Before the meal was served, Indu stood and everyone fell silent. “Tonight we all have much to celebrate. It’s not often that we have guests, but it is a fitting way to rejoice at the return of my daughter, my morning flower.” He raised his glass and smiled down at me. “Join in my welcoming them into our home! Skol!”

And then, right after that, a choir of thrimavolk came in to sing the haunting song stuck in my head.

Indu had called me the morning flower.

And then he had stolen my blood.

The landline rang, a loud, clattering sound that jolted me out of my thoughts. I set aside my book and hurried to grab it, since it was probably Pan. I hadn’t spoken to him since we’d gotten back to Merellä, which hadn’t been that long, but I missed him already anyway.

I was smiling by the time I answered, “Hello?”

“Hi, Ulla, are you busy?” Dagny asked. Her voice sounded unusually pinched and anxious, but maybe I had just been expecting Pan’s deeper voice.

“Uh, no, I don’t think so,” I stammered, since she caught me off guard.

“Good. Because you should come down here,” Dagny said, and I decided that she definitely sounded anxious.

“Why? What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Elof has something he wants to talk to you about. When can you get here? Twenty minutes?”

“Yeah, sure. I can do that.”

“Great. See you then.” She hung up before I could ask anything more.

I got ready lightning fast and jogged down to the Mimirin. I was out of breath by the time I made it up to the third floor, but I got to Elof’s lab in just over twenty minutes.

“Dagny, what on earth did you tell Ulla?” Elof asked her as he appraised me, all sweaty and out of breath. Then, as he pushed out a stool toward me, he asked me, “Did she threaten you with bodily harm?”

“No, no.” I waved him off and collapsed back on the stool. “She just said you had something to tell me.”

“Take a moment to collect yourself and we’ll get to it,” he said, and again looked to Dagny. “Can you get her water?”

She sighed but did as he asked. Since she was working, she had on her luxe lab coat. It was a kaftan-style coat made of white linen embroidered with a pale gold quatrefoil pattern. A moment later, she returned with a paper cup of ice-cold water from the sink, and when she handed it to me, she said, “Why didn’t you take the elevator?”

I shrugged and gulped the water down. I’d felt weird taking it without Elof, like I was breaking a rule or something.

“So,” I said when I’d finally caught my breath. “What do you have to tell me?”