The transition from one world to another was difficult. She’d grown during the time she’d left Caeleste, leaving behind everything and everyone she knew. Wanderlust had pierced her heart and she’d let it sink deep into her body, pulsing in every part of her – but she did not go alone. Forever at her side, lumbering and faithful, Karsi went with her. And for the time between growing and learning, Ciaran Zhaoiani looked for a short time for her family.

But found nothing – and she was alone. She felt it heavier on her mind that she’d left them all, including Mauna, he who was truly dear to her but she’d see him again one day as well. For now, the girl who had become a young woman wanted to learn more about the world that had been beyond the prison, the cage of the forest.

She was never meant to be in one place forever.

And now, this was a merely step in her journey along the pathway that lead from one world to another, realms opening alongside the next – and along the new path she’d stepped and found herself in a world she didn’t know. Nothing was the same, everything was different. A wayfarer stopped and spoke, and she gleaned a little information that she needed – and a title and a destination to go to.

The Day Court, heralded by a woman called Seraphina. The name of the land, Novus – and Solterra where she would go, after she’d walked the edge of the ocean and wondered how far across it she was.

No words were spoken between Karsi and Ciaran. The woman did stop though, and the ocean breeze coursed through her feathers and cooled her skin. She stood out here, but she was not concerned – and she wanted to know.

It had been some time since she’d been in the company of another equine.

Hopefully, she would remember her courtesies.

Ciaran Zhaoiani