Rhys, what do we do?

I don't know yet. 

"Well," Rhys said aloud, straitening up and hold a hand out to me, "make yourselves at home." I linked my arm with his and we headed for the door. 

"What?" her voice was sharp, as it came from the gloom behind us.

"We will..." Rhys paused as if searching for the right word, "...confere, and when we reach a decision we will inform you," his voice was so smooth it sent shivers down my spine, but now wasn't the time for that. I could feel the eyes of the fae on my back, they were like daggers trained on us as we left the room, magically sealing the door behind us. We didn't speak as we strode through the dim hallway, arms still linked, it wasn't until we were a level above, in a small meeting chamber that we began to speak. 

"What are we going to do with them?" I asked as I found a chair before the dark harth, Rhys taking the chair opposite my own, "It's not like we have a protocol for this kind of thing."

"No, we don't," my mate said as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "but, they don't seem to be lying, or at least they believe what they're saying," the room around us remained dark as I conjured flames, sparking the fireplace to life. "They're barey armed," he mused, "perhaps that's a good sign."

"That could mean anything," I countered, I didn't want to take any chances. We hadn't had any incidents since the War, and I had no intention of letting any start now. "They may posses some kind of magic, if they were able to open a portal," 

"I know," Rhys was staring into the fire now, the tension slowly leaching from his body, "It's just, there's something about that female," his violet eyes were cast in shades of orange and red as the fire crackled before us.

"What about her?" I asked.

"I recognise her," he was looking at me now and I could see the confusion written across his beautiful face, "and I don't know how, there's just something so familiar about her."

~~~

Aelin 

They sat in the gloom, Aelin rested her head against Rowans shoulder as they waited for their captors return. They had all felt the magic that the other fae had used to seal the door, Aelin didn't want to risk triggering whatever the spell was, by trying to open the door. 

Aedion had started to pace the cell, too annoyed to sit still. Aelin gave an exasperated sigh, she just wanted to see her friends again, it felt like an age since she had seen Dorian and Chaol last, although it was probably closer to a year. And Aelin really needed to have a talk with Yrene, she had a few questions for the healer. 

"Have you ever heard of this Night Court?" Aedion had finally stopped his pacing as he posed the question to Rowan, who had been staring at the opposite blank wall.

"I can't say that I have, but there are many places I have not visited," his voice was a rumble in the watery moonlight that came through the small window high up on the wall behind them. "I don't think we are in our own world," he voiced what Aelin had already surmised.

"But how can that even be possible?" Aedion continued, "I thought you closed the Gate so that no one could travel between the worlds,"

"I thought so too," Aelin replied, it was starting to get much too confusing for her liking "what if when I closed it, the force created new cracks?" She asked, more to just voice the thought, than to get an answer.

"Maybe," was all Rowan said, as he wrapped a muscled arm around her shoulders. Gods she'd had enough uncertainty to last a lifetime, she didn't need more problems.   

~~~

Feyre and Rhysand returned an hour or two later, "We've decided to humour you," Feyre said by way of greeting.

"Oh goody," Aelin drawled.

"We'll take you back to where you appeared, there you can create your portal and return to wherever it is you came from."

~~~

Aelin pondered the wyrd marks she had drawn on the gleaming floor of the complex that seemed to rest atop the mountain peak. She had been pondering the marks with Rowan and Aedion for the better part of the last hour. Rhysand and Feyre hadn't been much help, claiming that they knew no symbols that matched the ones Aelin had drawn. 

Aelin gave a sign and sat back in defeat, what the hell was that mark? She thought, she knew it had to be the key to their return home.

Aelin turned towards the other fae, who were talking quietly on one on the balconies, "Do you have a crest... maybe a coat of arms?" She asked them, maybe that would work. But before the others could answer her, a realisation hit.

Aelin gasped. "It's you," she said, Rhysand and Feyre turned from where they had been leaning against a balcony rail that looked out to the other snow blasted mountain tops. "It has to be."