“When you were a child,” Ilondrel said. “And with a child’s need to understand why, you thought you were to blame?”
Ilondrel’s insight felt cold as it washed over him. “Yes.”
“But that’s not why you’re here.”
It was…it wasn’t.
“I lost everyone I ever loved or cared about. I have them back. I can’t lose them again.”
“You’re in the right place,” Ilondrel said. “Be welcome.”
The air felt cool and clean, and the rippling water meeting the shore became clearer. Beside him, Saeldian didn’t move.
“I’m Jubilee Righthoof,” Jubilee said. “My parents are adventurers. Retired now. I borrowed my mother’s hat—I don’t know why I said that.”
“It’s an enchantment,” Saeldian said. “It lets you unburden yourself. It’s not bad.”
Jubilee nodded. “All right, then. We have a home, and we haveto fight every day to keep the roof over our heads…sometimes literally; it leaks real bad when it rains and—”
Jubilee broke off and glanced at Saeldian, who was staring at something far away. “I do anything I can do to bring back gold to fix things, but it’s never enough, and I’m so scared I can’t get the money no matter how hard I try. I’m so afraid about not having enough gold that it gets in the way of me being their family. I’m afraid that one day, they won’t want me to be their family because of what I’ve done for gold…or will do.”
Saeldian didn’t move, but they looked smaller.
“I feel great loyalty in you, Jubilee Righthoof,” Ilondrel said. “You’ll do anything it takes to help them.”
Jubilee hung her head. “Yeah.”
“You’re in the right place,” Ilondrel said. “Be welcome.”
But Jubilee turned away, looking like she was going to cry. Timtim put his paw on Jubilee’s foot. She bent down and picked him up.
Lorzok cleared his throat. “I am Lorzok the Seeker. I am a druid.”
Ilondrel regarded him with perfect seriousness.
“I was a child when I leaned against a mighty oak and enfolded myself in nature,” Lorzok said. “I didn’t simply listen to the birds singing or feel the soft moss growing on the bark. I understood the whole of nature in that moment—all its cycles, its harmonies, its dependence on everything that is part of it. And I was part of it too. For one perfect hour, I belonged.”
“A true spiritual awakening,” Ilondrel said. “A call you answered with your heart.”
“Indeed, my lady.” Lorzok nodded in respect for her understanding. “But the feeling of that moment cemented with a price when I returned to the camp my clan had made. They are great traders. Very wealthy, though they would never leave the road for any kind of palace. I tried to explain to my brother what I had just experienced. He grew angry.”
“You couldn’t have expected that,” Ilondrel said. “I can’t think why he reacted that way.”
“I found out when he took me to my grandfather and thephysician to see how much I had drunk of the vials from the boxes that had been in the guarded wagon. They were transporting goods from an alchemist. We knew that. We hadn’t been told exactly what we were delivering. When everything was said and done, they laughed and forgot about it. But I could not. I started looking into what our wagons carried, and I learned too much.”
“And you still grieve them,” Ilondrel said.
“I wanted to feel that oneness again. I could not do it, being part of my clan. I set out on my own to visit great forests, rugged mountains, fierce seas. It has been elusive. Then I thought I would find it in the Feywild. I decided to find out, and the next morning, I encountered Kell Redsong, who would soon become my friend.”
Ilondrel looked from Lorzok to Kell. “When you were children?”
Lorzok laughed. “Oh no! Ten years ago. We have had quite an adventure. And now we’re here.”
“But?”
Lorzok’s nod was wise and sad. “In my dreams, the Feywild was the place where I would know the fullness of the primal magic that I strive to reach as a druid. But I’m afraid that now that I’m here, I will always be a stranger in this place. The truewild is nature in its most primal form, but it doesn’t feel like home.”
“Home is rarely a place, Oakchild. Home is other people. But you’re in the right place,” Ilondrel said. “Be welcome.”
