Elyon sighed and shook his head. "Zaos, I told you that if you wanted to tag along you'd have to play nice."

"What?" said Zaos, looking offended. "How is that not nice? I welcomed them!"

"Yeah, while grinning at them like you were about to eat them," said Elyon.

"But this is my nicest smile!" said Zaos. He smiled again, while pointing at his face. Somehow his smile gave the impression of a tiger baring its fangs, about to leap. "See? So friendly!"

Elyon just shook his head again before turning to address the visiting party. "I apologize for Prince Zaos," he said. "He arrived at the Royal Guard camp last night to exchange tactical information and when I mentioned this meeting to him he insisted that he wanted to meet our sister, the Saintess."

"Ah, well," said Anne, glancing around at the others. Corvina shrugged at her. "Thanks for the interest? I guess?" said Anne. "It's nice to meet you."

"Yeah, yeah, nice to meet you," said Zaos, waving a hand dismissively. "I wanted to ask why you're wasting your time with the humans. You know that Goddess they worship was originally an elf, right? I was alive before they started cutting the ears off all their statues of her. You should just move back to the Forest and start doing your miracles for us instead. Hey, can you show us a miracle right now?"

"Um..." said Anne. "I kind of suspected as much about the Goddess, so that's cool to have that confirmed, but the miracles don't really work on demand like that... and I can't really just up and move. I've got stuff to do out there. And I do actually care about some of the humans, too..."

"What?" said Zaos, his brows furrowed in genuine confusion. "Why?"

"Why?" repeated Anne. "Because they're my friends!"

"But you're an elf!" countered Zaos.

"Yeah, but..." Anne tried to come up with reasoning that might get through to this... very overwhelming elf man. "I might be half-human too, right? I don't know who my mother is, but if she dropped me off at a human church for them to raise me, I'm probably only half-elf, right?"

Zaos shook his head adamantly. "You're not a half-elf," said Zaos.

"How could you know that, though?" said Anne.

Zaos tapped his own ears twice. "You have long pointed ears. A half-elf would have short pointed ears, almost like a human's."

"So... my mother was an elf?" said Anne. She wasn't sure how to take this. The whole time she'd been reading The Foundling's Wings she was assuming the Saintess was half-elf. It made more sense with her backstory, and thematically it positioned her as a symbolic bridge between the humans and the elves. But she was a full-blooded elf the whole time? Why did her mother drop her off at a human church then?

Eva placed a hand on her shoulder and whispered to her. "It doesn't matter where you came from," she said. "What matters is who you are now."

Anne nodded. "Thank you," she whispered back.

Despite some of the recent weirdness in their relationship, it was still nice to have a supportive friend like Eva around.

Zaos paid no attention to Eva. Or to Anne's feelings, really. He just kept going with what he was saying. "If you join our army, the humans will lose morale. And with the power of your miracles on our side, then we can finally turn the tide of the war and—"

Zaos suddenly fell silent and cocked his head, like he was listening for something. Then he narrowed his eyes.

"Is this your whole group?" he asked, his voice lowered. "Was anyone else lagging behind?"

"What?" said Anne, confused by the turn in the conversation. "No, this is all of us."

"Then you've got a rat," said Zaos. He pulled a dagger out of his belt and threw it across the clearing.

The dagger flew an incredible distance, straight through the air, heading for the branches of one of the trees. Just before it hit, the Unseen Rain jumped out of the tree and landed solidly on the ground.

Everyone gasped.

"The assassin!" said Corvina, pulling out her sword.

"Assassin, you say?" said Zaos, with another terrifying grin. "This should be fun."

Zaos leapt into action, running across the clearing at an incredible speed while grabbing his sword off his back. Despite its massive size, he swung it with one hand, baring down on Rain's location.

But by the time Zaos' blow hit the ground, Rain had jumped back up into the trees again, landing delicately on a large branch.

Zaos laughed. "You're good!" he said. Then he pointed his sword at Rain and declared, "Beware, trespasser in the forest, for your opponent is Zaos, son of Theodas. Now tell me your name, for I never kill a man without knowing his name.

"They call me the Unseen Rain," the assassin replied. "And I'm a woman today."

"Shit, that's a cool name," said Zaos. "Have at you, then, woman!"

Zaos immediately launched into another attack, which Rain once again leapt away from. The two of them disappeared into the trees somewhere.

Corvina, sword in hand, began to rush after the combatants. Eva, Agis, and Ylyndar all followed closely behind.

"Stop!" shouted Elyon, in a voice so loud and commanding it actually managed to stop them all in their tracks.

They all looked at Elyon, waiting for him to speak.

"Unless you're an elf with intimate knowledge of the Sacred Forest, do not step one foot out of this clearing without clear instructions," said Elyon. His tone left no room for argument. "You will be lost and there's no guarantee you will be found again."

"That assassin has been trying to kill Anne ever since we got here!" protested Corvina. "We have to stop her or she'll keep trying until she gets lucky."

"Prince Zaos will stop the assassin," said Prince Elyon. "You getting lost in the forest will not improve the situation."

"Then I can still go, right?" said Agis, an arrow already at the ready. "I should have noticed him following us earlier. This is my fault. I need a chance to redeem myself!"

Ylyndar stepped up and saluted Elyon. "With your permission, I will accompany Prince Agis into the forest and we'll offer support to Prince Zaos."

