CHAPTER 46

ARIA'S POINT OF VIEW

The Valley of the Heartstone didn't feel like home when we returned. It felt like a stage set, and every gaze upon us was that of an audience awaiting the next act of a bewildering and painful drama.

The cheerful bustle of reconstruction had been replaced by an attentive and anxious silence.

We installed Kaelen in a small, secure communal house near the archives, under the watchful eye of both Blackridge warriors and wary renegades. It wasn't a cell, but it wasn'