Klava stopped growling, but she didn’t go to sleep, either. She watched the three of them with narrowed eyes.

And so, cautiously, Viola took the rocking chair, and Barclay sat cross-legged on the floor. Tadg, who didn’t seem to want to sit, stood in a corner, his arms crossed.

“The three of us became Leopold’s apprentices when we were all your age,” Runa said. “From the start, we were inseparable. Leopold wasn’t the Grand Keeper yet—his mother was—but we were the top three students in our Exhibition that year, and we thought we were going to be the greatest Lore Keepers in the world together—or at least, Audrian and I did. Cyril spent all his time chasing after us.”

Runa smiled for a moment, as though remembering the times fondly. Then her expression darkened.

“We were all ambitious. We all had something to prove. But Audrian… he was the most ambitious of any of us. Audrian was an Elsie, and as we grew older, he began to change how he felt about the Elsewheres.”

Now Barclay understood—when Runa had mentioned knowing another Lore Keeper who was an Elsie, she must’ve meant Audrian.

“Cyril and I were always able to go home, but Audrian wasn’t. He grew bitter, and he started talking about how the Elsewheres needed to change. He felt that Lore Keepers were making a mistake keeping the Wilderlands and the Elsewheres so separate, and that there shouldn’t be boundaries between the lands. He started acting strange. He became obsessed with the Legendary Beasts. He ended up leaving his apprenticeship the year before we finished, and Cyril and I completed our licensing exams without him.

“And then, a year after our exams, we ran into him again. Cyril and I were on an assignment investigating reports of unusual dragon patterns in the Mountains. Leopold was busy then—you weren’t much older than a toddler, Viola, and he’d begun to take on your grandmother’s duties as Grand Keeper when she’d fallen ill. When I told him that I suspected Audrian was responsible for disrupting the dragons, he didn’t believe me.

“But then Cyril and I found evidence that proved Audrian was guilty. Audrian wanted to bond with Dimondaise to become so powerful that he could remove the Mountains’ borders and consume the surrounding Elsewheres.” Pain crossed Runa’s face. “And even though bonding with a Legendary Beast is an incredible feat, I know he would’ve succeeded if I hadn’t stopped him. We knew him better than anyone, and so I knew how brilliant he was. And what he was capable of. He would’ve destroyed the world on a quest to unite it. He was… lost.