Book excerpt: In appearance, Elfhaven is back to normal after its bloody battle with Widdow's army. Elfhaven formed a new council, Talissa and Varth are wedded, Twila and Shamlin's wounds have healed, Glenis is still comatose, and Frey continues to be a constant irritant to Varth. However, the actions of Treynus are anything but ordinary. He barricaded himself in Tanaya's Temple, still irrefutably shaken by a revelation presented to him by Tanaya--a surmised prediction on Elfhaven's current struggle of an unknown origin supposedly more dangerous than Widdow when she lived. When summoned to the council, Talissa is dismayed to receive only bits and pieces of what Treynus has learned. Her real shock comes when she hears that she, along with a select group of elves, will be sent on a quest to Alvagore, a mountainous region of Kilgarn, to seek out a Crystallite named Avera. Talissa let it be known that the concept of spending days or even weeks looking for an elusive creature, which does not want to be found in the first place, was nightmarish. Treynus's response was to inform her that if this new threat was not eliminated before reaching the peak of its power, she would have a new definition for the word.