Blackness all around me but I could hear voices.  “Get the brandy,” Daryn’s voice was saying. 

            “I told you she should drink some beforehand!”  Trenwyn sounded put out.

            Had I fainted?  I must have.  I was lying on the ground.  Little bits of gravel pressed into my cheek and I tasted blood.  I heard myself groan. 

            “Help me get her up.”  Trenwyn’s voice was right above me and I felt hands pulling and prodding me.  I groaned again and reluctantly opened my eyes to see nothing.  Wait.  I could see the stars.  And dim outlines around me.  I must be facing away from the fire.

            “Am I still alive?” I croaked, looking fearfully at my right hand.  My throat burned and I was expecting to see a blackened, crispy limb and it took a minute to register when the back of my hand looked normal.  Astonished, I turned it over slowly, examining my palm that had been in contact with the coals.  The flesh was wholly unmarred.  I couldn’t even tell I’d been near a fire, even though I still felt phantom burning through the nerves.  Or was I imagining that?  Splaying my fingers, I waved my hand before my face several times, perplexed. 

            “I told you the pain would only be temporary,” Daryn chuckled.  “Take this now.”

            I grabbed the mug he offered me, regretting my earlier refusal, and downed it.  My hand might be fine but I still felt as if I’d run the gauntlet.  Daryn refilled the mug and I drank it dry again, hardly feeling the burn down my throat from the strong liquor.  “Is the sign gone?” I asked in a flat tone.  If it wasn’t, I didn’t know if I could go through another removal.  If I did have to, I decided that I would be as drunk as possible. 

            “Like it was never there,” Daryn assured me.  “You have strength, my lady,” he commented.

            “Mmmm.” I nodded.  That drink was strong.

            I had only dim recollections of the rest of the night.  The next clear moment was the one spent waking up in Trenwyn’s house, in bed, the sun streaming in the small window and my head throbbing.  I was still in the robe, sandals on my feet.  I looked at my hand in the daylight, still amazed that it was wholly functional.  Crawling out of the bed and into the bathroom, I splashed my face with cool water from the wash basin but it was only a marginal help.  There seemed to be no drinking water in the place and I needed water.  Well, I knew where the tavern was and they surely had water there.  I closed my eyes for a moment before beginning to squirm out of the robe.  A moment later I groaned, realizing I hadn’t undone the sash.  Dressing was as much a trial as undressing and my mood further deteriorated by the time I’d finished.  

            As I stepped out into the direct sunlight, I almost changed my mind, but I figured that the pain in my head couldn’t get much worse.  Staggering through the streets, my feet carried me toward the tavern, the Bane, as it was called.  About half way there, I heard hurried footsteps behind me.  It wasn’t one of the Seti, was it?

            “What are you doing?”  Trenwyn’s voice. 

            I spun on him.  “What happened last night and where have you been?”

            Trenwyn threw up his hands defensively.  Next to him, Lucian looked interested.  “I was taking care of some business,” Trenwyn answered cryptically. 

            “I’m hungry, dehydrated, and my head is throbbing!”

            “Calm down, my lady.  I’ll get you something to eat and drink and that will help your head.”  He took hold of my arm and began to pull me toward the Bane.

            “We’ve got to get some things straight, Trenwyn,” I pulled back from him.  “You’ve been obscure and avoided my questions from the first and I refuse to go anywhere until I get answers.” 

            Trenwyn glanced around nervously.  I was making him uncomfortable and this made me feel a little better.  I might draw the attention of Seti agents if any were around, but I didn’t care right now.  Making Trenwyn uncomfortable might be the only way to get answers.

            “Please, my lady.  Come with me to get something to eat and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.”

I looked at Trenwyn dubiously for a moment before relenting.  This might be the best deal I could get out of him.  I let him escort me down the street and into the Bane.  Like the previous day, it was empty and we sat at the same table we’d occupied before. 

            “Meggie!”  The volume of his voice made me bury my head in my hands.  I kept it there as Meggie came to the table, carried on a conversation in hushed tones with Trenwyn, and departed.

            “Well, my lady?” Trenwyn addressed me, sitting back in his chair.  

I noticed that, for once, his hood was down.  “Well, what?”

He raised an eyebrow.  “I thought you had questions.”

Meggie returned with two mugs of clear water and I eagerly lifted mine to my lips, draining the entire thing before Meggie reached the kitchen door.  Trenwyn gave me a flat look and pushed the other mug toward me.  I drank half of this as well.  Trenwyn’s expression hadn’t changed when I set this mug back on the table. 

