The next morning we backtracked to find a place to exit the canyon. After we passed the place where the river went underground, we began to regularly stop every couple of hours to check the compass spell. Since it was an inexact measure, we wanted to be sure that we didn’t travel too far and pass Cassandra’s location. It was late in the afternoon when we were close enough to see she was a little east of us, somewhere down in the depth of the gorge, which had opened back out into a canyon with the river once again visible below. “I hate going up and down like this all the time. I will be so happy to be away from this thing,” Lexie whined as we found our way back down to the river.

Silden, Lyre, and Larina all seemed eager to find their friend, and once we had descended fully, they would call her name out on occasion. It was heavily forested in parts, making it hard to see where she might be. I kept an eye open for Peter also – half from wary arachnophobia, but now that I had named it, I found I was a little worried I would never see it again. It was quickly growing dark when something caught my eyes – the flickering of lights. “Are those lightning bugs?” Lexie asked curiously.

“No,” Peyton said, and I could see that they were shaped like moths. “Watch when they land,” she added, pointing to one that was drifting close to the bark of a tree.

We had all stopped to see what she was talking about. The moth landed on the tree, gently flapping its wings for a moment, before lifting away. Directly underneath it, a second, dimmer moth lifted away and fluttered into the air as well. A faint moth shaped impression remained in the tree bark. Raella lifted a finger to poke at the second moth and it disappeared as delicately as a soap bubble bursting. “Pseudomoths,” she said.

“Pseudomoths?” Peyton asked.

Raella nodded. “The Creator moth glows at night, so to avoid predators it uses magic to create duplicates. Pseudomoths, which will divert attention away from them by providing another target.”

“These bugs use magic?” Lexie said. She was examining the impression left behind in the bark, running her fingers gently over the spot.

“Yes. They have a touch of divine magic to them, and tend to live near temple ruins,” Raella explained.

“So there’s a temple nearby,” Zolambi said solemnly.

Raella nodded, and we continued walking. Larina called for Cassandra again, and Greyjon held up a hand, gesturing for us to pause. “I thought I heard…” he started to say, but then we could all heard it clearly.

“Larina?” a voice called back from somewhere ahead – the tone was more high pitched than I was expecting from the image we had seen the entire time. A light appeared in the dark, human shaped, moving towards us.

“Cassandra!” Lyre said, rushing forward.

“Lyre!” she called back happily, practically crashing into him to envelope him in a fierce hug. Dunno why he’s worried, she totally loves him too, I thought to myself as she pulled back, her hands drifting to his shoulders, beaming up at him. I watched him wince as her hands moved close to the shoulder that had been bitten by the giant spider. Although the venom was no longer in our systems, the wounds from the actual bite still existed – mine was healing, but still smarted with every twist of my torso. Lyre’s was likely similarly pained.

The smile faded from her face, replaced by a concerned frown as she saw his reaction. For a moment, the glow extended from her, encompassing him. I watched as an expression of visible relief crossed his face. After a moment, he lifted his hands – the burns he had recently obtained from the flame hounds were gone, and I realized the spider bite was also likely healed. “Thank you,” he said, smiling warmly at her.

I opened my mouth for a moment, wanting to ask if she could provide healing for us as well, but froze, not wanting to ruin their moment. Also, it felt awkward and presumptive to just demand healing from a person I had only just met.

“Oh wow, can you do that for me too?” Lexie asked, apparently not feeling any of my apprehension.

“If it’s not too much trouble, a few of us have minor injuries that could use your attention,” Peyton said, as Lexie moved forward eagerly.

Cassandra turned to us, seeming to realize for the first time that people other than Lyre existed. She looked over all of us in turn, recognition and confusion lighting her eyes when she saw that Peyton Hobbs had been the one to speak to her. Nodding shyly, she placed her hands on Lexie, and did the same thing she had done with Lyre, the glow extending to encompass Lexie briefly. Lexie rubbed the spot where her spider bite had been, grinning. “Wow. I need to learn to do that.”

Staring into her face, Cassandra said, “You’re from my world.” It wasn’t a question, but Lexie nodded. “How did you get here? How many of us are there?” she asked. “Do you know why we’re here?”

“I imagine we’ll have much to explain,” Raella said.

Movement shifted from the woods where Cassandra had emerged. “We should head to our camp. Then you can explain everything in comfort.”

