...That those whom your people now call Rhogars are of our making is not to be doubted. But need I remind you what you did in return? Who did you bring? Whose conflict was it? I am not going to go back to the past, the blame is shared we know.

Excerpt from a letter, hidden in the secret archives of Irvanon.

Mat prepared himself, after a day of burning, the forest had extinguished itself. The fire had burned the leaves off the trees, and some of the life on the ground. But unable to tackle the large trees themselves, the fire had eventually died out, partly because of the powerful life of the forest. Mat had sensed an intent in this life, not something conscious, more like a defence mechanism that was tied to the vigour of the forests of the Emerald Kingdom.

Still hiding in the shadows Mat emerged from his lair. His power was weakened by the sunlight. The sky, for the first time since his arrival in this world, was free of obstruction. He could still see the bare tree branches above him, and already shoots were visible, despite the distance from the ground. Soon, what would have been a catastrophic forest fire would have disappeared.

Still, Mat did not relax his spell, nor his vigilance. The guardian of the power node had survived. Mat had heard it screaming in rage, all through the forest fire. Walking on the forest floor he had heard it calling to him, screaming for vengeance. Fortunately for him, the monster had not found its lair, even though Mat was eating one of its children.

The rest of his time was spent in rest, mostly waiting, checking the information on the scrolls again, and again, looking at the development of the forest fire.

The fire was now out, but while everything around Mat was covered in thick ash, there were still glowing coals hidden under the ash. Many spider carcasses were visible, although most had been completely burnt away by the heat of the flames. Only the bodies of the largest spiders were still visible, curled up in agony. If the whole forest didn't smell of ash, Mat was sure the smell of roasted spider would have been powerful. He smiled with satisfaction.

If the sun was a disadvantage to his magic, it had the advantage of allowing him to indicate the direction he should take to get closer to the river. From there he would just have to find a boat that would take him to Tera.

Mat had been thinking about what he could do next, and while he was very happy on his own, he wanted to hear from his fellow humans. Even though he had always been a loner, in such a foreign world it was always nice to know that there were people in the same situation as him. He felt partly connected to them. It certainly was not because a silver-haired girl appeared in his thoughts at the most incongruous moments.

He could probably travel north, try to escape the Emerald Kingdom. If after all the time he'd spent in that elven ruin, they hadn't found him, then he couldn't. Mat could have sworn that they had some way of knowing his location, him, like the other humans, he had been too suspicious.

Nevertheless, managing to get out of the Emerald Kingdom alone would be a feat in itself. Not to mention the thousands of miles he would have to travel through monster-infested forests, he would also have to escape the vigilance of the Eldars.

And now that he realised how powerful magic was, Mat couldn't help but think of the kinds of powers that such an ancient kingdom had at its disposal. In the end, Mat had chosen to continue the quest that had been set before him by the Emerald Kingdom. He needed the information that the Eldars had, and a better knowledge of their kingdom before deciding whether or not to go it alone.

Travelling from shadow to shadow, Mat moved away from the power nexus. He had not dared to use the technique that allowed him to perceive the nexus again. The guardian monster knew it was there and was probably listening. If it managed to find him, Mat gives a damn his skin to it. He had cruelly hurt it.

With nothing on him but his leather armour, his dagger, his forest necessities and most importantly his sword, Mat walked towards what he hoped was the river. He had decided to leave the scrolls behind. He had retained the essentials and did not want to risk the Eldar knowing what he had discovered. And especially that he had learned to use magic.

When he found them he would have to hide his new power. Only a Weaver of Lenael's level was able to perceive the prism of an individual through his natural resistance. It was unlikely he would encounter many of them where he went. And even if he did, it had to be a conscious search by the Weaver. So even if there was no certainty, as long as the Eldar didn't see him using magic, there was little chance of them finding out what he was capable of. That would be his trump card if he ever had to flee.

A sound was heard to Mat's left, he dove in, using the still hot ash to hide him in addition to using his shadow magic. Glancing behind him Mat let out a silent curse. His walk through the ash had left its mark, even if the shadows hid him he would be easily tracked. Glancing towards the noise he had heard, he saw the spider-mother again. It was walking along with the trees, lying in wait. It was a long way from Mat, but even from where he was, he could see its fury. Deciding that staying hidden here meant it risked it spotting his tracks Mat stood up.

