“Terrisa!” Horax shouted.

Terrisa jerked out of her stupor and sat up at her brother’s call. A person stepped into Terrisa’s view, with Horax held in front of them, a sword to his throat. Stormcaller was sheathed at the stranger’s side. Their hair was done in cornrows, showing her pointed elf ears plainly. Beautiful plate armor decorated their body, covered by a deep red tabard with a golden edge but no insignia. The sword at Horax’s throat glittered in the dim light.

Are you hurt? Terrisa asked Horax in thought-speech.

No, came the reply.

Where is Sorrel?!

No more thought-speech words came from Horax, only a mix of confused emotions.

Terrisa leapt to her feet but found her longbow was not with her. She drew an arrow from her quiver and gripped it just below the arrowhead, ready to use it as a shiv. She felt a breath of movement, and her arrow was kicked out of her grasp by an unseen force.

Another young elf appeared out of the shadows beside her, clad in a woolen robe the same color as the knight’s tabard. Her hands gripped a staff of black wood. Her loose curls were tired at the nape of her neck.

“You’re prettier awake,” she said.

Terrisa took a step back. “What?”

“Please, my lady,” said a third person, dressed in a long tunic in the same deep red and leggings in a faint gold, though not as bright as the trim on the knight’s tabard. “This is hardly the time.” They turned to the one holding Horax. “You’re frightening them both.”

“Ah...” the armored elf said. They pulled their sword away from Horax’s throat and pushed him away, their free hand held up peaceably. “Apologies. We found you unconscious and wanted to help.”

Terrisa balled up her fists. “By holding my brother at swordpoint?”

“He attacked my sibling!” the elf woman in robes said.

Horax joined Terrisa’s side. “I did do that, actually,” he admitted.

“Where is my girlfriend?” Terrisa asked.

The two newcomer elves glanced at their third, in the plain tunic, then back at Terrisa and Horax.

“We found only you,” said the knight.

“We’ll help you find her,” added the robed woman. She cast a glance between her companions. “I’m Ky. This is Monty.”

The armored elf stiffened and shot a glare at her, but said nothing.

“And Eon,” Ky said, and gestured to the third person.

Terrisa got a better look at them. Eon looked human, maybe, but something felt different. Their ears were the standard small, round things of a human, at least. Their hair was thick and probably fairly long, judging by the size of the bun piled atop their head. Faint traces of stubble shadowed their brown face, but in the half-light of the forest it was not very obvious. They had a pack of supplies on the ground just behind them, and a knife on their hip. They might be older than the elves, perhaps in their thirties.

“I’m--” Terrisa hesitated. She wanted to give a false name, but Horax had already shouted it to wake her up. “--Terrisa.” She just knew Horax was about to blurt it all out.

“I’m Horax De--”

Terrisa punched him in the gut, but her fist clanged against his armor and she hissed, nursing her bruised knuckles. At least he didn’t finish saying Deyspring. But he did give her a shove.

“You came from Mycoton?” asked the elf knight.

Terrisa balled up her fists again. “How would you know that?”

Ky rolled her eyes. “I’d say that’s enough cloak-and-dagger. We know because we’ve been looking for you all day.”

Terrisa sensed Horax tense up at her side. “I knew it! You’re from Celesdine!”

The one called Eon sighed and covered their eyes with one hand.

“I think not,” said Monty, tipping their chin up to look down at Terrisa and Horax.

“Then who are you!” Terrisa said. “How did you find us?”

Monty drew Stormcaller out and held it alongside their own sword. Though the stones in the pommels were different, the swords were clearly of the same make.

“Our swords are twins, Horax” they said. “When I sensed it was here in the forest, we knew something had happened to drive you out of Mycoton. What happened? What happened to Dame Opal and General Ametrine?”

Terrisa shook her head. “No, no. Who are you really? Why do you have a sword like my brother’s?”

The elf sheathed their sword and turned Stormcaller, offering the hilt to Horax. He took it. The elf tipped their chin up and looked down their wide nose.

“I am Prince Remont, eldest child of Queen Benitoite and King Mallen. This is my sister, Princess Kyanite, and my valet, Eon. Our parents sent us to escort you to Crookhaven.”

