Missing in Action

‘I’m not accustomed to joking,’ he said. ‘You will repay the debt. It seems just and logical to me.‘

The elf said nothing for a while. He rode so close he was touching her knee.

‘I can’t leave – I can’t just leave her to her fate. She’s completely alone… She cannot be left alone, Dandelion. You’ll never understand that. No one will ever understand that, but I know. If she remains alone, the same thing will happen to her as once happened to me… You’ll never understand that…’

‘‘An elven mandala,’ he said soon after, raising his head. ‘The so-called blathan caerme, or garland of destiny: stylised oak blossom, bridewort and broom flowers. A tower being struck by lightning–a symbol of chaos and destruction, for the Old Races… And above the tower–’

‘A swallow,’ Ciri completed. ‘Zireael. My name.’

“I am just a legend.”