Breathing was hard, but it was one thing I practiced regularly.

One... Two... Three...

I closed my eyes, letting the motion of Thain carry me through the trees and over the mountain to where he was taking us for the night. My ribs still hurt, but I did what I could to ignore it and focus on breathing.

In... and out.

Once we got somewhere safer, I could go through my book and see what of Purda's notes could help me.

"It's not far," Thain said. "But you should know there are others there."

"This far outside the Wyldes?" Schula asked. "What others?"

"Humans."

That caused me to open my eyes.

"We saw one of the humans from here down in Sulls," I said. "She said the village was attacked. Many of them were killed."

Thain rumbled, I could feel the vibrations from when he spoke as I lay against his back. "They were attacked, that's true. More of the same raiders that had come through when I first found you, Wren."

My heart skipped a beat. The memory wasn't a pleasant one, even if it did lead me to Thain and the fae.

"The day Bryn died," I murmured.

"So why are you taking us to where humans are?" Spaulder asked. "They do not trust the likes of us."

Thain moved his head. My guess was that he looked at Spaulder when he spoke.

"A very small number of the survivors decided to stay and try to rebuild. Most that lived did leave. I've reached something of an understanding with the ones that remain. I stay nearby and roam as I please, catching things that don't belong here. The people do not bother me, and I do not bother them."

"Things that... roam," Nassir said. "Thain, how is the state of the barrier between the Wyldes and these lands?"

Thain hummed darkly. "Not good. Things are slipping through each day, and the outpost has been all but abandoned."

Schula gasped. "Are none of the courts sending guards out?"

"None. They are all preoccupied within their own borders, now that conflict is upon us," Thain answered. "I've been here for weeks now, but I haven't seen another fae in a while."

"What of Eberon?" Nassir asked. "What of your triquetram?"

"I didn't say it has been an easy few weeks. I feel the stretch between us, but Eberon is at his family's estate, doing what he does best. Diplomacy. Something he is better off doing without me there," Thain said. "But here, we're nearly to a safe place. We can all speak more when Wren is seen to and we have walls at our backs."

That seemed to stall the conversation. I almost missed having the added distraction to my pain, but it didn't take long before I was carried around a bend I knew would lead straight for the village.

And it was a very different village now.

The last time I saw it, the buildings were smoldering, smoking, crumbling. There was little smoke this time as I laid my eyes upon it, just two thin trails lifting up from chimneys. Houses were boarded up, broken doors and windows were collected in piles between buildings. The rebuilt houses weren't all in the same places they had been in before the fires of the last raid, and yet here they were again in shambles.

Thain's steps were soft, giving me the smoothest ride possible as he carried me through the buildings toward a barn closer to the water. The lapping of the lake was slow and cold, matching the aching beat of my heart.

I spotted the piles of ash and rocks to the southern fields easily. A place for each dead to burn, and stones of offering left to them. It looked like quite a task, the number of dead was easily half of the village I left so many months ago.

Once we reached the barn, Thain walked right into it as though he belonged there. The place was not lit, but it did have lanterns and a fire pit that was probably made by Thain and not the original owner.

"How many are left here?" Schula asked quietly.

Thain let me down with Spaulder's help until I could comfortably prop myself in a pile of straw. I grunted as they assisted me, but it was easier to breathe in the new position than it had been while riding on Thain's back.

"Mmm. Four, I believe. They keep to the same two buildings in the village. They let me come and go as I please, and they didn't argue when I began using this building. I roam, killing the things that come too close, and they stay away."

"This is a good place for it," I said. "Mila spelled this whole village for protection. It's not perfect, but it's better than out where we were attacked."

Thain nodded. "I felt as much. It has been quieter here."

I lifted a hand, putting fire in the fire pit and the lanterns that I could find close by. Nassir and Schula had carried most of our things, or at least they were settling our packs on the ground and digging through them for sleeping mats and cookware.

Schula pulled my book of spells out of my pack and came to my side, flipping through the pages. "How can I help you?"

"Near the middle, a red ribbon is marking the beginning of Purda's healing spells," I said.

Schula nodded and flipped through the pages quickly.

"I will watch outside," Spaulder announced, and left through the doors.