“How did you know we were in trouble?” Terrisa asked.

“We actually didn’t,” Ky said. “We were coming for your birthday. It’s tomorrow, right? You’re turning twenty-five.”

Terrisa nodded hesitantly, but Horax blurted out, “Yes!”

“We are aware that you were raised without knowledge of who you are,” Remont said. “We had thought we could help Dame and General Deyspring explain tomorrow.”

“But they told you early,” Ky said. “And they’re not here--so something must have happened in Mycoton.”

“When I sensed Stormcaller below as we crossed the Red Forest bridge,” Remont said. “We climbed down to find you.”

Horax glanced at Terrisa, then sheathed Stormcaller. “I think we can trust them,” Horax said. “They know secrets we only found out last night.” He cocked his hip and rested one hand on Stormcaller’s hilt as he spoke. “Yeah, our mothers told us everything last night, just in time for the village to be attacked by Celesdine soldiers. Or...demons, more like.”

“Our mothers…” Terrisa began.

“Are hiding in the caves under Mycoton,” Horax said.

“We think they’re safe,” Terrisa said. “But the soldiers burned Mycoton.”

Remont looked to Ky, and they conversed silently for a few moments.

“You can use it too?” Horax said. “Thought speech?”

Terrisa frowned. “Are you twins?”

Ky broke eye contact with her sibling. “No. Siblings descended from the old royal court can use it, twins or not.” She grinned. “Unfortunately, they’re older than me.”

Remont gave a light sniff. “Please, sister. We must make a plan. Are you being followed?”

Terrisa shook her head. “Not that we have seen. But...we did spare a wizard. I don’t know if he knew who we are, but if he did, the soldiers know we escaped the tunnels.”

“That was foolish,” Remont said. “You must learn to be decisive. These people will not spare your lives if given the chance.”

“That’s not true,” Horax said.

Terrisa picked up her fallen arrow. “How did you knock this down without me seeing?”

“Oh!” Ky said. She snapped her fingers--and darkness cloaked her. She all but vanished amongst the forest shadows.

Horax startled. “You’re a wizard, too!”

Ky reappeared, smiling. “You probably can be too, with training.”

Horax opened his mouth, but Remont interrupted and cleared their throat. “We have a task at hand. It is now imperative that we escort the Deysprings to Crookhaven to see the queen.”

“Our mom? You mean our mom?” Ky said. “Gods above and below--you’re always so weird when we meet new people. Let’s go then, back to the bridge. It’s the fastest way back.”

“No!” Terrisa said. “My girlfriend, she’s missing!”

“Is anyone else interested in learning how I can become a wizard?” Horax said, but nobody responded to him.

“If the stories are to be believed,” Remont said. “The Red Forest is full of untold dangers. Has something taken her?”

Eon retrieved Terrisa’s longbow from behind their pack and offered it to her. She took it and gave a curt nod. “Yes,” she said. “There were these little winged people. They shot us and then scattered a powder...I collapsed.”

“The grotto,” Horax said. “One of them said they had to take Sorrel to the grotto.”

“Winged people,” Ky said.

“Grotto,” said Remont. They looked to Eon. “Any ideas?”

“I’m sorry, your highness,” Eon said. “I know little of the Red Forest.”

Terrisa pushed past Horax and Ky. “Get out of the way. I can track her.”

“Should we be concerned about the winged people?” Remont asked.

“Probably,” said Horax.

Terrisa ignored them and bent to view the ground in the dark. She saw the area she and Horax had laid unconscious, and their footsteps into the area. She also found the direction Remont, Ky, and Eon had come from. The only marks leading out of the clearing went in another direction entirely.

“I have it,” Terrisa said. “Stay behind me and don’t obscure the trail.”

She followed the trail mechanically, her thoughts distracted. What could those winged people possibly want with Sorrel? Surely they were guardians of some kind, protectors of the shroom Horax had taken from. Maybe spirits of the forest, fell warriors of the woods. The several arrow-wounds she had received had stopped bleeding while she was unconscious, but they still hurt. She glanced behind her. Horax was following, along with the others. He kept poking his thumb against the arrow wound in the palm of his hand, wincing every time. Terrisa wasn’t sure if she should feel sympathy or exasperation.