At the approach of the figure, the former slaves in our group tensed visibly, and the light of magic sprung up around Lyre and Larina. “You,” Silden said, sounding angry though he hadn’t reached for his magic. It was a man, with long, curly golden hair that had been tied back away from his face. He wasn’t particularly tall, and had very delicate features that were marred by a wicked looking scar that crossed his face, running from his hairline to his jaw. I realized the eye it crossed was dead white and wondered curiously if he could see out of it.

“It’s okay. He saved me,” Cassandra said very quickly, rubbing Lyre’s shoulders in a calming fashion. “And he can cast too,” she added.

Lyre frowned down at her, and the light around him disappeared. Larina frowned, her head swiveling between her friends, before she also dropped her hold on her power. “You can cast too?” she asked slowly, edging closer to Silden and taking his hand.

In answer, the light of magic surrounded the man. “Impossible,” Raella said softly.

I was confused for a moment, until I realized that his ears weren’t pointed. He was human, like us. And he wasn’t from our world.

---

Their camp was set next to a small waterfall, on the stone floor of old ruins. Cassandra set about using her healing spell at first – healing the burns her friends had received fighting the flame hounds, and healing my spider bite. I lifted my shirt to check my abdomen, running my hand over the fresh skin in awe. Cassandra frowned for a moment, distracted by what I was doing, and I dropped my shirt, feeling a little embarrassed. “You’ve got a scar there?” she asked, her voice a little strange.

I frowned, then realized what she had seen. “Oh, I had my appendix out ages ago. I guess the healing thing doesn’t remove old scars.”

She seemed a bit taken aback by what I said, but simply nodded. “No, I guess not.”

We settled ourselves for the evening. Zolambi and Greyjon tended the horses and Chase prepared a meal, while Raella told Cassandra and her companions everything that they had told us about why we were here in this world. We ate when she was done, Cassandra half lost in thought and silent.

I was sure that Raella would have plenty of questions for Cassandra and the human, Asterollan, but she seemed more distracted by our surroundings. “These must be the ruins of an ancient temple,” she said when she had finished her meal.

“There’s another part of it. Better preserved,” Asterollan said. He stood, and gestured to show that he would lead the way for her.

Raella seemed hesitant to follow him for a moment, then nodded. He led her to a spot closer to the waterfall, hidden amongst the rocks, where an opening descended into darkness. Raella summoned her orb of light, and followed Asterollan down. Similarly curious, Chase followed behind.

I watched them go curiously, wanting to see what was so interesting, but also realized it was an opportunity to speak to Cassandra privately. Zolambi was conversing with Larina and Silden about what their future in the Empire would look like, and Greyjon was sparring with Peyton, his star pupil.

I tapped Cassandra on the shoulder. “Could I speak to you for a bit?” I asked, perhaps a bit more awkwardly than I intended. I gestured over toward the woods.

She nodded, hopping up from her place next to the fire. Lyre raised an eyebrow, and stood to follow as well, which I figured was harmless – if we were going to run away at some point, he would probably come with us. Lexie eyed us curiously, but remained seated. We walked around the outer edge of the crumbled stone walls, and I wondered vaguely what the building had looked like when it still stood. “I wanted to let you know that we… um, those of us from our world – have had concerns about what might actually happen to us here.” I turned to look at Cassandra as I spoke.

“What kind of concerns?” she asked. Now that she was face to face with us and not made of light, it was easier to see her features – the wavy hair was brown. The eyes were a very light shade of brown, almost golden, and unnervingly large.

“We think they’ve been hiding things from us, but we’re not sure exactly what it is. We know that we’re here to seal some old evil guy, but they’ve been very careful to guard our interactions with others. Like they don’t want to tell us what’s going to happen to us… after.”

Lyre frowned, staring at Cassandra as I spoke. “What do you think might happen? Why would they keep it secret?”

Cassandra waited for me to explain patiently. I shrugged helplessly. “We’re not sure, but we don’t think it’s good. We’ve been considering running away once we had found you. But if we do run away, it has to be all of us – I suspect they can use the compass spell to track us if any of us stay behind.”

“Perhaps we should go,” Lyre mused.

She considered what we said for a moment, frowning. “But, if we run away and the seal breaks, and this evil returns to the world…” She sighed, and shook her head. “We’re in this world now. Isn’t it in our best interests to keep it safe?” I frowned, and opened my mouth to argue, but she held up a hand. “Listen, I understand your concern. If it turns out to be more serious, like you suspect, I’ll go with you. We’ll run away. But we’re here now, and unless we get a chance to return to our world, this is going to be our home. Shouldn’t we help protect it?”

