Ramii was falling, falling like a grain of dust. There was no sensation around him. No warmth, no chill. Only a hollow stillness. No air passed through his nose as he breathed. Alarmed, he opened his eyes. He could still see.

  Before him, a threadlike boundary appeared, sundering two realms: one flooded with radiant light, the other engulfed in impenetrable shadow. He walked slowly, his feet drawn onward. Neither the realm of light nor the endless dark offered anything to guide him. He wandered on along the fragile divide, suspended between light and darkness.

  “My dear… Sleep now, my soft shadow… Sleep slow, my lamp so low…

  My dear… Mama must go, let silence flow…

  My dear… Close your eyes, Papa comes home…”

  A familiar song. Ramii knew it as his mother’s lullaby. He halted, listening intently. The melody faded. Silence fell.

  Then two doors appeared: one pitch-dark, on the side of the realm of light; the other glowing bright, on the side of the realm of shadow.

  Knock - Knock!

  A rapping sounded from both doors.

  Ramii forsook the boundary and passed into the realm of light. He opened the dark door.

  Beyond it lay nothing but darkness. A distant light flickered faintly, now visible, now veiled. Ramii groped his way toward it. Ahead, a motionless figure lay upon the ground. A strange black sword stood buried in its chest.

  He stepped closer. The lifeless face was his own.

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  From the wound in his heart, the body began to rot and dissolve into green, viscous muck. Stricken with dread, Ramii turned and fled—only to catch sight of a figure that had been waiting him all along.

  “MAMA!”

  Ramii cried out. Tlyna stood before him, twin streams of tears coursing down her face. Ramii rushed toward her. But the moment his fingers grazed hers, her form flared into an eldritch green blaze. When the flame subsided, nothing remained but a heap of ash.

  ~~~

  Ramii started awake.

  He had just emerged from the Zon’A Gate, his mind still in a haze. Two forms, covered in white hair, stood beside him in bewilderment. He recognized them as Hudyn and Katuo.

  The fine hairs began to shed, and they brushed the rest from their bodies. Around them lingered a thick white mist, with nothing else visible but the three of them. Before they crossed the Zon’A Gate, they left all their belongings behind. Each of them felt as though years had passed. Now they stood a little taller than before, their hair grown long, trailing down to their feet.

  “By heaven and all spirits!” Hudyn exclaimed, his eyes wide with astonishment. “Are you Katuo?! Since when did you become a woman?!”

  Hudyn hastily looked down at his own body, patting himself from head to toe, then blew out a breath. “Thank the stars! Still a man.”

  “I’ve always been a girl!” Katuo cried. She fumbled to cover the rips in her clothing.

  Katuo had to explain herself to her two friends. Since she was little, her grandsire had dressed her as a boy. He did so to shield her from trouble or bullying when she went out to play. With her hair cut short, she looked much like his son had as a boy. And she had grown accustomed to that life until now.

  “Why are you staring at me like that?!” Katuo growled, her cheeks burning. “Look somewhere else, will you?”

  Ramii stifled a grin and glanced aside. Hudyn, however, kept staring with a mischievous smirk, intent on provoking her.

  At length, the veil of mist gradually dissolved. Hundreds, then thousands, and at last tens of thousands of ownan emerged into view. They sat upon the ground in vast concentric circles. Their hands rested before their breasts, their two eyes closed; yet the third eye, wide open and glowing, gazed upon the three young ones.

  A resonant sound rose within their minds, quivering through their frames and spreading into every fiber, every fingertip, every strand of hair.

  ‘OaaLoarin ~ In the light of kinship, we welcome brethren from the Roundland.’

  ~~~