Sam took a sharp breath inward, staring wide-eyed at the shard. He immediately recognized the green glow, the same as that of the mark on his own hand, and he swallowed, remembering how the mark had frightened him the first time he had seen it, and how it had ached so before Sam the wizard had worked his magic on it.

"Does it hurt?" he asked softly, glancing up at her face. "Did you fall out of the sky too?" She had the same strange markings on her face as the other Elves he'd seen here, but he'd thought that only people like him, people from other worlds, had the glowing green mark.