There, is a swelling storm

And it takes control

Of the person that I thought I was

The boy I used to know

Waves, Dean Lewis

(I tend to edit my fanfics a lot, so you may want to check the old chapters once in a while, just saying)

Linh stood at Umber's tree at the Wanderling Woods. Something in her had been drawn, day by day, here. The day she saw it, some part of her had snagged on the tree's cream-coloured bark, silvery blue flowers and jet black tips and its long, slender branches. Keefe had jokingly asked if she was dating the tree; everybody had rolled their eyes, laughing silently.

The wind whipped her hair into her face; she brushed it off impatiently. She'd looked at Biana, to see if she was laughing too. Linh's annoying habit. Humans, they don't know much, compared to elves, but their psychology tips, they were what put the puzzle together.

Well, no use here staring at a tree, looking for something even she didn't know what is. It'll come to her sooner or later.

She turned and left, wondering where to sleep. No way she was going to sleep in Choralmere, and she would rather not let Sophie know that Linh had been, in a way, homeless for the past week.

Or it maybe it was that Linh really wanted to go to Everglen.

She sighed, really?

She didn't even need the answer.

Giving up, she light leaped to the gates of Everglen, forming a hand of water to attract their attention. She saw a motion at the window next to the stairs, and evaporated the water.

For a moment, all she saw was the chocolate hair, and slim figure, her heart leaping as she thought it was Biana, but then her heart fell as she registered that it was Della.

Brain, honestly, she had been letting me sleep here at times in the past few weeks.

Her brain remained unconvinced.

Della smiled at Linh. "Do you want to borrow one of the rooms again?"

Linh smiled too. "Yes, thank you. Though it's a very low bar, this is way better than Choralmere." Of course. Every moment in Choralmere, Linh could feel how her father wanted her to disappear.

Della nodded, showing Linh inside. Linh was still getting used to Everglen. She's used to splendor, of course: Quan was, and still is, very obsessed with appearances. What was the strange to her is the simple, relatively speaking, way they decorated it, unlike how Choralmere is: impossible to describe without purple prose.

"Linh!" Biana exclaimed, grinning as she flew down the stairs, making Linh's heart kick. Biana grabbed her arm. "Keefe just sent us something you have to see."

Biana brought her to the far end of the reception hall, towards a painting. A lump rose in Linh's throat. It was like the Vacker Paintings or the paintings Keefe had done for the Ruewens, but this one featured Tam and Linh. I figured it was just you guys who are missing paintings. Welcome to the family, he wrote under his signature.

Biana touched it gently, "he didn't want to send it to Choralmere, and he knew you were coming here a lot, so he gave it to us." She saw Linh's expression and grinned. "He said he used plants and lapis for the paint. I hope you aren't allergic."

Fitz called out something that Linh didn't hear, but Biana did. Her ears turned pink. "Anyways, yeah. I wanted to show you that."

Linh grinned at her. "Thank Keefe for me. I have a feeling that if I do, he'll just tease me."