*Ryatt*

I tap my pen against my thigh as I lean back in my desk chair. The view beyond the windows in my office is blurred by a gray haze of drizzling rain. It’s late winter, dawning on spring, which means it’s the rainy season in Veiled Valley. Every morning the sun shines and gives a false sense of warmer weather before the clouds roll in off the mountains–heavy and dark–and rattle the entire valley with storms. 

Ella doesn’t seem to mind the rain. She likes the ...