He shook his head dismissively. “No, no. I’m just rambling. I get discouraged sometimes. I expect you do, too. We are faced with such obstacles, and we have so little support for our work. The Ard Rhys has given her entire life to helping the Races and they barely acknowledge her efforts. Mostly, they just want her—all of us, for that matter—gone. I might be only a scribe, not a Druid like the rest of you, but I have adopted your commitment and effort as my own. I have become one of you in all the ways that matter.”

She smiled gently. “You have, Woostra. No one would argue that. You have done more for us than anyone, and I cannot imagine how we would manage without you.”

Her words seemed to perk him up a bit, and he mumbled a few self-effacing phrases as a way of putting the matter to rest.

“We’re all tired and discouraged sometimes,” she added. “You are not alone in feeling that way.”

“Well, that might be so, but it still isn’t any reason for snapping at people.” He backed away from his worktable and swung his chair around so he was facing her. “I let personal feelings intrude on common sense. I was distressed over something that happened earlier and took it out on you. And I shouldn’t have.”

“It’s all right,” she repeated.

He shook his head dismissively. “Enough. On to other matters. I have something important to tell you, as I said. I have been searching our own histories and papers, and in the course of doing so I found something unexpected about Aleia Omarosian.”

He leaned forward. “I had thought that what I would find would have something to do with her parents, who were King and Queen of the Elven people at different points in their lives, the one right after the other. I also thought it was odd Aleia died so young and there was no explanation as to what had become of her. It seemed to me that if anything were to be found, it would be in the chronicles of those times, in the records of the families. What we have is incomplete and rather scant, but I thought there was a chance. But do you know what, Aphen?”

She shook her head. “What?”

He paused. “Now you must promise me first. I have a duty to report my findings to the Ard Rhys, and technically I shouldn’t tell anyone else before I tell her—not even one of her Druid followers. But I like you and trust you, and you were the one who brought the diary here in the first place. So that gives you special dispensation, in my opinion. Still, I need your word. Until I speak of this to the Ard Rhys, you must keep it to yourself. Tell no one, not even Bombax. Can you do that?”