Kai woke without opening his eyes.
A second later, he understood why.
He had no eyes.
That should have frightened him more than it did.
There was no pain. No cold. No weight pressing against his back. No heartbeat thudding in his chest.
There wasn't even a chest.
There was only thought.
Kai existed because he knew he existed.
Everything else was gone.
For a while, he did nothing.
Then memory returned.
The alley.
The knife.
The woman running.
Blood beneath his hands.
Asha crying through the phone.
Don't you dare. Don't lie to me now.
And his answer.
I'm okay.
Kai tried to breathe.
He couldn't.
Panic arrived anyway.
"Asha!"
His voice travelled through the dark despite there being no mouth to make it.
Nothing answered.
"Asha!"
He tried to move.
There was nowhere to move to.
No ground.
No direction.
No sense of up or down.
Kai forced himself to stop.
Think.
That had always been easier when his body was doing something. Walking. Working. Driving. Anything.
Now there was only him and a darkness so complete it didn't even feel black.
"Okay."
His voice sounded wrong without walls to bounce off.
"If this is death, customer service could be better."
Nothing.
Kai waited.
Usually Asha would've called the joke terrible.
Dad would've improved it until Mum threatened both of them.
The silence made the emptiness real in a way the missing body hadn't.
His thoughts turned to St. Anne's.
Asha would go there.
Of course she would.
She'd probably arrive before the ambulance.
She'd stand beneath those same fluorescent lights where they'd once been told Mum and Dad were dead.
Only this time there would be nobody beside her.
"No."
The word came out small.
Kai tried moving again.
Still nothing.
"Send me back."
No answer.
"I don't care who handles this. God, devil, receptionist, whatever. Send me back."
The darkness remained perfectly indifferent.
Kai felt anger beginning to replace panic.
Good.
Anger was easier.
"My sister is alone."
Something changed.
Not a sound.
A pressure.
As though the emptiness had noticed him.
Kai stopped speaking.
A thin line of light appeared far ahead.
He couldn't tell whether it was ten feet away or ten thousand miles.
The line widened.
White spilled through the dark.
Kai had enough time to think that seems bad before the void split apart around him.
Stars.
That was the first thing he understood.
They were everywhere.
Not the distant pinpricks he knew from Earth. These felt close enough to touch, scattered through a vast dark that somehow no longer felt empty.
Kai looked down.
He still had no body.
Apparently that problem remained.
Then he noticed the woman.
She stood several metres away.
Or floated.
Distance felt unreliable here.
Pale light surrounded her. It wasn't bright enough to hurt, but it made her outline difficult to focus on. Long hair drifted behind her despite there being no wind. Her face was visible only in pieces whenever the light shifted.
Human enough to understand.
Not human enough to trust immediately.
Kai stared at her.
She stared back.
"Before you ask," she said, "no. I am not God."
Kai paused.
"I was going to ask why you're glowing."
The light around her seemed to still.
"You died less than four minutes ago."
"It's been a strange four minutes."
"Yes."
Kai looked around.
"Am I staying dead?"
"For the moment."
"That's not a comforting answer."
"It wasn't intended to be."
He liked that slightly more than false reassurance.
Barely.
"What are you?"
"You may call me Seraphine."
"That's your name?"
"It is the one I'm giving you."
"Very trustworthy."
"I wasn't expecting trust."
"Good."
Kai looked past her.
The stars meant nothing to him.
He couldn't find Earth.
Couldn't find anything he recognised.
"Asha."
Seraphine's expression changed.
Very slightly.
Kai noticed.
"What about her?"
"She is alive."
Every thought in him stopped.
For the first time since waking in the void, Kai felt something like air enter lungs that didn't exist.
"She's safe?"
"Yes."
"Right now?"
"Yes."
"How do you know?"
"Because I checked before bringing you here."
Kai stared at her.
"Show me."
Seraphine hesitated.
"Please."
That word came harder than he expected.
She raised one hand.
The stars beside her blurred.
A room appeared between them.
Not quite a window. More like someone had taken a piece of reality and laid it over the dark.
St. Anne's.
Kai recognised the waiting area immediately.
Asha sat alone on a plastic chair.
She still wore their mother's apron underneath her coat.
One foot had a slipper on it.
The other was bare.
Kai almost laughed.
It hurt too much.
Her phone was clutched in both hands.
She wasn't crying.
