The true reason was that, from the beginning, the little Pixie was able to do something that she, Nevana, was incapable of. Malina loved Ralph. And her love was unconditional.
‘But if my love were unconditional, what then?’ she thought to herself. ‘Are not all things possible, where unconditional love is concerned? At least, that is how it always happens in romantic stories.’
Stories! This is real life! Consider what your eyes behold!
But Nevana had no wish to accept the evidence of her eyes. What good had that ever done her? Her life, such as it was, was not worth looking at.
So her attention began to turn elsewhere. It began to turn inward, to the voice that began telling her only what she wanted to hear . . .
They were moving again within the hour. Birin, whom they had seen little of, approached Pran and Ralph with a heightened sense of urgency. He pointed to a break in the mountains far to the west. ‘There lies the end of the Elf Kingdom.’ he said. ‘Beyond that gap there is no road, and no certain knowledge.’
‘But I thought that your ancestors came from that direction,’ said Ralph. ‘Wasn’t there a road, or a trail? Didn’t they make any maps of their travels?’