Valina sat quietly on her bed while Chalea paced back and forth. She had only seen her teacher this concerned twice before.

“Did you find anything out?” Chalea asked.

“Old wives’ tales, mostly,” Valina said. “A monster out in the woods, the ghost of an old Bloodsold that haunts the valley, forest goblins that roam around in tribes. Nonsense, basically.”

“I see. I might have to look into this myself.”

“At least we found him. What do we do about ...