"Oh you thought our world was the dark reflection of yours?" The man laughed. "That's quite the reversal. Your world is so terrible that we exile the worst of our criminals to your world."

That stopped my accusations flat. "What?"

"Any being that cannot…

Elden was always such an obliging person: a foster mother to me, who took better care of me than my own mam, always had been. There was nothing she wouldn't do for me, no tear too small to wipe away, no threat too menacing to face.

At eleven I was plagued…