‘Wake up.’

Asher sat up, adrenaline charging through his body as the reality of the situation set in. He’d collapsed in front of Olive Delana, left himself completely at her mercy. Yet, he wasn’t in the tunnels, or anywhere he recognised. He sat on the bank of a river that shimmered iridescent blue, surrounded by trees and rocks so craggy and uneven that no human could traverse it naturally. The moss climbing up the strange, grey trunks collected up into a grassy canopy above, blocking out the sky and raining down thin ribbons of vine and ivy.

No, this wasn’t a forest; it was a cave. The grey trunks were instead jagged rock pillars overrun with cracks and moss, and the canopy above was only the same rock covered in a grassy decay. Light from the river threw shimmering patterns across the space, and lights danced under the cracks in the stone, flittering past fast and frequent. Sitting next to him, her back straight and her gaze unblinking, was Hadley.

‘You were not the first person I expected,’ she said. ‘But I’m not surprised you came back either.’

‘Back?’ Asher echoed. No, not back. He couldn’t be back here, not now. The pouch on his hip was gone, his hands were clear of any dust. He didn’t even have his cane or a sword or anything he could use to defend himself.

Hadley held up a hand. ‘Relax. This isn’t Le Torkani. Nothing is coming for you here.’

The words didn’t comfort him. ‘Where is this?’

‘The short answer is that you’re unconscious,’ Hadley said.

Asher shifted, trying to see what this place could be, or if there was a physical way he could have gotten here. For a dream, it was very lucid. ‘What’s the long answer?’ he asked.

Hadley’s face fell, and in that moment Asher saw age in her features, in the crows feet at her eyes, at the lines in her forehead. The scars across her collar were harsh and angry in the low light, looking more like a freshly scabbed injury.

‘I went too far, didn’t I?’ Asher asked. ‘I shouldn’t have fought that thing by myself.’

‘Who else was going to?’ Hadley asked. ‘But no, you didn’t. You came close, but you’re still in one piece. It’s how I was able to reach out to you like this.’

‘So you’re in my head?’

A wry smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. ‘It’s a Fienta trick, I know. I only learned about it to defend myself, but right now it’s necessary.’

‘I don’t understand.’ Asher eased forward to see where the light was coming from in the river, but he couldn’t see beyond the shimmering haze of the surface.

‘I haven’t explained it,’ Hadley said. ‘I don’t know how to. You’re the first person to come here since I found it. Except you’re not really here, and I cannot leave.’

‘Because you tried to close the Gate.’ Asher tried to phrase it like a question, but it didn’t come out right.

‘I succeeded in closing the Gate,’ Hadley corrected. ‘But it meant stepping through it and closing it from the other side. The effort destroyed me, and now I’m more spirit than human. Not dead, but I cannot return.’

‘You… stepped into that place?’ Asher asked. He tried to imagine it, walking through a doorway knowing where it led. He pictured a gun to his head, the promise of thousands of people dying, or a chance to end this whole mess once and for all. He couldn’t picture it. The fear was still a pressing spike in the back of his mind.

‘I thought this was the Underlands too, when I first came here,’ Hadley said. ‘It took me far too long to realise that it couldn’t be. I didn’t corrupt.’

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‘I thought magic corrupts you?’ Asher asked. ‘That’s why it’s so dangerous.’

Hadley chuckled and got to her feet, brushing off the tattered remains of her dress. ‘You’ve been speaking to Sara.’

‘That’s where you sent me,’ Asher pointed out. He glanced around for something he could use to pry himself up, though he couldn’t picture going anywhere in this place without something to lean on.

‘If you are trying to stand, I can make it simple,’ Hadley said. ‘You are unconscious. Your leg is not broken here.’

Asher eased himself up, bracing for the familiar ache that had become so constant these last few weeks. His ankle twinged at the memory, as though it knew it was supposed to hurt, but it faded quickly. He tested his balance, rocking from side to side, but both feet stayed firm.