Schula and I watched him go, then shared a look.

"I will go with him," Nassir said. "Besides, Puko has been jumpy since the fight. I saw him take to a tree and I want to reassure him and give him something to eat."

"Thank you," I said.

Nassir smiled. "Of course, I know you would do it yourself, but you are otherwise occupied."

I did my best to grin and he chuckled as he left.

"Here, I think this is an ingredient list for a pain medicine that encourrages bone healing," Schula said, pointing on the page to my own neatly copied notes.

"Yes!" I hissed out. "Thank the mother, I have all of those things in my bag."

"I'll look for them," Schula said, and left me with the book to bring over my pack.

Thain had set out a few sticks by the fire and began cooking several fish that he must have found and dried from the nearby lake. I was impressed, he was ready for company. Normally he would just take what he needed when he needed it.

I blushed. Did this mean he was waiting for us the whole time? Ready just in case we showed up. For months.

Schula came back with my pack and sat down beside me again, digging through the bags and bottles, squinting at each label.

Thain, my dark and quiet fae, finished his task at the fire with the fish and came to join us.

"Now," Thain said, settling on the dirt floor by my feet as Schula made room for him. "Tell me what has happened to you."

His question was for either of us, but his silver eyes were only for me as he gazed at me in his quiet way. He reached out a hand to lay on my ankle, rubbing his thumb in a small circle as he watched me.

"When we left, I thought I would find out more about the witches, and what happened to the elves," I said. "But I found so much more than that. Thain, we found our triquetram."

Thain stilled, then his eyes flickered to the door. "I wondered who would warrant bringing back to the Wyldes in such a turbulent time."

"Spaulder is a very special case," Schula said, still digging through my pack. "He's not likely to take to strangers immediately, but he'll warm up to you."

"Then I will make sure to stay on his good side," Thain said.

"Actually," Schula mumbled, "you two aren't that different from each other."

Thain raised an eyebrow at her in a silent question. She looked up from her task and grinned. "Well, you aren't."

He just shook his heat at her, then put his attention back on me.

"Thain," I said. "What is happening back home? How did King Baeleon take the news?"

Thain's expression turned grim. "Baeleon took it as a complete breech of the treaties on DuVarick's account. He's ready for blood, and it probably didn't matter who started it. The Autumn court is... usually first into battle and the last to leave it."

"The most stubborn king I've ever met," Schula mumbled. "Wren, does this say root or rout?"

I leaned over to see. "Yeah, that one is rout, it's not the one you're looking for."

She nodded and sifted through the bag again, occasionally pulling things to the side as she found the ingredients on the list.

"If Baeleon is hungry for war, how are the other courts taking it?" Schula asked.

Thain sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. "Queen Peyorla won't agree who's side she's taking until she hears more of the facts. That's why Eberon is holding a summit at his estate."

"He's what?" Schula frowned. "Anyone can see it's DuVarick in the wrong! He needs to be stopped!"

"Ah, but you're forgetting that he didn't assault just anyone," Thain said darkly. "He attacked an elf, and yes, word of Wren's blood has spread like a fire over the Wyldes. There is no law against killing an elf there."

"But what about what he did to Schul...a." The words left my mouth, but before I even finished speaking I knew what the answer would be.

"A banished fae who returned to the court from which she was banished," Thain said. "It was within his right."

"But... but that's not fair!" My face flushed. I sounded like a child and I knew it, but to have come this far and be told the attack on our lives wasn't to be defended...

"Wren," Thain sighed, reaching up to brush aside the hair that had fallen on my forehead. "That's why Eberon is working hard right now to rally the other courts to our side."

"What of Diamid?" Schula asked.

"Unlike Peyorla, who wants more information, Diamid refuses to take a side at all. He says it's a matter between Autumn and Winter."

Schula rolled her eyes. "Of course."

"I'm so sorry," I whispered. "If I hadn't been so stubborn before, my seal wouldn't have broken in that way, and you wouldn't have gone to the Winter lands in the first place."

"Oh, Wren," Schula reached over to hold my hand. "It was my own decision to go with you. I knew the risks, but something in me didn't want to leave you alone."

I laughed softly. "I suppose we know what that something is now."

