"To guard the realm, I must leave the council behind. Loyalty means nothing if it blinds us to ruin."
The current shifted beneath me, as though it, too, sensed the tension in the tide. I had almost reached the edge of the sea's protection, the sea where water gave way to the glimmering mists of the Fae realm, when I felt her. A ripple and a presence too sharp for the ocean to ignore. She stood atop a reef of glassstone, silver armor catching the morning light that filtered through the mist. Her hair, tightly braided and laced with pearl-thread, crowned her like an heir of tides. Warden Myrrien Voss. The last of the Emerald Gulf's sea wardens, sworn to the Council and keeper of the Veil Crossing.
Her voice broke the quiet before I could speak. "You should not be here, Thalindra."
I rose slowly from the water, the blessing of the sea still shimmering faintly along my skin. "Then perhaps I'm exactly where I should be."
