“Welcome to my space, Darian.” Alice sits on a branch of a tall tree to Darian’s left.

Darian’s head whips to face her. She looks down on him from the branch in torn clothes. Though they look more like rags than clothes. Red rope burns show on her wrists and bruises cover her skin. Her abused form seems foreign in the forest as it contrasts with the beauty of nature. Though as Darian looks at her, he feels she has her own beauty. She stands to her feet atop the branch. “Make yourself at home. I feel we will be here a while.”

Darian looks around at the forest surrounding him before looking back up at her. “Where are we?”

From behind him, she speaks in his ear. “Were you not listening?” Darian quickly turns around to face her but discovered she’s gone. “We’re in my space.” She speaks from the river bank. “A place I can call my own. Though, it can be more than just one place. I like this one though, so we’ll stay here for now.”

Darian walks to her as she takes a drink from the water. “How does this work? We were just in the tavern with Giselle. How did we end up here?”

She faces him and wipes the water off her face. “It’s my evocation, ‘Return’. A world of my own. One in which I can do what I want and go where I want.”

“Why a forest?”

She looks at him with a faint smile. “Do I need a reason? Here, I can like what I choose. Everything is my decision. No one will tell me otherwise.”

He looks at her clothes suspiciously. “If that’s your choice in clothes, you have odd tastes.”

She shrugs. “I’ve never been interested in clothes.” Her form shifts between a dozen forms for an instant before appearing in a plain brown dress. “Is this better?”

Darian nods as he looks at her new attire. “Dull but acceptable.”

“What about yourself? You going to look like that the entire time?”

Darian looks down at himself. His clothes are shredded, and he’s covered in blood. His skin is visibly darkened and cracked. He looks at his hands and sees blood leaking from the cracks. He quickly reaches down and submerges his hands in the river. “What is this? Why is my body like this?” He asks Alice, with panic clear in his voice.

“How should I know? It’s your body and your mind. Just imagine something else.”

Darian closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. After a few moments, he opens his eyes. He sees his hands, free of blood and cracks. He looks down at his clothes and the shredded scraps have been replaced by his favorite pair back home. She looks at him with a passive disinterest. “Well, it’s more normal now.”

“I like normal. I much prefer it to whatever that was.”

She looks at him with suspicion. “You act as if it wasn’t your mind that decided your form. In Return, your original form is whatever you feel is the best representation for yourself. It’s a copy of your ego.”

Darian quickly speaks up. “Not a chance. That’s not me.”

She walks past him and grabs an apple as it descends from a nearby tree. “So you say, but my evocation is not flawed. It does what I tell it to do.” She hands him the apple as she grabs another. Darian takes the bright red fruit and takes a bite. His cheeks tingle as the taste fills his mouth. It’s the most delicious thing he’s eaten in… How long has it been since he’s eaten something? He greedily scarfs down the rest of it.

She looks at him with surprise. “You don’t need to eat it so fast. It’s not like it will actually fill you here. We can eat something real after we’re done.” She hands him another apple.

He grasps the apple and takes another bite.“Fhow longd gil-”

“Please finish chewing first.”

He swallows the remaining apple in his mouth before continuing. “How long will that take and what is it exactly we’re doing here?”

“How long depends on you. As for what we’re doing. I’m going to read you to determine if you’re a demon. Though, I have my doubts already.”

“What do you mean?”

She looks her apple over before tossing it. “I’ll read the energy you give off. You can’t hide it while in here, so I simply use what you give off to see the real you.”

“What if I refuse?”

She chuckles under her breath. “You can’t refuse anymore. Once you’re in Return, you don’t leave until I end it. I can stay here for a few days, before I run out of energy. Time on the outside progresses much slower than in here, so my body won’t become tired, hungry, or thirsty while here. At this point, you’re along for the ride.”

Darian looks around and admires the forest. “Well, it doesn’t seem like the worst place to be trapped.”

Alice smiles. “Certainly. I’ve been trapped in worse.”

“Well, let’s get started, then. How do we do this?”

Alice walks up to him. “Just relax and don’t resist.”

The forest begins to shift and blur. The trees dance and sway as they become dreamlike. They change shape as if their forms are mere suggestions. The warm light that was coating the forest fades as the sun darkens. He looks to Alice, but gradually finds it harder to focus on her. Her body becomes increasingly ghostly until fading all together. Before long, he finds himself in complete darkness.

He stands in nothingness, and panic begins to take him. He looks around for anything he could focus on. Any form of light or sound. Instead, he finds himself in complete absence of any sensation. Time begins to drag on as he waits in a deafening silence. However, the silence is soon replaced by a distant whispering. Darian turns to face the whispering. He listens closely, but is unable to understand it.

Darian approaches it, hoping to get close enough to understand the whispering. He walks through the infinite darkness, with only the slight whispering to guide his direction. As he gets closer, he feels someone following him. He spins to face his pursuer but sees nothing. He turns back to the whispers, but it fades, once again leaving him in complete silence. Darian waits in darkness alone.

