"Mary wanted me to tell you that you won't be seeing her for awhile."

I nodded absentmindedly as I stared out at the small pond. Thick trees made up its surroundings and a light fog blanketed everything. There was even a slight chill in the air. It was so spot on. I would have believed I had been transported back in time, if it weren't for Ash.

"I thought you'd be a little more...animated when I said that," she said, giving me a side-long glance as the two of us sat at the water's edge.

I stared down at the lake, still expecting to see my reflection. It was never not going to be weird finding a fox looking back at me. "Sorry. There's just, ah, stuff on my mind."

"You do not need to apologize. I am enjoying this you. Regular you is difficult for me to keep up with." Ash moved her eyes away from me to resume her gazing of our forested surroundings. "And I am enjoying this new location. Where is it? What sort of significance does it have to you?"

"This is different, interested in me again? I thought you just wanted to know more about my friends."

"I thought you were just interested in girls," Ash admitted. "But I will stop asking if my questions are working you up."

"They aren't." But even as I said it I could feel the tiny black claws dig into the dirt. "This just isn't one of those places I'd dream about if I had the choice. It's where Mutt, Kat, and I—well, where Mutt and Kat tried to protect me from these...monsters. It's where Mutt lost his leg and Kat nearly—where she almost died."

"So, something is making you think back to this place. Something is making you worry that you might be putting them in danger again."

"Yeah, I guess." I flopped to the ground, no longer having the desire to stay sitting. "Mary risking her life for me without me knowing is one thing. I would rather die than knowingly put any of them in danger."

"That's pretty intense."

"Guess I'm just a pretty intense guy."

"Mm."

For some reason, Ash followed me in lying against the ground. She fell on her back and just stared up at the grey sky. After a few moments of silence, she let out a sigh.

"Not that I am experienced in such matters, but I do not see how Mary or this Kat care for you as much as they seem to. Whenever I try to imagine being concerned for you, it almost makes me ill thinking about how stressful that would be. I see what it does to Mary, and if Kat feels for you as much as your dull fantasies make her out to, I imagine she is in a similar state of constant distress."

"It isn't like they don't do the same thing to me!" I shot. I stood up and walked away from Ash and closer to the edge of the pond. My reflection barely took up any of it. Foxes were so damn small. "Like whatever happened with Mary last time. The way she looked, how cold the classroom got. If she really thinks that we aren't friends after all this time...And Kat! Her Master is one of the most dangerous, unstable witches I've ever met. Who knows what the extent is of everything she's been doing to her!..."

            I stopped my rant, as our surroundings were starting to change again. The once calm waters of the lake were beginning to bubble and boil, the trees shook with a sudden flurry of wind and rain. I shut my eyes closed and willed myself to be calm, taking in deep, slow breaths like Fawn had instructed. Thinking of nothing.

            Well, trying to think of nothing. It really was impossible not to think about something.

            Not to think about the things you want to think of most.

            "Ah. Do you remember what you experienced in that place I can no longer reach?" Ash asked me. Her eyes remained gazing up at nothing. "You are feeling something different now. Something that might frighten and worry certain people."

            "You can't tell Mary."

            Unexpectedly, her eyes drifted back to me. Our eyes met, and I was taken aback by just how wide they had become. How interested. "About your feelings, or about what you intend to do with them?"

            "None of it." I tore my eyes away from her and found that our scenery had changed. Like it is want to do.

            We were now in a room. A room in a cabin. A room with two chairs and two grand doors what were wide open. One chair was knocked down, while the other remained upright.

            "I suppose I really was mistaken about you," Ash said, sitting up from the polished, wood floor. Her eyes trailed from the two chairs to me, who stood in between them. "You are far more interesting than I have given you credit for."

            I said nothing back to her. There was nothing I had to say. She would do what I told her to, or she would not. Mary would find out what I intended to do, or she would not.

            Either way, there were only two choices left for me.

            I could follow Lady Louise. I could let go of whatever reservations I had left and become her servant, completely and utterly, on the slight chance she was telling the truth. On the slight chance that I could get my friends back.

            Or, I could die. Let go of whatever I had left. Disappear, completely and utterly, on the slight chance that it would mean the end of all this.

            "It seems, to me, that you have only one choice, if that's what you are thinking," Ash said. "Also, I do still wish to assist you. Or have you forgotten that I chose to be a part of this too?"

            "I figured you might have lost interest by now," I admitted. I closed my eyes so I wouldn't see the chairs, the doors, or the room. I could only pretend that I didn't remember the memory they were attached to for so long.

            "I have not. As proof, I will tell you something Mary would wish for me to keep silent about."

            Ash waited for me to open my eyes—to meet her eyes again—before she continued. "She has convinced her Master, the Valiant I believe he is called, to be more aggressive with your Lady. The both of them intend to rein her in when next they meet."

            I did not want to try and guess what that meant, exactly. A million possibilities would whirl around in my head, each one worse than the last. But all of them meant making the free witch less free. And, therefore, unable to help me.

            "What are they going to try and do?" I asked.

            "I do not know," Ash said, quickly continuing when a growl of frustration escaped my lips. "It is not as though Mary tells me these things of her own free will. I glean them from her dreams. Abstract frustrations, concerns, and worries. It is never a clear picture. What I have told you is all I could put together from the broken images."

            I gritted my teeth and fought the urge to flip the other chair.  "So, that's it, then? She's against me now? After everything..."

            No. Don't think about the past. It'll only dredge up more scenes that you'd be forced to look at. That you'd be forced to relive over and over.

            "I'm sure, in her point of view, she believes she is helping you," Ash offered.

            "She's imprisoning me!" I countered, no longer able to keep myself from kicking the chair. "Or straight up killing me if the Stalwart finds out what the Lady is up to! How could she do this? Why can't she just let me see them again?!"

            "There was only one choice left for her. Just as there is only one choice left for you."

            "That isn't true. She could have helped me. She...I have to talk to her. Ash, do you know when she is going to sleep again?"

            "I do not."

Ash broke her eyes away from mine, tried to appear to be taking in the surroundings around us. But I knew. In the stiff way she started to walk around the room. How her gaze never really moved from one spot on the ceiling. I knew what she wouldn't tell me.

"I'm not going to see her here again, am I?"

Ash sighed. For the first time since I met her, I wanted to hurt her. To strangle her. I wanted to make her suffer for sounding so bothered.

"My Dreamer's Sand does not last forever," Ash answered before I knew what to do with the sudden urges. "From what Mary has told me, it only lasts about a day with the know-nothing's, and, since I have not seen her again for some time, about three months with you familiars. Mary took her pill not long before she gave you yours. It won't be long before you won't be able to return here, either."

"I stashed away a whole bottle of them, I'm not worried about that," I said, while having to bottle down very real anxiety building up in my stomach. "I'm still going to get the others here. And I will get Mary back, too."

I didn't want to think about how hollow the words sounded. I didn't want to think where I had heard them before. Those same, hollow, words I had said when I promised to save Dr. Quincy and his family. Those same, stupid words I continued to say when he was dead. When Meadow was dead. When their home was crashing down around me.

I closed my eyes as the scene changed. I knew what it was changing to, but didn't want to see it.

But closing my eyes did not dull the crackling of the fire, nor did it lessen the feel of it's heat on my skin.

I even started choking as the familiar, itching and burning sensation of smoke pushed it's way down into my throat and in my lungs. I hit the ground on instinct, but the smoke did not leave me. It was going to suffocate me, whether I liked it or not.

I could only just make out Ash's parting words as my consciousness sunk into an even deeper, darker, darkness. 

            "Would you hate me if I said that I do not believe you?"

...