3 days earlier

Feyre and I entered one of the larger sitting rooms in our house,  overstuffed armchairs and couches were arranged around the room in a rough circle, a fireplace was set into the far wall, and bay windows overlooked the garden at the back of the house. A low table lay in the centre of the room, covered in books- and a stray plate. It was in one of the armchairs that Helion had draped himself.

"Greetings," he smiled as we entered, brushing non-existent lint from the pleats of his robe, the sunlight edging him in a golden glow.

"What are you doing in my living room, Helion?" I asked by way of greeting, as Feyre took up a seat opposite the high lord, "in my favourite chair no less."

Helion chuckled, but he straightened in the chair, his dark face losing its humorous expression.

"I have come with information about your so-called death god." 

"What have you found?" I asked as I sat beside Feyre,  all humour gone. 

"That's that thing," Helion began, the morning light glinting off the golden band around his bicep, "there's almost nothing about it," I saw Feyre frown out of the corner of my eye, mirroring my own expression. 

"We know that, that's why we asked you," I said, perhaps a little sharply. 

"Yes, I was shocked myself, when even I could not find much information, but you're missing the point,"

"What point are you talking about?" Feyre asked as she placed a slender hand on my thigh, fingers tightening. 

"What I could find was basic at best, probably the same as what you already found,"  Helion lent back in his chair, and looked towards the garden, where Zuri appeared to be reading a book under a tree. "But there were no myths, no legends, no name, nothing about where it came from or how old it is, not even a whisper."

"That's impossible", Feyre murmured, "there has to be something, it was locked up for a reason."

The other high lord nodded as if he agreed, looking back at us, "All I could find were holes, like someone had erased all knowledge about the creature, "  

"Do you think there is an accomplice?" I asked, the more we learnt or didn't learn, the more worried it made me.

"I don't know," Helion conceded, "but what worries me more is the bodies that we've been finding and the ones we haven't." 

I felt Feyre tense beside me, worried expression deepening as she looked towards Zuriah in the garden. We won't let anything happen to him, I reassured her. 

I know, but I'll worry non-the-less. She replied silently. 

"What do you mean, the bodies we haven't found?" I asked aloud. 

"We've been finding fewer...husks," I felt a shudder creep up my spine at the image that came to mind, "and getting more reports of high fae just disappearing in the dead of night." 

"Before you ask," Helion held up a hand, his long fingers glinted with rings, "I don't know how the missing are connected, or why the thing might want them, all I know is a few words and symbols that may be connected."

"What are they?" Feyre asked, hope flashed in her grey eyes as Helion reached into a pocket and drew out a folded piece of parchment, handing it to my mate. 

I lent over her shoulder as she opened the paper, on it were two scrawled words and a few symbols, nothing else, just like Helion said. 

"What does it mean?" I asked, looking up, Helion only shrugged, there was no joking glint in his eye, no laugh on his face. 

~~~~

Later that night, after Helion had left, and we had gathered the inner circle to tell them what we had learnt, I sat in my study, staring at the paper, Feyre leaning against a corner of the desk staring at the night sky. 

"Erilea, Valg, what do these words mean?" I scrubbed a hand across my face, "and why do I recognise the symbols?" The fact that I had recognised the symbols but did not remember why was really beginning to annoy me. Feyre turned from where she lent, leaning over me to look at the cream coloured paper, a smile spreading across her face. 

"Because," she said, walking over to the cabinet against the wall, and rifling through the draws.

"Ah-huh!" A piece of paper was in her hand, held out to me "this is why." 

It was the paper that the strange fae had given them years ago, I'd almost forgotten about it. This paper held 12 symbols written in a precise line, and written beneath them, write them in blood and signed A.A.W.G xoxo. 

"Do you think they're from the same language?" I asked Feyre, studying the note that Helion had given us, it only held four symbols, one of them looked like two overlapping circles within a larger circle. 

"I think it's too much of a coincidence for them not to be," my mate said grimly, taking a bottle of wine and two glasses from the other side of the desk, offering me a generously filled glass. 

"Well," I said, sipping from my glass, "it looks like we'll need to call in that favour after all."

~~~

Aelin

Aelin massaged her temple with a thumb and forefinger as Rhysand finished telling him his story. This couldn't be happening again, she thought as she looked up at the fae male, sitting across from her, she couldn't bring herself to look at her court members or even Rowan. 

"Show me the note," she said to Rhysand,  he hadn't told them yet what this other high lord had found. Rhysand reached into the inner pocket of his immaculate jacket and produced the piece of paper.

"Here you go," Aelin reached across the table, the scars on her arm twinging slightly as she did. Taking the thick paper from him, she unfolded it and beheld all the confirmation she needed for her theory. 

"The valg are a demon race, Erilea is this continent, and this mark here," she pointed to the mark representing the lock, "is the Eye of Elena, the others could be used in any number of spells."

The court was silent as they watched Aelin and Rhysand, the forms face was carefully blank, as she tossed the note onto the tabletop.

"Do you think our escaped prisoner could be one of these valg?" Rhysand asked, his voice was tight, a combination of dread and relief. 

"It may be a valg prince," Aedion said, his tan face was serious as he spoke, "if it is you're in trouble."

"And if it's not?" the relief was gone from the high lord's face.

"Then it's a valg king, and you're in deep shit," Fenrys answered from beside Aelin. 

Rowan's hand still rested on her knee, grip strong and reassuring as Aelin felt she was going to fall through the floor and just keep going. "What favour are you calling for?" Rowan asked, knowing it was Aelin's next question.

"Information, help, whatever you can offer us," Rhysand answered, there was a hint of well-hidden desperation in his voice. Aelin drew in a deep breath, looking to each of her family members before she answered. 

"I will not sentence my people to another war with the valg," she knew Rhysand caught the use of another, but he didn't say anything, "however, I will tell you all I know about them, including how to defeat them. " 

"Thank you, majesty, I will take whatever you can offer." 

~~~

Thanks for being patient with my updates, I promise I'm trying to avoid cliffhangers :D 

Also, I haven't read ACOFS yet so anything that has happened in the book won't be in this fic 

Hope you enjoyed xx