That worried him more.
A nurse sat beside her, speaking quietly.
Kai couldn't hear the words.
Asha nodded once.
Didn't look up.
There was dried blood on one sleeve.
His blood.
Kai moved toward her without thinking.
"Ash."
Nothing.
He tried again.
"Asha."
She didn't react.
His entire attention narrowed to her.
"Can she hear me?"
"No."
"Can I make her?"
Seraphine didn't answer immediately.
Kai turned.
"Can I?"
"Not safely."
"Why?"
"Because you are no longer where she is."
"That sounds fixable."
"It isn't. Not yet."
Kai looked back at Asha.
She was staring at her phone now.
His contact, maybe.
His last call.
"She thinks I'm dead."
"You are dead."
Kai's head snapped toward Seraphine.
"Helpful."
"I won't lie to you because the truth is unpleasant."
"She's sitting there alone."
"I know."
"No, you can see her. That's different."
Seraphine went quiet.
Kai looked back toward the waiting room.
Asha finally bent forward.
Her shoulders shook once.
Then again.
A nurse reached for her.
Asha covered her face.
"Turn it off."
Seraphine lowered her hand.
The hospital disappeared.
Kai immediately regretted asking.
Then remembered why he had.
He couldn't help her like this.
Watching only made him useless in a more detailed way.
"She'll be protected?"
"As much as I am able."
"That isn't the same as yes."
"No."
Kai stared at her.
Seraphine didn't look away.
Eventually he nodded.
At least she was honest.
"How much time is passing there?"
"Very little."
"What does very little mean?"
"The place I'm sending you does not share Earth's pace of time."
Kai caught the important part.
"Sending me?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
Seraphine looked past him.
The stars disappeared.
Not gradually.
One moment they surrounded them.
The next, there was only darkness beneath their feet.
Then something began forming.
A horizon.
Green first.
Then blue.
Mountains emerged in the distance.
Forests spread across hills.
A river appeared like a silver thread beneath the sun.
Kai stared.
It looked real.
Not like the hospital image.
This had depth.
Wind moved through fields that hadn't existed seconds ago.
"What is that?"
"A realm."
"Whose?"
Seraphine looked at him.
"Yours, if you can make it so."
Kai frowned.
"That sounds intentionally vague."
"It is."
"Why?"
"Because explaining it won't teach you how to live inside it."
Kai looked at the landscape again.
There were no cities.
No roads.
No smoke.
Nothing that suggested another person existed there.
"It's empty."
"Yes."
"Completely?"
"As far as people are concerned."
Kai glanced at her.
"You're dropping me into an empty world."
"A protected one."
"With no people."
"Yes."
"No shops."
"No."
"No hospital."
"No."
"No takeaway."
Seraphine's mouth almost moved.
Kai narrowed his eyes.
"Did you nearly smile?"
"No."
"You did."
"You are avoiding the important part."
"I died today. Avoidance is carrying me."
Fair enough, apparently.
Kai looked again at the realm.
"What am I supposed to do there?"
"Learn."
He waited.
Seraphine did not continue.
"That was the whole instruction?"
"For now."
"Learn what?"
She lifted one hand.
A faint golden thread appeared in the darkness.
Kai recognised it.
He'd felt it before without understanding what it was.
This time the light curled toward him.
It touched where his hand should have been.
For a fraction of a second, Kai felt too much.
Heat without fire.
Weight without matter.
The suggestion of distance folding.
Then it was gone.
Kai recoiled.
"What was that?"
"Something attached to you when you died."
"Attached?"
"A poor word."
"Do you have a better one?"
"Not one that would help."
Kai sighed.
"What does it do?"
"That is what you need to learn."
"Convenient."
"It responds to intention."
Kai looked at where the gold had vanished.
"Can it bring me home?"
Seraphine was silent.
His expression hardened.
"Can it?"
"Perhaps."
Kai hated that word immediately.
"Perhaps?"
"You asked whether it can. I don't know what you will eventually be capable of."
"So this realm is what? Somewhere I practise?"
"Somewhere you cannot easily harm anyone while you do."
That got his attention.
Kai looked at her properly.
"I'm dangerous?"
"Potentially."
"To Asha?"
Seraphine answered quickly this time.
"If I believed you were a danger to her right now, I would tell you."
The tension in him eased slightly.
"Then why can't I go back?"