“First off, Trenwyn, where do you get your money?  Can majai create money out of thin air?”

Trenwyn frowned, looking perplexed as if this was the last question he’d expected.  “Of course not.  Don’t be absurd.”  His gaze turned to the floor, the corners of his mouth drawing up with a hint of mischief.  “I, my lady,” he said looking up, “am a thief.”

My eyebrows shot up and I waited for him to elaborate.

“I take from those who…don’t deserve.”

That was not much of an explanation.  “So you consider yourself some kind of Robin Hood, taking from the rich to feed the poor?”  Trenwyn did not fit my picture of Robin Hood.

Trenwyn looked confused.  “I’m not sure.  Mainly it’s money from those that would only do evil if they had it.”

Understanding dawned on me.  “You’re stealing from the Seti!” I accused. 

Trenwyn grinned.  “You are perceptive, my lady.”

Meggie emerged from the kitchen with a loaf of golden bread, fresh from the oven, and a little clay bowl of dark jam.  She took the mugs back to refill them and I tore a piece of bread from the loaf.  It was almost hot enough to burn my fingers.  I took a bite and, for a moment, forgot my aching head and exasperation with Trenwyn.  Heavenly.  That was the word for it.  By far the best food I’d had since coming to this place.  I chewed slowly, savoring the rich, sweet jam on the soft bread.  Next to me, Lucian edged closer, smelling the bread and licking his lips, drooling on the floor.  I couldn’t help but smile.  He was acting just like a normal dog and I tore off a chunk of the bread, holding it out to him.  He took it from my fingers, almost gingerly, backing away a step before he ate the scrap.  Quite polite, really.  Looking up, I saw Trenwyn frowning. 

“That only encourages bad behavior,” he reprimanded.

I shrugged, looking back to Lucian, who regarded me eagerly.  “He disagrees.”  It made me absurdly pleased that the wolf would betray all of Trenwyn’s training for some food from me.  I reached out and let the wolf smell my fingers for a moment, then scratched his head.  Turning back, “So, Trenwyn.  I’ve been wondering why you’ve been so difficult when I ask questions.”

Trenwyn’s face tightened and it looked as if he was in pain.  “Your name, Ethereal.  It holds more significance than you realize.”

The maj had such a strange way of answering questions, but at least we were finally getting somewhere.

“It is dangerous to bring people from your world into this one, even if they’re not marked as you were.  Only majai can do it.”  He muttered under his breath, “If you only knew the depravity that has come from earthers crossing.”

“Why is it dangerous?”  I narrowed my eyes.

“For one, the low survival rate,” Trenwyn replied, coolly.  “Of those who are dragged in, only about half survive the first three days.”

“Killed by majai?”

Trenwyn shook his head and I leaned in closer.  “They have a condition.  We call it fading.  Half of the people begin to fade from the time they arrive.  They become paler, their voices turn to a whisper.  They really do become ethereal.  Within a few days, they have completely ceased to exist, and I’ve heard that their physical bodies are often found dead in strange places without probable cause in your world.  I’ve seen it before and it’s like watching someone struggling on the edge of a cliff, knowing there’s nothing to be done about it.  It’s only a matter of time before they let go.  Their eyes are the worst part.  At the very end they go dull, then they’re just gone.”

I certainly hadn’t expected this.  “So you didn’t want to give me answers because you believed that I would fade and die before it became important?”  What an infuriating man!  “If you believed that, why rescue me at all?  I would just have died anyway.  Am I safe from this fading phenomenon now?”

Trenwyn shrugged.  “I think so.  I haven’t ever heard of anyone making it this long and then fading.  And you are as real now as when I first brought you in.  Some people are better at adapting.  Children are usually able to believe anything, so they have a higher rate of survival.  And certain types of older people too.”  He paused as Meggie returned with the refilled mugs, and only continued once she was gone.  “And the reason I’ve been so elusive to your probing for information was that I wanted to save you from the fading.  It would help no one but the Seti for you to fade.”

“What do you mean?”

Trenwyn picked at a piece of bread.  “We believe that the cause behind the fading is that most people cannot accept this world and what has happened to them.  Those who are accosted with the truth and all the facts at once almost always fade.  Quickly too.  Those who are brought in and given little information—forced to figure things out for themselves—are much more likely to survive.  You have to adjust and accept slowly.  If you reject this world, you will fade.”

I was skeptical, but at least it was an answer.  “Now that we’re past the fading danger, you can stop being so secretive, right?”

“I made you a promise, didn’t I?”