He moved forward quickly enough but still looking for the shadows. His power was great now, but it would take a lot more training to reach a level of competence that would allow him to use this power. Also, now that he was moving away from the shadow nexus, his spells would become less effective, harder to cast and harder to maintain.

Walking hastily but silently, Mat managed to get away from the guardian monster quickly. It hadn't spotted it, which was a good thing.

Once the monster was out of his sight, Mat began to run, first with a short burst, then with increasing intensity. He ran like this for a while, until he was sure he was far enough away.

Once he reached a part of the forest untouched by fire, Mat stopped, catching his breath. His heart was beating fast, from the effort he had put in, the augmentation weaves were a great help but at the rate, he was going, even they had limits to their benefit.

There was still one thing Mat wanted to do before leaving to find the Eldars. It was to pay a visit to those fish-faced monsters. Even if he couldn't reach the place where they lived, which was probably in the middle of the river. If he could attract a few of them, Mat would want to thank them for pushing him into the shadow realm, by showing them his newfound powers.

Picking up the pace, Mat walked until early afternoon, only then did he reach the Tua River. It had taken him longer to get there than he thought, given the pace he had set for himself.

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Fortunately for him, he had not found any other monsters on his way. Once near the river, he observed the horizon. He had released all his spells once he was some distance from the power nexus. He had felt how much of the magic he was holding on to was pulling at his prism. As he thought the proximity to the power nexus had allowed him to do a lot. Now he was going to have to be much more frugal in the management of his powers. Besides the reason for having to hide them from the Eldars.

He also had to decide how he would attract the attention of the merchant ships sailing the Tua. Not all the Eldars he had met were hostile to him, but many were. The presence of humans in the Emerald Kingdom was now public knowledge, so if he met an Eldar he wasn't going to attack and kill him, as Eldar law probably dictated.

Still glancing towards the river and hoping to attract fish faces, Mat was disappointed. A merchant ship appeared before them. Standing prominently on a root-covered rock along the river he waited in silence.

The Eldars on the ship looked at him in silence, Mat did the same.

As the merchant ship continued on its way Mat's frown deepened. As the ship showed him its stern he had to face the facts. He was going to have to be a little more talkative if he was going to hope to get on board. During their entire passage, not one of the sailors had opened their mouths, the Eldars and the Human had only looked at each other in silence, impassive.

Mat scratched the back of his head. He didn't know what to do, should he call them and ask them to come aboard? An unease along his spine grew stronger. Twisting his mouth as if he had eaten a bitter fruit, Mat thought he would have to do it.

It had only been a few days since he had been separated from his fellow Eldars and Mat had already forgotten how distant Eldar was from each other. Always impassive, and preferring silence to speech. People like he liked them, but when he needed others to take the initiative to engage him in conversation, that kind of person became rather a problem.

Breathing in calmly, yes, Mat waited for the next merchant ship to arrive. With the sky playing tricks on him that day, not a single merchant ship arrived, not even one going in the direction of Tuanon, rather than Tera.

Tired of waiting on his rocks for the rest of the day, Mat headed back to the forest in dismay. He would have to find a place to sleep. He had been lucky with his previous encounters in the forest. He couldn't expect it to last, especially after this disastrous day.

Drinking from his canteen, Mat prepared a bivouac, camouflaging his bed under branches between two roots, covering it with branches, leaves and earth. Once satisfied, he entered his bed for the night. Unsheathing his sword, he dyed it in his hand, hoping not to have to use it. Mat was getting good at sleeping lightly and restfully, sleeping with one eye open was quite an art, and he was becoming a master.

Having kept a small gap between the branches so that he could observe what was going on in the night, Mat had the advantage of having a spell that allowed him to see at night. The night was relatively quiet, except for the arrival of some sort of car-sized reptile that scoured the shoreline during the night. After finding what he was looking for he quickly dove underwater.

Mat had never seen a forest so full of animals, admittedly his walks in the forest had been very limited in the past, but it seemed he couldn't spend a night in the Emerald Kingdom without seeing a marauding monster.

