"The Fey depart after the prince's betrothal," Rain answered before Ellie had the chance.

Lady Thea smiled at Ellysetta. "I envy you. Legend has it the Fading Lands are a paradise beyond compare.”

"I am looking forward to it," Ellie admitted. "I can't wait to see Dharsa and Fey'Bahren and the ivory towers of Cresse and Tairen's Bay on the southern coast where Fellana the Bright first met Sevander vel Jiolan.”

Rain gave her a look of surprise. "The legend of Fellana and Sevander is older than time. I would not have thought anyone in Celieria still remembered it.”

"A small collection of Fey poetry survived the burning of the western libraries," Ellie replied. "The books are kept in the museum now, but the curator allowed me to make copies of them. 'Feliana's Tale' was one of the poems in the books.”

"Who is Fellana?" Lady Thea asked.

"According to the poem," Ellie answered, "Fellana was a female tairen who fell in love with a Fey king named Sevander. She wanted to live her life with him, so she asked a powerful Elden Mage to transform her into a Fey woman. He agreed, but only on the condition that Fellana would seal her tairen soul into a dark crystal and give it to him. She loved Sevander so much that she did as the Mage asked, and for several years, she and Sevander lived happily. They had a child together, a boy named Tevan.”

"I take it their happiness didn't last?" Lady Thea prompted.

Ellie smiled. She wasn't the only one who loved Fey tales, apparently. "No, it didn't. What Fellana didn't know was that the Mage intended to use her tairen power to destroy Sevander and the Fey. With the crystal's power to aid him, he gathered a vast army and invaded the Fading Lands.

"When she discovered how she'd been tricked, Fellana and Sevander gathered their own army of Fey and tairen and confronted the Mage. They killed him in a terrible battle, but not before Fellana and Sevander were mortally wounded. On her deathbed Fellana gave her-son Tevan the dark crystal containing her soul so that the tairen part of her would be with him always. And when he put the crystal around his neck, he found he could transform into his mother's true form. And Tevan, son of a Fey and a tairen, became the first Tairen Soul.”

"So Tairen Souls only exist because of the Mages," Lord Morvel noted from Rain's right.

"The tale is a myth," Rain replied. "Spoken of only in very ancient Fey poetry written before the dawn of the First Age. But it is interesting to note that even then, in the time before memory, Elden Mages were an evil, corrupt lot seeking conquest over the Fey.”

"Then it's a good thing you destroyed all the Mages a thousand years ago," Queen Annoura replied coolly, "and that we've seen no sign of their revival since.”

Ellysetta saw Rain's fingers tighten around the stem of his wineglass. She caught his other hand in hers. He sent her a disgruntled look, but held his silence.

"Now we have only to worry about murderous dahl'reisen like the Dark Lord, Gaelen vel Serranis," Lady Thea agreed. "Though, of course, some say he's a myth too.”

"No." Beside her, Lord Barrial took a long gulp of pinalle. "The Dark Lord is no myth. He definitely still exists. And while I remain skeptical about his involvement in the recent troubles on the borders, I don't doubt that many of the legends about him are true. A more deathly, frightening being I've yet to meet." He glanced at Marissya, who sat out of earshot at the far end of the head table, then looked at Rain. "No offense to the Fey, or to Lady Marissya”

"I am well aware of what Celierians say about Gaelen vel Serranis," Rain said.

Ellie shivered. Although most believed that Marissya's brother, Gaelen vel Serranis, had died in the Mage Wars, Celierian legend proclaimed that he—or his ghost—still roamed the borders, hunting for Eld and stealing the souls of the unwary.

"You say you've met him?" King Dorian inquired. "He's still alive?”

"Ta." Lord Barrial slipped into his native border dialect before remembering himself. "I mean, yes. He is alive, and I have met him. Twice, actually. Once when I was a lad of five, during the Elden raid that caused my parents' deaths. Then again this year, just before my daughter wed diSebourne.”

"What is he like?" Lady Thea whispered.

Lord Barrial stared into the pale blue depths of his goblet for a few silent moments. "Cold," he replied at last. "When he's near, the world grows cold and your breath mists before your face, as if his presence sucks all the warmth from the living. That's the only sign that tells you he's nearby. Other than that, you don't see, sense, or hear him, unless he wants you to.”

"Bah," Lord Morvel scoffed. "Nothing but nonsense and ghost stories, Barrial. Quit trying to scare the ladies”

Lord Barrial gave his fellow border lord a hard look. "You don't believe, Morvel, because you don't want to believe there's a presence on the border greater than yours. But Gaelen vel Serranis is real.”

Morvel huffed. "Never once in all my years have I seen anything to make me believe that some soul-damned ghost warrior roams the borders in search of Eld prey. It's a silly story made up by parents to keep their children from wandering too far from the safety of their own keeps.”

"Morvel, I saw him gut the ten Elden raiders who had killed my parents and were about to kill me. I saw his face, his eyes a blue as pale and cold as glacier ice, and his dahl'reisen scar. Running from the center of his forehead, bisecting his right eyebrow, and ending here just below his right ear." Barrial's hand traced the path of the scar on his own face. "It was the Dark Lord.”