I stared at Iona across the fire. She looked so much like my mother; it took my breath away. Except for her lighter skin and lack of shimmer, they could have been twins. Something dangerously close to joy stirred in my chest. Weighted down by the pain and bitterness Yoko's death had instilled in me. It never grew beyond an echo, but I recognized it for what it could be.

In all the years of wishing to come back home, I had rarely let myself dwell on those I'd left behind. Elves like Dante and Iona who had once been so integral to my everyday life. Had I really ever truly believed I might see them again?

Iona watched me back. The kind smile never left her face. While the sight of it warmed me, I didn't quite care for the pity I found behind it. Just as she had when I was a child, she saw too much.

"How did you find us?" I blurted out after several moments of silence. Of all the thoughts I'd sifted through, that was the one I'd settled on. My mother would have been appalled.

Iona's dimples deepened. "My estate is not far from here."

"That's right. Your summer cottage."

"It's a bit bigger than a cottage now. For practical reasons, of course. Not vanity. Vanity has no place in our world now. But you'll see."

"We will?" Dante asked.

She nodded. "We post scouts around Radia. Just along the border, where the magic is strong enough to keep them back. They reported that something had roused the wraiths, and then we felt the magic shift. For the first time in many years, the border grew. I knew it was you, but the others did not believe me, which is why I am out here alone."

"Aunt Iona..."

I desperately wanted to ask her who the others were. Who else from my old life had survived, and how were my people doing? But those things didn't matter right now, and they wouldn't until I relit Vyta. Then I could focus on being the queen they needed.

"Aunt Iona," I began again. "As much as I'd like to visit your home, we don't have the time. We're here to–"

"To relight Vyta? I know."

Dante and I looked at one another. "You do?"

"Yes. There's no other reason to come this way. If you had come to proclaim yourself as queen, you would have gone to the Core."

The Core. How had it not crossed my mind? Long ago, an asteroid struck Estrellum right in its very center, and they built a temple at the bottom of the crater, where every queen of Estrellum has been crowned since then.

First she would pledge to give her life to her people. It was a vow bound in blood. Then the Star Diadem would be placed on her head. Until that moment it was nothing more than a crown made of stone–the same stone as the asteroid–but once it touched the rightful queen's head, it blazed with the same starlight that shimmered through her skin.

"Did my mother know the risks of extinguishing the portals?" I asked, shaking off visions of myself donning the crown.

"She did."

That had always been a possibility, but I hadn't truly believed she would do such a thing if she had known what had happened. I had told Morana that our mothers hadn't understood, and I had clung to that, needing to believe they had not subjected us to this horror knowingly.

"Why? Didn't she know what would happen to this world if souls could not pass through? In Edresh, babes are stillborn because there are no new souls to give them life."

Iona's face fell, and she wrung her hands. "It is the same here. I believe your mother knew the risks."

"And she chose to damn us, anyway."

"No." Iona's spine snapped straight. "She chose the lesser of the two evils."

"A rift is forming between the worlds. Creatures from other realms are entering, and they are dark, evil things that make the wraiths seem tame. Even that truth pales against the deaths of children. And what of the souls that are trapped here? The ones that cannot pass through Dycidium. Did you know that Dycidium is also without its light?"

She whispered, "Yes. That was always the plan."

"To stop the king from getting what he wants in the Other Realm."

"Yes."

"And there was no other way? Why not kill him? He has no veil to protect his soul since he is not truly a High Elf."

When Iona answered, she spoke in a tone usually reserved for elders speaking to small children. "Do you not think they did not try? That the flesh suit he wears has not been destroyed many times? He has carefully cultivated his power and body over the centuries. His magic is strong."

"But the Deathsingers–"

"Why do you think he has hunted them to extinction? Araphel is nothing more than embers now because of him. And he has the protection of a Winter Woman. She has woven dark magic around his soul to protect him from their power. But do go ahead and try. He will simply manifest in another form."

"Do you know what he wants in the Other Realm?" She hesitated, and I pounced. "You know something."

"Astreia," Dante cautioned when my voice rose to a near shout.

"No. She knows something, and she's hiding it." I stood up and walked around the fire. Her good eye followed me. "I am not a fourteen-year-old girl anymore, Aunt. I am not just your niece, but your queen. Whatever knowledge my mother shared with you before must be passed down to me. How can I lead if I am kept in the dark?"

"Oh, child." She rose and cupped my cheek with her hand. "I will admit it is hard to stand before you and acknowledge that you are grown. My first instinct is to protect you, and perhaps a small part of me has grown accustomed to leading in your absence."

"You've been acting as regent?" Dante said, rubbing his stubbled jaw.

"I have. My elder sister protected Estrellum to the very end. She called on the land to put up a hedge of protection. Then she climbed upon the altar of Vyta, told me to prepare our people for your return, and slit her own throat. When she drew her last breath, Vyta went dark."

"I thought the king killed her?"

"That is what he would like others to think. Araphel's fires drew his attention away from here, and he left his armies behind to carry out his crimes. We slaughtered them all, but it weakened us greatly. Your mother knew the time had come to take the last step to stop the king. Seraphina had already done her part."

Iona took my hands in hers. We both trembled. "What is it that he wants?"

"That I do not know for sure, but we suspect he wants to find the portal to the gods. To achieve a form that is truly immortal."

"Gods help us," Dante breathed out.

"The gods have not helped us at all," I replied bitterly. "Otherwise, my mother would not have had to end her life in such a way."

"She never wanted to leave you, Astreia. It was the only way."

"But we are doomed. If we relight the portals, the king will enter the Other Realm, and if we don't relight them, our world will fall apart."

"No. You must relight the portals. It was always the plan. The queens believed their daughters had the power to stop him, but they needed time to reach maturity. They were never meant to remain unlit, and here you are. Returned just as she said you would."

She drew me into a tight hug. I lingered in her embrace, fighting against the urge to cry. For my mother. For Yoko. For all the elves who had sacrificed their lives to stop a mad man, and perhaps even to cry for myself. Because whatever my mother might have thought, it wasn't true. I was not stronger than her. If she couldn't win, how could I hope to do so?

"Now come. You have a mission, but you must be strong enough to perform it. We are not far from shelter, and we can see that you two have clean clothes and real food."

"Come on, As," Dante said when he saw me hesitate. "We need to be at our best, and I'm sure they have horses. We can get there faster that way."

"That we do."

"Fine. I can admit a warm bath sounds delightful, but then we must be on our way at once."

Because once Vyta was relit, we had to find a way to relight Dycidium. Now that we were so close to achieving our first goal, I could finally think about the next obstacle. Maybe it would lead me back to Morana.

Iona smiled again, but this time it didn't quite meet her eyes. I had the nagging suspicion there was something else she was keeping from me, but then something else caught my attention. Something she'd said before.

"Iona, you said daughters."

The elder elf tilted her head. "I did, didn't I?"

"Seraphina had two daughters. I remember meeting Mara. She was several sun cycles older than me. The youngest...I cannot recall her name. But didn't she perish at the end of the war? In fact, I thought both daughters died. What does that mean for Dycidium?"

"One thing at a time, my dear."

There was that tone again. I sucked in a deep breath. I would let it pass for now, but if she continued, I would have to say something. It wouldn't do for a queen to be spoken to that way.

"Oh. I remember her name," Dante said, snapping his fingers as we followed Iona away from our campfire. "The younger daughter was called Moranthia."

"That's right," Iona chimed in. "But they called her by a pet name."

My chest seized tight, and my vision blurred. Surely it couldn't be what I was thinking. "What was it?"

"I believe she was called Morana."