The Shadowless Forest begins where the dirt road disappears.
At first, Liora thought the fog was what made the trees look strange. Black trunks stood close together on either side of them, stretching upward without a single branch attached. Ardhana's blue light was still visible in the distance, but it never seemed any closer.
Then Liora realized something.
There were no shadows beneath their feet.
The first moon hung between the branches. The second was cracked behind the clouds. Yet the ground beneath Liora's shoes remained empty, as if the light had never touched it.
“Don't look back,” Kael said.
“I wasn't looking back.”
“Now you want to.”
Liora held her head still. “Do you always know what I'm thinking?”
“No.”
“Too bad.”
“I only know what people usually do when they hear a voice behind them.”
As if summoned by his words, someone whispered from behind the trees.
“Liora.”
The voice belonged to her mother.
Liora stopped.
Kael immediately pulled her hand. His grip was firm but not painful. “Don't answer.”
“How do you know it isn't her?”
“Because your mother isn't in this universe.”
“You don't know that.”
“I know this forest.”
The whisper came again, closer this time.
“Liora, come home.”
For a moment, the smell of her apartment filled the air—coffee left on the table, laundry that hadn't dried, and the lavender soap her mother had always used when Liora was little. The memory surfaced with impossible clarity. Clearer than it should have been.
Liora turned slightly.
Kael stood beside her, his face tense. “Don't.”
“I just want to make sure.”
“There is nothing to make sure of.”
“What if it really is my mother?”
“If it were, she'd call you by a name you recognized.”
Liora stared at him.
Kael said nothing more, but something in his eyes made Liora stop arguing. He had heard a voice from this forest before. Maybe Evelyn's voice.
Maybe he had once almost answered.
They kept walking.
After a few minutes, voices began to rise among the trees. A child laughing. A man begging. A woman weeping without pause. Each voice called Liora's name, one after another, as if the forest were trying to find the form of address that would make her turn around.
Kael didn't let go of her hand.
“Does everyone who comes in here hear voices like that?” Liora asked.
“No.”
“Then why can I hear them?”
“Because the forest doesn't know who you are yet.”
“Didn't you say the forest considers me yours?”
“Not completely.”
The words made Liora glance at their clasped hands.
Kael noticed. “It's just a rule of the forest.”
“I didn't ask.”
“You were thinking it.”
“I'm starting to wish you'd stop reading my mind.”
“So am I.”
The answer was so quiet it nearly vanished among the false voices. Liora didn't know whether Kael was talking about her or the forest.
Ahead of them, the fog suddenly thinned.
A stone gate stood among the trees. Carved above it was the same cracked-circle emblem as the mark on Kael's chest. Two guards in blue robes stood on either side of the gate, carrying spears with clear blades.
One of the guards raised a hand.
“Stop.”
Kael stepped forward. “I'm bringing someone.”
“We can see that.”
“Open the gate.”
The guard looked at Liora. His face showed no surprise, but his fingers tightened around his spear.
“Her name?”
Liora opened her mouth.
Before she could answer, the bells on Ardhana's walls rang.
Once.
Twice.
Then the entire city lit up with blue light at the same time.
Beyond the gate, people ran toward the walls. Some pointed at Liora. A commotion spread like fire.
“Evelyn.”
“She has returned.”
“Impossible.”
“Call the Council.”
The guard in front of them took a step back.
Kael drew his sword. “Open the gate now.”
“Captain,” the guard said, his voice trembling, “the Council has ordered that the woman not be allowed inside.”
“I don't work for the Council.”
“Since when?”
“Since they left the gate open.”
The air between them tightened.
Liora looked at Kael. “You were a captain?”
“Once.”
“And now?”
“Now I'm the man trying to keep you alive.”
An arrow of light shot toward them.
Kael raised a hand. A blue shield appeared, but the arrow pierced it and struck his shoulder. His body jerked. He dropped to one knee.
“Kael!”
Liora caught him.
Blood quickly soaked through his black coat. The arrow had no shaft, only a shard of light pulsing inside the wound.
“Don't pull it out,” he said.
“I wasn't going to—”
“Don't touch it.”
Liora pressed the fabric around the wound. “You really love giving orders.”
“They usually work.”
“Not this time.”
She looked toward the gate. The archers were drawing their bows again. Behind them, the city that believed her a ghost began closing every road.
Something moved inside Liora's chest.
Not fear.
Something older than fear.
The blue lines on her wrist lit up. A cracking sound came from beneath the ground. The circle emblem on the stone gate slowly began to turn, then formed a small white rift.
Kael stared at her. “Liora, what are you doing?”
“I don't know.”
The rift widened.
