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    A small and comfortable looking low house painted red with white detailing stood before the group. Kax recovered as soon as the gateway closed behind them. “What is this place?”


    Short cropped grass filled the small yard, but less than fifty steps from the house, the ground vanished. A night sky spread out before them, with stars that appeared close enough to touch. It was like they were standing on top of a tiny world.


    To their left hovered a sphere, both too far to discern yet close enough to touch. Its position shifted with each breath and looking at it made Sarien nauseous.


    Kax prepared to leap into the air, but Ein stopped him. “I wouldn’t do that.”


    “Why not?”


    “You might drift away.”


    Ein stepped up to the wooden door and knocked politely three times.


    Kax leaned close to Sarien while glancing up. “I wouldn’t really drift away, would I?”


    Sarien didn’t have time to answer before the door banged open.


    “What have you done?” an ancient-looking woman with snow-white hair and a bent back shrieked, pointing a cane past Ein to Sarien. “You’ve ruined everything! Do you know how long it took me to put that barrier up? They’ll be coming for me now!”


    She raised the cane as if to strike Sarien, but Ein caught the cane. “The Wayfarers have their hands full, grandma. They won’t bother you just yet.”


    The old woman glared up at Sarien’s father and shoved a finger into his chest. “What are you doing here? Didn’t I tell you I never wanted to see your bratty face ever again?”


    Ein winced and said to Sarien and Kax. “Her mind is clearly addled. Best talk slowly.”


    Thwack.


    “Ow. Stop that!”


    She raised her cane again, daring him to speak.


    “I’m sorry, but who are you? What is this place?” Sarien asked. Did his father call this woman grandma?


    The old woman’s eyes shot to him. “You’re not just some new Wayfarer, are you, boy?”


    She pushed Ein to the side and approached. “How did you find me?”


    Sarien eyed the woman’s cane warily and prepared to intercept it. “I am new at this, but I found you through my father.”


    She faced Ein and said with clear disbelief. “Father? You?”


    “I’m an excellent father,” Ein grumbled, still rubbing the sore spot on his head. “Tell her, Sarien!”


    Sarien ignored this father. “How do you know one another?”


    “This is my grandma,” Ein said, walking up to put his arm around the old woman’s shoulders.


    She pushed him off. “Who’re you calling ‘grandma’?”


    “A few chosen Slayers are sent to Wayfarers as part of their training before heading out to do our duty. It’s to educate us about wayfaring and prepare us to work closely with our counterparts. Diedra was my mentor, taught me everything I know about the softer side of the twin powers.”


    “You never learned a thing,” Diedra harrumphed. A smile began to creep across her face before she squashed it. Her eyes narrowed again. “Softer side? You’re just glorified jailers!”


    “And you’re nothing but coachmen!”


    Deidra laughed heartily and threw her arms around Ein. “You’ve been gone too long, boy.”


    Ein hugged her back. Warmth radiated from them both. “No longer a boy, grandma.”


    “And you’ve brought me your son, a Wayfarer son, one skilled enough to break through my barrier.”


    “Met a girl,” Ein confirmed. “Didn’t plan for it, but what can you do?”


    Deidra eyed Sarien again. “You’re strong, then?”


    “I am.” Sarien’s gray flame blossomed to life, dancing in the palm of his hand. “But I’m not sure I have the right to call myself a Wayfarer.”


    Deidra’s breath caught in her throat and her eyes misted over.


    “Figured that if anyone could tell us about my son’s strange power, it would be you,” Ein said, his voice soft.


    To Sarien, Ein said, “She used to be a librarian.”


    “You never really stop being a librarian,” Deidra whispered, mesmerized by Sarien’s flame. “How is this possible?”


    “We were hoping you could tell us. Also, we need a way into Nexus.”


    “Nexus?” Sarien asked.


    “That’s where we’ll find your mother and the other Gatekeepers. And, hopefully, some answers. It’s the home of the Wayfarers.”


    Ein glanced over at Kax, who sat dangling his legs over the edge of the yard. He tossed blades of grass and small pebbles into the emptiness. “Perhaps you can take a look at the boy over there as well.”


    Deidra rubbed her temples. “One thing at a time, please. Always rushing. Always in a hurry.”


    She opened her eyes. “Your mother was a Wayfarer?” she asked Sarien.


    “A Gatekeeper,” Ein answered in Sarien’s stead.


    “A Gatekeeper and a Slayer,” she mused. “Strange shape for such a power. Was it always a flame? That hue?”


    This time, Sarien answered before his father could interrupt. “No. It used to be white and black, two separate colors.”


