It’s time. All I can do is hope we’re all ready. It also means that the deadline has come for a certain pair of nundas. We’re out of time for them to continue arguing; perhaps the pressure of the imminent opening of the portal will achieve what days of discussion hasn’t.

  I close the notification and push myself to my feet, walking over to the giant felines who are staring at each other intensely, having the same argument formed of small shifts of their bodies and telepathic communication that they’ve been engaged in throughout the last few days. I really don’t know how they’ve managed to maintain it for that long, even if it wasn’t constant. But perhaps they’ve just been going around and around in circles, neither willing to give in. I’m familiar with that kind of unproductive debate, that’s for sure.

  “It’s time,” I tell them quietly, drawing their attention. Crossing my arms, I look at them both with a hard gaze. “I need a final answer from you, Lathani. Are you coming with me or staying here with your mother? Whether or not she accepts your decision.” Kalanthia growls slightly at me at that, but I just stare back at her, sending her a mental message. You’ve been discussing this for days, probably months. By this point, you can’t say that her decision, whatever it is, is without thought. If she stays with you, I will accept it. I hope you will be prepared to do the same.

  I know that in some ways it’s a little unfair. I’m not Lathani’s father; it’s not like asking a child which parent she wants to live with after a divorce. But ultimately, Lathani is sapient and mature enough to be able to consider the potential consequences of her choices. That she’s trying to convince her mother to accept that is the only reason I can see for why the discussion wouldn’t have already been finalised by now. Because if she wanted to stay with her mother, she would have just broken our Bond already.

  Perhaps enough of my thoughts makes it through to Kalanthia since she stops growling and instead looks thoughtful – and torn.

  Mother… I hear Lathani plead – perhaps she’s seen the shift in her mother too and is preparing to make a final attempt. Now I’m paying full attention, my Companion Bond makes her words clear for all that they might be directed at her mother. Kalanthia shifts restlessly, her tail lashing behind her in frustration. You know him now! He’s not the demons of your past.

  That does not mean he is a beneficial spirit either, Kalanthia snarls back at her daughter.

  Do you think I have suffered from Binding myself to him? Lathani demands, her tone half-challenging, half-questioning, as if she doesn’t think that the answer could be yes, but fearing that her mother might know something she doesn’t.

  I can’t help but want to know the answer myself for all that I feel the seconds ticking away down to the deadline.

  The silence hangs in the air for what feels like a long time before Kalanthia answers.

  I cannot find any indication that that is so, Kalanthia admits, grudgingly, it seems. If anything, you have Evolved far sooner than you might have, even had the lizard-folk not kidnapped you and wrought their awful arts upon your Energy channels. You are stronger too than I had expected. She sighs, the gust of her breath a rotten-meat scented wind that ruffles my hair. You have not suffered from your connection to the Binder, for all my fears.

  Then, as I’ve said before, join us! Why must I make a choice to lose one of those dearest to me when I can have both?

  My eyebrows go up. I know that the last time I paid attention, the discussion centred around whether Lathani should come with me or stay with Kalanthia, but it appears that it’s shifted since then. I thought that Kalanthia was trying to convince Lathani to stay here; I didn’t realise that Lathani was trying to convince Kalanthia to come.

  Honestly, I’m glad that it’s Lathani who has raised the possibility. I probably shouldn’t be surprised – it was the cub who suggested it all the way back when she first Bound herself to me and almost got me killed as a result. But I knew it couldn’t be me – I might not know the details, but her trauma from other Tamers or something similar is obvious. Me raising it would feel like pressuring her. But it definitely is my preferred option – I have no desire to drag Lathani away from her mother, or bereave Kalanthia of her cub. And it’s not like Kalanthia is a native of this world either. I don’t know the details, but I know that much, which means that several of the issues which my other Bound had to consider are null and void for Kalanthia.

  Kalanthia stays silent, gazing at me with golden eyes. I refuse to look away even as I feel her questing touch flicker through my thoughts.

  “We only need a Bond to get through the portal itself,” I offer quietly, holding her gaze and offering my sincerity to her light mental touch. “It must be a soul-binding, apparently none others are safe in the passageway, but if you would be prepared to Bond with me for that time then I swear I would release it afterwards if you so wish.” Or she would be able to do it herself if she ends up with a Companion Bond – with the possible consequence of never being able to rebuild that Bond again.

  Kalanthia seems torn with indecision, so I turn away from her and give her a moment to think about it. We have little of it left, but enough for this.

  As the minutes tick away closer to the portal’s opening, I check with the rest of my companions that everything is fine, that their possessions are tied to their bodies in case our trip is tumultuous, that the spider-silk cord we will all hold is flawless and strong. There is little to do, if I’m honest – we’ve already made as many preparations as we can.

  “Keep the plan in mind,” I remind them, “Sirocco and Fenrir first to scout out our arrival spot and offer a line of defence if we happen to end up somewhere hostile. But don’t attack until we know that they’re hostile – I’m expecting our reception to be friendly. We don’t want to provoke them to hostility unnecessarily.”

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  I will do it.

  I break off repeating the plan that I’ve talked to my Bound about several times already as Kalanthia speaks, her voice as firm as the mountain on which we’re currently standing.

  “You’ll Bond with me?” I ask, not prevaricating or pretending I don’t know what she’s talking about.

