“Of course not.”

“Will you be bringing Mika?” asked Alec. With a wink in Seregil’s direction, he added, “You could make a family outing of it.”

Thero ignored the jest. “Yes. I won’t expose him to danger, of course, but the journey should be most educational. He’s never been away from Rhíminee.”

Just then the boy burst in from the garden. “Will they come with us, Master?”

“Have a seat,” Thero told him. “We are still discussing it.”

Mika settled in his chair, but he was clearly bursting with excitement. “You have to come! The first Hierophant and his people came to Kouros and built Menosi over two thousand years ago. I can’t even imagine how long that is, but the city is still there! Don’t you want to see where they lived?”

“I don’t know that much about the Hierophants,” Alec admitted.

“Master Thero has been teaching me,” Mika piped up. “Kouros is the place the great rulers, the Hierophants, lived when they and their people came over the eastern sea. Their descendants spread to the mainland, which turned into Mycena, Plenimar, and Skala after a while.”

“Very good,” said Thero. “And why did they stay on Kouros for so long?”

“Because of the oracle, the first in the Three Lands.”

“Why did they leave?” asked Alec.

“No one is certain,” Thero replied. “According to the histories I read, a great storm struck the island not long after the founding of the Three Lands, killing most of the population. The oracle went silent then, too, though I’ve never found any explanation for why that happened.”

“That’s the tale that’s told in Aurënen,” said Seregil, and all eyes turned to him.

“The ’faie knew of Kouros?” asked Alec.

“Of course. The eastern clans traded with Menosi and the mainland outposts, up until the reign of the last Hierophant, Nhandi the Wise. Kouros is the first place your kind and mine mixed blood.”

“And the first wizards were born there, mages of great power,” said Thero.

“Why was Nhandi the last Hierophant?” asked Alec.

“Another thing lost in the mists of history. So many records were destroyed at that time.”

“What kind of storm wipes out a whole island?” asked Mika.

Seregil shrugged. “Some say storm, but it could just as easily have been an earthquake or great wave. Whatever it was, the city of Menosi gradually emptied out and people began to avoid it.”

“But the oracle site is still there, even if it’s silent,” Alec noted. “You said Toneus was fixing it up?”

Thero nodded. “It’s sacred ground, consecrated to Illior, I believe.”

“Can we go there, Master?” asked Mika.

“Yes. We must pay our respects. What else do you know of Kouros, Seregil?”

“Not much, really, except that trade between Aurënen and the island was cut off for some time after the cataclysm, but by then the island’s resources had given out anyway, except for the mines. The gold of Kouros seems to be endless.”

“From the initial surveys when Klia took the island back, the Plenimarans were still mining gold, silver, and a few other things.”