“No surprise, as you’re—” She broke off, stiffening.

“What?” he demanded, marshalling his moon and water magic, extruding a silver sword for his free hand. He should have made her go to the arcanium.

“A spirit is here,” she replied under her breath. “Small, tasked as a scout.”

He sensed it now. He’d encountered those spirit spies before, most notably the first time he crossed the Elal border. Pulling mist, he condensed it around the spirit, delineating its cautious exploration of the environs. Sensing his magic—or realizing their presence for the first time—the spirit halted, then vanished. Gabriel cursed quietly.

“Went back to inform its wizard,” Nic explained unnecessarily.

“Should I—”

“No, let them come. I think I know who it is, as impossible as it seems.”

“Who?”

“I want to see if I’m right first.”

He didn’t like it, but he trusted Nic implicitly, so he subsided, waiting and scanning the billowing mist concealing and revealing the orchard in turns, seeking to penetrate it with his wizard senses. He discovered little more than what he’d already told Nic, besides one unusual detail. “They’re on foot.”

“Hmm.” Her hand tightened on his, her magic available to him but otherwise firmly contained. She was nervous, not afraid.

Three figures resolved from the mist, one tall and two shorter, one of the shorter ones limping visibly. The tall figure had an arm around the limping one, helping them along. The other figure, who moved wearily, stepped in front of the other two, Elal magic flaring bright as several spirits condensed before the trio, forming a protective phalanx.

“Lord Phel, I presume,” the wizard called. A young woman’s voice, trying to sound stern, but though her power blazed with impressive strength, a wobble in it betrayed her uncertainty. She also sounded very much like Nic.

Confirming it, Nic caught her breath. “Alise!” she called.

“Alise… Your sister?” Gabriel asked under his breath, and Nic nodded, her emotions a tumult of excitement and trepidation, joy and … guilt?

Alise took a few steps closer, her two companions staying behind. The spirit guardians manifested swords, an Elal wizard’s trick Gabriel had encountered before. As Alise emerged from the denser mist, Gabriel noted her strong familial resemblance to Nic. He’d have guessed her for a sister immediately. If not for being several years younger than Nic, a teenager still, Alise could have passed for her identical twin. With her high Elal forehead, strong nose, and shining, sleekly cut black hair, the young wizard possessed a poise beyond her tender years. He found it somewhat jarring, however, to see wizard-black eyes instead of Nic’s striking emerald green.

He used to have the prettiest blue eyes like his father’s… his mother’s anguished voice echoed in his mind.

“Lord Phel,” Alise repeated, tearing her gaze from Nic and focusing on Gabriel, lifting her chin just as Nic would when she’d determined on a course of action and wouldn’t be swayed from it. “I demand that you release my sister from your unlawful abduction of her. You will remand her into my custody in the name of House Elal.”