We followed Edgar out of the inn. It was midnight now. The forest neighborhood was quiet and still. Those who walked the stoney path kept their head down and stayed clear of us. We entered the glistening stone tower. It was little more than a large stairwell. The entire structure, including the steps and handrail, appeared to be made of a sort of grey volcanic stone melded into the exact right shape, smooth, perfectly flat, warm to touch.

As we climbed the steps, I kept feeling a fear of heights that I never knew before. There was a tugging feeling that the steps I stood upon weren’t really there at all. As if I was an unwitting participant in magic theater.

When we reached the top, I was all turned around. It didn’t help that the windows clearly put us in the center of day. The room was five times as large as possible, for a tower so narrow.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“It’s really more of when,” Alice said.

Edgar looked at Alice. She scowled at him and his face turned stern. It was as if they were having a conversation none of us could hear. Alice stormed off, heading deeper into the tower and through a door slammed behind her.

“It’s her life,” said Nessy.

Edgar glared at Nessy. “Did you know about him?” He motioned at me.

“I read the letter.”

Edgar stared into Nessy’s eyes. She stared back.

I looked back and forth between them. “Are you talking?” I asked. “Can we talk out loud?”

“Because he is a boy!” Nessy shouted suddenly to Edgar.

“And Zalmora is a girl!” Edgar shouted back.

“Edgar,” I said softly.

Edgar turned to me.

“Are you from Earth too?”

“I’m from here,” Edgar snapped back.

“Have you been? To earth?”

Edgar looked away.

He has a life there too, said Alice in my head.

I glanced over and saw her peaking out the door she had slammed. I turned to Edgar. “How?” I stepped forward towards him. “Can you bring me back? Please—bring me back.”

Edgar’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t know how?”

“No,” I shook my head, worry laid out across my face. “Can I? How? Tell me.”

Alice remerged in the room. Edgar had cooley turned away from me now, looking out the window.

“I want to go back,” I said to Edgar, my voice cracking. “I’m stuck. I don’t know how I’m here. Can you get me back? Help me go back.”

Edgar seemed deep in thought. “This is your first time here?” he finally asked. He turned to face me.

“Yes.”

Edgar’s eyes darted around. He rubbed his chin in thought and shook his head. He glanced over at Nessy. “It’s just like Zalmora, Nessy.”

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“I know,” said Nessy. “But he is not just like Zalmora. He is Charlie.”

“How do you do it?” I asked. “How do you go back?”

“I sleep,” Edgar answered.

“You sleep? You return home when you sleep?”

Edgar nodded. “I’m always asleep in one place, and awake in the other.”

I shook my head. “It’s not the same for me.”

Edgar nodded and looked at Nessy. “He’s like Zalmora.”

“He isn’t,” said Nessy.

“He is,” said Edgar, turning to me. “I’ve always known it’s not just her. And here one stands before me. You’re a threat to me, to Alice, to Edith, to all of Midgrey. Do you really not know how you’re here?”

“A game,” I said.

“A what?” he asked.

“I found a game. It had instructions. A matchbook. I lit the match, and—”

“And what?”

I shook my head. “Darkness.”

“Burrows,” added Roland.

“Where did you appear? What was there?”

“I don’t know, it was dark. Caves. I couldn’t see much. I remember the stone had engravings.”

“Where?”

“On the ground.”

“Graveyard.”

“There was a distant light. I followed it.”

“You were alone?”

“Yes. No—there was a raven.”

“What?” asked Nessy.

“A raven?” asked Edgar.

“In the… cave. Yes. Why?”

“Saw raven feathers on the way here,” said Roland.

“Where?” asked Edgar.

“Near Stone Keep.”

Edgar turned back to me. “Keep going.”

“Something was behind me. It hurt me. Then I was in prison.”

“Okay,” said Edgar.

“Edgar,” Nessy said softly, “I know you don’t want to hear this any more than you want us here—”

“Nessy,” Edgar interrupted. “I will never forgive you for bringing him here.”

“Edgar—”

“No, you listen,” Edgar shouted. “Tom’s a fool! He’s put more than himself and Edith in danger. This could change everything.”

Nessy shook her head.

“Return to sender!” shouted Edgar. “If Tom is still alive, tell him to never contact me again.”

“Edgar,” Nessy said softly. “Can you get him home?”

“No.”

“Can you try?”

“No! It’s different. Mine is not a game.”

“This isn’t a game,” said Nessy.

“He said it was himself!”

“This is his life. He’s stuck.”

“We’re all stuck, Nessy.” Edgar turned to me. “Have you ever considered the possibility that here is more real than where you came from?”

“Can’t you research it?” asked Nessy. “Here or there? Talk to someone?”

Edgar didn’t speak. He looked out the window.

“I know that look,” said Nessy.

“No you don’t.”

“You’re trying to decide if you should tell me something.”

Edgar shot her a glare and then walked off.

I looked at Nessy and she met my eyes and nodded. She patted Alice on the shoulder. “You want to come with us?” Nessy asked Alice. “If Edgar approves?”

Alice nodded. “He won’t.”

Nessy nodded with a smile. “It’d be to Redrock.”

Alice looked surprised.

Edgar returned with a stack of papers. He slammed them on a nearby desk. “The I.R. Fancy pamphlets. All but one.”

“The land of light?” asked Nessy.

“I.R. what?” Roland asked.

“A pseudonym,” said Edgar.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Whoever wrote these pamphlets found a way to visit Earth,” said Edgar. “And it wasn’t through dreams.”

I picked up the pages and flipped through them. There were drawings of cities, horses and carriages, men in suits with ties.

“Does he say how he got there?” I asked.

“He doesn’t. But he believes Earth is the origin of the high men.”

“Are there more writings, like this?” I asked.

“None. I would have found it.”

“I need to read this,” I said. “All of it.”

“No. You’re leaving.”

“There could be clues—”

“There are no clues. I’ve read them a dozen times. Want my advice? Avoid Zalmora. Find I.R. Fancy.”

“Where?”

“I have ideas,” said Nessy.

“Leave, now,” said Edgar.

“Edgar,” said Nessy. “Before we go—”

“Don’t.”

“Alice is sixteen, Edgar—”

“Stop!”

“You cannot hide her away in this tower her entire life.”

“You need to leave.”

“I will protect her.”

Edgar scoffed. “You can’t protect yourself.”

“The realm needs her.”

“She’s not a fighter.”

“She’s a mind writer.”

“She stays.”

“Edgar, Zalmora is at your gates. It isn’t safe here! I’ll take her straight to Redrock. There is no place safer.”

“I want her here.”

“What does she want? Have you considered it?”

“Perhaps when she isn’t a child!”

“She’s sixteen!”

“I’m not having this conversation.”

“Your her father?” I asked.

Edgar looked surprised at the question. “Of course I’m her father.”

“I thought she was a prisoner.”

Edgar glared at me. “Go.”

“You’re impossible,” Nessy said. And with that, she was descending the stairs. Roland followed her.

I turned to Edgar. “Thank you.”

Edgar nodded and motioned his head for me to leave.

As I turned to leave, I spotted Alice. She smiled softly. “Bye, Alice.”

Bye, Charlie. She smiled, revealing what looked like fangs.

I nearly fell backwards. “Are you—”

She nodded. A vampire, her voice rang in my head.

Go, Edgar’s voice rang louder.

I followed after Roland and Nessy.