“I’m afraid the rest of the story isn’t very interesting,” Karnisal continued. “I awoke a little while later, not sure how much time I had been unconscious for, and then went to look at what was left of my home. There wasn’t anything. There was an impact crater and there was some rubble, but the city itself seemed to be completely gone. I spent what must have been weeks looking over every part of the crater, hoping to find even a hint of my family but to no avail. I also didn’t see Sorda during that time. It wasn’t until much later that I heard about him again, although his name had changed to Sorda’Thun at this point. What it means I don’t know.” Karnisal sighed. “I searched for several decades for any sign of Kanarth and its people but eventually had to admit that I was making no progress and moved on with my life. I joined a small tribe of elven wanderers who would eventually go on to become the first villagers of Milinia. Due to the years of going around searching for the leftovers of Kanarth, I apparently became known as Karnisal the wanderer just like how Sorda came to be known as Sorda’Thun the wanderer. I eventually settled down but as far as I know, Sorda is still going around searching for something. We spoke twice after the fall of Kanarth, both instances were very brief and at least over a century ago.”
Karnisal looked at the room and more specifically at Mirgia. “You have questions.”
Mirgia nodded. There was a lot to unpack. He ordered her thoughts before asking, “Ankh said that Sorda’Thun is not welcome in Milinia, and you’ve conveyed similar ideas to me in the past. Why is that? He seems like a troubled person from what you’ve told us, but there are no indications that he would be a danger to our town. Wouldn’t it be good for him to return to family?”
Karnisal nodded. “You’re right in a general sense. The reason I set those boundaries is due to my own cowardice. As much as I want to believe that it was a simply a coincidence, the fact that Sorda had just returned to Kanarth and vanished in the evening of the fall makes it almost hard for me not to believe that he was involved. I would be very happy to sit down with him and talk it out, see what he has to say and how he was involved. But until I have that certainty, I want to keep him out of the city. If for whatever reason he insists on coming here, at the very least that means I’ll be informed by the guards beforehand and can set up a meeting on my own terms. As for why Ankh said the same thing, I don’t know. Maybe he heard Sorda say something to that extent at some point – although I don’t know why he would know he’s not allowed here – and parotted it to add believability to his claim. Or perhaps it really is Sorda, I don’t know.”
They looked around the room for other questions.
Teddy spoke up. “What can we do to help you reconcile with him? Family is important and from what I hear, this Sorda figure has scarcely little of it.”
Karnisal smiled. “That’s very kind of you to say. I’m glad Mirgia found some good friends lately.” They looked at a small vase on the desk. “If my guess is correct, this Ankh figure might be a way to find out more about what Sorda is and has been up to. If we can get information about him, maybe it’s time to find out the truth. Especially if we are going to need his help in dealing with the suddenly emerging shards of Kanarth. This is probably the most troubling part of the news. Parts of my old city that I thought had vanished for all eternity are suddenly showing up in different places throughout the continent. We don’t know how many of them there are, how widespread they are and how dangerous these shards can be. Maybe they’re in the same state they were in when the city vanished all that time ago, or maybe they continued to change throughout the centuries. There is truly no predicting how dangerous this could become.”
Teddy nodded. “Glad things didn’t go worse than they did in Redsan then. Although we did end up losing some good people.”
The party fell quiet.
“Well,” Karnisal clapped their hands together. “We’ll have rooms prepared for our guests and you are free to enjoy our wonderful city for a bit. I shall prepare to leave within a few days alongside you, if I can convince the council that it’s a good idea.” They paused. “Or at least convince them that it’s not a terrible idea.” They looked at Mirgia. “Would you be able to join me for that meeting?”
Mirgia nodded. “That should be fine.”
“Good, I’d like them to hear your input too if I want to convince those stuck-up old elves to let me leave town.”
“Aren’t you the oldest one here?” Mirgia replied.
“Alright, go on and give your friends a tour, I’ll call for you later,” Karnisal said, cutting off the conversation there.

