The near empty earthen tunnel, lighted periodically by motion-sensing blue flames, finally split apart into two distinct directions. One left and one right. Edgar, Loretta, and Leaf stopped just before the crossroads, locked in the heavy silence that followed them since they had dropped off Alex and Giles at the surface. Loretta Louise felt the weight like a brace on her neck and shoulders, keeping her facing forward, not even allowing her probing eyes to glance over to the others. Even then, standing before the crossroads, not moving and with each passing second feeling like a noose tightening around her, she could not look.

"Well, my Lady, this is where we part ways," Edgar Crooster spoke up. The way the echoing tone of his voice bounced through the once deafening silence made Lady Louise jump. The Overseer couldn't hide a slight smile when he glanced over her way. "You'll find them down the tunnel to the right."

"Them?" Lady Louise parroted back, the hidden noose making it near impossible to do or say much else.

"Of course." Edgar tilted a head to the tunnel, still smiling. "She's being cared for, protected, even now. Despite neither being a witch nor a familiar, she has made an impressive recovery since you've last seen her. She will still need the wheelchair for long distances, but she can walk and function normally otherwise."

There was a pause and, in it, Lady Louise's mouth formed a tight line. "Are you waiting for some form of gratitude, Overseer?"

"No." The Overseer's smile faltered as he let out a small sigh. "Just an update since it's been awhile. We shouldn't tarry around for much longer however. Places to be and all that."

"Right," Lady Louise responded before holding out a hand to the boy who stood close beside the overseer. "Come on, let's go."

The ragged teen's eyes shot open before he looked between the hand and the Overseer. The latter studied the hand for a moment before breaking out into a smile wide enough to turn into a small chuckle.

"Come now, Loretta," Edgar said while meeting her eyes, "we both know that's not happening."

Lady Louise smiled despite herself, feeling the weight of the noose finally lift. "Right, I suppose not."

...

Down the right path, the unremarkable dirt tunnel led to an elegant, red door. Behind that door was a bedroom much nicer than any Lady Louise had seen in recent years. Windows nearly several stories tall in their own right caught her immediate attention as they dominated the far wall and looked out to a breathtaking scene of a far-reaching meadow and distant pond, all of it bathed in the light of a full moon that was partially obscured by the passing deep blue clouds of the night sky. Everything inside the room was shadowy and dark. The paintings, furniture, and other ornamentation obscured of great detail but still strongly hinting their elegance and value. Not the least of it was the massive four-poster bed that seemed to grow out the wall to her left, the curtains pulled back and revealing the frail frame of a young woman nearly swallowed by pillows and blankets.

"Edgar warned me you would be here," Lady Louise addressed the woman as she stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. "He said you might try and stop me from getting too close."

"It is in my best interest," the woman responded, raising a pale hand in the Lady's direction.

Lady Louise flinched away from the action, but noted no immediate change to either her body or her surroundings. The other woman sighed, letting her arm drop back to her side on the bed. "He warned me about you too," she said, her voice dull and strained as if the simple act of speaking caused her great pain. "He didn't know how our worlds would collide. But now I know. I can make you sleep, but I cannot make you feel."

"I would like to be awake." Lady Louise took a few steps towards the bed. Though she grew closer to the other woman, she could still make out no real features. Her body was mostly consumed by her surroundings and what she could see of her head was further obscured by a strange blue veil.

"Though I can do nothing further toyou, I do not believe you can do anything to me, either. But out there, in the world I can no longer reach, you can take it away. My power. My memories. Everything that I have left."

"I only want my daughter," Lady Louise pressed, her eyes scanning the dark room as she paused in her approach. "Is she here too?"

"In a way, yes."

"Please, just let me leave with her. You can have whatever else you want, just let me have my daughter."

"No," the other woman answered without pause. "I will not bargain or deal any longer. I have seenwhat I want and I know how to achieve it without any risk of failure."

"What is it that you want?" the Lady continued, no longer hiding the growing tension in her voice."You might think you have the answers, but that is not always true. Going after something alone does not always work."

The woman in the bed did not respond. Either ignoring or considering, Lady Louise did not allow the time to find out.

