A sense of nostalgia washed over Remy along with the rain. Here she was again, stood in the same alley she had when she had first met Maksim, the same alley she had when he had left her. She allowed a moment for the pain of the latter memory to subside, trying to block out his words, his voice, though they were as clear as if he was stood beside her.

Goodbye, my little mortal girl.

It had not occurred to her before just how hard it would be to come back here. It had not occurred to her that these memories she had would feel so much realer here, so much more as though they had a life to them that was capable of clawing Remy from the inside out until she was hollow, like a pumpkin in the middle of being carved out.

It had not occurred to her that she would want to scream until her voice disappeared.

She took a breath and looked at her watch. Somehow, she had still made it with a minute to spare. Then the doubt crept in and she wondered if she had imagined it all. She had heard of people wanting something so much that they hallucinated. Had the letter been real? It had burned, dissolved into ashes, before she could read it twice.  

She felt for the key in her back pocket for confirmation. It was still there.

As though it had heard her uncertainty, a green glow began to spread over the dull brick wall, swirling and bubbling like a witch's cauldron with its overflowing contents. The key grew hot, burning through the denim of Remy's jeans and tingling against her skin.

She hesitated for only a moment. If she was not back by tomorrow afternoon at the latest, she would have to put her family through pain and loss all over again. What type of person did that make her?

She closed her eyes and inched closer, feeling the wind from the portal snake through the loose waves of her hair, inhaling the familiar scent of burnt metal. A couple of days ago, she never thought she would feel magic like this so close to her again.

She had to go through. There had never truly been another option.

She felt the last few raindrops hit her face as she lifted her head to the sky and took another step, and then everything was cold and hot, dark and light, strange yet completely habitual. She did not feel as though she was falling as she had the first time; she felt as though she was flying, as though the light was carrying her and would not betray her again.

Even so, when the emerald rays merged into pink sky and rich, brown soil, she still landed ungracefully on her behind. This time, she managed it without harming herself, at least, though the landing reminded her of all of the bruises still staining her body from the day she had been kidnapped by Ackmard.

She sat up slowly, taking a second to feel the humidity press against her damp clothes and cold skin. Everything was still but for her, and everything was the same as she remembered it to be. The orange sun was high in the sky with no clouds to stifle its light, the grey ruins surrounding her sunken deep into the ground, the forest in the distance unwavering, for there was no breeze to so much as waft the leaves. The only movement was from the tiny specks of floating snowdust, and that was so slow, so majestic, that she barely noticed.

Perhaps this was why she felt so much more at home here. Everything was constant. Everything was eternal. Everything was peaceful—save for the red-haired woman standing in front of her, that was.

Hilda looked as unimpressed with Remy's presence as ever, with her arms crossed expectantly over her chest. "Please, do not rush on my account. I only have an eternity, you know."

"Oh, Hilda." Remy put a hand over her chest as she stood up, feigning adoration. "And I missed you, too. Who else would welcome me back with such warmth?"

"Whilst I am glad to see that you are not quite as brooding as my son, I do not have much time, nor patience, for your wit. If someone is to find out you are here, I will be removed from the Council, and Refilyn knows what would happen to you."

She tried not to think about what she had meant by her mention of Maksim—he was always brooding, was he not? Then, she frowned when the weight of the rest of her words sank in.

"You mean I'm here without permission...again?"

"Quite." She glanced at Remy over her nose and then tutted as though even her presence was too much to tolerate. "Goodness, Remy, couldn't you have made more of an effort with your appearance? You are all...soggy and grey."

"I didn't realise this was a black-tie event," she retorted, patting herself down self-consciously. "Probably because you left me a weird, vague letter on my nightstand. Are you going to tell me what's going on, or critique my sense of fashion a bit more?"

"What is going on," she repeated in the sort of way that made Remy think she was mocking her—something Maksim had done many a time, "is that you are to meet Hecate. For some reason, unbeknownst to me, she wishes to speak with you. I trust you have the key?"

Hilda set off walking without listening for a response, pulling the hood of her cloak over her head, but Remy was far too confused to follow. "Wait."

The witch rolled her eyes as she came to a halt.

"Hecate? She has first-name-only status like Beyoncé; am I supposed to know who she is?"

"Am I supposed to know who Beyoncé is?" questioned Hilda, sounding much less than amused by this pop culture reference. "Hecate is the goddess of magic and witchcraft. She founded the realm. She is one of our creators, though very few know she still exists. To most she is simply a myth, a legend. Rest assured, she does not like to be kept waiting."

Hilda turned her back to Remy and this time it was clear there would be no more stopping. She was heading in the opposite direction of the city, where Remy could see the familiar glass towers piercing the sky. The only thing behind Hilda was the forest, and that would take them hours to reach. Remy did not have hours.

She began to follow anyway, running to catch up and then slowing when she did.

"I don't understand. Why am I meeting with her? And why did you give me back the key? I thought it was supposed to be locked away in Central Hall."

"It is, hence why you cannot let anyone know that you have it." She stopped suddenly, looking down at a random patch of soil. It seemed no different to any other patch of soil, but it seemed to interest Hilda perhaps a little more than it should have. "Here it is."

Remy eyed Hilda as though she had gone mad. "Oh, yeah, there it is. Dirt. Mud. It's exactly what I was hoping for when I got your letter. There's actually a whole field of it. Knock yourself out."