“There are probably a few places that you want to see, but I have an idea for the first place we should visit.” Mirgia said.
“Dionil?” Kimi asked.
“That wasn’t what I was thinking of, but if you want to see the old sage then I think we can make some time to do that. Probably not today since I need to stay nearby for when Karnisal needs me.”
Kimi nodded. “Alright, maybe tomorrow then.”
“Tomorrow should be fine. Come, follow me,” he said to all of them as he made his way across a bridge to a nearby tree where he knew he might find a friend of his. Due to their long lives, many elves would spend a lot of their youth finding out what kind of craft or crafts they wanted to devote their lives to. Some elves would try making different things throughout their lives and shift their interests while others would find one thing to focus on and work until they’d perfected it beyond a doubt. Salima was a friend of Mirgia who fell into the first category. As soon as she figured out how to do something she would be interested in something else and the cycle would start over again. And if anyone had the weird skills required for the idea he had then it would be her. She had a workshop nearby and at this time of day she would likely be found there. They turned the corner and along the walkway that circled all the way around the large tree next to Karnisal’s office before going across another bridge to a smaller tree. On this tree was another walkway but this one spiraled down at an angle around the tree from the top all the way to the ground. Their destination was towards the bottom of this tree so the group descended the walkway until they stood in front of a small door leading into a small workshop. And small in this case means small enough that when all four of them went inside, it was basically full. Sitting at a wooden desk with a metal plate attached to the top as well as several different fabrics that were attached to it by one corner so they could easily be placed on top of it if needed was an elven woman. Long red hair tied into a ponytail covered her back and a handkerchief was wrapped around her head to absorb sweat. She was fervently carving at some sort of strange mechanism. “I really should have brought Cassandra here when she visited,” Mirgia said to himself.
Startled by the sudden sound of someone speaking, the woman dropped her chisel and almost fell off of her chair.
“Mirgia, could you not creep up behind me like that?” She said angrily to him.
He smiled. “We knocked three times but you didn’t respond.”
“Really?” She asked, suddenly doubting herself.
“He’s lying,” Kimi said.
“That’s what I figured.” She sighed and turned around on her chair. “What do you want?”
“I have an idea for a strange little gadget, and you seem like the perfect person to make me one.”
“Continue.”
“My friend Rolin here,” he pointed at Rolin, “has special eyes.”
“Nice to meet you,” Rolin said, opening his eyes to show her.
“Fascinating.” She got up and walked up to Rolin, getting close into his face. “How peculiar, they’re like refracting crystals of light that somehow manage to reflect every part of the spectrum through different edges of the iris and somehow fracture even more the deeper into the eye you go.”
“None of that made sense to me,” Rolin said.
“It probably doesn’t make sense to begin with,” Mirgia said. “But can you make him some glasses that’ll mute the effect of the world around him?”
“So you want me to somehow invert the refracting into a way that makes the colors more cohesive?”
“Sure, I think that makes sense. Basically I want you to give him something to block out the sun, but instead of blocking out the sun it’ll need to block out different colors to turn the world into a more muted state.”
“Interesting.” She grabbed the side of Rolin’s head with one hand and put her fingers on his eyelids, keeping them open as she studied his eyes.
“Is she always like this?” Rolin asked, clearly uncomfortable with what was happening.
Mirgia whacked her on the back of the head. “Unfortunately, she is.”
“Salima, can you do it?”
She nodded. “Give me a couple of days and send this guy over tomorrow so I can see what exactly is going on with his eyes and test out some theories, but I think I can make something like that for you.”
Mirgia smiled. “That’s great to hear.” He looked at this friends. “Want to take a walk around the rest of town then?” He asked them.
“Very much so,” Teddy said. “I worry your friend is going to want to study me too if we linger for too long.”
Salima didn’t even seem to hear his remark, she was already back in her chair and pushing her current project off to the side while drawing up sketches for these new glasses.
“She’s a lot like Cassandra,” Kimi commented.
Mirgia nodded. “Very similar. Come on, let’s go.”