"I am desperate and I am powerful.If Edgar warned you about me you must know what I can do. If there is someone or something you want gone, I can make it disappear. If it's something you desire, I have connections all around the world to make it appear. I know of you, Ashling, and while I cannot cure what ails you I can do everything in my power to—"

"I want death," the woman cut in, her words appropriately flat and lifeless. "It is something just about anyone can give me, but only I can guarantee. So save your words, Lady Louise, and just give it time. When my body dies of dehydration you will get your daughter back."

Lady Louise stared at the woman in the bed. The walk to the door gave her plenty of time to think, but none of her planning prepared her for this scenario. But as her mind swirled with the revelation and its repercussions, she soon found only one question left to ask.

"How long have you kept Rosetta trapped like this?"

Ashling again did not answer. Lady Louise stepped closer until she stood right beside the bed. Behind the blue veil she could make out nothing, neither shadow nor shape, but she knew she still had the other woman's attention when she reached out and gripped her ice-cold arm.

"You cannot—"

"'I don't believe right?" Lady Louise quoted back to her, a growl in her throat."That's what you said; you don't believe I can affect you in here. For someone who wants a guarantee so badly that seems like a risky belief."

The veiled head looked to the hand on its arm and then back toward her. "This was my only option. Try it. If you are right, you will have your desire. If you are wrong, I will have mine."

"That doesn't have to be the only option!" the Lady insisted as her nails dug into the soft flesh of Ashling's arm. "Work with me. If death is what you desire I can grant you the most painless one you can imagine."

"You can take it away too, can you not?" Eyes met, both seen and unseen. "My ability to die."

Another pause. Another unexpected turn. "Why do—"

"Your daughter does not share your immunity to my power. We have had a lot of time together. A lot of time to talk."

Lady Louise unconsciously ground her teeth. "Even if I could do such a thing, I wouldn't."

"Wouldn't you?" the veiled head tilted to one side. "You did before. You could again."

"Why would I!?" the Lady snapped, tearing her hand free of the woman to wave it across the air. "Why on earth would I if that is not your wish? I did it for Rosett because she is my daughter. Because I had to!"

"Was it her 'wish'?" Ashlingasked.

On the surface, it sounded like an innocent question, but the implication sent the Lady's heart racing and her thin blood boiling. "What did you say?"

"Was it her desire to continue living? Did you ever ask her? She claims you did not."

"She is a child," Lady Louise said, her voice trembling with emotion. "She did not deserve to die like that. I did not have the luxury to ask for consent or permission. Do not talk to me as if you were there."

"I was there," the voice behind the veil assured. "Through her dreams—her memory, I saw everything. I saw that night and every day and night since. I have seen more of her and her life than you ever will and it is sad and full of as much pain and grief as every other life I have seen. The only difference is she had the chance to escape such a life, and you stole that from her."

"Stole?" the Lady echoed back, laughing softly and shaking her head at the sheer audacity and mockery of the word. "I will grant that maybe you have talked with her, because you sound so much like her. A child."

"We are the only ones who have seen it, to my knowledge," Ashling continued, her deadpan tone and unmoving figure in sheer defiance of Lady Louise's insult. "Those who have seen Death but not succumbed to it. She, the Overseer, and I. But while the boy wastes his endless life fighting the inevitable, I am able to give voice to your daughter's once nameless fears and anxieties."

"We are not talking about this."Lady Louise reached down and gripped Ashling's limp wrist.

"Despite her troubles, she has been kind and patient with me," Ashling continued, raising up the arm the Lady held but making no efforts to pull it free. "If something happens to me, you must hear this. She is afraid of you and your power and afraid of what you will think of her if she were to share her feelings—"

"The feeling that she wants to die?" the Lady cut in, her voice hot and trembling again. "Is that what you mean?"

"I can imagine that this is hard to hear—"

"Enough." Loretta Louise's grip tightened on Ashling. "Whatever this is, enough. I will talk to Rosetta myself. I will get the truth from her. If you continue to stand in the way of that, I will remove you."

"You may try."

