I remember... I remember... I remember what was... I remember our wonders... I remember what we built... My heart sings for the Eldars... My heart sings in their works... My heart sang then in peace... Let it sing today in WAR.

Murmur heard by the Eldar who held Dune Fallen for the first time.

Leila stepped onto the shore, determined to find answers. She was like a notched arrow, poised, ready to be released into ...

- You know, I think it's warmer on this side of the river.

Stumbling, Leila turned to Aurora. She was still in her dress, she had refused to put her leather armour back on, and was fanning herself with her hat. She turned to Leila.

- It's strange, we're closer to the mountains, it should be the other way around.

Leila grunted.

- What?

- I said the mountains are still far away.

With that, Leila stomped away.

- What's the matter? Why is she so grumpy?

Leila heard Aurora say to Dereur.

Approaching her friend, her trusted friend, she remained attentive to her surroundings. Given the vehemence the Eldar from Tera had used to push them out of here she had expected to be attacked as soon as she arrived. Even now they were still trying to change them minds. Leila crossed her arms in displeasure.

- These lands are dangerous your Highness, it will be much easier for us to accomplish our mission in a small group.

- Enough Kastrapa, I've made my decision, there's no point in arguing about it any further. said Zarune.

Leila behind her nodded in the affirmative.

- Your Highness, Brenin will skin me alive if anything happens to you.

Zarune's tone suddenly became very cold.

- What business does Brenin have in this matter?

Kastrapa hesitated, knowing he had said something stupid and not wanting to make his case even more difficult.

- ... He sent us here.

Zarune leaned forward and grabbed Kastrapa's robe.

- You took off your badges, did he tell you to do that?

Zarune glared at the fifteen or so elite soldiers who were with them, all of whom avoided his gaze.

- You're all part of his troop, right? I should have known he would do that.

None of them dared to answer. Leila didn't think it was possible anymore, but Zarune managed to make her voice even colder.

- Listen to me, Kastrapa, listen to me, all of you. You will obey, and if I hear again that you are acting in Brenin's name, I will send you back to him in pieces. Is that clear?

The fifteen soldiers, the Weaver, and the five officers of Zarune who had come with them saluted.

- Yes, Your Highness!

- All right, Kastrapa, let's go. Six scouts forward, three behind, the rest watch the perimeter.

All obeyed. As they entered the forest Aurora approached them.

- Who is Brenin?

Zarune frowned in displeasure.

- He is my brother.

- Your brother? Phew he's just your brother, Mat would be heartbroken if he wasn't...

Zarune turned to Aurora, her frown deepening.

- What do you mean?

Leila interrupted Aurora.

- Nothing! You never told us you had a brother. Why were you hiding it from me?

- I wasn't hiding it from you. It just never came up in conversation...

- Did it? And what's all this about? Is that gonna be a problem?

Zarune made a sharp gesture with her arm.

- It's not a big deal. My brother's just overprotective. He's trying to take the place that our parents couldn't. These soldiers won't be a problem. On the contrary, you can trust them as much as my officers, but with more experience for them.

As they continued into the forest, there was silence. Leila kept her ears to the forest, despite what Zarune said, she preferred to keep her attention on the arrival of any threats. Now and then Leila could hear a bird hooting, at which point they changed direction. This happened much more often than on their journey from Iravanon to Tuanon.

In another moment Leila heard a fight up ahead, as she was about to run Zarune grabbed her by the arm and nodded.

- There's no need to intervene, if what they encountered was too dangerous it would be too late, and if they needed help they would have asked us. Let's wait.

Leila was unhappy about this but could say nothing more. After waiting a few minutes they heard another hoot, only then did they move on.

Leila could finally see what it was, it was a kind of monstrous snail, a kind of long slimy hairy snake, it had horrible tentacles, its carapace was covered with ugly spines. In the end, Leila was glad she hadn't participated in the fight.

As expected, Aurora exclaimed.

- What is that?!

- A Carcolh, usually prefer to live in caves, there must be one not far away. Zarune replied

- Is it dangerous?

- Quite a bit, but far from the worst there is here.

The monster had been decapitated, and from where Leila was she could smell its terrible odour. Even though she was glad she didn't have to fight that thing, Leila would still have liked to see those trappers fight. She would have had a hard time killing this thing with a single arrow, maybe if she used Dune Fallen to weave an arrow of fire, or with the shell, a stone arrow to crush it, powerful, heavy and fast, that should be enough to destroy it. Probably.