In the morning, a new merchant ship was sailing down the river towards Tuanon. Wishing to go upriver to Tua, Mat waited. If no ship went where he wanted to go, Mat swore he would make someone pay. He didn't know who but he would find out. Fortunately for this unfortunate person, not an hour later a ship going to Tera arrived in the distance.

Taking a deep breath Mat called out.

- Hey! From the ship!

The sailors on the ship turned at his call and looked at him in silence.

- I'm stranded here! I need passage to Tera, to fulfil a request from Irvanon!

Hoping that the mention of the capital would impress them enough to agree to carry him Mat waited. The still silent sailors turned to their captain who was at the helm. He wasn't going to leave him, was he? Was he?

Mat could see the captain's face from where he stood, and it was not a happy screwing. The captain shouted an order, and the sailors sprang into action, lowering the mainsail. The ship turned to approach the shore. The captain raised his voice so that Mat could hear him.

- You're going to have to swim, human, I'm not getting any closer to that side of the river.

Mat frowned in displeasure, watching the river. He was all too aware of the dangers the river posed. That bite on his thigh had not yet healed. Refusing to wait for another ship to arrive Mat dived in. Approaching the merchant ship quickly, the sailors sent him a rope to board. Once onboard, the captain approached him, giving him a wary look.

- You're a brave man, I wouldn't have thought you'd dare to do that.

Not appreciating the Eldar's implication, Mat just looked at him in silence. When the captain realised that he wasn't going to answer him, he shrugged before adding.

- Find a corner where you won't bother my sailors. We're still a few days away from Tera.

The rest of the trip was a sullen silence for Mat, the Eldars avoided him, and there was little space on the ship. The ship was smaller than the one Zarune had commandeered from Tuanon, and although there were fewer sailors, space was still limited. All the sailors slept on the deck, even the captain had a blanket near the helm of the ship. The entire hold of the ship was reserved for cargo, and Mat did not take the time to ask what kind of goods they were transiting, even though it was unlikely that they would have answered him.

At least the captain hadn't asked him for money, Mat would have paid if he had, he still had the money Zarune had given him, he hadn't made many purchases during his stay in Tuanon, the biggest being for his dagger and a sharpening stone.

Mat didn't even have the space to train with a sword, which he regretted as it had been several days since he'd last practised and he'd gotten used to it. It relaxed him. So he couldn't practice the sword, nor magic. Mat was in a very bad mood when he finally noticed the change in the sailors' behaviour. They were finally approaching their destination.

Rising to his feet, Mat reserved a place for himself at the bow of the ship. And once again he was impressed by an Eldar city. After the sylvan city of Irvanon, the high-walled city of Tuanon, he arrived in the waterfall city of Tera.

Although Tera was much smaller than the other two cities he had seen, it was just as impressive. In the distance, he could see a series of waterfalls flowing into the Tua. There were at least six different slopes where several waterfalls fell creating small lakes between them. On each of the slopes, there was land and space where the buildings of the city were located.

If Irvanon had used the trees to build their house and created bridges between them which gave a celestial and unreal impression. Si Tuanon was made of heavy, square stones covered with carvings and decorations that gave an impression of solidity and wealth. Tera was made of thin, airy buildings that gave the impression of being made of crystal and used waterfalls as ornaments.

The buildings were separated from each other by small islands that were linked together by delicate stone walkways and bridges. And with the six floors of waterfalls, the Eldars had managed to give the impression of a descending wave with their building. It was as if it was one single structure that went down the waterfalls.

The most impressive of the buildings was in the very centre of Terra, a bridge-like palace that spanned all six waterfalls. Huge columns supported the structure forming a multi-storey building complex. On the roof of the building, Mat could see gardens and trees of normal size.

The large trees were still there, having an island to themselves they were spread throughout the city to cover it. However, from where the boat was just opposite the Palace, which was spread over the six floors of the waterfall, there was a space in the canopy that gave a glimpse of the sky. Mat was sure that this space of sky was supposed to light up at dusk, with the sunset. It was a pity that he had not arrived at that moment to be able to see the reflection of the sun on the whole city as it disappeared on the horizon.

At the level of the river Tua, where the waterfalls ended, a large harbour was formed at the foot of the palace, under the immense columns that supported this floor.

Mat had to admit to himself, as pedantic and proud as the Edlars were, to have built such architectural marvels, they had reason to be a little arrogant.