“Never,” Lin barks, now rubbing his sore cheek. “We should get out of here and never look back.”

I drop my chin to my chest and blink at him a few times before querying. “What in the four hells happened to you in there?”

Lin’s only response is a glare.

“I saw myself in Verdana,” Torr interjects. “Next to those foul, inescapable mountains! Only, they didn’t look foul at all. They were beautiful. Tall, broad, and strong, like me.” He smooths back his hair. “Next thing I know, the walls of the house start leaking like a punctured dam, and water was filling the room. I thought I was going to drown! I tried asking the lady for help, but she didn’t move. She didn’t seem to notice the water at all! She kept asking me questions, which were hard to answer, seeing as I was about to die!”

“She was testing you,” Nuri’s voice cuts in. The curvy woman swaggers toward us, wearing a chipper smile. Her hair is pulled back, and instead of the bright skirt, she now wears a silken, body-hugging dress of varying shades of blue. A gold nose ring dangles from her right nostril, and a giant red scarf wraps her neck. Torrent’s mouth falls open.

“They were looking within, gauging the outcomes of what you’d see,” she says.

“So, those women raided our brains without our consent? Wonderful,” Lorna snaps.

Nuri keeps her composure. “Those women are the Mineas of the Herrah. The ones who founded Idizina hundreds of years ago and have kept it safe ever since. If they’d determined that what they saw in you was a threat, you would’ve woken up in the woods with no memory of this place.”

“Wait, I’m sorry? Mineas? The Herrah? Did you just say hundreds of years ago?” Lin demands. “Surely you didn’t mean to say they founded Idizina?”

“I meant what I said. I always do.” Nuri grins.

Lin now seems more disconcerted than ever. “Are you telling me those grandmothers in there are centuries old?”

“Maybe. Or maybe they’re not.”

Lin grunts and throws up his hands. “What does that even mean!? How is that even possible?”

She only smirks and walks away. “With the hammer they’ve chosen to build,” she calls over her shoulder and gestures for us to follow.

“Braze,” Lorna says softly, her expression wary. “We need to be careful here. Don’t let your guard down.”

I nod. After what I saw in the house, there’s no chance of my guard wavering. I follow the Idunn woman into a grove of glowing trees bathed in lamplight. Idalia walks far enough away from me to be considered safe, but I can still see her expression, bewildered by all the beauty and enchantment. It reminds me of the girl in the aviary all those years ago.