Perhaps today would be different. Perhaps today, Elowyn would be able to travel through the town without buying something she shouldn’t. She loved all the jewelry, feathers, and fine cloth one could see in the market. She longed to be wealthy, to be able to buy whichever beads or baskets she wanted.

But Elowyn was not wealthy. She wasn’t poor either. Her guardian reminded her regularly that they were lucky to have what they did. They didn’t have to beg or borrow for their food.

So Elowyn would do as she always did, hang her head, and walk with a faster stride. She ignored the sellers who called as she passed. They always targeted her, knowing her weakness, and that her guardian gave her more than needed for supplies.

She was rather unremarkable looking considering the commotion she caused. She was neither pretty nor plain. She was a bit short, brown hair, brown eyes, brown skin, not by birth but by being in the sun too long. Granted, she was decidedly different looking from the average population of Suditi with her thin face, pointed nose, and pale, freckled skin. The average Suditian had prominent cheekbones, beautifully tan skin from birth, and flatter noses.

Elowyn stopped to pet a beautiful rainbow bird and feed fruit to a monkey, but hurried off again when the tamer began to recognize her.

After buying the needed supplies, Elowyn took a lesser populated path out of the city. It would take her longer to reach home, but she did not mind. The forest was her pretend palace. She was free to run and climb and flicker through the leaves like a ray of sunlight. She would collect large leaves and stick them in her hair, pretending to be a Fire Priestess. Or she’d find feathers and wear them on her clothes like the Batab’s daughters.

The Batab were the town leaders, the intermediaries between the king and his subjects. The Batab’s daughters always wore fine skirts and sashes with feathers.

The forest was also where she practiced her magic. This is where she first discovered it. As a small child, she would find injured animals and help them, mending broken wings, predator bites, and even hunters' marks.

Word spread and soon women would bring their sick children or wounded husbands. Elowyn never turned away a human to be healed. Very few came to her, though, local superstition held that lumomancers were tricksters, not to be trusted.

But some still came. And with every human wound that Elowyn healed, her fame, or infamy grew. And she had the disconcerting feeling that someday the limit would be reached. Young girls who were different would become a sacrifice to the gods.

This thought frightened her. She believed in the angels and the demons, the powers behind them, but she could not stomach the idea of sacrificing life in an attempt to gain favor.

"Where have you been?! I've been calling for you all day!" Nayeli, Elowyn's guardian, came out of the hut, her face a mask of perturbation.

Elowyn held up the bag of supplies.

"I bought everything we need for the fire celebration."

Nayeli's face softened when she picked a leaf from Elowyn’s hair.

"I suppose there’s worse trouble you could get into than pretending to be a priestess."

She received the bag then pulled Elowyn into an embrace.

"I have something for you."

She led Elowyn into the hut and guided her to where Nayeli kept her few possessions. A clay pot full of beads and shells, a handful of Nevarian artifacts like a book and a quill, a Nevarian wool blanket, and a woven basket full of cloth and sewing supplies that Eloywn had never bothered to investigate as she hated sewing.

Nayeli took the basket and pulled the cloth off the top. She gently lifted the contents out.

It was a Nevarian dress. It was white and red with simple gold embroidery. Nayeli handed it to Elowyn, who held it up. On her, it would probably reach the ground.

"I bought it from a Nevarian trader. It’s similar to the one your mother was... found in."

Elowyn smiled and thanked her. She took off the light Suditian clothing she was wearing and slid the dress on. It indeed reached the floor and was loose around the chest, where Elowyn had only just begun to grow.

"It's very warm." Elowyn tugged at the sleeves. She was not used to having so much skin covered.

"It is very cold in Nevar."

Despite its heat retention, Elowyn wore the dress the remainder of the evening. And despite Nayeli's objections, she wore it as she walked the beach, the white fabric luminescent in the moonlight.

Elowyn preferred the night. It was calm and cool.

As she walked barefoot through the white sand, she was careful to keep her dress from being dampened by the ocean. She was startled by a shout across the water. Elowyn looked up to see a ship. A Thanan ship. And there were boats being launched from it toward land.

This was not an unusual sight. Thanan ships often stopped at Cera for trade, and Cera was the gateway to the mainland of Suditi.

These ships never came at night though. If they arrived in darkness, they would anchor and wait till the day to send boats out. So Elowyn's curiosity was piqued. She could see that the lead boats had men on horses. That too was peculiar.

The men on the boats soon filled the beach. One man on a horse, she assumed he was the leader by his position ahead of the others and by the superior way that he held himself, directed himself toward Elowyn.

For a second, she thought of running, of avoiding any contact. But she decided against it. She calculated the chances of him meaning to harm her were slim. Besides, he was on a horse and would easily catch her anyway.

"Hello there. May I ask you..." He spoke in Suditian, but he stopped when they were in full view of each other. He was an older, rough-looking man. A soldier by the look of his clothes. He had a beard and dark eyes. Probably Thanan or Nevarian given his lighter skin.

Any other person could not have seen so much in the dark, but Elowyn could see in the darkness. A quirk of lumomancy, she guessed.

"Do you speak Nevarian?" He motioned to the dress she wore.

"I speak both Nevarian and Suditian," she responded in Nevarian.

"Good, I prefer Nevarian. I know it's late, but I must speak to the Batab of this tribe. It's of grave importance. Can you take me to him?"

Elowyn nodded and motioned for him to follow her. She jogged down a forest path, the man and his soldiers following her on horseback. Those not on horses stayed with the boats on the beach.

Elowyn led them through the forest and to the city. As they weaved through the huts on the outskirts, faces peered through doorways at the sound of the horses. Horses were rare in Suditi, usually only owned by Thanan immigrants. Occasionally they would gift a pony to a Suditian elder or leader.

As she approached the guards outside of the palace they voluntarily stepped aside to allow the horses to pass. Evidently, they recognized the man from Thana.

He dismounted his horse and approached the guard. They spoke in a hushed tone for a minute. Elowyn took this as her opportunity to leave. She disappeared back into the forest without anyone noticing that she was gone.