A soft splash catches his attention. He quickly turns to face it. After a brief moment, another splash is audible from the same direction. Another moment passes before he hears another splash, slightly closer. It almost sounds like someone slowly walking through water, approaching him. The steps continue to grow closer. He stares in the sound’s direction but can see nothing, and without his energy vision; he is truly blind to whatever approaches him. A few moments later, the steps are within fifteen feet of him, and he is beginning to lose his nerve.

As the footsteps draw unbearably close, Darian’s will falters, and he turns and runs. He sprints away from the footsteps, unable to hear his own running or breathing, but still, he hears the footsteps growing closer at their unfaltering pace. He tries to draw energy into his legs to speed up his sprint, but is unable to feel his energy at all.

He continues to run through the overbearing darkness as the footsteps draw closer and closer. Now the footsteps are right behind him with a mere foot until they reach him. He runs, listening for the last step and waiting for what happens when whatever it is catches him.

A few moments pass, and he stops running. “Nothing happened?” He thinks to himself. He turns around and though he sees nothing, he immediately realizes an immense presence stands before him, looking down at him. He recognizes it as his source. Darian tries to back away but is unable to move. His source lowers itself to Darian’s level and begins to wrap around him. He feels his skin burning everywhere the source touches. He tries to protect himself with energy, but still cannot summon any energy into his body. He screams out in pain, but hears no sound.

Darian screams out as he struggles to free himself. He yells at the presence, but no sound escapes his mouth. “First, you take my parents from me, then you think I will just let you take my body? Fuck you! Even if I can’t use my energy, I’m not letting you take control of me! I won’t stop fighting until he’s dead! I’ll kill Rowan with my own hands! And after I kill him, I’m getting rid of you!”

The presence increases its strength, and Darian feels its focus bear down on him. “Struggle, child. Self deceiver. Resist.”

Darian feels his hands melting as he pushes against the invisible force. The heat scorches his throat with every breath. He is unable to keep his eyes open against the heat. Darian summons all his remaining strength and screams into the void in rage.

His eyes suddenly open as his energy vision returns. The first thing he notices is the pain of Giselle’s hand, covered in energy, gripping his head with incredible strength, threatening to crush it. The second thing he notices the immense aura he is giving off.

“Alice?” Giselle looks to Alice with a stern, questioning gaze.

Alice holds her hand to her head with pain clear on her face. “No. He’s not a demon. It’s something else.”

Giselle’s hand leaves Darian’s head as her energy retreats inside her. “Don’t scare me like that, lad. I thought I might have been wrong for a bit.”

Darian looks at her in a daze. He feels his immense aura returning to his core. He tries to hold on to it, but it’s akin to trying to catch the wind. His aura quickly returns to its usual amount. As his aura lessens, he looks down. His hands are covered in bleeding cracks that continue up his arms and under his shirt.

Giselle looks down at him with her arms crossed. In an accusatory tone, she says, “Want to explain what that was, lad?”

Darian shakes his head. “I’m not really sure, myself. I think my source attacked me.”

Alice stands up, still holding her head. “I saw something attack Darian while I was reading him. He fought it off. Somehow, the fight disrupted Return. In any case, he’s not a demon.” She walks to her bed and lies down. “I need to rest. My head is killing me, now.”

Giselle seems to get lost in thought for an uncomfortable amount of time before looking back down at Darian. “You seem well enough, now. Well, other than the cracks. Is that your rebound? Let’s go get you cleaned up.”

Darian follows her to a separate room where a bucket with water sits on the floor. She grabs a cloth rag and dips it in the water. She looks over at Darian and gestures to the bucket with her head. “Come here.”

Darian walks over to her and takes off his shirt, still in a daze. “Did I fight it off? The last time, Father had to help me, but this time, I fought it off on my own? It certainly didn’t feel like I was winning. Also, it spoke this time. It told me to resist it. Did it want me to fight back?”

The sting of the rag touching his wounds pulls him out of his thoughts. He looks down at the rag as it wipes away the blood. As the rag runs over the cracks, he sees the cracks continue to bleed. He finds his focus being drawn to the blood as it leaks from the cracks. It’s then that he notices a small amount of energy surrounding the cracks with no effort on his end. An idea forms in his head.

Darian pushes energy into one of the cracks. As the energy flows to the wound, he feels it become reinforced with energy coming directly from his source. He sees steam begin to escape from the crack as he pushes energy into it. The pain starts to fade and the crack slowly closes. Before long, the crack is completely gone, aside from the blood left behind. He stares at the healed crack for a few moments in astonishment before noticing Giselle has stopped wiping his arms. He looks at her and sees her staring at the now healed wound.

She slowly looks up at him, her eyes wide. “What are you?”