"You mentioned dreams."
"It's something about the mood of this world. When I saw you, I couldn't believe you were actually here. I've been forced to fight creatures of nightmare. I couldn't distinguish between my dreams and my waking life." He laughed, but it was forced. "I sound mad, don't I?"
"Don't worry," Ella said. "I'm here to take you home. You'll feel better as soon as you're back."
Killian looked up at the empty shell, where the words "Sentar Scythran" gave the name of the one who had once waited in stasis. "What happened to him? He was here when I first found this chamber. I'll never forget that face. Of all of them, his face chilled me the most."
"He must have left some time ago," Ella said. "The essence drained away from the portal and the gate opened, long enough for the beacon to sound and wake him. Sentar must have been chosen by the others to keep guard in case the portal ever opened."
"Then why didn't he wake the others?" Killian asked.
"My guess is he didn't have time."
"So Sentar crossed, while he could."
"He crossed, and he went to the Akari. He now has necromancers with him, and essence. He sent an explosive device to my brother's wedding…"
Ella told Killian about the strange device and Tomas's poisoning, Miro and Amber's quest, and Evrin's revelations.
How would she explain what she had discovered about Killian himself?
"We need you," Ella said. "Will you come home with me?"
"How did you cross over?" Killian asked. "How is it possible?"
"I can tell you as we journey to the portal. I've asked Shani to open it once every three days, but it sounds like we have no way of telling when it will open next. We'll have to wait beside the portal. There'll be time to explain everything."
"Wait," Killian said. "Before we go… There are dangers out there. You need to know something…"
"What is it?"
Killian opened his mouth, trying to speak. "It won't make much sense unless I explain it all," he finally said.
Ella looked out from the mountain chamber's opening at the strange twilight that must be what Killian had called daylight. What would night be like? How much time did they have?
Ella took Killian's hand in hers. He looked up to meet her eyes and then lowered his gaze again.
"Go on," Ella said.
"I crossed over as the beacon was sounding. There was a device like a pendulum on the other side. I stopped it."
Ella nodded. "I saw it."
"I followed the road until I came to this chamber. It was the first place I found. I knew though that I would need food and water, and my hunger drove me to explore this land. There was a problem. The first time I slept in the open, I was attacked."
Killian's expression grew strained.
"It was like a shadow, and with the lack of light I couldn't see its form. I thought I must have been dreaming when my blows didn't touch it, but I was awake, and the gouges it left in my back were real. I wasn't wearing much when I crossed, if you remember."
Ella nodded.
"I only survived that night by running. I found the deepest hole I could and hid. I survived night after night in this way. In my explorations I found peculiar buildings left behind by those who dwelled in the cities, and other structures built by the Evermen, places stranger than this chamber by far.
"There is plenty of water in the cities, so thirst wasn't a problem, but food is another story. The wrains — that's what the original inhabitants called themselves — ate food quite different to us. So I concentrated on the places where the Evermen met and slept, ate and studied. I eventually found food they left behind, in a place far from here. I found these clothes."
Killian indicated the fitted garments he wore: black boots, soft black trousers, silver belt and collared black shirt. Ella stroked the material of his sleeve between her fingertips; it was incredibly soft.
"I found chambers the shadows were unwilling to enter. I wanted to return to the portal and examine it, to continue my explorations, but with the shadows now tuned to my presence and somehow resenting it, I had to stay there. That's when I found the library."
Killian spread his hands. "I had little else to do, and I was forced to fight the shadows. I found books the Evermen left behind, and I found essence. I learned to develop my powers."
The last time Ella and Killian met, he'd said Ella had changed. Now it was Ella who felt awestruck at Killian's new powers.
"The first time I left the library the shadows came at me again and again. I was filled with fear, but I threw fire at them, and where my physical blows had done nothing, the fire made them scream. From then on I learned from the books and tested what I'd learned on the shadows. I've fought them too many times to count, day after day. Having a daily struggle for my life made me strong. In a way, I'm now like one of them."
Ella thought he meant like one of the shadows, and then she realised.