After I had tucked Kaelen into his bed and told him a tale or three, he finally nodded off. 'Tissa had been hovering nearby and the unusual activity kept him awake overlong. It was only after I finally convinced her to just sit and enjoy the fire, that I got him to sleep at last.

Hoisting myself up from his bedside, I poured to cups of ale and sat at the table with 'Tissa. We talked long into the night, with me asking questions and she skirting all around the answers.

Why did she leave Inver Colpa and return to her old home in Cean Tir? Because she was not comfortable around Rian Flidais. Why did she leave so suddenly, without so much as a fare-thee-well or a good-bye? The chance to leave presented itself in the middle of the night, and she took it. Why did she not send word of where she was, when there were Cruithni warriors and traders coming and going over all of the past two summers? She had no answer for that one. Finally, I screwed up my courage and asked the question which had been burning in my gut. Have you found another that you love more than me and Kaelen? Again, she skirted the issue by saying it was not that but that she needed to see her brother.

After many rounds of this and me getting nothing but tired, I gave her the use of my bed for the night. For myself, I wrapped up in a thick robe and bedded down by the hearth. I WOULD get some answers, and straight ones at that, before I would be taking her back. I don't think my heart could take such a shock a second time.