You wanted a quest, Tiffany reminded herself as she hacked at the gnarled vines before her. She looked up and didn’t see the sun but felt the imminence of night in the fading dusk. She looked down, and spent the next few minutes freeing her sturdy, oversized boots from the green morass. When she looked up again, the vines covering the way had vanished, replaced by neat lilac hedges on either side of a sickeningly recognizable sun-colored path.

Not again, Tiffany thought, biting back a sigh that may very well have turned into a howl halfway through. Yellow-brick roads, Granny had said, were never to be followed under any circumstances. It never works out well for the witches. She never said anything about how things turned out for knights. Tiffany continued on the road anyway. She looked behind her, to where the door should be. Golden bricks streamed out behind her, and the door was much further than it had been before. Tiffany closed her eyes and turned her head. She walked down the road a stretch with her eyes closed. She stumbled over her own foot, and her eyes flew open. The space beneath her feet was empty and grey, and it looked like she was walking in place. Tiffany cast her eyes around and found the road a ways off to the left. It was a cheery cherry color, with neat square tiles.

Tiffany groaned and pushed her way through the tall grass that had formed on that side until she reached the path again. Granny had told her the seer’s lair was a difficult place to reach; in fact, she had very pointedly advised that a more senior knight go looking instead. It was a trap, Tiffany had known, reverse psychology to trick her into taking on the task. And Tiffany had played into it, and now here she was, on a cherry-tiled road in a land where things didn’t keep being what they were unless she watched them. The sunless perma-twilight seemed to be the only fixture.

🜨

A messenger had come down to Granny through one of her “contacts,” and Tiffany had “just happened” to be visiting when the messenger ran in.

“Miss says someone’s seen the tower again, Granny,” the young man told Granny, handing her a messily sealed letter. Granny took the letter primly and looked it over. She sniffed once, unimpressed.

“There’ll be a knights’ meet about it soon ‘nuff,” she pronounced. “Thank you, Kal.” Granny’s eyes swiveled to Tiffany, who was reading a healing manual at Granny’s desk. She had looked up as Kal ran in, and now met Granny’s eyes. “New quest,” Granny said, voice nonchalant but eyes challenging. “Hard one, I reckon. No

body’s been to the Seer’s Tower in decades. Lots of glory, finding the Seer, making contact. Best left for a senior knight, I suppose. The way there ain’t so easy. Now, if I’m amiable to whoever does get the quest, I’ll send ‘em part of the way. Need to see life differently to find the Seer.”

Tiffany stood up from the desk. “I suppose you’re right,” she said breezily, staring right back. “No junior knight’s job at all. Hope you’re amiable to whoever does get the quest. Would be a great loss to start the mission without your blessing.”

Granny had smiled, nodded, and let Tiffany pass by and out the door. As Granny said, there was a knights’ meet about the Seer’s Tower quest the following day. Tiffany heard Morgan and Lilith talking about it on her way up to the meeting room. Both seemed apprehensive about accepting it.

Merle and Lanval had gone to the Seer’s Tower, they whispered, and neither returned. Lanval, the suspected, didn’t have much to come back to, but Merle had left siblings and parents behind. The Seer’s Tower, the rumors murmured, only existed some of the time, and it was said that it could be anywhere, unless you were looking for it, in which case it was somewhere, for sure, but not where you were looking.

Tiffany was the first at the meeting room, and she stood by her chair awkwardly as the other knights filed in. Tabitha, the most senior knight, withdrew from her cloak a message scroll.

“First business: new quest. I know some of you have been talking about it already; doubtless many of you are aware which quest is before us. The Seer’s Tower has been observed. The Eastern Holt has eyes on it and will continue to keep watch until one of us contacts their watchtower. This is a doozy of an ask, but we’ve been trying to make contact with the Seer since the Tower first was spotted. Some knights have already undertaken this quest, and none of those who were sent out have returned. Understand, then, the risk you undertake when you accept. Our most powerful mages have been triangulating the frequency of the Seer’s Tower all night and are ready to attune the questant to the Seer’s frequency of reality.

“Any takers?” Tabitha asked, trying to sound hopeful. None of the knights stepped forward. Tabitha sighed. “Morgan, if you would—”

“I’m due to help out at the prayer house next week, Sir. Put it on the schedule at the beginning of the month,” Morgan explained, cutting Tabitha off. Tabitha’s face crumpled.

Tiffany began to rise. Tabitha caught her eye and shook her head. “Lilith, you’ve not got something on your plate, have you?”

Lilith looked stricken and didn’t answer for several moments. Morgan elbowed her, and she sputtered into speech like a busted engine. “Oh, I’m… visiting family, north of here. Ma’s birthday is in a few days, I’ll need to be out of town. Already told her I’d be there,” she explained, haltingly.

Tiffany stood up and looked pointedly at Tabitha. “I’ll go to the Seer’s Tower.”

The other knights looked at one another. The older ones shrugged, and the younger ones grew reverent. Tabitha sighed again and wearily handed Tiffany another scroll. “Go see the mages directly. And good luck, Tiffany. This quest really ought to have gone to a senior knight.”

🜨

It was nearly dark now in the Seer’s realm, and Tiffany was angry. She thought, well, it’s always nearly dark here, so there isn’t a point in saying that it’s nearly dark now. That should be a given. She glanced down at the road below her, checking up on it to make sure it stayed a road. The cobblestone was all hexagons now, and she sighed. Tiffany had rather liked the rectangles it had first arranged itself into.

It was hard to keep her mind from wandering, but Tiffany kept at least a thought to the road, and at least some glimpse of it, if only in her peripheral vision. If she stopped minding it, stopped knowing where it was, it could be anywhere. She looked down at the road again. It was bright pink, and the shapes were indistinguishable. She had been walking since it was nearly dark, and the journey had been torturous.

