It was terrifying without Chanyeol. That was all Seoyeon could think as she started on a winding path down the cliff and tried to ignore that the last time she’d been on a similar kind of trail, they’d been attacked by jockla knifetongues and Chanyeol had nearly been killed. It really didn’t help that the only times she’d really been left by herself in the Neuma were when Chanyeol’s life had been in extreme danger. She knew he was fine — or at least, she hoped she was correct in assuming nothing had so far happened to him — but it was still very unnerving.

The path down was not an easy one, either. It was steep and narrow, and very, very uneven. As she fumbled around for a handhold a few minutes into the descent, Seoyeon thought that the trail was probably better suited to a goat than to a human being. It couldn’t really be called a path — it was more a plausible route which various animals and monsters must have gone down in the past.

As she continued on, carefully navigating her way around steep drops and finding handholds and footholds to steady herself while she tried to figure out where to step next, Seoyeon also came to the realisation that such a climb was something she would not have been capable of when she first entered the Neuma. So many days of walking non-stop had improved her fitness to a level she hadn’t known existed, and — though she was ashamed to admit it — if she had been faced with a similar challenge on entering the Neuma, especially without Chanyeol there, she would have sat down and refused to do it. It was dangerous, and while Seoyeon had always liked to explore, she had never liked danger.

It took her much longer to get to the bottom than she had anticipated. Because she’d been able to see the Neuma creatures from the top, Seoyeon had assumed that she wasn’t that high up, but as she gradually got lower down, she saw that the ground was uneven and that some of the creatures were actually on rocks and other raised parts that came up pretty high.

All the while as she descended, the tug towards the centre of the monsters grew stronger and stronger. It made Seoyeon very nervous. How would her mother react? Would she still remember her, as a ghost? Would she be able to talk? How aware of things would she be? Seoyeon didn’t know what to expect, and she didn’t want to have high expectations because if they were disappointed, she didn’t think she’d be able to cope with it.

After — by Seoyeon’s estimate — well over a couple of hours, her boots finally touched down on grass instead of rocks, and far too close to a flock of biddiyaras for comfort. She held very still, even holding her breath, as she tried to figure out what their response to her would be. They were skittish, flitting back and forth and chattering loudly to each other, but while several darted in her direction, they stopped short of attacking her. After a minute or two, Seoyeon let out the breath she had been holding and decided it was best to start walking.

The biddiyaras were interested enough to follow her, darting closer and then away again like she was some new curiosity that they weren’t sure they were allowed to touch. It unnerved her, but she supposed it was better than the alternative of them actually touching her, and decided that the best thing to do was chalk the curious behaviour up to the connection with her mother that Chanyeol had said would protect her. If they could feel it as strongly as she could feel it pulling at her, then Seoyeon reckoned it probably was something to be curious about.

She tried not to pay attention to the other monsters as she walked, but they too crowded curiously around her. She recognised a number as she’d been attacked by them, including a couple of gratchins hovering in the background (she definitely didn’t want to encounter another one of them without Chanyeol, that was for sure) and a number of the monster that had attacked her and Chanyeol in the cave before the unicorn had found them. Several times, there were hisses that indicated snakes nearby, and that always made Seoyeon’s heart leap into in fear.

The walk seemed to go on forever. Once or twice, a dragon swooped overhead, and her face was buffeted by the wind from its wings, but then, very suddenly, the monsters gave way to translucent humanoid smoke shapes, and a sharp tug at Seoyeon’s heartstrings told her that she’d arrived.

Her first thought was that she hadn’t expected any other ghosts to be there, and her second was that there didn’t seem to be all that many. Perhaps it was just difficult to see, because unlike some of the other monsters they were much harder to make out in the dim light, or maybe there were more elsewhere, but Seoyeon was pretty sure she only counted in the tens, compared to the hundreds and thousands of monsters. She looked around for a ghost that looked like her mother.

Her mother found her first.

“Seoyeon, sunshine,” said a voice that sounded so familiar it brought a lump to Seoyeon’s throat. Seoyeon turned as her mother’s ghost made to embrace her. To her alarm, the fire Chanyeol had put into her rose to the surface of her skin at once, and her body glowed red.

“Mother—” she began, but her mother’s ghost had already sensed the danger and quickly withdrew.

“Seoyeon, my dove,” she said. “This is no place for you.”

“I know.” Seoyeon choked. She didn’t know where the tears had come from, but they were suddenly blurring her vision, and she could feel her breath shortening. “I know, Mama, I know. I’m so sorry. I didn’t… I didn’t mean…”

“My precious child, now is not the time for you to be here,” her mother said. “You belong in the land of the living.”

“I know.” Seoyeon wiped her nose on her sleeve, and then tried to wipe away her tears. She tried to find something else to say while the ghost gazed at her, both of them nearly oblivious to the restlessness of all the monsters around them.

“Mama, I still miss you,” Seoyeon managed eventually. She glanced up, and saw an expression of extreme sadness on her mother’s face.

“My dove,” her mother said again, raising a hand as though she wanted to reach out and touch her daughter. “Don’t cry for me.”

It made Seoyeon cry harder. She really, desperately wanted a hug — all mothers gave the best hugs — but that was one thing she absolutely could not get if she wanted to keep talking to her mother.

“I can’t help it,” she choked out somehow. And then, before she could stop herself, she was absolutely bawling.

Her poor mother seemed helpless. Seoyeon crouched into a ball, trying to control her emotions.

“Seoyeon,” her mother said eventually. “Seoyeon, listen to me.”

It was at least a few minutes before Seoyeon was able to. She sat back on her heels, looking up at her mother as the ghost spoke soothingly to her. When her mother sensed that Seoyeon was becoming calm, she smiled faintly.

“But my dear,” she said, “how are you, behind all this stress you so clearly are suffering from?”

Seoyeon tried to smile at her and choked again.

“I hate it so much, Mama, you have no idea,” she said in a small voice. “Ximo’s so lonely. I wish you’d come too.”

“Han Seoyeon, lonely?” mother. “I thought that was impossible for you.”

Seoyeon tilted her head to one side. “I guess there’s Jongdae,” she admitted. “He’s fun. But Mama, there’s nobody my age, and nobody my status. The women there are all trained in practical householdery and very few of them know how to read. All the men are soldiers.”

“That sounds like paradise for you, if the books you were always reading are anything to go by,” her mother laughed.

Seoyeon groaned.

“And who’s Jongdae?”

“My tutor.” Seoyeon perked up again. “He’s most unorthodox, Mama, the capital would hate him. He’s been teaching me cookery and apothecary. And gambling.”

“Cooker and apothecary sound worthwhile, but I do not approve of the gambling.”

“That was only for my birthday.” Seoyeon sat back on the ground to relieve her ankles and made herself comfortable. But then she remembered something, and her face fell. “Mama, I’m terribly sorry. I completely ruined the beautiful dress that you and Papa gave me for my birthday and I had to burn it.”

“What ever happened?”

Seoyeon started back with the Neuma storms that had kept her awake and trashed her room, following through to the gratchin sending her into the Neuma when she had thought she was talking to her mother on her birthday, but it wasn’t until she was busy recounting meeting the dragon guardian that she realised she’d somehow got to that point in the story without mentioning Chanyeol once. She faltered, wondering how her mother would react. Now that she was a ghost in the Neuma, Seoyeon didn’t see her having any trouble with the concept of Borderlanders, but there was every possibility that she would consider Chanyeol an enemy because of what he was. There was also the question of whether the monsters around them would react. For the most part, they had been content to ignore Seoyeon and her mother, and Seoyeon would much rather keep it that way.

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