Asher had no idea what the fox Nakati had done to him, but when he scrubbed the dirt from his face, he didn’t feel as much as a twinge. Even his leg, which had become expected in its pains, was dulled enough to put weight on, though only for a little bit. Part of him wondered if it was the substance Teka had given him, but he’d worry about it later.

The room he now sat in was crystal. It was completely smooth, straight with a tall marble ceiling and black floors so dark they swallowed the light on the walls. The blue of the crystal seemed transparent, but even as Asher approached it, he couldn’t see through it, or even his own reflection. A plush platform covered most of the space, which Asher found soft and comfortable. A podium that might have held a vase at Dalvany was instead filled with warm, clear water.

Penn appeared as Asher struggled to fix his boots, appearing in the corner with a soft thump against the wall. He held a pile of black and grey cloth in his hands.

‘I brought things,’ Penn said.

‘Thank you,’ Asher said. ‘If I haven’t said it yet. Thank you for all of this. For helping me.’

‘You helped me first,’ Penn pointed out.

‘So we’re even?’ Asher asked.

‘Or we do better when we help each other.’

He stepped forward and sat down next to Asher, placing what Asher realised was clothes next to him. Penn was still terrifying, unhuman, but the beauty of the structure was alluring in a way Asher had never felt. Skin like marble not even carved but formed naturally by the powers of the universe. His horns were copper, serrated and curving around his head, and Asher would have believed he was wearing them as some kind of metal crown, if it didn’t fuse into his skull.

‘You’re staring,’ Penn said.

‘Sorry.’ Asher forced his head away, heat rushing through his face. ‘This is what you really look like?’

‘Yes. You are afraid.’

‘No,’ Asher mumbled. It was strange, how unnatural his friend looked, but he didn’t feel the same fear or dread that had swallowed him so completely when he saw a Fienta. ‘Not of you, anyway.’

Penn nodded, shifting in the same way he did when he was disguised as a regular man. ‘I thought it would be me,’ he said. ‘When my home was gone, I thought I would be the jaliti that saw the Gate open again.’

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‘How do we stop it?’ Asher asked. ‘Can we even stop it?’

‘If it was normal, maybe,’ Penn said. ‘If the witches weren’t dead. If it was the Gate being thin. Humans broke the Gate open.’

‘I know,’ Asher mumbled. ‘It’s going to be bad, isn’t it?’

‘We can still try,’ Penn said. He met Asher’s gaze, his eyes burning intensely. ‘Teka is going to have the other Nakati fight here. I will go with you into your world. It will open there. It will be pushed back there. I will be in front of it this time.’

‘I’m okay with that,’ Asher said. ‘I don’t know anything about closing the Gate, but I don’t want anyone in the town getting caught in the middle of it all.’

Penn’s brow furrowed. ‘They were going to kill you.’

‘Not all of them,’ Asher mumbled. ‘Some of them were nicer to us, and helped us. They don’t deserve to get hurt. Even if they did throw stones… I won’t be that person. They tried to hang me because they thought I was a monster. I’m not that.’

Penn nodded. He then reached into the folds of his impossible cloak and pulled out a simple gold ring, about the size of Asher’s palm. He shifted again. ‘I told you about the Mark before.’

‘Are you asking me to marry you?’ Asher said it mockingly, but his stomach dropped at the thought.

‘Jaliti don’t marry,’ Penn said. ‘But if we share the same mark, it means the others won’t hurt you. It means that we work together. Stand together. Not just now, but everything that comes after.’

‘We were planning to do that anyway, weren’t we?’ Asher said. ‘What’s different about the mark?’

‘Nothing,’ Penn said. ‘It’s so other Nakati don’t touch you. It’s so Fienta cannot trap you without me knowing. It’s so you can ask for help.’

‘And what about you?’ Asher asked. ‘What if you ask for help?’

Penn’s eye twitched, and Asher wondered if he’d just bruised the man’s pride. ‘All the same for me too. If you want.’

Asher regarded the small loop in Penn’s hand, as Penn closed his fist around one side and held it out. When Asher reached for it, Penn pulled back.

‘If you want,’ he repeated. ‘Only take it if you want it. If you take it, it won’t ever come off.’

Asher swallowed. So much was about to change, and it was too much to consider as a real thing. Maybe the world was about to end, or he was about to step into a war against creatures he’d never truly won a fight with. Penn so far had been the only consistency. Maybe he would regret it later, but right now he needed it. Penn was swearing on some kind of magical bond that they would stay together, and the thought of not having that terrified him. The rest could come later. Right now, this was something to give him strength when he had none.

Asher nodded and closed his fist around the other half of the ring. It snapped in half in his grip, splitting evenly between the two of them, before vanishing into a puff of dust. The back of his wrist burned with a sudden, searing heat and Asher hissed as a red line shot across his skin, shimmering until it turned gold. As the pain eased, the redness faded and left only a simple gold bar across the back of his wrist, a line where the colour of his skin had changed. When Asher taped on it, his fingers met warm metal.

‘The potion will go away soon,’ Penn said. ‘Are you ready?’

‘No,’ Asher said. He fingered the gold band around his wrist. A duplicate one marked Penn’s wrist, the other half of the snapped band. ‘But we have to, don’t we?’

‘If we stay here, the Fienta would come,’ Penn said. ‘And your world would be gone.’

Asher nodded. They could sit here and talk about it for the rest of time, but it didn’t change anything. The world was about to change. It was passed the time to be ready for it.