Lady Louise stared into the silken veil. Tried to see through it, to pry out an expression or a sound beyond it. But there was nothing. Not a tremble or a complaint. Despite the cold flesh she held in her hand, Ashling was no longer a person. She couldn't be. She was just a thing, an obstacle in her way. If she were wiped away no one would notice or care.

"What is wrong?" Ashling asked. "Are you unable to do it?"

Lady Louise looked down and closed her eyes, unable to look at the veil or the far too elaborate room. "If I take away your power or your ability to die you may never get what you want. If I can free myself of you, I can keep you alive. Perhaps indefinitely."

"Yes."

"Are you not afraid of that?"

"I am afraid."

"Do you fear trusting me more?"

Another pause. "Try it. If you prove to me your power works here then perhaps we can negotiate."

The Lady looked up; hope brimming, but her expression faltered when she took in her surroundings once again. She even went as far as to gently lay Ashling's arm back on the bed and take a step away from her. As if attached by an invisible thread, the silken woman sat up and away from the cushions, her masked face following Loretta's retreat.

"It's easier to take away something substantial, something real," Lady Louise explained, knitting her hands together as her eyes scanned the shadowed walls."An arm, a leg, blood, parts of walls. Concepts are possible, but difficult. I do not have full control of my power like you seem to. Whenever I try to push what I can do, it is as if something is pushing back, pressing me to just take it all away."

"You are being very forthcoming," Ashling observed.

"This is new territory for us both."Lady Louise waved a hand to their general surroundings. "None of this is really real. Anything I touch isn't truly a wall, or piece of furniture, or really you. It's something you've dreamed up. A world you've created and imprisoned my daughter and I within. If I try to take something away in here, I take it all. And what, then, would happen to me? To Rosetta?"

"I do not—"

"Sorry, that was rhetorical," Lady Louise said with a brisk wave, her eyes staring off and out the expansive windows. Her once furrowed brow softened and smoothed out as she let her arms drop down to her sides. "I am trapped here. Completely and utterly."

"I am sorry," Ashling said as her small frame reclined itself back into the heaps of pillows with a soft sigh. "But I will be dead soon and then you will be free. Now that you know that I know of your daughter's true self, you need not feign concern over her well-being any longer. She will live as long as you permit it."

"Do not assume my feelings," Lady Loretta warned, but kept her tone even as she internally puzzled. "My concern is not only with Rosetta's well-being. The Overseer—Edgar did warn me about you. Does he know you are 'like him'? That you have seen death?"

"He does not. Up until very recently he held my fate within his own hands. I did not wish to risk what he would do if I had told him such things. He is desperate to see the face of Death. Perhaps telling him what I saw would give him some peace, but there are no more risks I am willing to take."

"Who are your caretakers?" Lady Louise continued, barely letting Ashling finish her answer.

"Leaf Quincy and your daughter, Rosetta, have been my near-constant ones. Dr. Garcia came and went, but it has been—"

"How long?" the Lady interrupted. "How long have you had them imprisoned here?"

"I do not see the passage of time as most do." Ashling turned her head towards Lady Louise, as though taking her in anew. "But long enough to physically feel my death drawing near."

"Too long," Lady Louise mumbled to herself.

"Too long?" Ashling repeated.

"Someone else should have checked on you all by now. The Overseer would have known something was wrong."

"He did know. He warned you about me, did he not?"

"He only said you were in the room with my daughter. That you might try and stop me."

Lady Louise wasn't entirely sure why, but her breath was getting harder to find. Her weak heart was racing in her chest.

"He was right. But did you not ask why he thought that I would?"

"I assumed—" The Lady swallowed, her head feeling light and the room growing fuzzy. "I assumed he had ordered you to protect them. A last line of defense if the familiars made it that far."

"He has not given me any such orders. I have seen no one aside from Leaf and Rosetta in quite some time."

"You could be lying," the Lady said, but did not look towards the bed.

"I could be," Ashling returned without pause.

"But if you aren't lying..."

Loretta Louise trailed off. Even if she had wished to finish, she could not. The noose had returned and was already wrapped tight around her throat. Reaching up to it, the lady ended up grasping at the fabric of the dress just below it as she whirled around towards the door she had come into the room from. The door that was no longer there.

 "No," was all the noose allowed her to say.