Her mind blanked when she saw his smile. In the days they had been travelling together, soending time together and yes fighting like cats and dogs she had never shown such a qenuine smile to her before. It reached his eyes and turned the tumultuous grey clouds a deep and lively silver colour. Wow, he looked good with a smile on his face.

“Um sure… yeah food, I mean, food would be great right about now.” She fumbled over the words as her mind tried to catch up with what he said to her. She gave her head a shake to recover her scattered thoughts. Keep it together girl, you’re the one in charge, remember?

“The Inn we’re staying at is supposed to serve good food and we get a discount for renting our rooms there, so lets go!”

She grabbed his hand and quickly led him through the crowd with a speed and agility that someone of her stature and size acquired from a young age. Jared did a good job of keep up, until she attempted to pull him through spaces in the crowd way too slim for him to fit. Then he ended up barrelling into a few Fae, who apparently did not take well to being run over. After much apologizing, the two thieves walked back to the Inn at a more sedate pace. The clouds had thinned and the sun began to peek through on them, burning away the fog.

Inside stone building, Faelynn walked to the large dining room set with huge wooden benches and a few smaller tables surrounded by chairs. Being so close to mid day, the place had a large number of customers already in it and the smell of food and spices she’d never smelled before assaulted her senses. Her mouth watered and her stomach grumbled.

Seeing an empty table, she moved towards it but was intercepted by the Inn’s proprietor.

“Miss Thiadore?”

She hesitated, “Uh…yeah?”

“An urgent message has come for you from Corone.” The gorgeous fae with his long flowing robes held out a piece of paper bearing the seal of her family between his long and thin fingers.

Perplexed, she took the message from him, wondering how anyone could have even tracked them down to Donnalaich and this particular Inn. Then again, there couldn’t be too many humans staying in the city. In fact, she hadn’t seen another human since leaving Talmhaide. The proprietor inclined his head and left her. Turning the letter over in her hands, she wondered exactly what could be so urgent that her parents would send for her in Dheathain. She had told them where she was going of course, but they seemed cool with it.

“Who’s it from?” The voice of Jared broke through her musings.

“Seems to be from my family, either my parents or brother. Maybe Ferynn wants me to pick him up some mystical, magical ingredients for him to experiment with.” She joked, but deep in her stomach a weight had settled.

Tearing through the seal, Fae quickly read the contents of the message containing no more than a few lines.

Her face paled. The sinking feeling on her stomach grew until she thought she would throw up. As she read the words over and over again she could see them blurring and before her eyes. Her head swimming and the world spinning. The letter slipped from her fingers, falling on the ground face up.



Faelynn,

Your brother has been seriously injured in an accident at the forge. He and Connaire were attempting some new kind of enchantment technique when it went horribly wrong and the magic back fired on them. Connaire received some minor injuries, but Ferynn. It’s not good. Please come home. Please. He needs you. I hope this letter finds you before it is too late.

Mom