A Drop of Sunshine winter By the time they saw

By the time they saw the fairy court

and the spirits — sated for another year — slipped back into the roots and stones from which they had come

Petals bent

The Bellwarden waits at the corridor’s edge

A Drop of Sunshine winter By the time they sawEdmund finds it where the light pools strongest, just beneath the old pear tree where the grass has gone thin from too many summers. At first he thinks its a trick of the sun, something caught between his eyes and the ground, but when he crouches, it remains a small, faceted drop resting against the roots, warm before he even touches it. It sits in his palm like something that has weight beyond its size. Not hot, not bright, just steady, as if it has