Page 33 of Synodic

The contrast of Rowen standing amongst the Wyn people was glaringly evident, the only thing they had in common was the type of clothing they wore.

He clearly wasn’t born into this village, but the Wyn seemed to accept him all the same, and I couldn’t help but wonder about the series of events that led him to live here.

Rowen finally met my surprised stare, and my skin surged with a heat that shot to my belly, but he barely acknowledged my existence before turning to Nepta. “For reasons unknown, summoning-demons are drawn to her. She still goes undetected since each summoning has been destroyed, but more will surely come,” he said, and my knees almost buckled. “Erovos’ ignorance of her could be all the advantage we need over him. She could prove…useful.”

“If Erovos truly is the one behind these demons, it’s a miracle he hasn’t found her yet,” Takoda chimed in again.

“I’d say a little more than a miracle,” Rowen pointed out wryly.

Hearing these two men speak so freely jogged my memory of where I’d heard Takoda’s voice before. The night of Prism, after I made it to bed. Rowen had punched a hole in a wall as Takoda tried to calm him, all the while I had been an invisible spectator. Mute. Unheard. And unseen.

I hadn’t been able to speak my mind then, and I’d be damned if I was going to let that happen again now.

“I would like everyone to stop talking about me as if I weren’t here,” I demanded, glaring at all three culprits. This may not be real, but I refused to be regarded as air, as if I couldn’t speak for myself. “Can someone please tell me what’s going on?”

“Take her and prepare her. She must be brought before the Summit tonight,” Nepta commanded, waving her arm in dismissal.

Complying with her orders, the crowd broke apart slowly, whispering and glancing back before returning to their daily lives. A younger boy passed in front of me with eager curiosity. His messy hair framed a wide, blinking face that was open and bright, receptive to the world and all its yet-to-be-found treasures. He flashed me a deep-dimpled grin before darting away.

“Sleep well, princess?” Rowen asked, seeming to suddenly remember my presence. He remained several feet away, his clear green eyes taking me in from a distance.

After our experience together at Weir Falls, I thought his cold exterior would have thawed somewhat, but he was as distant as ever, looking at me as though his fingers hadn’t been down my throat. Or that we hadn’t felt every inch of each other on the ground of the red forest.

“What was that all about?” I asked, shaking off his cavalier demeanor.

“You have much to hear and understand, star-touched,” Takoda answered. “It will take time to fully comprehend.”

“Comprehend what?” I asked, my voice on the verge of agitation. “Could someone just spit it out already?”

“Perhaps we should go somewhere more private.” Takoda nodded to the groups of people lingering and watching intently.

I nodded, eager not to have an audience. I already felt like a fish out of water. Everyone seemed to know what was going on except me.

Rowen and Takoda guided me away from the prying eyes of the village, leading me to a nearby clearing surrounded by imposing trees. The air buzzed with the energy of what they were about to tell me. I braced myself, but somehow I knew I could never fully prepare for what they were about to say.

“You are not from Luneth, are you?” Takoda asked gently.

“Luneth?” I asked, the name rolling off my tongue like a treasured pebble from a lost and ancient world. “So the place from my dreams does have a name.”

“Star-touched, you are not dreaming. I believe you possess the gift of walking between worlds. An astral traveler,” Takoda said plain as day. “Living in your world but tied intrinsically here, to Luneth.”

Yup. Definitely wasn’t ready for that.

“Oh,” I said brilliantly.

Takoda, sympathetic to my stunned processing, nodded. “Yes. Do you have any idea as to why? The Summit will want an explanation for your presence to this land.”

Rowen’s tactics of explaining were not as delicate as Takoda’s. “You were making quite a scene in the forest,” he said harshly, his eyes tracing over my bare skin as if it offended him. Takoda flashed him a silencing glance, but he continued on, unfazed. “You’ll be lucky if others don’t come looking for you.”

I had wanted, craved, and sensed there was more to my life, but this? This was too much.

What they were telling me was too crazy, too absurd to be real, yet it explained so much of what I’d been going through. I’d even suspected it for a moment myself: the dreams that felt so real they had me guessing which life was the imposter, the moments it took me longer to realize where I was, or where I felt too big for my own skin. How my whole life I felt like a sleepwalker.

Was this me truly waking up?

The logical part of my brain wanted to deny it. All of it. This grandiose delusion that I could walk between worlds was clearly my mind’s way of coping with the mental break that cracked down my psyche like a serrated glacier.

It just wasn’t possible.

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