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As the day wore on, they faced more encounters. They avoided most of them but sometimes there was simply no choice to go around.

- Why are we taking the time to destroy this village?" asked Leila, as she drew another arrow from her bow.

- Goblins, as soon as we meet them, we have to destroy them. The house that takes care of this territory has done its job badly. There will be punishment. Said Zarune, furious, she had chosen to use her bow instead of her sword.

- Yes, but why?

It was a massacre, the little green creatures were running around, trying to reach them. Those who arrived, and there were not many, fell dead on the swords of their first line as quickly as they came upon them.

They had surrounded the village, not allowing any of its creatures to escape, and had begun the extermination. Even Leila, who didn't consider herself particularly prudish, was appalled by what they were doing.

- Save your compassion Leila, goblins are destructive parasites, they eat everything they can get their hands on. If they are allowed to reproduce they will quickly swarm, they will become so numerous that they will have no choice but to eat the trees for food. Then, despite their cowardice, they will start attacking our villages, until they form a horde large enough to threaten our cities.

Killing a particularly large goblin with an arrow in the eye, Zarune resumed.

- Their existence is destroying the forest's ecosystem.

Despite her revulsion, Leila did not stop killing her little monsters. There must have been a hundred of them when they arrived. Soon there were almost none left. Aurora watched from a distance, clearly uncomfortable with the situation, but said nothing. Even though she had not participated in the fight, she understood that it was necessary.

Taking one last shot with Dune Fallen, Leila turned to Zarune.

- If these creatures are so dangerous, and they are actively hunted. How did they end up here?

Stopping shooting, the princess answered.

- They must have come from the rifts on the other side of the Ride Dorsal. Even if the mountains are impenetrable, there are natural caves with passages between the mountains. Not big enough for an Eldar to get through, but a goblin manages to get through the smallest hole.

- The rifts? What separates the colonized Eldar territory in the south from the lands of the Rhogar peoples? That's a long way from here.

- Yes, not only has the house that watches over these lands failed in its duties, but those who watch over the rifts have also done it badly.

While they were talking Kastrapa had come up to set fire with a concentrated weave to the small huts of the goblins. The rest of the Eldar picked up the corpses and piled them together in the centre of the village. Leila ignored the small cries she sometimes heard from the depths of the burning huts.

- I thought the rifts were impassable?

- They are, goblins manage to live everywhere, some tribes exist deep hidden in the depths of the rift, in natural or dug caves facing the rift.

After a second of silence, she continued.

- If there is one constant with goblins, it is that you will find them everywhere.

- Why not hunt them there?

Zarune shrugged.

- It would take a titanic effort, and it's not even certain to succeed, just miss a couple and they'll manage to recreate a tribe in a few years. It's much simpler to monitor all attempts to go out. Besides... there are not only goblins there.

- Really? Sounds interesting, maybe we should go!" Aurora said enthusiastically, as she approached.

Leila agreed with her friend, a whole underground world, even one filled with goblins, to discover was an adventure she'd be willing to take.

Zarune grinned.

- It's not as good as you think. Besides, if you want to go on an adventure, there are hundreds of places better than the rifts. More than even an Eldar lifetime can discover.

Dereur approached the three young women.

- Zarune, we should hurry, this fight must have attracted attention.

Zarune nodded.

- Yes, let's burn the bodies and leave.

- Why are you the one to come and do the errand, Dereur, I thought the other Eldar were in charge? Leila ask.

Dereur coughed, uncomfortable. Before giving his princess a cautious look.

- ...Um, let's just say they prefer that someone who knows the princess interact with her.

Zarune sighed in exasperation.

- Who do they think I am? Leila?

- Hey!

Zarune's small smile let Leila know that she was playing with her. Aurora, also aware of the joke, let out a great, happy laugh. Leila made a disgruntled face, but at her best friend's beaming face she couldn't help but let out a smile. It was nice to see her laugh.

Zarune resumed her seriousness and said.

- Let's go.

As they walked through the forest, leaving behind the smoking ruins of a village and the charred corpses of a hundred small bodies, Leila could only reflect on the strange turn her life had taken.

While it was still light, they stopped in a small valley near a lake. As the group of elite Eldar pulled climbing gear from their packs, Leila approached Dereur.

- What are they doing?

- They're going to check if the tree's foliage is safe. If it is, then we'll make camp up there.

- Already? It's still daylight, we could still make progress. We must find the others quickly.

