“Fate versus free will and all of that?” Fay asked with a cocked eyebrow. Ilaughed and was pleased to see a ghost of a smile on my daughter’s face before it disappeared again.
“As much as I want to . . . reminisce, it’s admittedly not what I’m here for,” Fay finally said, straightening in her chair and dropping her hold on the necklace.
“Oh? And what are you here for?” I asked, trying to cover my disappointment over the fact that my daughter did not intend to heal our relationship today.
Patience. It will take time.
“Kaos inadvertently sent me,” Fay admitted, and I shook my head ruefully.
“That meddling brother,” I groused.
“So he’s done this before?”
I laughed long and loud at that. “Yes, daughter. It’s one of his favorite things to do.”
My laughter died as I watched Fay try to puzzle through that piece of information. “He has his own agenda, Fay. Best not to try and parse through it. Fate knows I’ve long since given up.”
Fay hummed, absently stroking the Bond Mark on her forearm.
“What did he send you here for?”
“He didn’texactlysend me here. Just insinuated that I needed to bring Ellowyn with me on an . . . adventure.”
“So you’re here to collect her?”
“More or less.” Fay shrugged, but I sensed there was something else.
“And?” I prodded, grateful that while Fay wasn’t talking to me about the revelation that I was her mother, she was at least speaking to me again.
Small steps.
Fay sighed and cracked her neck. “AndI may have discovered your artifact.” She opened her eyes once more, gaze boring into mine. “I’m guessing you were the last to know of the other two?”
I gulped, sweat building at the base of my neck as the corner of my eye twitched.
“Yes,” I responded a little too curtly. “Yes, I was the last to see them.”
“Where are they?” Fay asked, ignoring my shortness as a giddy light reflected in her eyes, the promise of information nearly driving her from her seat.
I shook my head, deflating her excitement.
“I cannot tell you. Nor do I know of all their exact locations anymore.”
“You cannot tell me where they are located now?” Fay asked, frowning as she dissected my words. I twined my fingers together, knowing that she would figure out the meaning behind them.
After all, she was both my daughter and Fate’s true granddaughter.
Wiliness ran in our blood.
“But youcantell me where they were at one point,” she finished, a smug smilespreading across her face as she leaned back in the chair, confident she’d discovered my white lie.
A genuinely proud smile erupted across my face.
“Yes, I can.”
Fay’s eyes shone with victory.
“After I brought them across the Ice Shelf, I gave them to the Keepers in the Valley. What happened after that”—I spread my hands wide—“I cannot say. Apparently, mine ended up in the hands of Lord d’Refan, if you’ve seen it recently.”
