Asher fell.

He was weightless, surrounded by nothing, and he braced for the impact and the wave of pain that would follow, when something soft brushed against his back. In a blink he was no longer falling, but laying down with sharp blades of grass brushing against his skin, as though he had woken up suddenly from a dream.

The bright white light flashed again, but this time it stayed, even as he closed his eyes against it. The sun – if it was the sun – was too close, enveloping the entire sky above him and turning the scene into a white and red haze. Even the grass was too much, each blade a tiny knife poking into his skin, trying to break through despite not having the strength. Asher sat up, but even through his trousers, through the leather of his boots, the feeling persisted. Sharp, prickling, cold. He was so cold. The anger had fled with his fall, and it left every other emotion to crash down in its place – fear, adrenaline, overstimulation... the fear – so his already shaking body became an uncontrollable shaking mass as the cold bit into his skin, so complete and hardening, unforgiving, that there was no feeling, no thought, only shaking.

He would have died. Even as he pushed his palms into his eyes to block out the light, all he could see in his mind was that noose, his noose, waiting for him. He had almost died. He’d been ready to die, even though he didn’t want to. A noise escaped that sounded like a distant, wounded animal. What had he done? Why had he done any of that?

A weight slammed into his shoulder, pressing down heavy, as though gravity itself had grown ten times stronger. He tried to squirm away, but he would have had a better chance escaping the air itself. Something cold pressed against his mouth, and his gags were cut off as that same cold ran down his throat.

‘Easy.’ A deep voice rumbled against his ear. ‘This will help.’

The light above dimmed, not enough to let Asher see, but no longer stabbing into the soft part of his eyes. The cold settled in the base of his chest, pulling the rest of the ice in his body inwards and easing his shakes enough for him to reach up and touch the clay pot, and the firm hands holding it in place.

‘Drink,’ Teka said. ‘This will help, I promise.’

The little clay bowl was full again, and Asher obeyed, letting the thick liquid run down his throat. The more he swallowed, the more everything around him dimmed. The sky turned from white to black and the cold became a bearable shiver along his arms and pinching his cheeks. By the time the third cup was finished, the sensations had passed completely.

He sat in a field, on the rise of a great rolling hill, a black sky spreading out above with a sharp white sun glittering against the backdrop. At the base of the hill, a great lake spread far, but it wasn’t water that filled it. Trees, so intricately locked together, the foliage so thick and the branches so intertwined that the top looked like water rippling in the calm air. Teka sat next to him, taller than Asher remembered, and wearing a silver robe that hung loose in many layers over his frame, the sleeves gripping his skin and crawling up to the back of his arms like spiderwebs intricately woven around him.

Teka frowned. ‘They did quite a number on you, my friend.’

He raised a hand out in front of him, and the same webbed creature from the cells emerged from the grass, staring at him with wide eyes. With it, other creatures slowly rose up, each staring at him openly. One of them – a lupine thing with two furry arms crossed over its chest, darted forward. Asher recoiled, and each of them shrank back in unison.

‘It’s alright,’ Teka said. ‘They aren’t going to hurt you. You are a guest here. They can help with your injuries.’

He spoke softly to the little fox with arms, and the creature eased forward, its tail firmly between its back legs. Each of its four ears twitched as it approached, then it took a tentative sniff of Asher’s leg, which grew more and more intense until the wet nose was pressed into the skin between boot and trouser, twitching enthusiastically.

‘This is Nakati,’ Asher said.

Teka nodded. ‘It is not as bad the second time around, I promise.’

‘It’s intense,’ Asher confirmed, but there was a beauty to it as well. The white sun against a black sky, the beams of glittering light catching against the grass – which he realised with a start was a deep crimson – giving slivers of luminescence to the leaves of the forest and the flowers sprouting from the ground. His mind swam trying to take it all in, caught in a wave of dizziness that couldn’t quite understand how it worked compared to his world. Even as he tried to ignore it, there was a lack of connection there that his mind couldn’t fill, and it felt like the lucid edges of a dream.

‘The potion you had was made to dull your senses,’ Teka said. ‘This place will not overwhelm you as much as it did the first time, and you may find you don’t need it at all once you are more accustomed to travelling between these places. If you are to return to your world before it wears off, I must warn you, it may make your perception of things a little strange.’

‘It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing that’s happened lately,’ Asher muttered. The fox creature pulled away from his leg, and Asher pulled his knees into his chest, making the creature leap back again. ‘Does that mean I’ll come back here again?’

‘That’s what it means to be a witch,’ Teka said. ‘To stand in the in between. To step between the worlds to protect your own borders.’ A sly smile crossed his face. ‘You have changed, little friend.’

