Where had she gone? Neirenn lost track of Aisling in the mist and shivered--chilly, damp, and beginning to feel a creeping sort of loneliness in the strange silence. She might have been a city girl, but Neirenn had traveled on foot through forests and knew that they were not quiet. She held one arm loosely with the other as the fairy spoke up again, and then moved to a different spot.

He. The simple word carried a dark weight when Aisling said it. Neirenn wondered what it had been--she pictured forests burning, while the fairies guarding them tried to fight it off. Or maybe it had been something else, summoned creatures tearing them apart. Or... there could be any number of terrible things. "I'm sorry. You don't have to talk about it," she said quietly, not knowing what else she could or should say. There was a point where that word lost its meaning, if it really had any at all.