send a message back to Estmere. Is it true? You are The Keeper?”

Nerithia betrayed me.

“What do you know of The Keeper?” I asked, hoping to minimize the damage Nerithia may have wrought. Throughout our history, each time a non-Harrow family member learned of our secret, someone paid the price. Now, because of me?—

“I know quite a bit. More than you, I would venture.”

“Impossible,” I blurted before thinking.

The wrinkles on the edges of Seren’s eyes deepened as she smiled. “All things are possible. Sometimes, we simply do not like the cost of making them so.”

I tried again. “Only Keepers know of The Keeper, and you are…”

Her smile deepened. Seren was one step away from laughing at me now, as if she had a secret more far-reaching than any of my own.

Nerithia was half-human, a long-lost member of our network. But Seren could not be the same. Those with human blood may gain some measure of immortality, demi-mortal as it was termed, but they did not live for more than a thousand years. And there was no doubt Seren was vaelith. If she were, my grandfather would know of her. Would have told me of her presence here. Unlike Nerithia, whom he did not know existed.

“Have you worked it out yet? Or have you forgotten your abilities?”

Of course. I had, in fact, forgotten them temporarily. Opening my senses to her, I was immediately flooded with one pervading emotion.

Hope.

But it did little to solve the puzzle Seren presented.

“I—”

“Allof your abilities.”

Still unaccustomed to the new ones, and uncertain if I could do again what I accomplished in the palace corridor, I nevertheless attempted to clear my mind. To accept what was offered. At first, nothing happened. But then I saw it. A glimmer of light, brighter than the others, from above. I looked up, watched as it moved and swirled through the water, taking shape. It was a child, a young one as the Elydorians would call her. Long, flowing hair, but no face that I could recognize. She was sitting, cross-legged on the ground, reading a book. A man came to her, scooped her up, and the girl laughed, dropping her book. A woman joined them, one as sea-born as they came. A Thalassari. But the man? His hair and skin were dark. His tunic bore the crest of…

The vision disappeared.

“What did you see?”

“There was something… different about this one,” I said, realizing Seren could not, should not, know of my visions. But she did.

“Describe the difference.”

“I cannot… you are not?—”

“The winds remember the first crossing, and the stone keeps their weight. Now, describe it.”

She was a Keeper. And yet, could not be so. But I found myself wanting to tell her.

“A light around it, as if the vision glowed. Or perhaps not a glow, precisely: an aurora.”

“Of past memories.”

I blinked. “That is not…” I wanted to say “possible,” but she would only chastise me again. “I heard a voice,” I said. “Instead of a vision. Telling me to look down. I thought that was my unique ability but… nothing makes sense.”

Seren sighed. “I would tell you all, but there is a reason for you to work it out yourself. The same reason your grandfather did not tell you of me.”

My eyes widened. “He knew of you?”