The Windows in the Way

“Whatever you do,” Raeth said. “Don't touch the windows.”

As if Aurora needed something else to add to the nameless dread she felt in this place. When she had first discovered the gate, she had heard it from almost a mile away. The whispers that she had thought were madness grew stronger and stronger. She had fled as soon as she found it.

Now Raeth had taken her through, and it was an order of magnitude worse. Despite Raeth's assurance that it was safe here, they didn't seem all that comfortable themselves. The voices spoke to both of them. Eventually she was supposed to learn to tune them out, right?

Here – on what Raeth called “the ways” - they were louder than she had ever heard in her life. Every fiber of her wanted to flee back through the gate, back home, and never set foot in here again. But then she would never know. Never see the secrets Raeth had promised that would make sense of her life for the last few years.

“They are especially... loud, today,” Raeth commented. “Even when they are quiet, though, remember: never touch the source here. We are visible like in no other place and they will find us quickly.”

“What are they, though?” Aurora asked. She still had no moved from the spot where she had stepped into the way. Her legs wouldn't listen.

“That,” Raeth replied. “Is a very good question for the philosophers and metaphysicists. There may be better answers for you at the Dawning. For now, just take them as a warning. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, take heed of that warning. No good comes when they get to close.”

“And the windows? Why shouldn't I touch them?”

“Out there... that's where they live.”