The woman smiled. She still didn’t appear solid. Webs of life glowed behind her, almost making it look as though the web surrounded her. “You know me.”
Alena nodded, then realized she didn’t know if her actions translated here. “Your people still tell stories of you.”
“And you have heard them.”
“I have.”
“Then why are you here?”
“The gate is failing. My family summoned me to see if there was anything I could do.”
Zolene made a hand sign, but it wasn’t substantial enough in Alena’s vision for her to catch. “I have seen glimpses of your life. You are not Etari.”
“I am not. I come from the empire.”
“You are a servant of Anders?” The voice sounded disembodied, but Alena felt the emotion behind it. Zolene hated Anders.
Alena wasn’t sure how to answer. She knew Zolene considered her response important. “No. I am of two worlds. I serve my blood family and my Etari family.”
Alena sensed confusion, but faintly. Zolene stood in front of her, but she wasn’t whole. Every emotion Alena noticed felt mild, nearly lethargic. She tried a different approach. “I want to stop your gate from failing. Can you help me?”
The apparition didn’t answer. “Are there no soulwalkers among the Etari?”
“No. You were among the last.”
A surge of pride rushed over Alena, the satisfaction of a task completed well.
Alena’s curiosity burned hot. “What happened? Why did you demand the Etari give up soulwalking?”
“Because soulwalking calls them.”
Frustrated at the nonsensical answer, Alena reached out to grab the apparition. It was the act of a moment. She didn’t know if she meant to shake Zolene or support her, but when her hand touched the ghost, something passed between them.
Visions flashed through her, fragmented. She glimpsed the battle that Zolene had waged against Anders, watched as Zolene wove her own spirit with that of the Etari gate, granting her control over the object.
And she saw more. Shadows crossing over the land, enormous and filled with power.
Danger from the skies.
The moment passed. When her eyes refocused, Zolene stood in front of her, more solid than before. Alena understood that Zolene now drew on the connection between them. Alena felt Zolene’s emotions like a blanket over her own.
When Zolene spoke again, her voice was clear. “Anders only understood near the end. His aims were noble enough, I suppose. He wanted peace and yet enemies gathered on all sides. And he was clever. Too much so for his own good. He was the one who first commanded the gate, and it was the mistake that led to all others.”
Alena shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
Zolene’s smile was sad. “You will. Thank you for assisting my people. Perhaps you can right what Anders, myself, and Sofra wronged.”
“Sofra?”
Zolene focused for a moment. “The one you call the Lolani queen.”
“You knew her?”
“In a way.”
“Can you help me repair your gate?”
No. Now that Zolene was more solid Alena had no problem deciphering the gesture. “Not directly. But we can take the first step today.”
“What do you mean?”
She fixed Alena with a stare that froze Alena in place. Back home, eyes were considered windows to the soul, but here, Zolene could actually see Alena’s thoughts. And Alena could see the weight Zolene carried. She was proud of her people, but barely contained a sadness that knew no limits.
“The gates cannot be controlled, Alena. I think you will learn that soon enough, but for now you must trust, the way the Etari elders do. We were fools to try. I tied myself to the gate to control it, and today you must cut me free.”
“What?”
“My soul is tied to the gate. I should have died long ago, but I cannot pass death’s gate. And I must.”
“You want me to kill you?”
“I want you to free me. I died a long time ago.”
“But I need your help. I need your guidance!”
The sad smile reappeared on Zolene’s face. “That, you certainly don’t. If you trust my words and don’t attempt to control the gate, you will be fine. The gates can be guided, and they can be learned from, but control is an illusion. A dangerous one.”
Alena was frozen. Zolene had the answers she desired. She couldn’t release Zolene, not when she was this close.
Zolene, in this space, understood her conflict. “Your answers shouldn’t come from me.” She stepped toward the gate. “The gate already possesses my memories, as it does so many others. It is power, but it is also history. Everything you need to know is in this gate. In all the gates.”
“But we’re leaving tomorrow,” Alena protested, and the words sounded weak even to her.
“And you can speak to friends nearly on the other side of the continent. What does distance matter? Being close to the gate simply makes it easier.”
“Why won’t you just answer my questions?”
“Because I don’t want you trapped in my patterns of thinking. The only answers that will serve you are those that you find yourself. If we had taken the time to study these gates more closely, we would have learned, too. But we were driven by more immediate, petty needs.”
Alena didn’t know what to say to that. She didn’t know what to say to any of this. But she sensed no deception from Zolene. The Etari legend desired her release. Alena alone could make that happen, and after the woman had spent two hundred years trapped here, who was she to deny the wish?
“Will you free me?”
“I will. But is there nothing you can tell me to guide me?”
She felt Zolene’s sympathy. “Do not make the same mistakes we did. Explore. Understand. Trust your instincts. We’re all connected to a web that knows and understands far more than we can comprehend. Listen to it. And trust in yourself. I do.”
Alena frowned. “That’s less useful than I’d hoped.”
Zolene didn’t take offense. “If there is one direction that I hope is useful,