"Because I don't know what would happen if whatever awakened in you reacted to Earth before you understood it."
Kai laughed once.
Not because it was funny.
"So I'm quarantined."
"If that wording helps you."
"It doesn't."
"I suspected."
He looked toward the empty landscape again.
"How long?"
"That depends on you."
"Years?"
"Possibly."
Kai's thoughts immediately went back to Asha.
Seraphine anticipated it.
"Earth will not experience the same amount of time."
"How different?"
"Significantly."
"That isn't a number."
"No."
"Will she be old by the time I'm done?"
"No."
He stared at her.
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
That mattered.
More than the realm.
More than the strange light.
More than whatever had happened to him.
Kai could endure time.
He already knew that.
Early mornings.
Long shifts.
Weeks measured in overdue bills.
If years somewhere else meant barely anything for Asha—
he could do years.
He didn't want to.
But wanting had stopped being relevant a long time ago.
"What happens if I fail?"
Seraphine studied him.
"You keep trying."
Kai almost smiled.
"That sounded suspiciously encouraging."
"Don't get used to it."
There.
That was almost human.
He looked toward the realm again.
"Can you come with me?"
"No."
"Can I call you?"
"No."
"You're making a strong case for worst guide I've ever had."
"I am not your guide."
"Then what are you?"
Seraphine paused.
"I don't know yet."
For some reason, that answer bothered him less than the others.
Maybe because it sounded honest in a different way.
Kai looked at the distant mountains.
"What do I need?"
"Food exists there."
"Useful."
"Water."
"Better."
"Shelter is your responsibility."
"Less useful."
"You will have a body."
Kai looked down at his nonexistent one.
"That would be appreciated."
"And the realm will respond to you."
He frowned.
"Respond how?"
"You'll find out."
"There it is again."
Seraphine ignored him.
The ground beneath the vision brightened.
Kai felt a pull.
Then pain.
Real pain.
Bones assembled themselves from nothing.
Muscle tightened over them.
Blood rushed through new veins.
Kai screamed.
"Could've warned me!"
"I am warning you."
"A little late!"
Skin covered his hands.
His lungs expanded.
Air slammed into them.
His heart started with one violent beat.
Then another.
Kai gasped.
He could feel weight again.
Cold.
Pressure.
His fingers.
His face.
He held both hands in front of himself.
"They work."
"A promising beginning."
His feet touched something solid.
The realm below them drew closer.
Far too quickly.
Kai looked at Seraphine.
"Wait."
She said nothing.
"Why am I falling?"
"You need to arrive somehow."
"THIS WAS YOUR PLAN?"
"You'll survive."
"That isn't the point!"
Wind tore around him.
The darkness vanished.
Blue sky opened above.
Green rushed upward.
Kai had half a second to understand exactly what Seraphine had done.
"Oh, you absolute—"
He hit the ground.
For several seconds, Kai lay face-down in grass.
Something chirped nearby.
Wind moved across his back.
His entire body hurt.
He slowly lifted one hand.
Then the other.
He pushed himself onto his elbows.
"Seraphine?"
No answer.
Kai rolled over and stared at the sky.
Blue.
Clouds.
Sunlight.
Painfully normal.
He sat up.
Grass stretched toward distant forests.
Beyond them were mountains.
No houses.
No roads.
No voices.
Kai stood carefully.
His legs worked.
He checked his pockets.
Empty.
"No phone."
He checked again, as though one might appear from embarrassment.
Nothing.
"No wallet."
Then:
"No shoes."
Kai looked down.
Bare feet.
"Fantastic."
He turned in a slow circle.
The place really was empty.
Then his gaze settled on the horizon.
Somewhere unimaginably far away, Asha sat in a hospital believing her brother had died.
Kai closed his eyes.
He couldn't change that today.
Maybe not tomorrow either.
But she was safe.
She was alive.
And time, apparently, was giving him something he had never possessed enough of.
Kai opened his eyes.
"Fine."
No one answered.
He looked down at his hands.
Whatever was inside him, whatever Seraphine had refused to properly explain, could wait.
First he needed food.
Water.
Shelter.
Then control.
Then Earth.
One thing at a time.
Kai picked a direction and started walking.
He made it six steps before stopping.
He looked back at the empty sky.
"Still hate you, by the way."
The wind moved through the grass.
Kai nodded.
"Good talk."
Then he kept walking.