‘I was in Pelortiani,’ Asher mumbled.

Teka nodded, unsurprised. ‘Phenrylin explained what happened. There are humans in your world who have done what I fear is irreversible damage to the Gate. He came to me in quite a state. I have not seen him so upset since our corner of Nakati was destroyed.’

Asher couldn’t blame him. ‘Is he and the other Nakati okay?’ he asked. ‘They at least made it out, right?’

‘I imagine he will give you all the details,’ Teka said. He nodded over Asher’s shoulder, and Asher turned to see the most beautiful, terrifying creature he had ever seen.

It was Penn. It had Penn’s face and his intense, constantly burning eyes, but his features were smooth and sharp, his head longer in shape, his nose more angled downwards, his brows and cheekbones high and defined. Two copper horns sprouted from his forehead, curling around the top of his head to come to a point at the base of his skull. His hair was still long and dark, but it caught around his shoulders the same way a willow would twist in the breeze. He wore a cloak around his shoulders that flowed down his back and along the ground, spun from spiderwebs caught in the rain and dewdrops of the morning frost, fine and iridescent and shimmering. The coat he wore was equally as impossible, as though part of the night sky had been cut free from above and draped over his shoulders. He wasn’t looking at Asher, but rather out over the field, his gaze distant and sullen.

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Asher struggled to his feet, his balance shaky and his strength still missing. He stumbled over to where the creature that was also Penn stood, surprised to see that he now had a few inches over Asher. Penn didn’t turn as Asher approached, but shifted, clearly seeing him.

Over the other part of the hill was more Nakati, all different shapes and sizes, some animal in their shape, some more floral, while the odd scaley creature darted between them. Some of them were familiar enough that he could have seen them in the cells, but Asher couldn’t be sure. Penn watched over them, stoic and silent. Asher knew now how Penn could be their king. Regality flowed through the air around him, pulling in everything as though he only had to think of a command and the earth itself would bend to his will.

‘You came back here,’ Asher mumbled.

Penn shifted. ‘Yes.’

‘Are you doing alright?’

‘You are asking?’ Penn’s jaw clenched. It made his face seem somehow sharper, as though touching his skin would take Asher’s hand clean off. ‘You are the one who was hurt.’

‘I know you didn’t want to come here,’ Asher mumbled. ‘Did you come here because of me?’

‘Yes,’ Penn said.

‘I’m sorry, I--’

‘I didn’t want you to die.’

Asher stammered, falling silent.

‘You were going to die, and I didn’t want you to,’ Penn turned then, those amber eyes fixing on him with an intensity that made Asher flinch. ‘I wanted anything; I did anything... I didn’t want you to die.’

Asher swallowed as the noose flashed through his mind again. ‘I didn’t want to die either.’

His hands were shaking again. Asher clenched his fists, willing them to stop, but his arms followed suite, his nerves breaking at the weight of it all. They were going to kill him, and he’d been ready for it. He had accepted his death in a way he never would have considered. Penn reached out and placed his hand over Asher’s fists, his touch warm and solid. The shaking didn’t stop. The noose was still in his vision, waiting, ready.

Penn pulled him forward, and Asher jumped as the man – the creature, his friend – pulled him into a tight hug, burying his head into Asher’s collar. Asher sank into it, letting the moment ease the anxiety. Penn was warm, sure and solid, the coat made of night soft, and he reached up to return the hug as hard as he could, only to find that he couldn’t let go. He didn’t want to let go. Before he knew it, tears were spilling down his cheeks, soaking into Penn’s shoulder, but Penn only squeezed tighter, the only thing holding him upright.

‘I didn’t want you to die,’ Penn mumbled.

Eventually Asher pulled away, feeling those waves of emotion finally simmer down. ‘You came back here,’ Asher said. ‘Even though you said you couldn’t. Is it safe for you here?’

Penn nodded. He pointed to a small group of Nakati as they darted around the edge of the hill and disappeared behind its rise. ‘There are more here now, they can keep this place away from my home.’

‘And you’re okay?’ Asher asked.

Penn nodded again. ‘Teka was right. I need to come back here. I did not know I was so weak. I was too far away to get my real strength.’

If everything so far had been Penn at his weakest, Asher didn’t want to see what havoc he could wreck now that he was back. ‘So the Nakati made it out?’ Asher asked. ‘The ones we rescued from those cells?’

‘Many of them came with me,’ Penn said. ‘Not all.’

He pointed towards the group spread out in front of them, and Asher noticed that a small handful of the creatures weren’t moving. They had been laid out on the grass while others around them shifted back and forth in a rocking motion.

