Diana's expression softened. She poured tea for all three of them, then settled into the third chair, holding her cup with both hands as if drawing warmth from the porcelain.
They drank in companionable silence for a minute or two, the ritual of tea providing a small anchor of normalcy in circumstances that were anything but normal.
Finally, Angelina set down her cup and looked at Augusta.
"I received a letter this morning," she said.
"From Felaern."
Augusta's eyebrows rose slightly.
Felaern was a name from the past, a connection to a part of her mother's history that Augusta had always known about but never fully understood.
"What did he say?" Augusta asked.
"He's heard about what happened," Angelina replied.
"News of the battle has spread even to Autumnhold, apparently. The elven kingdoms are... concerned about what Angus attempted. The use of chaos magic on that scale, the attempt to reshape reality—it's the kind of thing that affects more than just human lands."
