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E l and Crow met with the Council the day after we purchased my weapons.

Crow had informed the head of the Rangers of Eilith’s arrest immediately after it had occurred, but they needed to meet with the entire Council to discuss what was to be done about it.

El came back from that meeting in a huff, saying that the Council was so scared of escalating the situation that they were probably never going to do anything about it at all.

But the Council did approve of sending more Rangers to the capital to gain information, so Crow left for Avanis with a small crew of Rangers to join their scouts.

His goal was to learn where Eilith was being held and find a way to infiltrate it, if necessary.

But no action was to be taken beyond surveillance.

Not without the Council approving a plan.

We waited for weeks without word from Crow. I grew increasingly restless each day Crow didn’t return, each day Eilith was trapped wherever she was, each day I was uncertain if she even still lived.

Despite my perpetual underlying concern for Eilith, I loved being in Rhyanaes.

The city was rife with Source, and grew even more beautiful as spring progressed.

I often spent afternoons walking along the rocky beach, wandering the city streets, or working in the garden with El.

Some days I rode into the mountains with the wolves so I could watch them run freely along ridges through early spring snow.

My abilities in the training ring progressed exceptionally quickly, both physically and magically.

El was thrilled with my capabilities, and I was soon practicing things that she said had taken her months of work to even attempt.

Sometimes we were joined by other Ironguard and Sourcerers, but most days I got a private lesson from both El and Byrgir.

The last of winter blew out into a warm, wet, and productive early spring. Flowers bloomed in the garden much more quickly than they did at home, and soon the kitchen was full of bundles of herbs and blooms hanging from the ceiling to dry.

Late one afternoon, El and I were processing and storing medicinal and cooking herbs from the first spring harvest. The house was quiet, and steady rain tinkled against the windows.

Byrgir was away leading a team of Keepers in response to reports of wraiths attacking a small village to the south.

I was keen to stay busy while he was gone.

It helped distract me from worrying about him.

I glanced over at El where she worked at the kitchen counter. She was mashing a big bundle of dried St. John’s wort with her hands. Brittle leaves and tiny twigs flew everywhere, scattering about the kitchen counters and floor. I stopped what I was doing and looked at her questioningly.

She shrugged. “The knife was just slowing me down.”

I nodded. “Usually, further north, this isn’t ready to harvest until Litha.”

“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 specific drurunaes , 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.”

The front door creaked open, and Byrgir’s familiar footsteps climbed the stairs and crossed the sitting room. Judging by his gait, he was in a hurry. Some of the constant tension I’d carried since he’d left eased away as I was flooded with relief.

“You’re back!” I said with a smile as he entered the kitchen.

“Safe and sound. Crow’s back too,” he said. “Just messaged me.”

During my time with them, I had learned that Crow and some of the other Rangers knew magic that allowed them to speak telepathically into the minds of others over relatively short distances. I assumed this was the kind of message Byrgir meant.

“What did he say?” El asked.

Byrgir shrugged. “Just that he was back. What I just said.”

El rolled her eyes and set down the knife she had been chopping vegetables with. “Obviously. You didn’t ask him anything else?”

“About to go meet him at the tavern to ask him all about it. Came by to get you two first.”

We tugged on layers and boots, then made our way to the tavern, the late spring sun still high in the sky. Crow was halfway through his dinner when we got there. His dark eyes were shadowed with exhaustion.

El took her seat next to him and got right to business. “So how did it go? You look like hell.”

“It was hell, actually. Barely slept the last few days. The last few weeks really. But we did find out that she’s being held in the Temple of the Paragons.

She was taken under orders of the High Priestess of Enos herself, who apparently had the king’s approval to do it.

The guards around that place are no joke.

It’s a fortress, and they got wards too.

Different kind of magic though. I spent weeks just trying to unravel them and didn’t get anywhere. ”

“So you didn’t get anybody on the inside?” El asked.