A few months later, in Silvercrook, a small rowboat returned from a days-long reconnaissance mission. The occupants first sailed through the district of the working elves...
...to then sail through the neighborhoods of the nobility....
....until they arrived deep in the forest at the royal quarters.
Aermir, which meant something like Light of the Wanderer, instructed his partner to inform the queen of what they had discovered, while he went to assemble a team.
When Aerdil, or Song of the Wind, arrived at Queen Isolde's, the two of them sat on a bench on the terrace in the ethereal sunlight.
And then Aerdil began to tell about the ruins of an ancient civilization that she and Aermir had discovered.
How the grand walls and gates of a great city testified to the fact that thousands of people must have lived there, and how these now served as a refuge for the small and medium-sized creatures of the forest.
The avenues seemed endless and all led to a single central point.
A series of possible watchtowers that guarded the access to a small building.
Something that looked like a small temple, but to which she and Aermir had no access. The small door remained tightly shut, guarded by a glowing light that only grew more intense with their desperate attempts.