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"It is the uessed it had to be hiut to hear it "He doesn’t trust me?" Why would he think I’d want to run away froht frorove"

I turned toward the trees again, ache of separation like a knot in my chest The unfairness of it clawed at me "I only wanted to sit and think," I said as disappointut

Kehlirik huffed and resettled his wings "There is a place that will serve well for this, if you will allow ht Apparently I didn’t have a choice Bereft, I turned away froh the gardens"

Annoyed and upset, I followed glumly Did Rhyzkahl really think I would flee here? And what if I did want to leave? Clearly, this option wasn’t available toon?

An arcane tingle prickled the back of rove, I realized with astonishrove Hoesorove," I said But then worry spaset me back?

But Kehlirik see today and tomorrow Six more"

I stared at him "Six? Why?"

He snorted "Because that is the number of those not yet here," he said in a duh! tone "Kadir and Jesral are within the palace already"

"But why are they all co?"

"It is the time of the conclave," Kehlirik replied calmly "Should Mzatal choose to participate, he could do so with impunity It is unlikely he will choose thus There Elofir arrives"

Anxiety gave way to curiosity, and I peered toward the tree tunnel The tingle faded, but not before I noted that it seemed to have a different feel, or resonance, than when it heralded Mzatal Maybe each lord had his own "signature" when it carove?

A reyza bounded out of the tree tunnel and took flight with a bellow, closely followed into the air by an inky-black shape I knew to be a zhurn A few seconds later, a man with short, sandy-blond hair and the slied Elofir, Kehlirik had said He wore brown boots and pants paired with a white ruffled shirt that looked like it caed in an animated discussion with a savik a bit smaller than seven-foot-tall Turek, the one I’d encountered at Szerain’s shrine A syraza trailed a few steps behind The grove still resonated with Elofir’s aura--about as different fro of h he still carried hientle and calrove, I had the unwavering iaging in conflict, he would choose the former, and not because of any sort of cowardice He sih the archway into the palace, then exhaled and looked over at Kehlirik "What do they do at this conclave?" I asked "S’ain, and I paced alongside him "I do not knohat this ‘s’mores’ is," he said "What they do varies, with several elereements, confirmation of the rotations for the next cycle, assess, and a unified rebalance"

"You’d like s’mores," I told hirahalanced his way "What are the rotations for?"

"Of the overwatch," he said "It is critical that each day is covered by at least one lord, though till be on the rotation Even a single day unwatched can disastrously unbalance the arcane fields"

I took a few seconds to consider that, re y Turek showed me in Szerain’s shrine

"In other words, they maintain this world’s arcane power plant and make sure it doesn’t overload or have blackouts?" I asked

"Kri," he said with a twitch of his wings "It is a siy"

As we rounded a curve in the path, a ruined stone structure cahts of arcane power plants fled my mind as I took it in "Oh, ," I breathed

The ruins crowned the rise ahead, surrounded by boulders shrugged from the mountainside above Stairs of white stone cliraceful roofed structure of the sa on its raised foundation, the rest in broken chunks a the tumbled boulders

Kehlirik followed me up the stairs Halfway up I felt the place Even broken, it resonated a subtle, perood way My steps slowed to a reverent pace as I took it all in The translucentstructure and the fallen chunks shilow, and, as I topped the rise, the colurave; vu kicked in full force Kehlirik crouched at the edge of the foundation, lifted a claw, and sketched a sigil in the air I watched in fascination as he sent it spinning to the htly before fading away