On the other side of the gate, there was no city. Liora saw her apartment. The shattered window. Glass on the floor. Rain frozen in the air.
And in the middle of the room, her reflection was still standing with a sword in its hand.
The reflection raised its face.
This time, its lips moved clearly.
Don't run.
Choose.
Liora felt Kael's hand close around her wrist.
“Don't open that gate,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because it isn't showing you a way home.”
“What is it showing you?”
Kael looked at the white rift. The color drained from his face.
“Where Evelyn died.”
Inside the rift, the burning city replaced the apartment. Stone towers rose beneath a red sky. Ash fell like snow. A woman with Liora's face knelt on the ground, both hands covered in blood.
In front of her, Evelyn smiled.
She was still alive.
But a sword had pierced her chest.
Liora couldn't breathe.
Evelyn lifted her face toward the rift, as if she could see Liora from a distant age.
Her lips moved.
Kael closed his eyes when he heard it.
“I asked her to do it.”
Liora turned sharply. “What?”
Evelyn's voice came from inside the gate, clear and close.
“I asked her to kill me.”
Kael stood despite his wounded shoulder. “Close the gate.”
“Wait.”
“Liora.”
“You heard that.”
“I've been hearing it for seven years.”
For the first time, Kael's anger broke free. It wasn't anger at Liora, but at the entire world that had forced him to live with a single question.
“Every night,” he continued, “I hear her say the same thing. But when I wake up, all that's left is her blood and her body. No explanation. No witnesses. Only you.”
“It wasn't me.”
“I know.”
The answer left Liora speechless.
Kael looked at her with eyes more tired than angry. “But your face is still the same.”
The white rift trembled. From the burning city, black hands began crawling toward it.
The guards at the gate shouted. The bows of light were aimed at them again.
“We have to go,” Kael said.
“We still don't know what happened.”
“We know enough not to die here.”
“If we close it, we might lose the answer.”
“If we leave it open, we'll lose more than that.”
The first creature broke through the rift.
Kael shoved Liora backward, but this time Liora wouldn't let him face the creature alone. She seized Kael's hand and focused on the red knot in the center of the gate.
The knot pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Then it began beating in time with both their hearts.
Blue light flowed from Liora's hand into Kael's. The cracked mark on the man's chest blazed so brightly that everyone on the wall covered their eyes.
Kael looked at her. “You have to let go.”
“No.”
“Liora, this gate will pull you in.”
“Then help me close it.”
“You don't know how.”
“I didn't know how to open it either.”
The creature snarled before them. Its fingers nearly brushed Liora's face.
Liora remembered Evelyn's voice.
I asked her to do it.
She remembered Kael arriving with hatred because he had nothing else to carry with him.
Then she said, “I won't let someone die just because everyone chose to believe in my face.”
Kael looked at her as if he were seeing Liora for the first time.
Then he tightened his grip on her hand.
“If you fall,” he said, “I'll pull you back.”
“Don't make a promise you can't keep.”
“I've already failed once.”
Light exploded.
Liora screamed as thousands of voices poured into her head. She saw cities that had never existed, rivers flowing into the sky, and thousands of faces that all had her eyes. Among them, she saw Evelyn standing before a black door.
Evelyn was holding someone's hand.
Kael.
Not the Kael of now, but a younger Kael, still smiling without sorrow.
Evelyn kissed his forehead.
Then she whispered, “If I ask you to kill me, don't believe me.”
Liora jerked.
Before she could understand the words, the gate closed.
The creature before them was severed into shadow and sucked back into the rift. The blue light went out. Kael collapsed to the ground.
Liora dropped to her knees beside him.
Above them, the guards no longer aimed their bows.
They stared at Liora in fear.
One of them whispered, “She closed the gate with the guardian's blood.”
Another guard replied, “No.”
He pointed at Liora and Kael's hands, still clasped together.
“The gate closed for her.”
The stone gate slowly opened.
Not at the guards' command.
Behind it, an old woman in white robes stood alone. Her hair fell all the way to the stone floor. She carried a staff of clear bone, with a black key hanging from its tip.
She looked at Liora without surprise.
“Bring him inside,” Kael said weakly.
The old woman didn't look at Kael. Her eyes remained fixed on Liora.
“No,” she said.
“He's wounded.”
“I wasn't talking about him.”
The woman raised her black key.
Inside Liora's pocket, the silver locket opened once again. The photograph inside changed for the third time.
Now there was no Evelyn.
No Liora.
Only Kael standing alone before the burning city.
Behind him, one sentence was written in red ink:
KAEL WILL DIE IF LIORA REMEMBERS THE TRUTH.
The old woman smiled faintly.
“Welcome to Ardhana,” she said. “The city that never remembers the sky, but always remembers the names of its killers.”