"Wow! Look at that - you've learned so much since I've been away -" 

"Why did you have to go away for so long? I missed you!" 

Vanyel squeezes Brightstar tightly, before setting him down in the meadow to follow Moondance. "I know, ke'chara. I know. But the war might be over soon." 

Moondance glances back at Cam. "We are nearly there. Just this way..." 

The barrier surrounding the Vale doesn't look like anything, from more than fifty yards away - Cam's eyes sort of blur and bounce away from the area, but at a glance it seems to only be more rocks and twisted trees. 

At twenty yards' distance, though, the shimmering soap-bubble surface slips in and out of sight. From ten yards, he can start to see through it. There are still rocks and trees on the other side, but the shapes and colours are different. 

Moondance stops just in front of the barrier, turns, and holds out his hand to Cam. "With me?" 

"Okay -" Handhold.

Vanyel finishes hugging Brightstar, sets him down, and follows Cam and Moondance through the barrier. 

It feels tingly and strange to cross, and then suddenly the air feels different, moister and balmier. They're entirely surrounded by green; the cobblestoned path twisting ahead into the tree has an arched canopy of vines and leaves above it, and dense shrubbery on either side, many of the plants laden with flowers and fruits. A flock of tiny, brightly-coloured birds with slender needle-shaped beaks, startled by their passage, takes off from where they've been feeding from a cluster of flowers the size of babies' heads. 

Vanyel's breath eases out in a sigh of what sounds like relief, his shoulders fully relaxing for the first time since Cam met him. "Ah, gods, it's good to be back." 

"We missed you, Wingbrother. It has been too long." His eyes play over Vanyel. "And this war has - not treated you kindly." 

His smile dims. "No. It hasn't been good for anyone, but I - I was alone out there, Moondance. The only mage on the Border. For over a year." 

"Well, it is over now." 

Vanyel glances at Cam. "It's not over. Not yet." 

"This is a nice place," Cam remarks blandly, not sure what to say to that.

"Thank you!" Moondance grins cheerfully at him. "We have worked very hard on it since the Vale last moved. Though of course our hertasi ought have much of the credit. Anyway - this way! I will tell my shay'kreth'ashke that you are here, you should meet him."  

"His partner Starwind is the Speaker for the Vale," Vanyel explains. "Closest thing the Tayledras have to a leader or chief, I guess." 

Brightstar bounds ahead down the path. 

"What's a hertasi?"

"They are friends of our people. They take care of us very well." 

"Er, they're a created species," Vanyel clarifies. "They're - intelligent lizards, more or less. They moved in with the Tayledras after the Cataclysm, they're...you could call them a sort of caretakers or servants, I guess. We may not see any, they're very sneaky." 

"Interesting, I'd like to see one but if they prefer to hide I guess that's valid."

“I too was very curious about the hertasi, when I first came to k’Treva. If you do wish to meet one of them, you might go alone to one of the forest clearings, and call out. One of their elders did eventually speak with me, that way.”

"Neat, I will do that when I get the chance."

Moondance nods, then gestures ahead. “And here we are!” 

The hot springs do not look especially naturally-occurring; there are two different tiers of stone tub, the lower one draining away into a little stream that vanished underground again a yard later. 

Moondance, with no sign of self-consciousness, starts stripping off his robes.