Page 73 of Prince of the Sun

SEARCH FOR THE ONE

FOLLOW UP: LIU QIANG

VERIFIED

NO SIGN OF LIGHT

Over and over, message after message, failure after failure.

NO SIGN OF LIGHT

NO SIGN OF LIGHT

NO SIGN OF LIGHT

The pieces start to come together. The elves aren’t lookingfor something—they’re looking for someone. A human. A human with signs of… light? I have no clue what that means.

I keep digging.

Several articles later, the message changes. It begins the same, but does not appear to deal with one specific lead.

SEARCH FOR THE ONE

PROGRESS REPORT ON SHADOW INFESTATION

NO CHANGE ON ELAËRION

NO SIGN OF PALASOLAEVA

It takes me several minutes to translate that last word. I’ve never seen it before, and I play around with several English options before I settle on the one that feels the most accurate.Carrier of Light? Holder of Light? Bearer of Light?

Yes. That feels right.Bearer of Light. Lightbearer.

That’s the human they’re looking for on Earth. ThePalasolaeva.

An idea occurs to me, then. All of these messages have been published relatively recently. They’re status updates, given whenever the elves unearth a new lead on the potential Palasolaeva.What if, by returning to an earlier date, shortly after the elves arrived on Earth, I might find messages that reveal more? That explain their tactics, their method of search, maybe even lay out what they plan to do with the Lightbearer once they find them. After all, there arethousandsof elves on Earth. Maybe even millions. King Ariar would have needed a way to brief them all at once, and I doubt he had time to do so when they were fleeing for their lives.

I fiddle with the settings on my database search, setting the date range to 1925. The year they arrived.

Four publications appear. The very first came from Harvard itself, published by a prominent Elvish professor is still in residency at the school.

THERE IS A WAY BACK

FIND THE LIGHTBEARER

A HUMAN CONTAINING LIGHT

WHOSE SACRIFICE WILL DISPEL THE SHADOWS

SYMPTOM: GOLDEN EYES

SIGN OF LIGHT: SLICE WITH ELAËRION STEEL

SEARCH THE GLOBE

REPORT FINDINGS, VERIFY

WE WILL SAVE ELAËRION