As Terrisa continued to follow the trail, she vaguely heard Horax asking Remont about their armor. Eon joined Remont in the explanation, but it concerned Terrisa little.

“What’s your girlfriend like?”

Terrisa startled. She hadn’t realized Princess Ky had fallen in step beside her. “Sorrel? She’s an artist--a painter. None of us knew what Horax and I would have to do, until last night. But now...she wants to learn to fight.” Terrisa stooped to touch a perfect footprint left behind by the nymph in question. “I think she’ll be good at it.”

Ky knelt next to her and draped an arm across Terrisa’s shoulders. “I’m sure we’ll find her, my lady.”

Terrisa’s cheeks warmed in the darkness despite the frosty atmosphere.

“I think,” Terrisa said. “She was taken by shroom fairies. I’ve never seen one before, but my mama told me stories about them.” She straightened up and continued along the trail. “They’re woodland spirits that live in the Red Forest, protecting the shrooms that live here.” Terrisa tossed a dreadlock behind her shoulder and smiled. “Mama never mentioned the shrooms were this huge.”

“Why? How big are they normally?” Ky asked.

Terrisa snorted. “What? Haven’t you seen a shroom before?”

“Cut up in a soup,” Ky said. “Sure. Do I look like a farmer to you?”

“I’m a farmer,” Terrisa said, feeling defensive. She glanced at Ky, who even in the dim light looked uncomfortable.

“You were a farmer,” Ky said. “Now you reclaim your birthright as a warrior.”

Terrisa looked down at the ground as she picked her way among the redwood scales and fallen branches. “I suppose...”

In her peripheral vision, she saw Kyanite shake her head before falling back to walk beside the prince.

The ground sloped ever downwards, though it was gradual and nothing like the steep drop from the upper forest into the depths. And the further down they traveled, the more shrooms grew. Terrisa saw what she was sure were iron and flameshrooms, but many, many times their normal side. And though it was normal for flameshrooms to glow a faint orange, here it was brighter. Mycoton’s ironshrooms did not glow at all, but here they did--a slate color, as a lantern made of dark, clouded crystal. Terrisa thought she recognized a few other shroom species by their shape, but all of them had an unnatural size and glow.

Finally, Terrisa spotted something ahead and stopped. Her entourage stopped behind her.

“What?” Horax asked.

Terrisa pointed ahead to the obstacle. A wall of giant shrooms, almost waist-high, stretched before them--growing so close together that some of them touched, varied species and many-colored lights. The wall curved very slightly as it stretched out to the left and the right before disappearing into the dark in both directions.

“It’s pretty,” Horax said.

“It’s a fairy ring,” Terrisa said.

“Then we go around,” Prince Remont said. They gestured to their sister and their valet. “Eon, with me, to the left. Kyanite, take the Deysprings around the right. Nobody crosses the shroom ring. We meet on the other side.”

Terrisa sniffed in annoyance. Remont had a good plan, but Terrisa still resented being told what to do by someone she met an hour ago. “Fine,” she said.

Ky waved her staff and cloaked herself in darkness, melting into the shadows. Terrisa exchanged glances with Horax.

I don’t even know if I like them, Terrisa said in thought-speech.

Really? Horax thought. Eon and Remont are all right.

Terrisa scoffed and followed the shroom circle around to the right. She couldn’t quite tell where Ky was, but supposed she must be nearby. If Kyanite wasn’t who she said she was, it would be easy for her to slit Terrisa’s throat in the dark. Terrisa shivered. She just had to trust that Remont and Ky were really the children of the queen her mothers sent her to find.

Ky did not slit her throat in the dark, and after a few minutes of carefully wending their way around the fairy ring, Terrisa’s group met back up with Remont and Eon on the far side. Terrisa bet to search for more footprints, but found none. She relayed this to the others.

“Very well then,” Prince Remont said. “We either leave your Sorrel behind, or enter the fairy ring.”

“We’re not leaving her behind,” Terrisa said. She looked to Horax and raised her eyebrows, but when he didn’t respond, she snapped her fingers.

“Oh!” Horax said. “No, definitely not, we’re going to get Sorrel. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

Horax drew Stormcaller, and before anyone could lift a finger, he jumped into the shroom circle.