For Nolyn readers, how great was it to see Sephryn again? And for those who suspected—but weren’t entirely sure about Mawyndulë posing as Sheldon—the poker eliminated all doubt. I loved that we knew exactly who everyone was, while the usually perceptive Farilane was clueless as to what was coming. For those of you who are confused as to why Sephryn gave up the horn, I’ll provide a little help. Kile’s timeline required the return of magic to the world of men, and the best way to bring that about was to have Mawyndulë face off with First Minister Dray and his disciples. So many moons ago, he told her to hand over the horn when he and Farilane showed up, and that doing so wouldn’t result in any disaster. I also love the irony that Mawyndulë had the horn but ultimately left without it. What a doofus!

As the afterword allows me to pull back the veil of the writing process a little, I should mention a few things about this book. Usually, my alpha read results in quite a few changes, but Michael told me before I started that this book was solid, and boy, was he right! There were no substantive changes either because of my feedback or that of the betas, although a few things were tweaked because Michael was being a bit too subtle from time to time. It’s a tricky business, balancing what you explicitly state and the things you hint at while hoping the reader will put two and two together. Personally, I tend to like the latter, and I “got” what Michael was doing—but there were things missed by the beta readers that left them trying to correct something that, in our opinions, wasn’t broken. As I said, Michael did make some adjustments based on their feedback, but he did so with a light hand. If you find yourself thinking, “Well, why didn’t Michael just do x, or y, or z?” it’s possible that you missed something, or you were just so intent on wanting a happily-ever-after ending that you didn’t accept his explanations. It’s quite possible that a reread will put things in a different light now that you know where the book ultimately goes.