“Pleased to meet you, your Majesty.”
“Please, just call me Sath.”
“All right, Sath, so what do you two need from me?” Nelenie unhooked her cloak and revealed a very familiar-looking haversack on her back. “Mother thought that you might need your things, Gin. They were left in the red dragon’s stronghold when Daelyth pulled you through the portal to bring you here.” Gin took the pack from her and looked inside. “She says you must be more careful, for this is not the first time.”
“Clearly, I have nothing that anyone wants, as my pack keeps finding its way back to me,” Gin said. Sath laughed and nodded. “I think you and Sath need to work on our strategy. I’m still hopeless as far as that is concerned.”
Sath scoffed. “She really doesn’t give herself enough credit.”
“Never has.” Nelenie smiled at Gin. “By Indarr, it is good to see you, though.”
“Aye. I was afraid that you stayed away because of what happened with Dor, Nel.” Surprisingly, Gin felt no growl from Sath at the mention of the human’s name. Nelenie reached out and took Gin’s hand, covering it with her own hand.
“Not for a moment. All of us did things we weren’t proud of, Gin, and the fact is that he changed after he left us and took up with that dragon.” Nelenie looked off into the distance. “He changed when YOU left us, Ginny. I think that you were the only barrier he had against the growing darkness inside him. To be honest, it was right that you were the one that ended his life. You were the only light he had.” Gin hung her head and pulled her hand away from Nelenie’s.
“You heard about that.” Gin’s voice was soft and pinched. Sath found his growl and leveled his gaze at the high elf.
“You think she hasn’t felt enough guilt about that?” he snarled. Nelenie’s eyes narrowed.
“You think you could have killed him, so she didn’t have to?”
“STOP IT.” Gin took a deep breath before she spoke. She loved them both, and there would be time to sort out the past after they took care of the present. “It’s all right, Sath. Let’s just focus on the plan. How are we going to get the Mother Dragon to help us get the orb from Taeben—if he does indeed have it?”
“Don’t you think that she will be spurred to action when she finds out that her granddaughter has been taken over by Taeben, Gin?” Sath and Gin both looked at Nelenie in surprise. “What? You think Mother Sephine would send me to the front without a full briefing?” Gin studied her friend, noting the lines in Nelenie’s face—her skin had been as smooth as porcelain when they were younger. Her blonde hair, once long and pulled back in a ponytail most days, now only fell to her jawbone and was much darker blonde than it had been when they were children together in the Great Forest. There were reddish streaks in her hair that reminded Gin of Nelenie’s sister, Tairneanach. She thought back to time spent with their family in Alynatalos and smiled as she remembered their father, sitting at one end of the table and stroking his dark red beard as he laughed at his daughters' squabbling over who got to sit by Gin. “Ginny?”
“Nel, I asked you already...please, don’t call me Ginny. That’s what Ben calls me.”
“Called you.” Sath narrowed his eyes. “Unless you are maintaining your bond with him from the Void too?”
“The bond, right, Mother told me about that too, but I’m not certain I know how to use it.” Gin smiled gratefully at Nelenie and Sath scowled as he looked back at the map he had drawn in the dirt.
“You don’t have to know yet, Nel. I will teach you about that after we are done here. I think it might be safer if you aren’t open to it so that Ben can’t -”
“Gin, call him Taeben, please!” Both of their heads swiveled toward Sath at his outburst. Gin held her hands up in the air.
“I’m sorry. It might be safer if you aren’t open to it so that you can’t be manipulated by anyone.” Gin looked pointedly over at Sath, and he nodded sullenly.
“Fair enough.” Nelenie tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “So, we need someone to go to the Mother Dragon and tell her about Daelyth, or can you contact her with your—um -” Nelenie pointed at her forehead.
“I can. I’ve already accidentally contacted her once.” Sath stopped drawing circles in the dirt and looked up at them. “But what do I say? She won’t believe me. ‘Oh, hey there, Lady Kaerinth, by the way, your granddaughter has a wizard squatting inside her mind. Have a great day.’ That will only get me pulled to her and killed.”
“Well, yes, if you say it like that.” Gin narrowed her eyes at Sath. “My idea was that we use the fact that Ben—Taeben ported us here to our advantage. We are in M’aanyr, Sath. We are in her territory.” Gin looked back and forth between them. “Honestly. And I’m the one that isn’t good with strategy? We wander until we are detected, and then we spin a story of how we were run out of La’al Drygyr by Omerith because he has the orb and is planning to use the magic of Ikara to destroy his father in the Void.”
“So then she flies up there and kills Omerith and the wizard in the dragon suit before we find out where the orb is?” Sath looked at her with confusion. “We need to protect the red dragon, don’t we?”
Gin nodded. “We do. He is the founder of the Guardians, and the