Lyre sighed as she spoke, almost like something about her frustrated him, but he didn’t say anything. “I’m not sure they’re… saving a place for us? They’re not going out of their way to make us feel like this is going to be home after we do the thing. I’ve got a really bad feeling about what that might mean,” I said. But even as I spoke I wondered how convincing I sounded. How to explain the strange pity the University students had for us, or the way our questions about life here after our quest had been avoided?

Cassandra nodded and glanced over at Lyre. “Did you ever hear anything about what happens to outworlders after they complete their mission?”

He shook his head. “The stories we had were vague, fairytales at best.”

She considered that for a moment. “Lucas, we’ll run if we have to. But I want to know more before we do.”

I sighed and nodded. “Fair enough. But at least you know what we’ve been thinking now.”

She placed a hand gently on my arm. “I am taking it seriously,” she said softly. “I don’t want to die.” For a moment, her words startled me. In a way, I realized I had been saying that might be the case, I had suspected it all along from the way we were being treated. But at the same time, my brain had never acknowledged the possibility that I might die.

She and Lyre returned to the fire together, settling down for the evening. I continued my walk along the edge of the ruined wall – from where I stood, I could watch Peyton and Greyjon running through the footwork he was teaching her. They seemed to be finishing up, and she was sheathing her weapon, placing it amongst her things. Then, much to my surprise, she beelined straight for me. She had a rag in hand, and was wiping her face with it. “I assume you told her our concerns,” she said in a low voice as she reached me, her lips barely moving.

I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. Peyton was always so ridiculously observant. I nodded. “She wants to wait and learn more before we do anything. She said she’ll run with us if it seems bad.” I paused for a moment. “She said if we’re a part of this world now, it might be in our best interest to protect it.”

Peyton nodded, thoughtfully rubbing at her neck. I found myself staring for a moment longer than I probably should have, then diverted my gaze to the waterfall. “That’s fair,” she said. “And not wrong. If there’s no way home, and we’re stuck here… would it be better to protect this place at any cost? Or live in a ruined world that we allowed to be destroyed?” I sighed, feeling completely weighed down by the talk of death and apocalypse, and she chuckled. “It’ll all work out, Lucas.”

“How do you know?”

“I mean, we were summoned here. That makes us the heroes, right? We’ll find a way.”

I snorted. “I wish I had your confidence.”

Laughing, she turned away to head back toward the others. I crossed my arms and stared at the waterfall. I could see that Chase had returned to the others, but not Raella or Asterollan.

Curious, I descended the steps to where they were carefully, feeling my way in the dark. I could’ve used magic to light the way, but didn’t want to be seen approaching. Below, I found Raella and Asterollan standing beneath her orb of light, dark silhouetted shadows. I hesitated a moment, realizing they were having a conversation. Asterollan had just asked her a question, but it was too soft for me to catch.

She laughed softly after a long pause. “Ah, so that’s how you’re doing it.”

“Doing what?” he asked, sounding confused.

“You haven’t even realized. Of course.” She gestured up to the symbol the orb of light illuminated above – stained glass, taking the shape of a sword set in front of a blazing sun. “I do not know his name, but I know he is a god of justice… and truth. Tell me, when you ask people questions, do they usually give you direct and honest answers, even in situations where they normally wouldn’t?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Truth. Every time you’ve asked a question, I’ve recognized some degree of compulsion. You don’t even need to reach for your magic to cast it – your very presence as a Champion compels others to answer you truthfully. A powerful gift.”

“Truth,” he echoed her, and his words echoed faintly in the room. “What does it mean, if your gods are touching the world again?”

“They were never our gods to begin with.” She paused for a moment, before adding. “I do not know what it means. I do not know if it is something to be welcomed or feared. We have had to pull outworlders for so many years because we had none capable of divine magic in our own realm. But if the gods have returned to us…”

Asterollan shifted, crossing his arms in the dark as he gazed up at the symbol above. I moved back up the stairs, quietly. “I will go with your group. You may need me.”

I paused, waiting to see what Raella would say. I could see the glint of her yellow eyes in the dark as she turned to look at him. “Yes, we may,” she said, her tone uncharacteristically solemn. I continued back to the campfire, and considered what I had overheard.