It was true that Queen Hecate had agreed to let the hybrids stay in the Enchanted Forest—but I still didn't know where they could live.
I couldn't let them stay at Master Eisen's house. I was just a guest there myself. Honestly, I was already feeling like a freeloader. He had helped me enough.
So, I decided to ask Queen Hecate for help again. I went to her chamber, nervous but hopeful.
She looked at me calmly. "Go to Adara," she said. "Ask her to build them a home."
"Adara?" I repeated.
She nodded. "The Stonekeeper. She can shape earth and stone better than anyone. She'll help."
I knew who Adara was. I'd heard people talk about her. She was supposed to be my mentor at first—before Master Eisen insisted on training me himself. I didn't know her very well, but I'd seen her from afar. Everyone said she was powerful, wise, and a bit mysterious.
***
The mentors' offices at Allegria all looked different—each one matched their personality and magic. When I reached Adara's office, I stopped and stared.
It was beautiful.
The whole room was made of smooth stone, shaped perfectly. The walls had carvings of trees, stars, and mountains. Everything looked so strong and peaceful. It felt like the room itself was alive.
Adara stood in the middle, surrounded by floating rocks and glowing runes.
"What brings you here, Valkyrie?" she asked, her voice calm and kind.
I was surprised she knew my name.
"I—um—I came to ask for help," I said.
Her violet hair flowed down her back like silk. Her eyes looked like red-brown stones—jasper, I thought. For a moment, I forgot what I was going to say.
"Queen Hecate told me to find you," I began again. "There are children—hybrids. I saved them from a group of slavers. They don't have a home. I was wondering… could you build them one?"
Adara's eyes softened. She listened quietly as I told her about the kids, how scared they were, how they had no place to belong.
"Poor little ones," she said softly. "Of course I'll help them."
"Really?" I asked, blinking in surprise. "Thank you—thank you so much!"
She nodded with a smile. "They'll need a place close to the forest. Somewhere quiet, but protected. I'll begin soon."
I left her office feeling lighter than before. For the first time in days, I felt hopeful.
***
The next day, I returned to my normal classes. I still didn't want to bring the children to the forest until their new home was ready.
That day's class was with Adara.
"Hello, students," she said as she entered the room. Her voice was soft but carried weight. It was gentle, yet there was something about it that made everyone quiet down at once.
Some of the boys straightened in their seats. A few whispered excitedly. It was no secret that many of them liked Adara's class more than Winona's.
"If there was a popularity contest here," Elara whispered beside me, "Adara would win easily."
I chuckled. "And Master Eisen would win for the wizards."
"He would," she agreed with a smile.
One time, I had mentioned that to Master Eisen. His reaction was funny.
"What? Popular? Me?" he had said, looking totally confused. "How?"
After that, I decided not to bring it up again.
***
During class, Adara taught us how to imbue stones with magic. It was her specialty. We each took a small rock and tried to pour some of our mana into it, following her steps.
"Try to feel the stone," she said. "Let your energy flow into it, like you're breathing through your hands."
Some students were amazed when their stones glowed slightly.
"Whoa, this is awesome!" one boy shouted.
But I wasn't smiling.
The glowing stone reminded me of something.
The twin blades used by the assassin… back when I rescued the kids. They glowed like this. And then, there were the magic cuffs used on Elara and Magnus when they were captured. Those cuffs had the same kind of magic—glowing, pulsing, burning.
I frowned and stared at the stone in my hand.
"Val?" Elara leaned close to me. "Are you okay?"
"I… I don't know," I whispered back.
Everything clicked in my head. Weapons that held magic. Cuffs that could drain or block magic. Those weren't just any spells. That kind of magic had to be placed inside something solid—stone, metal…
Only earth magic could do that.
"Valkyrie?" Adara called gently. "Is something wrong?"
Before I could reply, Amon's voice rang out across the room.
"Hey, human! Master Adara is talking to you!"
I clenched my jaw. That word—human—always carried so much hate when Amon said it. I looked at him for a second, then stood up and looked straight at Adara.
Her face was calm, smiling.
But something didn't feel right.
The walls of this room… the carvings… even the magic we were learning. It all reminded me of the capital. The royal city had buildings made of stone just like this. Designs like these. It wasn't something common in the Enchanted Forest.
My chest tightened.
"Adara," I said quietly, almost like a whisper, "are you… with Terrosa?"
She stopped what she was doing.
For a moment, she didn't say anything. The class continued around us, students still focused on their stones, laughing and chatting, unaware of what I had just said.
But Adara turned her head toward me slowly, her violet hair shifting with the movement.
Her smile didn't fade—but it changed.
"Where did you hear that name?" she asked, her voice low, too low for the others to hear.
I met her eyes. "I didn't. I just recognized the magic. The way you taught us to embed mana into stone… it's the same as the one used in the weapons the slavers carried."
Her eyes narrowed slightly—not in anger, but in thought. Then she tilted her head, looking at me with curiosity, like she was trying to read a puzzle.
"You're sharper than you look, Valkyrie," she said, still calm. "But this isn't the time or place."
She glanced toward the rest of the class and then looked back at me.
"We'll talk after," she said gently, though something about it still made my stomach twist.
I nodded, trying to keep my expression neutral.
Elara noticed my face and leaned closer to whisper, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," I said quickly. "I'll tell you later."
But it wasn't nothing.
I looked down at the faintly glowing stone in my hand. My magic was still inside it, but now it felt like it was humming differently—uneasy, as if it understood what I had just discovered.
Adara had reacted to the name. That meant she knew who Terrosa was. Maybe she even worked with them before.
Was this all part of something bigger I didn't see yet?