She threw me a lopsided grin. "Now, no more of that talk. Thain, is there anything else you want to tell us from home?"

Thain shook his head. "I wish I could, but I've been out here so long that I haven't heard any news in a while."

"Right," Schula said. "Of course."

"But what of you?" Thain asked us. "Surely finding Spaulder isn't the only thing you did on your journey."

His eyes flicked down to the collection of bottles and bags next to Schula, and to the book of spells in her lap.

Witchcraft. And I already knew how Thain felt about them.

"No, it's not." I looked to Thain, wondering what he would think of me becoming more of a witch than before. "We... found the witches. And I've learned a great deal about my magic."

"I see," he said.

"We're very close to understanding how the barrier was constructed in the first place," Schula said. "That was one of our big reasons for journeying as well."

Thain nodded. "The courts are worried that once the barrier falls completely, the things within it, the creatures within the unclaimed lands of the Wyldes, will become more bold to our own barriers within the courts."

"I don't know if that will happen," I said. "But we can try to fix things before it falls completely. Hopefully we won't ever have to find out."

Thain nodded, then turned to the fire where he tended to the cooking fish which were starting to smell quite nice after a long day of travel.

I bit my lower lip. There was one more thing I had set out to learn, and I learned it well. The question on my lips, was whether Thain would be alright hearing of it.

The dark fae turned back from the fire and faced me again. He watched my face a moment before giving me a soft smile.

It was so small a thing, but enough to make my heart beat faster. He was so sparing with them as it is.

"What is it, Wren?" he asked. "What else do you have to tell me?"

I sighed. Even after all this time apart, he read me so well.

"The elves, Thain. We found them," I said.

His expression didn't change as he watched me. The fire crackling and the sizzling of dripping fat were the only sounds in the barn.

"They live, Thain," Schula said quietly. "But they more than live, they thrive."

Thain's silver eyes slid to Schula. "What do you mean?"

"They... I mean..." I cleared my throat. "I'm not the only half elf, Thain. There are children. And children of those children. They have a city, and it's beautiful."

Thain looked from Schula, to me again. It took him a moment to collect his words to speak, he seemed to think hard on everything we told him. "Wren, did you find your father?"

Slowly, I gave him a nod. "I did."

He closed his eyes and nodded as well.

"I want to keep them a secret if we can," I said.

"They don't have any desires to come here again," Schula said. "If anything, they fear attention from the courts. They just want to be left alone."

He looked between us again, and then down at the floor.

"For you two, I will do anything," Thain finally said. "Even if it means to keep this from my king."

I swallowed the lump of feelings in my throat. I knew we were asking a lot. The moment my blood was revealed, I knew the next question would be how I came to exist. So far, it would seem only DuVarick knew the whole truth, and he wasn't about to tell anyone.

"This is all of it," Schula said. "I think you need to cast your words over it though, Wren."

I looked to Schula who had indeed gathered everything I would need from my pack. I sighed, reading over the spell. "Yes, I'll need a few items, but I can make this work now. Thank you."

"I think I will go check on Nassir," Thain said. I watched him stand and leave the barn without another glance back.

Was he leaving because of the magic, the elves, or both?

"He'll be okay," Schula said quietly. "It's a lot for him to take in. Remember, he was a part of the banishing of the elves in the first place, or at least he fought them. I don't know how he actually felt about it at the time."

My heart skipped. There were probably a million things running through his head tonight, and I could only imagine a bit of it.

"He'll be okay," Schula said calmly. "Thain is just quiet. He needs a moment to sort it all out. Here's your bowl."

I looked down into the empty bowl and sighed.

"I promise, tomorrow will look better. We've only just gotten this far, you'll see. We have a lot to sort out, but we aren't alone anymore."

"You're right," I said. "I just... I want to fix it all, and I don't know how."

"Well," Schula said, putting a bottle of herbs under my nose. "Start by fixing yourself first."

My mouth managed to creep into a small smile. "Thank you, Schula."

"Of course." She grinned.

And I began mixing the concoction for my ribs.

But all that was on my mind, was the threat of war ahead, and what part I had yet to play in it.

Mother guide me, Stars protect me.

The Wyldes were on the brink of war.