Temperance’s sister, Elara, had always been different. While other children played, she wandered into the woods, her soft voice murmuring to creatures no one else could see. Born with the gift to speak to the Mystical Beasts of the Horde, she was stunning—radiant in both beauty and presence—but it wasn’t people she charmed.
The beasts came to her, great hulking things with shimmering scales or midnight feathers, their loyalty fierce. Elara spent more time with them than with humans, but that suited her fine. In their company, she felt alive, understood in a way no person could offer. She preferred the wild chaos of the Horde’s magic to any conversation over tea.