Elyon nodded. "Go." He snapped his fingers at a few of the soldiers who were with him as well. "Take Gorduin and Vaeril with you, although if I know Zaos he may not let you in on the battle."

As the elves rushed out into forest, they heard a loud, long scream and then there was a sort of explosion somewhere off in the distance.

"What was that!?" said Anne, alarmed.

Elyon sighed again. "That would be Zaos and his 'Exploding Hurricane Sword' technique. He claims he has to shout in order to 'charge his power' but I think he just enjoys the theatricality."

He's definitely in the wrong genre, thought Anne.

Elyon stepped up to Sebastian. Sebastian, who had been watching this whole scene with various looks of fear on his face, ranging from 'mildly nervous' to 'terrified,' flinched when Elyon approached.

Seeing him flinch, Elyon took a step back again, and bowed slightly. "Prince Sebastian, are you ready to go?" he asked.

"Um... I suppose," said Sebastian.

"We're just going to keep going about our business like there's not a high-stakes battle with an assassin going on over there?" asked Corvina, gesturing towards the forest. There was another booming sound from that direction.

Elyon's tone of voice was non-nonchalant. "I understand you're concerned about the assassin, but I assure you, Prince Zaos has never been defeated in single combat. I see no point in waiting around for the outcome."

Corvina rolled her eyes, but she finally sheathed her sword again.

"Say your goodbyes to your sister," Elyon told Sebastian. "I have a few things to say to the Saintess, and then we'll bring you further into the woods, to our camp, where you will be staying for the duration of your time with us."

"Okay..." said Sebastian.

"That works out," said Anne. "There were a few things I wanted to talk to you about, too."

Elyon led Anne a few feet away.

"So what's this about?" asked Anne.

"This is the reason I wanted you all to meet us here," said Elyon. "I wanted to show you this place." He gestured to the space around them.

"The Atrium?" asked Anne.

"Yes," said Elyon. "You may have guessed already, but when you first enter the forest you will always be led here, no matter where you enter from. It's sort of the entrance into the forest. Where you go from here determines if you can find your way through the forest or if you will become lost."

"That seems easy enough to explain," said Anne. "When we asked Agis and Ylyndar about it before they were really cagey. Why didn't they just tell us?"

"The Sacred Forest contains natural magic that messes with people's ability to perceive and understand information," said Elyon. "If you hadn't already entered the Atrium at least once, your mind wouldn't have been able to comprehend even a simple explanation of it."

Anne sighed. "I guess that makes as much sense as anything." Anne looked around, spinning in circles slightly. "How are you supposed to know where to go from here to get anywhere?"

Elyon smiled. "That is what I wanted to show you. I understand why you want to stay with the humans, but you're family. And now that I've met you I can also tell that you're a good person. And so, should you ever find yourself in need of the knowledge, I think you should know how to find your way to the elven city and our father's palace."

Elyon pointed toward the north side of the clearing. "Do you see that birch tree?" he asked.

Anne nodded. Most of the trees around here were oaks, with dark-brown trunks. The birch stood out with its bright white bark.

"To get to the elven city, follow the birch trees from here," said Elyon. "They're spaced out, but once you reach one you should be able to see the next one from there. As long as you follow the birch trees you'll eventually make it to the city."

Anne nodded. That was easy enough to remember. "Are there similar landmarks to get around to different areas of the forest?" asked Anne.

"Yes," said Elyon. "But some of them are more subtle than others."

Anne looked around, trying to spot other interesting things that might be guiding marks. At one place towards the edge of the clearing, a single rose bush in full-bloom grew around the base of the tree. Some distance from that, the image of a heart was carved into the trunk of another tree—not the symbolic shape of a heart, but a fully anatomically correct image of a heart carved into the wood. And only a feet away from where she and Elyon now stood, a crumbling stone pillar was planted into the dirt as deeply as any oak tree.

Anne felt herself drawn towards the stone. She walked up to it, hand out, and felt its smooth surface, weathered by age. It reminded her of something...

Anne was struck suddenly by a vision, or perhaps a memory of a dream.

The Saintess, her long hair tangled and dirty, her dress torn, her bare feet bleeding, stumbled through a dark forest. She reached a hand out and placed it on a stone pillar, half-crumbled into ruin. Her expression was grim, determined. She pressed on.

Anne took her hand off the pillar.

"Where would it lead me if I followed the ruins?" asked Anne.

"You must never follow the ruins," said Elyon. "Not for hundreds of years yet. You don't need to know about or remember anything else other than the birch trees for now. If it's an emergency situation you should go to the palace and find a member of our family. They'll help you."

"But where do the ruins lead?" Anne was determined to know.

Elyon looked past Anne and past the pillar, into the deep forest. His eyes looked far away, hesitant. "The ruins lead to the end of the world," he said.

Author's Note: I recently reached 2,000 subscribers over on Tapas and I wanted to celebrate by sharing this beautiful piece of commissioned art from (at)pending_url on Twitter!

A huge thank you to all of my readers on all platforms! You can see a clean high-res version of this artwork along with a short scene I wrote to accompany it over on my Patreon at patreon.com/TeddyAsplund.

The one-year anniversary of the series is coming up in a couple weeks and I have all sorts of exciting plans to celebrate, so I hope everyone will look forward to it! I can't wait to share more of this story with you all.

See you next week!