“I can walk through a portal,” Kaylin said. It was true. But it was also true that she was wretchedly nauseous when she emerged. She frowned. To the Avatar, she said, “The painting of the mortals that Azoria created remains in the mortal’s home.”

“Ah, yes. I have taken the liberty of once again enclosing our conversation; the name that you mention should not be heard by anyone else.”

“It was dark in the room—and the darkness grew stronger when exposed to light.”

The Avatar nodded, eyes the color of obsidian.

“But...there was something about the atmosphere there that felt almost like a portal path, to me.”

The Avatar turned to the Consort. “With your permission, Lady, I would like to involve Terrano in this investigation and the discussions it spawns.”

Teela’s No was instant, but it wasn’t Teela’s permission the Avatar sought.

The Consort frowned, glanced at Teela, and then nodded. “An’Teela, any information, any conjecture, that might somehow solve this mystery, is necessary.”

“Terrano is almost—but not quite—as disaster prone as Lord Kaylin,” Teela replied. “I trust his intent. I am not at all certain I trust the consequences that might emerge from it.”

“If the High Halls feel it would be of aid, I am inclined to trust them,” the Consort replied. No hint of the frostiness of the powerful at having their decisions questioned was conveyed in her voice. “And if Lord Kaylin is considered the greater unintentional danger and she is necessary, I believe we are not increasing the risk.” As she spoke, she smiled, and the color of her eyes shifted to a regular, dark blue.

“It must be nice to be so optimistic,” Teela replied, in Elantran. But her eyes also lost the uncomfortable indigo that had characterized so much of the previous discussion.

“Serralyn wants to know if she can come, too.” It was Terrano, emerging from thin air, who asked the question. “She’s at the Academia now, but I think she thinks she has information we might want.”

“Far be it from me,” the Consort replied, “to deny her; An’Teela seems to feel that she will pose less of a danger than you might.”

Terrano’s smile was breezy, his eyes nearly green. “The quiet ones are always the ones you have to watch out for.”

If the group had left the confines of the Consort’s inviolable space, the rest of the High Halls had not been informed; there were no other people in the halls through which the Avatar now led them. No guards. No oathsworn. No one.

Terrano was chatting with someone in the silence, his expressive face shifting in such a way that Kaylin could almost hear the words he didn’t speak aloud.

“I do not recognize these halls,” the Consort said softly.