“Hello, Fallon,” he said, giving me a small smile.
“Hello. Emmeric?” I asked as a guess.
He nodded and patted the floor in front of him.
I took the signal and sat down, crossing my legs before him.
“Hello, Yanric.” He tipped his head kindly to my familiar.
Yanric stiffened but bowed back.
“How do you know our names?” I asked.
He regarded me for a moment. “Can you keep a secret for me? Something that, if widely known, might endanger my life?”
Chills ran up my arms, and I nodded. “Of course.” He seemed like a kind man, and I didn’t want anything to happen to him.
“I can see snippets of the future before they come to pass,” he said.
I felt my eyebrows raise in surprise.
‘Whoa,’Yanric commented.
“I didn’t know that was possible,” I told him.
He gave me a small smile. “As a young child, I had a hard time understanding it myself. I would have visions and think they were daydreams, but then the things I saw would actually happen, and I knew I was seeing the future.”
“Sounds like a lot of responsibility,” I said.
His face went slack, and he looked far off, as if ruminating on something. “You have no idea.”
‘Ask him about Ariyon,’Yanric offered.
Right. The entire reason I was here.
“Have you seen anything about my friend Ariyon and how I can get him back from the Realm of Rebirth?”
He pursed his lips, nodding slowly. “I have. And more.”
And more? What did that mean?
‘I have a bad feeling about this,’Yanric said suddenly.‘I don’t think you are going to like what this fae has to say.’
Emmeric looked at my bird and nodded. “Your familiar is right. Not everything I tell you today will be pleasing.”
‘They can all read minds!’Yanric balked.
I laughed, and Emmeric smiled.
“Only when you project it so loudly,” he told Yanric.
“I can handle bad news. I just need to know how to get Ariyon out of there.”
Emmeric inclined his head to the side. “Very well. I will give you the information you seek.”
I waited for what seemed like an entire minute as he stared at me, possibly assessing some unseen future.
“There is only one way that Ariyon and you make it out of the Realm of Rebirth alive, with both of your bodies.”
