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Elossai waved her hand over a black sensor by the door. It flashed blue, and the door slid open horizontally. We walked through the doorway and into a long corridor.

The hallway was narrow enough that I could touch both walls with my arms outstretched. I clutched my hands and picked up the pace. If there were a couple of windows with natural light, it would have felt less confined—instead, the way was drenched in a harsh fluorescent light that stung the eyes. Someone who was claustrophobic would not fare well in this environment. When we came across the bend into a much wider hallway, I felt more relaxed and let my hands fall to my sides.

A few men were lined up against the unpainted walls. They stood several feet apart from each other and they were dressed uniformly in silver and black armored outfits and brandished fearsome-looking weapons slung over their shoulders.

“Why are they wearing armor?” I asked.

“For their protection,” Elossai responded.

Obviously it was for protection, but what did these people need protection from? Just how dangerous was this world?

There was an unspoken somberness that hung heavy in the air. I didn’t want to disturb it, and so we walked in silence.

I tried to be observant of my surroundings so that I could remember the way back to my room, but aside from a wheelbarrow filled with sand, a few buckets of paint and some brooms, nothing we passed was notable enough to be used as breadcrumbs in finding my way back. One thing I was sure of was that Possen Fort was still under construction.

Finally, we stopped in front of a door which was guarded by two men.

“Hey, look what we have here. It’s an Elos!” The short guard pointed at Elossai.

The other guard, who was a head taller than the first, snorted. “You don’t see many of those ‘round here.”

“I request entry,” Elossai said with an authoritative tone—ignoring their previous remarks.

“This man is dangerous. Can’t let you see him.” The second guard shook his head.

“Yeah. Besides, we wouldn’t want a little Elos getting hurt.”

“Martin isn’t dangerous, he just looks that way.” The words flew out of my mouth, catching everyone by surprise—including myself.

“It took three of us to restrain him. Didn’t take him long after he got here before he was kicking around, trying to make his way through the fort,” the first guard added.

Martin wouldn’t dish out any more than you deserved.

I thought better of letting them know how I felt and held my tongue.

“Like she said, we need to get in,” I said instead.

The tall guard folded his arms in front of him. “Look, Miss, no one gets through here.”

I guess I couldn’t fault the guard for not letting us in. He was just following orders, and if it was orders that they followed, that’s what I’d give them. “Open the door, by orders of Selene Ann—” but before I could finish, Elossai grabbed my hand firmly.

“Sye-Liene Anmyn?” The shorter guard’s face went pale. “My sincerest apologies, Anmyn.” He immediately waved his hand on the sensor by the door then punched in a code. Both soldiers stepped out of the way with their heads bowed low. The door slid open and Elossai and I entered.

Inside, a third guard stood by the door and Martin was lying in a bed, deathly still.

“Martin! Martin, wake up. It’s me, Ell,” I exclaimed. He didn’t respond and appeared to be in a deep sleep. “Why isn’t he waking up?”

“We’ve sedated him because he was violent,” replied the guard.

“You what?” I was fuming. “How could you do that?”

“Who ordered his sedation, soldier?” asked Elossai.

“The Sorceress,” he replied.

I squared my shoulders, ready to give him a piece of my mind, but Elossai gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

“Go and send for Stanjah, soldier,” said Elossai.

“I was ordered not to leave this man unattended.”

“This man is sedated. Go before I speak to the Anmus about your insubordination.” She stared down the guard, challenging him. I was surprised—Elossai had gone from meek to authoritative in an instant.

The soldier was the first to break eye contact, nodding and bumbling out of the room.

I spread my arms wide as if to question the absurdity of it all. “They sedated him?”

My blood was boiling. Elossai didn’t respond. She approached Martin and sat on the bed next to him, holding his hands in hers. She watched him closely, observing the rising and falling of his chest. She matched her breathing with his before she closed her eyes—concentrating. I held my breath, fearing that I’d accidentally interrupt whatever was going on.

The yellow gemstone on Elossai’s forehead suddenly lit up, pulsating at first, then into a steady stream of dim light.

“Wow…” I whispered.

The steady stream of light blossomed into a bright, concentrated beam that targeted Martin’s chest. It was too bad Martin was unconscious—he would’ve loved to see this. Anything paranormal tickled his fancy.

When the beam of light shut off, Elossai released Martin’s hand. She nearly fell backward but braced herself against the bed.

“Ell?” Martin said in a weak voice as he opened his eyes.

“Martin!” I lunged at him, embracing him tightly.

“Ell, you’re all right!”

“Of course I am,” I said.

“They wouldn’t let me see you.” Martin sat up—his drowsiness completely gone. “I kept asking them about you—where you were, where we were, where Katie is, why they forced me to swallow something… They refuse to give me any answers.”

“I heard you were trying to show them who’s boss before you were sedated,” I asked.

“Hell, yeah! They wouldn’t tell me where you were.”

“I didn’t think you’d be the violent type,” I teased.

“I’m not, Ell—you know that,” he said.

It was totally unlike him to become violent, but then again—I was nowhere to be found, and we’d been whisked off to a strange place with even stranger people. To top it off, Katie—the sister he almost lost to social services after his parents died—had been kidnapped.

“I know you’re not, Martin,” I said. “By the way, those tablets they forced us to take made it possible for us to understand and speak their language.”

Martin narrowed his eyes skeptically. “So that’s their excuse?”

“Ankin is the language you are speaking now.” Elossai interrupted, then suddenly, lowered her head. “Forgive me.”

“Who’s she? Wait, was that thing on her forehead glowing?”

“Martin, this is Elossai. She’s helped you regain consciousness.”

Martin looked confused. “Helped me regain consciousness?”

Elossai stood up and smiled, but she looked just a tad lethargic. “I purged the sedative from you.”

“Martin, I’ll explain everything to you later,” I reassured him. “All you need to know for now is that she’s a friend.”

“I shall retrieve Keiran Anmus now, but I will be back momentarily.” Elossai walked out of the room with a little instability in her step.

“Couldn’t she have just said Anmus or Keiran by itself?” I mused.

“Maybe Anmus is a title.” Martin shrugged. He looked up at the ceiling and scratched the back of his head, like he was thinking. “So, we’ve got people who can shape shift into crows, a sorceress, and at least one vortex. I take it we’re no longer in Hemley?”

“They call the vortex Ora.” I added, using air quotes for the foreign word. “They also have the Elos; people born of a tree.”

“Born from a tree?”

“Yep—Elossai’s one of them. I bet there’s much more we don’t know yet, though.”

“Man… All we can do is hope that Katie’s safe.”

“This is all my fault…”

“It’s not your fault, Ell. You didn’t know. We’ll get her back—”

The sensor by the door beeped and slid open.

Stanjah entered with her lips pressed into an angry white slash.