    “The boy was born in Eldsprak, a country in Maydian where they’re bound by custom to pyromancy,” Ein explained, pointing at the flickering of Sarien’s flame.


    “Born with both Slaying and Wayfaring? Unheard of. Well, almost.”


    “Almost?”


    She walked back to her house, waving for them to follow. “I’ll make you some tea.”


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    “We’re in a hurry,” Ein protested.


    “I’ll make you some tea,” she repeated, disappearing into her house.


    Sarien and his father looked at each other and shrugged.


    “I’ll wait out here,” Kax said without looking up.


    Drying herbs hung from low rafters and over the window frames, giving Deidra’s home an earthy fragrance. Every inch of space was occupied by books. A few looked new, while others barely held together by their broken spines. None of the books were in a language Sarien understood. The precarious towers of books all over the floor forced Sarien to walk down a narrow path toward the kitchen.


    “Don’t mind the mess,” Deidra said as she placed a kettle on top of the stove. She knelt and poked at the fire.


    Ein guided Sarien over to the table. “This is what she does to buy herself time to think. Let’s just give her a minute.”


    Sarien looked around and marveled at the multitude of strange artifacts. One was of a cat, carved from a stone-like material, only smooth as the finest glass. Its head nodded on its own, back and forth, back and forth.


    Even stranger was a metal rod with a faint green glow. The air warped in circles around it, then reset before warping again.


    In another, Sarien saw stars streaking through its glass interior.


    A thin layer of dust covered the shelves. The house felt well worn, like a comfortable pair of slippers. There was no sense of organization, but Sarien was certain Deidra knew the precise location of each object.


    “Quite the place she has, right?” Ein said, following Sarien’s gaze as it bounced around the room.


    “The boy out there will be trouble,” Deidra said from over by the stove, her back still to them.


    “Kax?” Sarien asked.


    “Very little is known about the origin of these powers we carry within ourselves. The void is an enigma, as you both know. That boy is something akin to a personification of the void. The void made flesh, if you will. Maybe flesh is not the right word for it as the boy is no longer human.”


    Words practically spilled out of the old woman as she prepared the tea. Sarien did his best to follow along with her reasoning but barely kept up.


    “How do you know these things?”


    Deidra droned on. “Been a Wayfarer for a long time. Far too long. Used the wayfaring enough to last me lifetimes. Seeing the boy’s link to the void is easy as pie. Eerie, he is. What the consequences might be? Who can tell? Not me, that’s for sure. How did he come to be like that?”


    “It’s my fault,” Sarien said. “Tried to create a new weapon imbued with the slaying, without having to kill someone with it. My white flame touched Kax’s already black weapon and then his skin. It grew from there and from what I can tell, it kept spreading with each creature or man he killed.”


    Deidra carried a tray with three steaming mugs to the table. “What interesting tidings you bring me, Ein. To think your spawn could make such remarkable leaps in our knowledge of the wayfaring and the slaying. He gets it from his mother, I take it?”


    Ein folded his arms across his chest. “Now you’re just being mean.”


    “Didn’t you say people will be coming for you now?” Sarien asked. “Don’t we need to leave?”


    Deidra paused. “I’m sure the Wayfarers forgot all about my existence long ago. If they do come, I’ve lived long enough. Perhaps I’ll mosey along when you leave. Now, have some tea.”


    She proffered the mugs and Sarien took one, eyeing it warily. The last time an old woman was kind to him she drugged him and tried to cut him into his body to see how his powers worked. He was forced to kill her.


    He waited until both Deidra and his father drank before drinking himself. The tea tasted how the room smelled, like herbs and pine.


    “We are in a hurry. Could you please tell me what you meant by Kax being trouble?”


    “I’d much rather speak of your new and exciting power, Sarien.”


    “And I’d love to learn more about it, but I’m worried about my friend.”


    She peered at him over the brim of her cup, then sighed and took a sip. “Truthfully, we don’t know much about the void. I’ve read the ancient texts of the Slayers and?—”


    “Hey! Wayfarers aren’t allowed to read those,” Ein interrupted. “They didn’t even allow me access to that part of the library. How did you manage to get in?”


    She waved him away and continued, “There was nothing that describes what happened to your friend. Nothing about what he is or what he might become. That makes him an unknown.” Deidra peered out her window. “I don’t like unknowns.”


    Kax’s head popped up in the kitchen window. “You talking about me?”


    “Yes,” Deidra said. “Tell me what you are.”


    “I’m Kax.”


    “Enlightening,” Deidra said.