  I will trust myself to you as I have entrusted my cub. As she speaks, I gasp, feeling a cord blossom into place between the two of us, a cord thicker and stronger than any I have felt before. Is this because she’s a Tier three? Or because this is a Companion Bond which she has created from her side, the only thing necessary from me a willingness to anchor the cord within my Skill, as with Lathani and Catch?

  As the sudden intensity fades, I dip my head slightly to her, humbled despite myself. Somehow, I doubt that I could have Dominated Kalanthia against her will despite my Willpower being several times higher than what it was when I first arrived here.

  “Would you like me to release this Bond as soon as we reach the other side?” I ask, wanting to know what I will be dealing with.

  The great cat tosses her head in dismissal.

  I sense that I can release it myself. Prove yourself worthy of my trust, and perhaps I will not, she challenges. I smile: that’s a challenge I’m happy to take up. I feel honoured that she’s even willing to extend this hand of trust considering how much she has been hurt by humans in the past.

  And just in time. The countdown reaches zero.

  The sound of crackling reaches my ears first, along with an uneasy sense that something…unnatural is happening. And then I gasp as it feels like something is being wrenched out of me, something I didn’t even realise was there until I feel its loss.

  Golden threads stream from me towards a single point before me, in the centre of the plateau. They’re visible even without my magic sight active, and the reactions of both alarm and amazement from my companions tells me that they’re visible to everyone else too.

  Before my eyes, a dot appears and quickly widens. The vision sears my mind, at once an empty blackness that threatens to consume me and a writhing pool of nameless horrors. I cry out hoarsely and try to stumble away, only to accidentally step closer, the golden threads continuing to be sucked from my body like spaghetti consumed by a ravenous diner.

  If I hadn’t gathered enough Energy, is that what would have happened to me? The Energy running out, my own body and magic sucked inexorably into that void full of innumerable ravenous demons?

  But fortunately, I did gain enough Energy. The portal grows until it’s big enough even for Kalanthia to step through, and then it stops growing. The golden threads continue to be sucked from me, their loss less and less impactful as my consciousness adapts to their lack, as if they were never there in the first place.

  And then it’s done. The portal’s surface is covered by a rippling metallic surface that blocks out any sign of the horrors that were evident while it was being formed.

  “Go, go, go,” I yell, Sirocco grabbing the end of the rope nearest her and taking off, Fenrir the next to latch on and run into the portal. One by one, the rest of my Bound grab the cord and head into the portal. I am humbled by their trust when only Hunter flinches slightly before running straight through the odd material.

  I exchange looks with Kalanthia.

  I will bring up the rear, she tells me, taking up the end of the cord in her mouth. Without any time to argue, I nod and pick up the cord just ahead of her.

  “Lathani, go,” I order the younger nunda. She sends a final glance back at her mother and me and then bites down gently on the cord and runs through the portal.

  I take a single moment to glance back at the yawning mouth of the cave where I lived for weeks, the first place I found safety in this world. The place where I started building a life rather than just surviving. The place where I started feeling…happy again.

  And then I turn away. For better or worse, that time is done.

  I grab the cord and follow after Lathani, bracing myself for anything as I run straight towards the silvery surface. What I don’t expect is what I feel – nothing. It’s like the metallic surface isn’t even there. Instead, I’m running through a dark tunnel streaked with every colour I recognise, and a number that I don’t. This is nothing like what happened when I held the disc and was transported to the world I’m now leaving behind.

  And then I’m gripped by the feeling of massive acceleration, like something is pushing me faster and faster from behind. I run as if my life depended on it, fearing that if I stop running or stumble and fall for only a moment, I might get run over by what is pushing me rather than propelled safely by it.

  Ahead of me, I can barely make out Lathani’s form, as if the short length of cord between us has stretched out to an eternity, time and distance somehow the same in this mind-melting moment.

  And then Lathani disappears into a black hole. I howl soundlessly, not having even realised until now that everything is utterly silent. The black hole approaches unnaturally, going from a pin-prick in the distance one moment to an inescapable disk before me the next.

  I topple into the black hole as the rope in my hands, almost forgotten, tugs against my automatic resistance.

  And then sound explodes around me again as I find myself somewhere completely new, the cord somehow vanished from my hands.

  I barely have the time to take in wood panelled walls and a satanic-looking arrangement of lines and candles on the tiled floor when a massive weight slams into me from behind and I’m bowled over.

  I automatically tuck myself into a roll, managing to come to my feet just in front of a figure who I immediately recognise. The last time, he was just a small, grey-scale faded spectre, hovering in my sitting room. Now, he’s full-size and full-colour. My gaze is drawn immediately to his eyes, their vibrant, almost violently purple colour somehow more alien than anything else in the room. It makes it all too clear that, however civilised the room looks, I am still very, very far from Earth.

  Even as I stare, the man starts to speak in a hoarse voice, using words that I do not understand, but strangely feel that I should. It’s like it’s a language which I learned once when I was a small child, and then never spoke again since. But I do hear his name, Nicholas. He’s introducing himself?

  I open my mouth to return the favour, the lack of alarm from any of my Bound indicating that we do not seem to be in immediate danger. But before I can get out a single word, his eyes roll up in his head and he collapses.

  here!

  here!

  here!

  here