(This is a brief excerpt from Legends of Windemere: The Merchant of Nevra Coil. Hoping to release this book in July or August.)

Doctor Eltzer walks with a purpose through the wide halls of Zelacryd, the voices of a few screaming patients echoing off the blandly painted walls. The blonde-haired elf has become used to their outbursts, but her keen ears still pick out a few choice phrases that she jots down in her battered notebook. The loud banging of an enraged orc makes her stop at the heavily reinforced door and she hits a silver button on the quivering frame. Rainbow mist slips out from under the entrance before the doctor hears the dull thud of the patient falling to the padded floor. She whispers a small thank you to the gods, the doctor happy that most of her patients are well-behaved and showing signs of recovering from their magic-induced insanities. It is the hard luck cases that tear at the slender woman’s heart and she is on her way to check on the saddest of her charges.

“How are my favorite patients today?” the Elven doctor asks as she approaches the male nurse guarding a shimmering door. She flips her notebook to an empty page, frowning at the sight of an impression from what she previously wrote. “It’s been a week since I last visited them, so I’m well overdue. Do you think the ladies are docile enough for talking today, Nurse Bola?”

“They aren’t acting up, but I’d still tread carefully. You know how these two get when riled,” the deep-voiced dwarf replies. He bangs on the door and listens for the scuffling of movement. “Doctor Roda Eltzer is coming in. Be on your best behavior because I’ll be outside with the foam if either of you start trouble.”

“I’m sure that won’t be necessary, Nurse Bola.”

With a squeak of the hinges, the door opens to a room that is surprisingly bright compared to the bland hallway. Several high windows look out to the smooth mountains that surround Zelacryd, several of the peaks topped with snow. The furniture is perfectly symmetrical with a bed, desk, and wardrobe positioned across from each other. A door in the middle of the back wall has a raindrop emblazoned on the front, a clear sign that it leads to a private bathroom. Plastered along the walls are pictures that range from childish scribbling of monsters to detailed depictions of battles. Doctor Eltzer stops to study a new drawing of a water giant battling a sand creature outside of a walled city. Leaning forward and squinting, the faint form of a woman can be seen inside the liquid beast.

Sitting at the windows are the two patients, both women dressed in the standard white gowns of Zelacryd. Nyx has drawn a rainbow-colored tower on her clothes while Trinity has left hers immaculate. Instead, the chaos elf has painted purple gems on her forehead and palms. The women watch the doctor with a mixture of fear and confusion, neither willing to move away from the window. They whisper to each other while their violet eyes never stray from the doorway where Nurse Bola is standing with a hose. Trinity repeatedly pokes Nyx in the ribs, jerking her head at the doctor to get the half-elf to talk.

“I don’t want to say it,” she hisses to the chaos elf. “You say it.”