Breakfast was uncommonly quiet and reflective in the Mathiasan home on their first morning in the Crossing. After four days of traveling preceded by a week of packing settling into their new home would be nothing short of restful.

Pata was certainly the most excited. From his seat at the table he saw his new workshop - a large barn three times the size of his old shop and a place where he could teach his children the woodworking skills his father had taught him.

Pata’s wife Martia had other ideas for the barn. She was planning on buying animals for their farm to provide food for their family. And a garden. She would plant a garden. She smiled at the thought of a garden; back in Sparr they lived in the city and having a garden - let alone any space outside to call their own - was only a dream. But now a garden and animals right outside! She smiled at Pata who smiled back.

Jahan, the oldest child at fourteen, was the least happy with the move. Only months away from finishing his formal schooling and beginning a job working for a merchant, he was taken away from the life he knew, from his friends, and from his future and he angry. He knew that more than a little bit of himself was still in Sparr. So he sat at the breakfast table in silent anger as he did during the four day journey away from what he knew would always be his home.

Tim, the youngest, also sat and ate quietly, still shaken from the dream he just awoke from. He could still see the creatures in his mind and he felt them in dark corners of the room. He couldn’t tell his parents about them; they’d say it was just a dream. But he knew it was more. Jahan would make fun of him if he told; being scared wasn’t acceptable. So Tim sat quietly hoping the day would dissolve the images from his mind and that the night would bring peace.

And when Tim heard a knock on the door he jumped out of his chair and fell on the floor and had everyone watching him he knew he hated this place.

* * *

The Tratria Tavern had always been the center of social life in the Crossing. The ale, warm. The food, inedible. The conversations, engrossing. And in the few days since a body was fished out of the Sellajan River, Macuh, the town’s mayor, sequestered himself in a dark corner of the Tratria. He conducted official business slouched in his corner and his wife would pull him away when she thought it best he be home. Overall the drinking and the hiding worked for him.

In the days that passed since the body was found Macuh followed the directions his friend Ma’Tahn gave him about telling the Chromatta and he hoped that they would soon walk into the tavern in their flowing red habiliments, give him a cryptic speech, and take care of the problem. But if that were to happen Ma’Tahn would have told him. And Ma’Tahn seemed to know things…

Outside Macuh heard horses whinnying and then voices of strangers giving orders to a young Elfkin. Then three Humans dressed in dusty riding clothes burst through the door and stopped, looked around, and the man in the middle pointed a finger at Macuh and the three walked over.

"You’re the man in charge?" the Human asked.

"Elfkin."

"Good. I need you to do the following. Take us to the body you found; bring your old friend, the traveller, to us; and then we need to see this Midnight person. Can you do that?" As he spoke the woman with him stared at the mayor and the other man glanced around the room taking the space in for some untold reason.

"The body." Macuh straightened up in his chair to appear larger. "It’s in the jail. Safe." He knew that sounded stupid. "As for Ma’Tahn, I don’t know where he is. He left and I’m not sure where he went."

"I see," the Human sounded annoyed. "You don’t know where he is?"

"I don’t know where he lives."

"And Midnight?"

"I don’t know."

The man in the middle looked at this companions and shook his head. "Of course not. Anything you can in fact help us with?"

"Who are you?"

The man smiled. "We’re from the Chromatta. We’re searchers. Something odd is happening and not just here. And the quicker we find out what the better off you’ll be. Understand?"

"What do you mean? Better off?"

The smile faded from the mans face. "I don’t know how to say this…"

The woman put her hand on the man’s shoulder. "Best to lay it all out." She looked right into Macuh’s eyes and calmly said, "An army is coming and they’ll kill all of you.

"Now," she continued, "can we see the body?"