Trik closed his eyes and tried to focus, tried to remember a time before light and dark elves, a time before war and destruction. Yes, he remembered.

“Master portals,” he said breathlessly.

Flora nodded and smiled like a proud teacher.

“I’m sure this is supposed to be important,” Cassie interrupted, “but my best friend just took off into this master portal and I’d like to know where it took her.”

“It will have taken her to wherever her heart longed most to be,” Flora explained.

“Is that the only place it will take you?” Cassie asked.

Flora shook her head. “No, it will act based on intent as well. But for your friend, since she most likely wasn’t aware she needed to be giving herself a location, it took her where she longs to be.”

Cassie looked over to Lisa. Do you know where that is?”

“Might be with Oakley, or it might be at the store,” Lisa told her.

Cassie nodded her agreement.

“Either place is safe, Cassie,” Lisa assured her. “You need to go with Trik. I can take care of Elora.”

“You will be a target,” Cassie argued. “You can’t just go off by yourselves.”

“I’ll get her and then come back to the light-elf castle, piece of cake,” Lisa assured her. Cassie didn’t look convinced.

“I will accompany them,” Cush said, “if that is alright with the King.” He turned to look at Trik, waiting for his response.

Trik nodded and then motioned towards the light elf on his left, “Rincavornon, you will go with Nedhudir and keep Lisa and Elora safe.”

Lisa stepped up to the edge of the hole and looked down into the darkness. She decided the best place to start would be with Oakley.

“Be careful.” Cassie grabbed her in a quick hug.

Lisa patted her back. “We’ll be fine.”

“We really should be on our way now,” Flora interrupted.

Cush stepped up beside Lisa and motioned for Rin to do the same on her other side. They both placed large hands on each of her elbows. “We step together and you think of where we need to go.”

She nodded at him and without a glance back, Lisa stepped off into the void with the two light elves beside her.

“Your turn,” Flora told Cassie with a small smile.

Trik grabbed her hand to keep her from stepping closer to the edge of the hole. He gave Flora a look that had her taking a step back and then turned to the rest of the group. “We go to Tamsin's castle, the throne room.” Then he stepped off into the portal pulling Cassie with him.

Melda, the she elf Cassie knew as Flora, watched as the last of the light elves crossed through the portal. She counted to twenty just as Lorsan had told her, to ensure everyone was all the way through and then held her hand out over the portal. At her whispered words she watched as the hole shrunk in on itself until it was completely gone. Melda smiled to herself as she dusted her hands off. “Get silly human girl to trust you. Check.” She made the motion of checking off a list in the air. “Convince silly humans and elves to go through a portal. Check. Close off all portals so that there is no way to return to human realm or for elves to return to the elfin realm.” She paused and grinned. “Check, check.”

Elora blinked several times as her eyes attempted to adjust to the bright light around her. She had expected to fall a few feet, hit the hard ground, and have her teeth jarred out of her head. But instead, it was as if she had just walked through an open door. One minute she was in the crumbling tunnel of Lorsan’s castle and the next she was, well… Where am I exactly, she thought to herself.

She brushed her messy black mane of hair away from her face and took a look around. The air was cold and crisp as it burned her lungs. She judged that it must be winter wherever she was because all of the well-manicured lawns lining the streets contained dry dead grass. She was standing on a sidewalk with the street on one side of her and an apartment complex on the other. She glanced down the sidewalk to see if there was a street sign but only saw a stop sign. Just as she turned back towards the apartments, the door directly across from where she stood opened and out walked a tall, gangly guy in loose skater style jeans, a black t-shirt, and Vans. Elora’s eyes widened and a grin spread across her face.

“What are you doing here, Baby Sis?” Oakley asked.

Elora ran straight for him and had to bite the inside of her lip to keep from squealing like a girl. It was so freaking good to see him and to hear his voice, and then she was in his arms as she threw herself at him.

“Umph!” he grunted as she buried her face in his chest. “Hey, hey,” he said as he patted her back. She refused to cry, hell she didn’t even know why she felt the need to cry, but she wasn’t about to give in to it.

“What’s going on, Elora?” he asked her as he gently pushed her back so he could look at her face. She knew from the way his forehead wrinkled in concentration that he was trying to see past the front she was so desperately trying to keep in place. But what could she tell him? Hey big brother, long time no see, and since you asked, I was just rescued from the dungeon of a dark elf by a she dark elf who we thought was a bad guy, but maybe isn’t a bad guy and oh, by the way, mom is still there. For some reason she just didn’t feel that would go over too well. So she lied.

“Nothing, I just decided I needed to see you.” She smiled up at him and tried to appear innocent, which for her was not easy because she usually wasn’t. He glanced down at her appearance and she knew the dust covered, disheveled look wasn’t doing anything to help her farce and she knew her next question was only going to make things worse. “What month is it?”