“You were.”

The Fey all turned towards Hawksheart.

The Elf king regarded Ellysetta with an inscrutable expression. "The mirror is a viewing portal—but it is also a transport of sorts. You have not been trained in its proper use, so without me to guide you this time, when you touched the water, a part of your soul and your consciousness traveled through the mirror and entered Shan's body."

"Oh, gods." She put a hand to her mouth. "Was it my fault he turned into that.. . thing? Did I do that to him?"

"Anio," Hawksheart said instantly. "Don't let such a fear even cross your mind. As I showed you earlier, you were not the first of the High Mage's experiments. In his earliest attempts, he used adult hosts to house the soul of the tairen."

"Blessed gods," Rain breathed. "He tied a tairen's soul to Lord Shan. That's why Shan's eyes were tairen."

"He was one of many captive warriors of the Fey," Hawksheart confirmed, "but the others did not have the anchor of a truemate, as Shan does. When the Mage grafted a tairen's soul to theirs, they all went mad and died. Shan was the only one of those early experiments to survive. And he has thus far been the only one of the High Mage's experiments powerful enough to summon the Change—though, as you witnessed, he has never managed to successfully complete it."

Ellysetta clasped her hands over her mouth. Her stomach roiled as she remembered, with vivid clarity, the horror and pain of the twisted monster Lord Shan had become. "Bright Lord have mercy on him."

"You said adults were the Mage's earliest experiments," Gaelen interrupted

The Elf nodded. "Bayas. The Mage's experiments at merging two unborn souls have been much more successful. Many of those children survived to adulthood, though none have yet been powerful enough to summon the Change."

"Ellysetta will be the first."

"I believe so. More to the point, the High Mage believes it." He glanced at Ellysetta. "Most important, she has not yet fallen prey to the wild savagery that overcame the others when they reached maturity."

"S-savagery?" Ellysetta echoed in a faint voice. Her mouth went dry, and she swayed on her feet. If not for the arm Rain quickly wrapped around her waist, she might have fallen.

"Bayas. The others cannot Change even to the extent your father does, but when their sel'dor manacles are removed, they still become every bit as wild and vicious as he."

For one horrible moment, she thought she might heave up the contents of her stomach. "You mean I'm turning into some sort of... monster? Is that why I've had those seizures and horrible, bloody nightmares all my life?"

"I cannot speak to your nightmares, but most of your seizures come from your father, not from what lives inside you."

"Explain," Rain commanded.

"As best I can tell, when the High Mage performed his soul manipulations on Ellysetta and Shan, he unwittingly created a bridge of sorts between them. A pathway forged by Azrahn and amplified by the biological affinity of father and child ... perhaps even a bond between the two tairens' souls tied to them. That connection is how you were able to join with him through the mirror a moment ago .. . and how your parents were able to help you in the Well of Souls—both when the Mage tried to claim your soul in the Cathedral of Light and again, more recently, when you saved the tairen kitlings."

Ellysetta's heart skipped a beat. "That was my—" She broke off. Calling the two strangers her parents seemed strangely awkward. Mama and Papa—Lauriana and Sol Baristani— were the only parents she'd ever known. "That was Lord Shan and Lady Elfeya?* she amended.

She remembered the strong, calming presence that had filled her when she'd traveled into the Well of Souls to save the tairen kitlings. Radiant with warmth and love, that presence had helped her spin her weaves with confidence, setting aside the fear and self-doubt that had shadowed her all her life. She'd thought the Bright Lord had been guiding her hands.

"They were with me in the Well?"

"They've always been with you, Ellysetta. Prisoners they may be, but they've always done whatever they could—-no matter the cost to themselves—to protect you."

Ellysetta recalled the dream she'd had by the Bay of Flames, of a woman's voice begging forgiveness as a shining veil closed around Ellysetta like a blanket. "They're the ones who bound my magic."

"Bayas. They knew what you were before you were born, and they knew what the Mage intended, so they bound your magic to hide it from him and arranged for you to be smuggled out of Eld at the first chance."

"But I don't understand... if my parents have used this connection to watch over me and protect me, how can my father be responsible for my seizures?"

"Did you not feel the beginnings of a seizure come upon you when you looked into the mirror and saw the Mage torturing Shan?"

"I.. ." Her brows drew together. She had ... the feeling had been exactly the same.

"Did you not feel the hammer strike as if it landed upon your own flesh instead of his?"

"Yes, but how did you..." Her voice trailed off.

"You think she feels Lord Shan's torture?" Rain asked.

"Bayas, that is exactly what I think." Hawksheart turned back to Ellysetta and pinned her with an intense stare from which she could not look away. "Your seizures—and, from what Fanor has told me, apparently even some of the knowledge and skills you possess—come to you from your father through that connection you both share."