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Ulani nodded thoughtfully. "In the same way that Serenity, when she changes shape, changes only her shape," she murmured, "but remains fully elvish. Again, an ability, and not changing what you are."

She smiled. "I can understand that."

Now if only others of their world could do the same. Serenity still wasn't accepted in most populated areas. The Borderlands were truly unique in that regard. Though it seemed she and Beren did all right in the Eastland ...

Ulani chuckled softly at Feng and Ryu's little discussion, and at Lin's question she smiled widely. "They're going wonderfully," she replied warmly. "They're doing a lot of traveling. They come back here, off and on, but they spend quite a bit of time in the Eastland now. With Pen and Lothiriel and their children. They're still wary of the Southland, though they do visit Gion and Nadya once in a while. At least once every two years or so."

Ulrich chuckled. "And everywhere in between, don't forget," he grinned. "They really don't have one particular place where they call home. Their children are all grown, some have children of their own, in that respect they no longer have any ties. As long as they have each other, as long as they're with each other, they don't care where they are, or what they're doing, or what their future will bring."

He grinned at Ulani. "Kind of reminds me of us," he added.

"Can't hold that against them," Ulani grinned back.

Ulrich went to the counter and poured himself a cup of water from the pitcher that was always there.

"Well, other than the hunts, life has been pretty quiet," he smiled. "Much as it should be. Of course, with grandchildren and even a greatgrandchild now, we've been kept busy."

"Though Adanedhel looks more after Ecthelion's training," Ulani added. "And Rhea's mostly finished her training, so I don't do as much with her anymore ... sadly. Though since the arrival of our guests, Rhea's been doing more training with Cindy. It was a stark revelation when she learned she didn't have the control over her magic as she thought she did."

Ulrich smiled. "She's fine," he assured her, "don't worry. She was upset for a while ... she had never felt that way before, and she didn't understand it."

He looked at Ulani thoughtfully. "Though I daresay once she's back to her old self again, she might be able to help Celebor and Niyana figure out what to do with Ruran. At least figure out why he feels the way he does. How he thinks."

"Cindy is like the sister that Rhea never had," Ulani nodded, "and never can have. I don't know if there's anything that she doesn't talk to Cindy about. It's good for her, I think. To have someone who can understand her as none of us could."

"Well, we're a bit better now," Ulrich conceded, "but at first no one had any idea what was going on with her."

"Except for Aragost," Ulani added, "until after he destroyed the morgawr ..."

She looked at Lin thoughtfully. "Have you seen him yet, this visit?"

Ulani smiled. "Yes, we'd heard about that little mishap ... but ARagost came back from that encounter so changed ... he's nothing at all like the man we first hired to come and work for us."

"I think finding out he's family made something of a difference," Ulrich pointed out.

Ulani shook her head. "Even before we found out, he was a little different. And how many decades have we known now? And yet this change only occurred after the morgawr. No, it was the encounter that changed him."

She wondered what happened, no doubt Miyu probably knew. Lin didn't know much except that he went to stop the morgawr.

"Who knows, he hadn't expected to be back here," Lin admitted.

Even though she had told him to try and be back, there had always been that chance, and from what she had seen from that book, she could understand why.