When the door opened, she was shocked at how old her mother looked. Once a woman of great beauty, she now appeared haggard and worn, her soft radiance diminished and her familiar smile absent. Instead her expression was empty of life.

“Mother, please listen to me,” she said quickly, suddenly desperate to hear her mother’s voice, to do what the Ard Rhys had asked of her and repair the relationship. “I don’t want us to …”

Her mother straightened, lifting one hand quickly to silence her. “Are you still a Druid?” she asked, her voice sounding as if it belonged to someone else.

Aphenglow hesitated. “Yes, but …”

“Come back when you’re not.”

And she closed the door in her daughter’s face, locking it behind her.

Aphenglow left in something of a daze, head down, stunned by what had just happened even though it wasn’t entirely a surprise. She felt tears come to her eyes and streak her cheeks, and she wiped them away hurriedly.

This was so unfair, she thought. This was so wrong. Why was her mother being this way? After so long, why wasn’t she willing to talk to her own daughter?

She couldn’t bear to think on it, couldn’t stand the pain of having to do so, and she chose instead to go visit with her uncle. She found him working in his garden behind the home he shared with Jera, down on his knees, weeding and planting, this big man handling the fragile little plants with such care and affection.

“Aphen!” he exclaimed on seeing her, and got to his feet with a smile. He saw her face and stopped. “Why so sad, child?”

“I’ve come from seeing Mother.” The tears came anew. “Once again, she would not speak to me.”

Ellich took her in his arms. “She cannot get past your decision to become a Druid. She cannot bring herself to accept it. But she is otherwise unhappy, too. She speaks to almost no one these days. Not even to me.”

“Why will she not speak to you? You were once as close to her as I am now to you.”

Ellich released her with a shrug, stepping back with a smile. “I have done something to displease her. Does that sound familiar?”

Jera appeared, coming out of the house and down the veranda stairs to give Aphen a hug and a kiss. The three sat down together in the sun at a small garden table and drank cold ale while Aphen pushed aside the residual pain of having tried and failed to speak with her mother and instead spoke of how things were at Paranor and what she was doing back again so soon. She deflected most of their questions with harmless answers, just as she had done with Arling, saying only that matters went well with the Druids and she was back to do a little more with her research.