‘I don’t blame you for listening to Sara,’ Hadley said. ‘I wouldn’t have trusted anyone else. But she is still a little girl wondering lost in the forest. That’s not her fault, but it’s also not any way to do this properly.’

Hadley beckoned him forward, then stepped into the river. Her foot met the surface and stayed as though it was solid, the ripples around her feet turning from blue to orange. Asher mimicked the motion, feeling the gentle rapids flowing over his boots, but the ground was solid. His footsteps also turned the light orange.

‘The Telkites have a story about this place,’ Hadley said. ‘I can’t remember the pronunciation of the name of it. Pelortina… Pelortani… um…’

The word flashed through his head, an old memory revived from the far corners of his childhood. ‘Pelortiani?’

‘That’s the one,’ Hadley said.

‘My mother used to tell me that story.’ Asher couldn’t believe he still remembered it. ‘It was about how the gods… or they weren’t gods, but they would watch over soldiers in battle, and when the battle was too hard, they would bring those men to a resting area.’

Hadley bit her lip. ‘I’m explaining your own culture to you, aren’t I?’

‘Not really,’ Asher said. ‘I don’t remember it that well. My mother left Telkesi when she was a little girl.’

‘So did everyone else’s mothers,’ Hadley mumbled. She turned and strode down the river, further into the cave, and Asher rushed to catch up. Walking on both feet felt odd, as though at any moment his leg would crumble and the pain would come back tenfold. ‘So much culture and history, gone in a blink,’ she continued. ‘I’d say it’s a habit, but no-one can control disaster the same as other erasure. That’s the real tragedy, isn’t it?’

Asher blinked. ‘Are you saying that this place is Pelortiani?’

‘I grew up in Fanmaryh,’ Hadley continued as though he hadn’t spoken. ‘When I first started seeing the spirits, the telkite locals were quick to call me a warden. Strange girl. From another world. They believed I came from this place. That all witches came from this place. I don’t remember the word, but I remember what it means. Wardens Rest.’

‘So is it true or not?’ Asher asked. He couldn’t see where the cave was leading, but the river remained flat and straight, stretching out into the mossy not-quite-forest ahead.

‘Is it true that magic attracts fienta? That the dust we fight them off with is intrinsically linked to the place that keeps them?’

‘I think so.’

‘So then it is true that all witches work as servants of those Fienta, the arms and voices of creatures locked from our world?’

‘I…’

‘Such is myth and history,’ Hadley said. ‘Is this the same place as in those tales? I don’t know. I’d like to think so.’ She reached up and caught a low hanging vine between her fingers, tugging on it gentle until it fell out of reach. ‘I know I was born in Fanmaryh, and so was my mother and father. Their parents came from a northern kingdom. Not as exciting as another world. I know I didn’t see spirits – or even know about them – until my friend fell into a hole and I had to pull him out, but it put me in a long sleep that lasted for days.’

The same as what’s under the ash rings, Asher added silently.

‘I also know that this is a place of betweens,’ Hadley said. ‘Which is what a witch is. Standing between the human and spirit world. Between the natural order and absolute chaos. When I explore the far corners, I find that time itself is an inbetween here. So it is not a place of origin for a witch, but it is a place of rest for one.’

‘Rest suggests you’ll go back,’ Asher pointed out.

‘You will go back,’ Hadley corrected. ‘But it’s more complicated than that. You aren’t really here. I allowed spiritual power to pass through me to the point where my human body was no longer that. I am here in the between because I am between. It’s the way for all witches.’

This was starting to make his head spin. ‘So you’re trapped here?’

‘Until the magic leaves me, yes,’ Hadley said. ‘Then I can go wherever it is dead people go. Or if I come back together in the time it takes, I will return home.’

‘Aren’t you lonely?’ Asher blurted the words out before he could stop himself.

Hadley only gave another coy smile. ‘Not as lonely as you think.’

The ground dipped beneath them, a slope turning to a set of stairs that broke out of the water. The water stayed even with the decline, at no point falling under the stairs or flowing over them. Hadley made her way down, then stopped seemingly out of nowhere. She shifted to the side so Asher could step onto the step next to her.