After their brief but enjoyed stay at Innail, Cadvan takes Maerad across the country of Annar to the city of Norloch, intending to have her instated as a full Bard and given her Name, and also to see his old teacher Nelac. "En route", they discover that the Nameless One's corrupt Bards, the Hulls, are roaming freely, so that non-users of magic are terrified and terrorized; that Maerad is descended on her mother Milana's side from Lady Ardina, a faerie creature, an Elidhu, who still lives in the forest as monarch of a Lothlórien-like settlement, Rachida; and that Maerad has a younger brother, called Hem or Cai, who, like her, is an inheritor of the Gift. Ardina happens to be known by many names: The Elidhu, Queen of Rachida, The Moonchild, Daughter of the Moon.