As Rusty predicted, Jyn was waiting for them by the time they got back. But it wasn't just her, a couple of important looking elves were with her too.

Celeste wondered if they were another twin pair or if they just happened to look related because they were wearing similar clothes. Their clothes were certainly a lot nicer than what Jyn and Kyn wore, more feathery too.

“She brought the Pinions with her?” She heard Kyn ask.

“Looks like it,” Rusty commented as he pulled the wagon to a stop. “I’ll go unlock the place and go put up the mule. If anyone needs me, I’ll be out in the smithy.”

"Pinions?" Celeste questioned as they disembarked. "Like the things that birds have?"

"Yes, but in this case, they're leaders in our community. If two have left the forest to come here, something important must be going on.” Kyn rushed to meet the other elves. “I’m sorry we’re running a bit late. I hope I didn’t worry you too much, Jyn.”

“No, I knew with all of you gone, you were probably running some kind of errand.” She assured him as they hugged. “I was not going to come so early in the day, but the Pinions insisted that they speak to Celeste as soon a possible.”

They had come to see her? Why? Celeste had never even heard of a Pinion until a few moments ago. And if they needed to talk to her, why not talk to her in elven territory while she was there or summon her? From the way Kyn and Jyn acted, they didn’t leave the forest often.

Rusty paid them little mind as he unlocked the door and pushed it open for everyone. “There’s something in the cabinet if you get to needing a drink. I don’t know if elves like it, but it’s there if anyone wants it. I have a feeling someone might need it before all is said and done.”

“Thank you for your hospitality, Master Hammerforger.” One of the Pinions stated before inclining her head. “Please, everyone, come in. There is much to talk about and I do not know how much time we have before the news gets about.”

So everyone minus Rusty entered the cabin. Seeing that there weren’t enough seats, Celeste elected to stand. She figured that the Pinions were important enough to have something to sit in.

“Perhaps you would be more comfortable sitting down.” The other Pinion, also a female, offered as she got up from her chair. “After all, this is news for you, Mistress Avon.”

“Me? Did you find someone that knows or remembers me?” Celeste took the offered seat. “I mean, I know it’s been at least twenty years, but surely someone that knows me is alive! If not a human then a dwarf. Madame Bustier had dwarves in her shop quite often and they live longer than humans, so…” She kept herself back so she wouldn’t lean forward so much and invade the Pinion’s personal space.

“First, let us introduce ourselves.” The one sitting down began. She seemed slightly older than the other one, at least in the way she carried herself. Maybe experienced would be a better word. “I am Mellon of House Beon and this is my fellow Pinion, Teana of House Sira, a house that is related to my house.”

So they were family, which would explain the resemblance. At least now she had names to go with the faces, though it did make her wonder why Kyn and Yoth and Roth never gave her a house name for them. Maybe elves who weren’t that high ranking didn’t go around giving their house names.

“So what did you need to tell me?” Celeste didn’t even care about the impatience that slipped into her voice. Normally, she tried to be contained around important people, but this was a special circumstance. “I’m piecing things together, but there’s a lot of information that I’m missing that neither Rusty nor Kyn can tell me.”

“I understand your haste, Mistress Avon,” Mellon replied, a smile gracing her features. Even if the elves weren’t much to look at, they did have a grace about them. “The team that went to investigate the cave you woke in was under my jurisdiction. They found something very interesting there. You probably didn’t see it because of the lack of lighting, but they found other rooms in the cave. None of them had doors.”

She laid out a piece of paper. On it, was the map of a cave system. There were at least a dozen caverns off the main path and each one had a little rectangle drawn in them.

“What was in the rooms?” Celeste wondered which one had been the room she woke up in.

“Stone slabs, much like the one you woke up on, but nothing else. No food, no supplies, nothing to indicate that anyone had ever been there. If it were bandits or slaves, there would have been signs.”

She nodded. It made sense. Besides, ever since she had learned how much time had passed, she had been doubting that bandits or slavers were responsible for her situation. Yes, they drugged people, but they had nothing that would put people to sleep for that long.

“Upon further investigation of the slabs, we found this in a little hidden drawer under all of them.” Mellon took something out of a little bag and put it on the table. It was a crystal, but with no color. She knew that meant all the magic had gone out of it.

“Do you know what element it was? I’m not experienced enough with them to tell, though I doubt it’s an earth crystal. Something tells me that those are in short supplies these days.” Madame Bustier probably would have been able to identify it.

“You would be correct, Mistress Avon.” Teana finally spoke up after being quiet for so long. She lifted the crystal and held it between her index finger and thumb. “This is a very unique crystal, one for which the craft has been long lost, even for us elves. You know what the elements are, correct?”