Hilda shushed Remy and put her hands into the soil, her palms facing downwards. Her eyes fluttered shut, and then widened as a low rumble erupted from the earth.

She stepped backwards, pushing Remy back, too, as a hole began to emerge. Hilda's green magic eddied around the soil as it morphed and expanded. Remy expected another portal to appear, but this was not a portal; this was a hole in the ground, a deep one, with a set of stairs lined by lanterns that flickered as though directing her to descend.

Hilda appeared as nonchalant as ever, smiling with satisfaction at her creation.

"Okay," Remy said, "this is getting weird—like, The Mummy weird. How about I wait here while you, er, go down there?"

The witch's lips pursed. "I forgot how incessantly you mortals talk. It is painful."

Remy narrowed her eyes, but something in her heart shattered. The last time she had been called a mortal was by Maksim when he had left her. Before that, it had seemed as though people here were forgetting that she was one altogether. All it had taken was a couple of days—perhaps longer here, but still—in the Mortal World to be alienated again.

"Well," she replied anyway, watching warily as Hilda placed her foot on the first step, "someone's got to around here, seeing as you won't tell me what the hell is going on. I'm just trying to fill the creepy silence with my internal monologue."

"Yes, well, try to refrain from doing so if you could. I will not be able to stand the echoes your voice will produce down here."

Her figure was retreating into the shadows until she was nothing but a silhouette, and Remy swallowed nervously, wiping down her clammy hands on her pants. She did not want to step into the darkness again, not even if she trusted that Hilda would not get her into much trouble.

"Remy," she heard Hilda call from the pit. "I am not so cruel as to guide you into danger. You are safe down here, perhaps even more so than up there."

She inhaled shakily, and then her foot found the first step. As soon as she had surpassed ground level, she felt the coolness of the stone walls and smelt the earthiness of the soil above her. It did not take longer than a few seconds for the gap to close up above her, and the lack of daylight meant she had only the fire of the torches as guidance. She could hear Hilda's shoes clicking on the floor in front, see her as she reached the bottom of the steps and began to follow a tunnel through.

"So, I suppose Hecate isn't one for windows or houses above ground level?" she asked after they had been walking in silence for what seemed like hours, though it must have been less than fifteen minutes. The key in her back pocket was vibrating uncontrollably now, and she pulled it out, clutching it in her hand despite its heat.

"The darkness conceals. No one may find her down here unless she wishes to be found."

"How do you know her?"

"The key belongs to her," she answered after a few moments of deliberation. Remy couldn't help but notice that the tunnel was getting narrower here, and there were carvings etched into the wall, ones she could not understand because they were not in her language. "She was the one to create it. She was also the one to free me of its influence, and for that I have always considered her a close friend."

"Hilda," Remy whispered, stopping momentarily. Hilda turned, her gaze fixed and unwavering. She looked more powerful than ever with the yellow firelight flickering across her face, reflecting itself in her pupils and turning her irises golden, as though she could absorb it. Her red hair was the colour of dried blood, too, much darker than in the light of day, and her skin was more bronzed, less wrinkled. She looked like Erika had in the caves. "You had the key?"

"They key was mine far before it was yours, yes." Her eyes flitted down to the floor, a look of guilt contorting her features. "It turned my light into dark. I lost myself in it, in its power. And then I fell pregnant with Erika, and because of me, because of my inability to let go of the blackness, I created a monster."

For once, Remy was speechless. She had always thought that Hilda had been hiding something, but when Erika appeared at Nil Lake, she assumed it was simply that she'd had another child. Not once had she put it all together.

"It's not your fault," she said without knowing quite why.

"Yes, it is." Hilda looked ahead, clearly finished with the conversation. Her eyes darkened, and Remy followed her gaze to find a large, arched, wooden door.

"Before we go in," Remy breathed, feeling suddenly anxious, "I have to ask—does he know I'm here?"

She did not think she had to elaborate on who he was.

"No. Nobody knows. If you wish to see him—"

"I don't," she said. "And I don't think he wants to see me, either."

A look of disbelief passed over Hilda. Remy could see him in her sometimes; see him in her impatience, and the way she rolled her eyes, in her hair which held all of the same tints of red. That was painful enough. She could not imagine how much it would hurt if she saw him in person and not just parts of him in his mother.

"I think you are wrong."

Before Remy could reply, Hilda placed her hand on the round door handle, a spark of green jolting through the veins lying beneath her translucent skin. The door opened as one would expect an old door to open, with a lot of groaning and creaking, and a lot of time spent waiting for it to reveal what was on the other side.

Even after moments of expecting all sorts of things, Remy would not have been prepared for what she saw now. She was certainly not in Astracia anymore.

A/N: omg another update? crazy. I wanted the whole scene with Hecate to be in this chapter but I enjoyed focusing on remy and hilda too much and it ended up being 2k words without even getting to where I wanted to go :( I feel bad because I feel like I've accidentally dragged out these first chapters like nothing that major has even happened and we're 15 chapters in so I hope you guys aren't getting bored! 

anyway, I will try to update again this week if I get more than two chapters out. if not, it will be the usual updates on a Tuesday I so won't fall behind for another few weeks. ALSO SPELLBOUND REACHED 18K AND WAS AT #200+ IN THE RANKS but now it's back to #763 BUT STILL! THANK YOU! 

okay I need to stop thank you and goodbye have a nice day/night :)