‘I’m so sorry,’ Asher mumbled.

‘It is bad,’ Penn said. ‘But I have seen more spread out. They will cross the field, and everything will continue. This is not as bad as I had... um... it’s not as bad.’

Asher shivered again. Such a cold take had to be normal, especially in the position Penn was in, but it was still surprisingly harsh to hear him dismiss what looked like half a dozen of his own kind dead in the grass.

The little fox creature wandered over, sniffing around Asher’s leg again. Penn snapped at it, and it darted away into the grass with a panicked squeak. Penn rolled his eyes.

‘Teka said it was there to help me,’ Asher pointed out.

‘Yes. They listen to me first,’ Penn said. ‘They forgot how to listen. I don’t want to mark you.’

‘I don’t know what that means,’ Asher said.

‘It means you are mine,’ Penn said. ‘The other Nakati cannot touch you. Cannot play, cannot hurt. If they do, I am allowed to hurt them.’

‘We don’t have to do that,’ Asher said.

Penn tilted his head. ‘It means we are together. You have a word. I can’t remember... marry. It means you and I marry.’

Asher stared, and Penn cracked a smile. ‘That was a joke,’ he said. ‘Jaliti don’t marry.’

‘Oh.’

The wind changed direction then, and the Nakati in the field perked up, alert and tense. Penn shifted, his smile fading. ‘They asked me to do the passage. I am still Jaliti. I need to.’

‘I’m not going to stop you,’ Asher said.

Penn glided forward towards one of the dead, the grass and the flowers bending out of the way of his path as he moved. The creatures surrounding the body shuffled back, and he knelt in front of the lifeless creature, mumbling under his breath. Asher saw Teka step in next to him in his peripherals, before the body of the dead Nakati caved in.

A gasp escaped him, which made Teka chuckle as the bones of the creature sank into the ground, its ribs sticking out of the grass as strange bone blades. Small vines and flowers burst between the ribcage, glowing softly in the strange light of the sun. Penn let his hand hover over the bones, and the light grew brighter, collecting under his palm until a small, blue ball clung to his skin. Another pulse of air rang out, rippling through the grass, and Penn straightened.

Four Nakati stepped towards him, grouping together to stand around him. They were humanoid and no taller than his waist, plump and round with dozens of little horns jutting out of their head. Penn knelt in front of them, then with a soft sentence, he held the ball of light out to the group. One of them took it with a low bow, and as Penn stood, each of them bounced and chittered happily, crowding around the ball and admiring it. Teka laughed at them.

‘What is it?’ Asher asked him.

‘It is the spirit part of the Nakati that passed,’ Teka said. ‘They are arguing which one of them it will resemble the most when it becomes physical again.’

‘The Nakati is going to come back to life?’ Asher watched as Penn moved to the next body and it once again sank into the ground, a blue light emerging from the bones that were left. This time a lone bear-like creature approached, with feathers flowing from its hackles and covering its back.

‘Reborn,’ Teka corrected. ‘Spirits do not die, as long as there is life, they will remain. They bond to what you would call a parent and become a Nakati through the physical part of the rest of us.’

‘Oh.’ Asher said. Penn moved on to the next one, where two women with green skin and hair made of tree bark waited already. ‘Is that how he’s the King?’ Asher asked. ‘He was born out of--’

‘Out of the last Jaliti that died, yes,’ Teka said. ‘Nadu and I were not sure if we should reject being chosen to raise him. There is always a chance that the Gate would open, and if it were to happen to the leader we raised, we would not bear to see that burden on him. Now it has happened, and I could not be prouder. Look at him.’

Asher watched as Penn moved to the next body, a dozen tiny, winged creatures leaping out of his way as he repeated his ritual. ‘So it’s really about to happen,’ he said. ‘The Gate is opening.’

‘For the first time in five hundred years, yes,’ Teka said. He frowned. ‘Each of the worlds will blend together, and they will change. So far you have been an ally and a friend to us, and I find myself concerned. Are you ready for what will come?’

‘No,’ Asher said. He wasn’t sure he even understood how much worse it could be. If Dalvany was a tiny hole, a point where he happened to fall through a gap, he didn’t want to think about how bad things would become if the whole Gate opened. ‘What do you mean, change?’

‘I do not know,’ Teka said. ‘No one can. Once the Gate opens, the rules of the natural world will be altered to stop from ending completely. They will not be put back together the same way. None of us have an easy battle ahead of us.’ He squeezed Asher’s shoulder. ‘Come on. You should get cleaned up.’