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And she’d found quite a bit, hadn’t she? Doorways. Pathways. A maze, even.

And Gohvis had been there, too, at first. He’d helped her understand what she was seeing.

‘This is a representation of your unconscious mind,’ he’d told her. ‘A construct of the self. Only you can comprehend it. Even as I stand here with you, I see little more than indecipherable noise. But given time, and enough meditative training, you will come to know this place quite intimately. And it may also prove tremendously useful in the harnessing of your power.’

After that, he hadn’t stuck around much longer, even when she started asking him questions. He’d simply told her that this was her journey to take and that he could not help her along it any further.

Then... she’d wandered. Through herself. Through her memories. Her life. Her emotions. Her desires. Her hopes.

For how long?

Endlessly, it felt like. Beyond that, she had no sense of the time that had transpired.

She’d gotten lost, she realized. Yes. Hence her inability to pull herself out of it.

So Gohvis was blameless, then?

Hmm. She wondered about that. Had he known she would get lost?

Impossible to know. Perhaps she would ask him at the next opportunity, though she wasn’t sure there was much point.

But there was something else in there. In her memories of that lost period. She’d wandered so long. So far afield. Beyond, perhaps?

Beyond?

Beyond what?

Beyond herself. Beyond her own mind. Her own life.

Yes. She was remembering now. There’d been so much more, hadn’t there? Things she’d never seen. Never felt. Never experienced.

Things that hadn’t belonged to her.

Memories that hadn’t belonged to her.

Her eyes eased back open. When had she closed them? She was holding her head with one hand. When had she started doing that?

Chergoa was saying something. Asking after her well-being, perhaps. Emiliana was only half-understanding.

Her mind was too preoccupied to pay that much attention to the reaper and Ibai, right now.

She was recalling the fullness of her experience in that strange space. The construct of her mind.

Madega trees. So much of what she’d seen was still a blur, but those were recurring. With their teal leaves. And the comfortably high water in which they always stood. Yes. Always comfortable. Never otherwise.

Even now, she wished to see one again. Right now. The one standing in their home. The family estate in Aguarey.

Oh, what she would give to be there this very instant.

But no. She was here, instead. On the other side of the world. Where she did not belong.

Where her ancestors struggled to see her.