Celeste listed them off. “Earth, fire, air, water. Earth crystals were banned in Feon in fear that the presence of the Earth Crystal would supercharge it and cause even the smallest ones to do massive damage accidentally. A few of our customers had the other elements, but everyone knows that humans are strongest with the Earth element, dwarves fire, elves air… and I’m not sure any race is strong with water.”

“That would be the goblins, funnily enough.” She turned it in her hand. “But this is not any of those elements. This is something else, a natural force but one not as visible as the others, yet it affects everyone.”

There was the elven enigmaticness she had come to expect. She was glad that Kyn was fairly straightforward with her now, though he did seem to deal with humans more than most elves.

“Are you talking about something like the weather?”

Teana shook her head. “No, it is even bigger than that. It is time. This is a depleted time crystal. That would explain how you were able to sleep all of those years without aging .” She handed the crystal to her.

“This little thing kept me asleep for twenty years!?” Celeste could barely believe that she was holding the cause of all of her woes. It wasn’t any longer than her thumb and was about as thick as it too. The shape was fairly simple, but she knew that like all other crystals, the inside was what counted. She bet the shapes inside were different than anything else she had ever seen. “But why? Why would someone want me to sleep for that long?”

“That is the question.” Mellon collected the map and put it back in her small bag. “Not to mention the other slabs. There were indications that they had been used, though most of them had not been occupied for a long time. We assumed the freshest one was yours.”

“So there are possible people like me out there who woke up and years had passed? Wouldn’t word of something like that get around?”

“One would think. Rumors and stories travel far faster than anything. Which was why we came here, to tell you this in person so maybe you would hear it from us over a random person confronting you over it on the road or in a tavern. There is more we need to investigate. After all, time crystal craft has been forbidden for centuries by the Three Kingdoms, even if the fact that it existed has long been lost to human history and the dwarves barely recall it. To think someone is practicing it is disturbing.”

“But they still might not be alive. After all, it’s been twenty years for me. They could’ve gotten killed in the civil war or by a bear.”

“That is true,” Mellon admitted as Teana held her hand out for the crystal. Celeste gave it back to her. “But if one being is practicing, there may be others, perhaps a whole cult. If that is the case, there may be another cataclysm on the horizon, one worse than the Shattering.”

“But that is not for you to worry about,” Teanna told Celeste as she put her bag up. “That is something for us to handle. Though seeing that you have indeed been asleep for at least twenty years, you are bound to attract some attention once word gets around. If you come with us, we can at least protect you within the forest.”

Yes, the forest had been nice and she felt safe there, but she knew it would never feel like home. At least out here, the landscape was familiar, even if nothing else was. That and she needed to carry on an investigation of her own. She couldn’t do that from the forest.

“Thank you for the offer, Pinion Teana, but I think I need to among other humans for a while at least. I have a lot to catch up on and it might not be things that elves know.”

“It is your choice, Mistress Avon.” Mellon got out of the chair. “But you will always be welcome if you feel the need to escape. And I’m sure Kyn will want to come out and visit you once and a while. After all, you are still his patient.”

“Even though I’m not mad anymore?”

Kyn looked like he was having trouble processing it all. He barely had enough sense to answer her question.

“But you’ll still need time to adjust and it probably won’t be easy. If you would permit me, I want to check up on you once and a while to see how you’re doing. Honestly, I’m worried about the other humans' reactions. Are you sure you don’t want to…?”

“I’ll be fine, Kyn. I know how to handle people. Thank you for everything you’ve done, even if you did think I was crazy for a while.”

“Don’t thank me. I was merely trying to help.” He insisted. “Besides, Jyn’s been trying to get me out of the Rest for months.”

“But this is not what I meant,” Jyn remarked as she headed to the door. “Pinions, not to rush you, but if we want to be closer to the forest before dark, we must leave now.”

“Then leave we will.” Mellon decided. She and Teana started to follow Jyn. “We must thank Master Russel for letting us his cabin. I hope we did not impose on him too much. He is a very busy man.”

But it appeared to be no imposition at all as he was still out in the smithy hammering away. He didn’t come out until after all the elves had left.

“Rusty, could I stay here for a while?” she asked him. “I won’t cause any trouble and…”

“As long as you do things around here, feel free to use the shed.” He grunted as he carried what looked like a bunch of pint cups in a box. “You might need to rearrange things. Now, do you want to tell me what all of that was about?”

“Later. Right now I need time to… to…” The full implication of what she had learned was now just starting to sink in.

He nodded. “Come to the cabin when you feel like it. It looks like you have a lot on your mind.”

“That I do.” If the blacksmith only knew...