A single, low laugh. “No. I've always been this way.”

“Fine. I might as well hear it.”

He touched the side of the bookshelf, painted with simple blue flowers. “On the day you took the Fruit, describe the sensation to me.”

I returned the tome to its place. That day felt one hundred years away, and at the same time the memory was vivid. “The sensation? It felt like… like I’d died.”

He touched the word reap, inscribed deep into the wood. “That's because you did.”

A chill shot out through my body. I grabbed my wrist. “What do you mean? That can't be…true.” My eyes locked on him, and my hand locked around my cold, pulseless arm.

He attempted a reassuring look. “It’s not as bleak as you think. Sometimes Divine energy must protect the soul, like it does with Marrow. When our body dies, the soul lives on, but it lives outside this plane. Your soul is alive, just elsewhere.”

“I'm…like Marrow?” The image of Sharp's blade piercing through his heart flashed in my head.

“Not quite. Reaper makes you like a Ghost Tree. When you’re in the real dimension, you’re fully alive, sustained by the borrowed light of your friends and family. Your real soul is held even deeper in the Unseen. Unlike Marrow, your body can be killed permanently.”

No words came to my lips. No heartbeat thumped against my chest.

He continued in an ethereal whisper. “I know you saw it too. The doorway. The dimension we’re in now is not for the dead, merely an anteroom to something bigger.” He looked over his shoulder. “Speaking of, it's been following me for the past week. Right on cue.”

The beautiful and horrible threshold that had taken Glass began to form, bright like the sun, but soft on my dead eyes.

“Do you know what waits on the other side?” I asked.

“No one does.” His face broke into a big smile. “I'm sorry we met in this way, little Badger. I wish I’d known you in life. You want to be a doctor, correct?”

I looked down at my feet. “I'm afraid this power obligates me to be king one day. You implied as much yourself.”

He reared his head back. “Ha! Not at all! There’s a sense of duty in you, I can feel it, but we need doctors more than we need kings. Power is not for ruling, but for serving. Reaper’s purpose is to bring peace to people's lives, understand?”

I bowed my head again. Maybe my heart didn't beat the Unseen Dimension, but there was still warmth and light inside me. Glass would have the power to save more people, if I lent him my hands.

Obsidian's face was impassive, despite the beckoning light. “It’s no coincidence Reaper has manifested now. Wyvern’s power, Divine Four, prevents all forces from taking the life of its wielder. All forces but one.”

I flinched. “I don't want to use this power to kill.”

“No person should want to kill,” he said. “Indifference to life is unbecoming for a doctor. When the time comes, you will know the right thing. I have no way of knowing where you'll end up, but you must trust yourself, as well as your friends and allies. Do you think you're up for it?”

“Do I have a choice?”

The hand at the doorway continued coaxing. The king took a few steps closer before giving one last grin. I could have sworn we were the same age at that moment. “Of course you do. I'll give you one more thing to think about. What world do you want to leave behind, in the end?”

His hand intertwined with the light. The door disintegrated, like it had never been there at all. King Obsidian was gone.

My loneliness was short, as a grass green soul lit up the entrance to the prophecy room. My mother.

“Badger? Are you here?”

She walked unknowingly around me to sit in one of the chairs. Not wanting to scare her, I phased back through the other side of the door, reappeared, and entered the normal way.

“Mom?”

She smiled. Her yellow corduroy dress matched her favorite shoes. “Hi sweetie. Are you all packed up?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but instead I burst into tears.

“Oh, oh no!” She bolted to my side and touched my face. “What is it honey? Are you okay?”

The confusing tears continued cascading, and my throat was so thick I couldn't answer. Everything that had happened, every bad thing after the moment I took the Fruit, hit me at once. I'd seen death twice now. I’d experienced it myself, and on my shoulders rested a vague, heavy responsibility.

I sniffled into her shoulder for a few minutes while she waited for me to talk. When I calmed down, we sat together in the little blue chairs. I told her everything about Obsidian, about Glass, and about the true nature of my Divine power. The only details I withheld were the ones about King Wyvern. Part of me was grateful only Puma was here, not Mama Robin. Both were protective of me, but Puma always had a better understanding of who I was, and what I was capable of.

I finished the story. Her eyes moved to the prophecy on the wall, and she recited the first stanza with a sing-song voice:

"The wind takes the little Badger

Bythetailintothetrees

Andthelittlecreatures

Scatterround

Tolittledestinies."

She sighed and dried a tear off my cheek. “A strange little poem, but I never forgot it. Only after I came here to find you did I realize what this room really was. If I hadn't broken the rules, none of this would have happened.”

I laughed. “None of this would have happened if I hadn't eaten the Wild Fruit. I'm sorry for not listening.”

She squeezed my knee and shook it. “Nothing can change the past, but the future…we still have a little control. For what it's worth, I'm sorry too. After the funeral, we'll go back home, and everything will start to feel normal again.”

After an uncomfortable pause, I swallowed. “Mom…I'm not going home. Not yet.”

Her eyes fluttered. “What do you mean? Where else would you go?”

I brushed away her touch and stood up. “I'm going to the City with Sharp and her uncle.”

She seemed to grow smaller in her seat. “But Badger…The education season starts soon. Weren't you wanting to teach a few lessons on the orchestra gourd?”

“Maybe next year.” I struggled to look her in the eye. “What better place is there to learn than in the Great City? If I want to be a doctor, I'd have to train there eventually.”

“That's dangerous!” she argued, standing to face me. “If what you told me about your power is true…”

“It's safer for me and for you.”

“But…”

“Mom, please trust me.” I lowered my voice and wiped a tear from her face, like she had done for me. “I made a promise to Glass before he died. I spoke to him. He wanted me to tell you and Mama he cherished your friendship.”