Eluvie remained stunned for a moment, then she made several rapid rotations, searching for the source of the danger. Nothing appeared out of place. She could still see the now unattended gateway. The river continued to flow. Beyond it, a thick fog covered the landscape so that she could only pick out a few trees with her eyesight. To every other side of her, there was only sand, and - further out - fog.

  Her breathing began to grow difficult. She could still draw in air, but it required far more effort than it should have. Her legs grew heavy.

  There's something wrong, she thought.

  She did not know what it was, but she did not need to know. They had walked through a strange doorway with little preparation. For all she knew, the fog was a toxic gas choking the life out of them. She needed to leave.

  The portal was well within reach, even given her exhaustion. But what would she do if she went through it? She could not travel more than a certain distance from the group before she hit the barrier that kept her in. And she still did not know how to disable it.

  Her discomfort was not great enough that thinking was uncomfortable, so she chose to move. Presumably, the rulers possessed something that kept the barrier in place. Whatever it was, it was small and mobile. She would find it and take it with her. Then she could escape through the doorway and go wherever she wanted.

  Her first target was easy to choose: Mirab.

  She walked as quickly as she could without straining herself and soon reached Mirab's side. To her disappointment, the ruler was still alive. Her chest rose and fell slowly with her breaths, but she did not stir.

  Eluvie searched Mirab's clothing frantically, practically undressing her in the process. The longer she searched, the shorter her breath grew, the more frantic she felt, and the more roughly she searched.

  But she found nothing.

  With a hiss of frustration, she moved on to the next ruler. She searched them one at a time, but none of the four was carrying so much as a purse. By that point, her head ached, and her vision had developed spots. She had to leave. She could take a good breath on the other side and return to continue the search.

  Reaching the portal was a difficult struggle, but she made it. On the other side, she fell to her knees and panted, distracted for several moments by the task of recovering her breath. When she was no longer overwhelmed by her struggle for survival, she was able to take in the world again.

  It looked faded, like a piece of cloth washed for too many years. The air smelled stale, the sounds were jarring, and both the sky and ground seemed somehow unreal. She grasped the archway beside her, partly to steady herself and partly to confirm that it was real. She had been on the other side for mere minutes. Yet, she could not believe that she had ever seen any beauty on this side.

  The disbelief slowly wore off but did not disappear. Eventually, however, her mind was clear enough to evaluate her situation. For the first time, she could remember, she was away from her captors. Yes, she was still tethered to them, but the sense of freedom was strong enough to weaken her legs. She wondered how far she could go.

  As it turned out, it wasn't far.

  She walked in one direction for less than five minutes before she collided with an invisible barrier. She cursed, fury overwhelming her. Freedom was so tantalizingly close, and yet nowhere within reach. Away from Mirab's side, her anger was far more potent than her fear. Anger at their lies, at their cruelty, at her own weakness.

  Mirab claimed that their goal was only to save lives. Then why treat her so terribly? She had been in their power for ages. If they had treated her well, she would have opened the portal without a qualm. Why torture her?

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  She turned and headed back to the portal, hands clenched into fists and secured to her side.

  You're probably still deaf, she prayed, But if you have any mercy, let them still be unconscious and let me find the source of the barrier.

  At the portal, she allowed herself a moment of hesitation, held her breath, and stepped through the portal.

  The brilliant colors were just as stunning as during her first trip. To her astonishment, they were even more captivating than she recalled, as if her brain, unable to process the scene, had dulled them in her memory.

  It took almost an entire minute to tear her gaze away from the landscape and realize that the rulers' bodies had moved.

  She panicked, cast her gaze around the area, and found the culprits.

  There were three people standing over the collapsed guards and watching her with wild expressions. Referring to them as "people" seemed insulting, though. Eluvie recalled seeing herself in the mirror for the first time and realizing that she was beautiful. The difference between her appearance and these people's was comparable to the difference between the two sides of the gateway. Oddly, they seemed just as stunned to see her as she did to see them.

  The sole woman in the group recovered first and smiled a brilliant smile. She gestured with both hands at the group of rulers and the separate group of guards.

  "Your friends are alive," she said. "Fortunately, we found them in time. The air here is dangerous for mortals. We will transport them back to your home, and they should recover quickly. You should leave as well, or you won't fare better."

  Eluvie felt a burst of irritation. It must have been visible on her face because the woman's smile disappeared.

  They stared at each other silently. Eluvie was considering how quickly she could strangle every one of the unconscious humans while the woman was likely pondering the source of her murderous gaze.

  One of the men spoke. He and his companion were dressed in identical clothing: large-sleeved shirts and a matching pair of slacks. Their sleeves, like that of the woman's gown, had a conspicuous pin band. Conspicuous because the rest of the clothing was flawless black.

  "You should leave at once," the man said. "Delay is dangerous."

  "How much longer will they live?" Eluvie asked.

  "I would not recommend waiting," the woman said. "They might survive for an hour without any ill effects, but that is not certain. Past that, even if they recover, there will be effects."

  "But how long until they die?" Eluvie asked again.

  The woman seemed shocked by the question. "As I said, an hour will cause them damage. As for how long until they die, I cannot say. We have never had that happen."

  "Give me an estimate," Eluvie said.

  The woman scowled. She seemed unable to decide if she was dealing with an idiot or a scoundrel. "You show very little care for your friends. We will help you leave, now."

  She gestured to her two companions, and before her prompting was done, they had each hoisted one guard onto their shoulders.

  Eluvie made her decision in one instant and executed it in the next.

  She transformed her hair, letting it grow long enough that it could pass for a carpet, then solidified it into a steel barrier over the archway.

  The newcomers froze in evident disbelief.

  "You seem like kind people," she said. "Your only problem is your inability to mind your own business. So, I will be frank with you. These people are monsters, and I am their prisoner. If you send them back and they recover, I will be their prisoner again. I will not allow that. Put them down and walk away."

  Eluvie expected many things from the woman then: annoyance, disbelief, even anger. What she did not expect was pity. And to see it reflected on the faces of the two men, that broke something inside her.

  Her hands shook with either grief or rage. Her knees joined the shaking, as if sobs inside her could not contain themselves to her chest. But she remained in place.

  She held out a hand, transformed it into her true form, broke off a tiny piece of the transformed hand, and then transformed that piece into a knife.

  "You can try to stop me," she said, "but I assure you that I am very, very determined. At least one of you won't make it through this alive."

  Their expressions changed again. They now seemed to recognize danger in the situation. That comforted Eluvie. She did not believe that she could defeat them, but she wanted to give them pause.