- It will take some time to make sure the area is safe, if it is the territory of a monster beast we will have to find another place to set up camp.

- But why in a tree?

- It's too dangerous down there at night.

Disgruntled Leila watched the Eldar quickly climb the tree, and thirty minutes later an arrow from above fell near them. Zarune ordered the climb.

Harnessed by safety ropes Leila climbed, using the weaving to harden her fingers and digging into the bark when she couldn't find a hold. They were roped in groups of five but moved quickly. Aurora was tied up with Zarune and the veteran Eldar, Leila's best friend had trouble climbing, and luckily she had put on trousers under her stupid dress. Yet Aurora was sufficiently trained in internal weaving to be able to help herself on their way up.

Only Kastrapa was struggling, he didn't know how to use the augmentation, the Eldar were concentrating on mastering the internal or external weave, and once they had made their decision there was no turning back. Kastrapa was an External Weaver, so out of all the Eldar and humans present he was the only one who had to use muscle power alone. Although like many Eldar he was well trained and had great strength, he let himself be carried part of the way up, not out of laziness but to speed up their climb.

Once they reached the top of the tree, they had to keep climbing between the branches until they reached the place where they had set up camp. Leila didn't stop, she kept climbing. She wanted to see the sky.

Once on the roof of the tree, she leaned against a branch and looked up at the sky. The tree she had chosen did not allow her to climb high enough to see all the foliage around her, but she had a bit of sky, and in the distance, she could see the sun that had begun to disappear behind the mountain. With Dune Fallen on her lap, Leila watched the night progress.

An indeterminate time later Zarune and Aurora joined her, and they gazed at the full moon for a while in silence. Aurora offered her some dried meat which she gratefully accepted, after she had finished eating the princess spoke up.

- We should go downstairs and rest for a while. Tomorrow we are going deeper into the forest near the mountains, it will be even more dangerous.

- You two go ahead, I'll stay here for a while.

- I'll stay with you." Aurora added.

- No, it's okay, don't worry.

Understanding Aurora nodded, the two young women, one human, and one Eldar left, leaving her alone. Two friends with whom Leila felt closer than she had ever felt with another human being.

Nevertheless, sometimes it was good to be alone, to reflect on oneself, on one's situation, or simply to remain in silence. Leila took advantage of the coolness of the air as the night descended upon her. Keeping her eyes on the moon in the distance, she could feel the wind in her hair, she closed her eyes for a moment, when she opened her eyes and an Eldar was near her.

- Beautiful, isn't it? he said.

Leila didn't recognize him, he was tall, even taller than Jonah. He had more muscle than she'd ever seen on an Eldar, like a lumberjack's, his muscles were more strong on his upper body, his arms were as wide as Leila's thighs, which several months of walking, hunting and training had muscled.

While part of his body was visible in the moonlight, the whole of his upper body starting at his neck was hidden in shadow. Yet when Leila looked at him, she could see his golden eyes, filled with sadness. As he turned back to the moon, he spoke.

- I would have liked to reach it, to carve monuments to the glory of my people, but I didn't have the time. And now it is too late, it has become inaccessible.

Leila, her heart clenched by an unknown sadness, says to him.

- Maybe now, but what seems unattainable today will not be tomorrow. You will see. I intend to see all that is possible to see.

The man gave her a sad smile, but Leila knew that his words had touched her.

- Yes, what has been lost can be found, what has been destroyed can be rebuilt. For too long I have forgotten these simple words.

In silence Leila and the mysterious Eldar watched the moon, thinking of what was possible, forgetting the existence of the word impossible, they thought of the future and of what remained to be discovered and created.

An indeterminate time later Leila felt a warm hand on her shoulder, turning her head she met the gaze of two golden eyes animated by a new passion.

- Thank you, Leila.

Gesturing towards her lap, he added.

- It will serve you well.

After Leila smiled at him, she closed her eyes in contentment, letting the wind play in her hair, letting the moonlight caress her skin.

Opening her eyes again, Leila saw that dawn was coming. She must have fallen asleep. Getting up and stretching, Leila felt a new vigour in her limbs, she felt good, the sleep had done her good. Keeping this foggy dream hidden in her heart, Leila went down to the camp with a new determination in her being.

Perhaps one of her own had died in that forest, perhaps it was Jonah whose corpse she would never find, but that is all, life before death, the journey before the destination. She had accepted, she was part of this world now.