    Kax sighed. “I’ll just go stare into the abyss again.” He disappeared.


    “If you want to leave him here, perhaps I could study him. With such an interesting subject, I might stick around for a few more years.”


    “You’ll outlive us all, grandma,” Ein admonished.


    “Bah!”


    “We’re not leaving Kax behind,” Sarien said, thinking about Madge again. Even if Deidra meant Kax no physical harm, he couldn’t leave his friend behind to be studied like a strange specimen. “Please tell me about my flame.”


    She looked out the window longingly. “Your father already explained the shape. In your mind, you saw yourself as a pyromancer, hence the flame rather than the hazy light or darkness Wayfarers or Slayers use.”


    As if to make her point, a Wayfarer’s light bloomed into life before her. “As to the color, it’s not just a Wayfarer’s power with a different shade, I take it?”


    “No, it’s different. Like both Slaying and Wayfaring together. My flame is able to do both, and also more. There’s a sense of completeness about it.”


    Deidra shrugged and smiled apologetically. “I don’t know.”


    “You don’t know?” Ein coughed and spluttered, spraying tea all over the table. He looked aghast at Sarien. “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard her utter those words.”


    “Well, I don’t know!” she barked before settling down. “But I can make a pretty good guess.”


    “Please do,” Sarien said. “Anything will help.”


    She pulled a note out of her pocket and started scribbling on it as she spoke. “First of all. Wayfarers and Slayers cannot have children. It is supposed to be impossible. Are you sure about your lineage?”


    Sarien glanced at his father.


    “Of course, he’s certain,” Ein said, affronted.


    “So, you have a father who is a Slayer and a mother who is a Wayfarer, a powerful one, a Gatekeeper even.”


    Sarien nodded.


    “You’re born with both powers, with one being dominant over the other, I would guess. True?”


    “My white flame came to me first,” Sarien said, not sure what she meant by dominant.


    Deidra chuckled. “Ever used both at the same time? Did you feel the pull of the two powers trying to come together?”


    “I did!” Sarien said excitedly.


    “Good thing they didn’t, or you’d be nothing more than a bloodstain on the ground.”


    Ein winced. “Me and Anja almost touched our powers once or twice.”


    “Good thing you didn’t. Lots of power in that, if brief.”


    She cupped her mug. “A catalyst must have triggered your twin powers, forced them into becoming one.”


    “It happened when I was fighting against Wyndemir.”


    She looked at Ein. “Wyndemir?”


    “Chaos.”


    Deidra’s face grew stony. Her breath stopped. When she shook off her reverie, the thoughtful amusement in her voice was gone. “It’s true then. The Prime is free.”


    She suddenly looked confused. “And you were in its presence and lived?”


    “Well, just his arm. He tore through the sky in Maydian. Only his arm made it through. We’re here because we’re looking for a way to stop him.”


    “If I may hazard a guess, your two flames became one in your struggle against the Prime? White and black turned to gray?”


    “How did you know?”


    “Yes, how did you know?” Ein asked. This was new information to his father as well.


    “I’ve read that Primes were harbingers of change and disruption. With Wyndemir being known as the Prime of Chaos, him, or it, sparking your transformation makes sense.”


    Sarien lit a tiny gray flame in the palm of his left hand. It all came back to Wyndemir.


    “Like I said, a Slayer and a Wayfarer cannot have children. Wyndemir’s presence ignited your gray flame, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the first crack in the Prime’s prison came to be the night you were conceived. That alone would not have been enough, of course, but perhaps the beginning of the end. His attention on the worlds must have sent ripples of consequence far reaching enough to meddle in the circumstance of your being.”


    Ein hit himself on the forehead with the palm of his hand. “Of course! The Halvgudar’s release from the greater void first weakened Wyndemir’s cage, but they still didn’t want him to find his freedom. Their attention was divided, some on Maydian, some on Wyndemir. Always wondered how we managed to recapture them with a single Slayer, even if I’m the strongest one. Once we did without bringing them back to the void prison, Wyndemir’s cell weakened further.”


    “Looks like you did learn to reason a little,” Deidra said. Her eyes glittered expectantly, like a teacher waiting for their pupil to come to the correct conclusion on their own.


    “Wait,” Ein said, as if on cue. “Then why did they order me to keep the Halvgudar on Maydian? It was the last message I received before Anja found herself stuck in that world.”


    “Why indeed?” Deidra asked, prodding Ein to continue.


    “Because they wanted Wyndemir free,” Sarien answered. He stared into his empty mug.


    The Wayfarers and Slayers wanted Wyndemir free. The question now was why.