Princess of Wind

Chapter 14: The Library and the Training Ring

It was early the next morning when the news of another portal opening arrived, pushing from Elea's mind all thought of what had happened the night before. This one had appeared on the outskirts of one of the deep Illyrian camps, thankfully no one had been sucked in, yet Elea's mind wasn't put to rest.

These portals had apparently been far more frequent than what she first believed, according to Ayden's father at least five known portals had appeared within his lands during the time that their group had been gone, and they weren't without casualties.

A young fae male from Velaris along with two older Illyrians, a male and female, had vanished. In their place a young human female was found in Velaris, and two demi-fae males were found in the snowy Illyrian mountains.

Elea had gone with Ayden and his brother to see if she could identify them, soon after she woke up that morning. She recognized none of the three, yet the boys had claimed to be the children of merchants in Terrasen and the young woman a seamstress in Eyllwe. They spoke the languages of their homelands and wore the clothing of their people so Elea had no doubt of their claims.

Yet they provided no further information, other than what was already known; a portal of Wyrdmarks came out of nowhere and sucked them in before leaving them within this world. Elea was beyond frustrated, the streak of bad luck continued past those three and into her research.

Not only had the books been illegible when she first tried to read them, it seemed that the wyrd portals only gave them the ability to understand each other's languages not read them, she had also yet to come across a single book with accurate and relevant information about wryd portals even after spending hours within the library beneath the House of Wind.

Luckily the problem of reading was solved with a simple Wyrd mark, one that Elea had found years ago when she was late on a translation assignment in Eyllwe, though being able to read wasn't much of an aid if none of the books contained more than a drop of what she needed to know.

Elea groaned and buried her head in her hands, her brain was scrambled after reading so much information in such a short time. When she looked up again her eyes caught on a priestess who was giving her a cruise look, only to have her quickly walk away once she saw Elea's attention on her.

Rhysand and Clotho, the priestess who sat at the entrance to the library, had warned her that many of the females here had been through unspeakable horrors and were likely to avoid her. While she respected it, and would never do anything to make them uncomfortable, it was rather annoying to not be able to find anyone to aid in her search.

Following another half hour of unsuccessful work, Elea was about ready to leave for the day, when she heard a pair of footsteps approaching her spot in the library. Figuring that it was just another priestess doing her job, and likely wanting to remain unseen, Elea turned back to her book in hand.

That was probably why Elea jumped from her seat while reaching for a hidden dagger, when a voice said, "Having some trouble?" from behind her.

Elea turned around and relaxed when she saw an auburn haired female, walking up to her with a stack of books in her arms. She recognized her from the dinner the previous night with Ayden's family, while Elea hadn't talked to her, the female was Ayden's family and Elea was, in the female's eyes, his close, and more importantly trusted, friend.

"I am," Elea said, "how did you know?"

"My husband, Azriel, is part of Rhysand's inner circle, so I learned about the situation through him," the female said, setting the books on the table next to her, "sorry about starting you, but I remember seeing a few books about portals a few years back and I wanted to grab them for you."