Tiffany had always been proud of her multitasking skills, but even she lacked the prowess to look everywhere at once. She stuck to looking at the road, mostly, for it would be the most unfortunate if it were to vanish into something or somewhere else. When she looked about, sometimes the shapes on either side of the path would be trees, making up a thick forest she could will into being. But other times, there would be empty fields, or tall stalks of corn. Sometimes it would be corn on one side, trees on the other.

This seer had better be worth it, Tiffany groused to herself, walking more briskly down the road. It seemed to stretch forever, and Tiffany was getting good and tired. She debated, briefly, heading off the road and camping out in the woods or the fields, just to wait for the morning, and then she might see the tower—

Tiffany was glancing further along the path, and as she thought tower, the shadowy mass of matter ahead of her resolved itself into a building. It looked like a clocktower, Tiffany thought, though she suspected it would look different once she reached the door. Tiffany continued down the road with purpose now, glancing every few seconds between the road and the house, which morphed and shifted with each glance at the other, but helpfully stayed solid enough.

🜨

After the knights’ meet dismissed, Tiffany had made her way across the square to the alchemo-stronomy building, gazing doubtfully at the smoke-stained marble and the numerous limestone patches over the scars of old pyrotechnics gone awry. The mages turned up their noses imperiously as Tiffany entered the enchantment chamber, expecting a much more experienced questant. Tiffany ignored this and showed them the scroll Tabitha had given her.

“Ah, yes. The Seer’s attunement,” one of the younger mages intoned. Their voice was high and nasally. Several mages poked and prodded Tiffany into position. Tiffany glanced around the enchantment chamber. It was a small room, with a low ceiling. The walls were lined with a thick layer of limestone, which bore deep carvings of words and ancient scenes. The floor was a thick mixture of mud and ash. The mages gathered in an adjacent chamber that peered out into the enchantment room.

The whole attunement process was quicker than Tiffany expected, and she was back in Granny’s hut by mid-morning. She didn’t feel different as she wove through the throng of market-goers with surprising ease. Folks seemed to part around her, although none of them stopped to say a greeting, not even Mrs. Oriole, who had been Tiffany’s childhood neighbor.

Granny looked her up and down when she came in and scoffed. “What’d they do, make you all sparkly?” she said contemptuously. “Don’t answer, we haven’t the time. So, y’got that quest, I see,” Granny said with poorly feigned disinterest. Tiffany nodded and handed Granny the scroll. She snatched it up, sniffed, and scanned it quickly. “So, got to stop at the Eastern Holt watch. Week’s journey. I’ll be packed by mornin’, meet you at sunrise. East gate.”

Granny thrust the scroll back into Tiffany’s hands and ushered her out the door. Tiffany stood on the doorstep for a few moments as her mind caught up with Granny’s rapid words. She raised her hand to knock again, but thought the better of it and headed on to her lodgings instead.

Looking over her belongings the following morning, Tiffany thought back to the meeting, to Lilith and Morgan’s misgivings, to Lanval and Merle’s disappearances. She studied the room, sweeping her eyes over the walls, the floor, the ceiling at each packing stage. Slowly, the room emptied, and Tiffany felt like she had intruded, somehow, on a space that was no longer hers. She picked up her satchel and ducked out the door. One of Miss Lyrr’s cockerels spotted her and inhaled to screech its favorite wake-up call. Tiffany gently closed its mouth with a gloved hand and gave it a pat on the head for its good behavior.

“See you again, Jankyn. Soonish, I hope,” Tiffany whispered as she released the bird. She made her way through the city in the near-dark to the East gate. Granny was there, finishing up a cup of tea with the guards.

“Ah, there’s my escort. Lovely tea, ladies. Keep well.” Granny trundled over to Tiffany, her expression flipping from delighted to unimpressed. “Wasn’t sure you’d get ‘ere.” Tiffany rolled her eyes.

“Ready, Granny?”

“Oh, aye, lead on, brave knight. With your great guidance, we just might get to the Eastern Holt before th’ next moon!”

🜨

When Tiffany reached the door, the house was a smart apartment building, out of place in both a forest and a cornfield. There was the row of bells, the neat, minimalist lobby, the shiny elevators. There were signs on them which read “May Be Out Of Order. Try Your Luck.” Tiffany looked at the buzzers, and the nameplates were blank except for one on the 8^th floor, a Cassandra Higgs. Tiffany pressed the buzzer, and the elevator doors opened. A white cat sat in the left car, and it regarded Tiffany disdainfully. Pointedly, Tiffany stepped into the right elevator.

The elevator was passing the fourth floor when Tiffany realized that the cat had joined her. It hadn’t been in the car when the doors closed, and the elevator had not made any stops, but there it was, licking a paw proudly. The elevator stopped on the seventh floor, but the doors stayed closed. The cat sprang at the closed doors and vanished into them. As the elevator started moving again, Tiffany heard a snarky meow from the other side of the doors.

The elevator should have reached the eighth floor by now, Tiffany thought. She glanced at the panel of buttons and saw that the numbers were far higher than before. She was passing the twelfth floor, and the twentieth, and the thirty-seventh, and so on, until the doors opened on floor forty-two.

The elevator doors opened to another door, this one made of carefully carved wood. The stonework around the door was old, older than the elevator by half a century at least. Tiffany opened the door, and behind her, unobserved, the elevator dispersed.

Cassandra Higgs stood in a sparse room. She was next to a chair, facing the large clock face Tiffany immediately observed. She held herself consciously, aware of her audience. She looked down at the chair, back at the clock face, and then turned to Tiffany.

“Thank you, the clocktower’s my favorite,” she said. “Think we could do a different chair, though? This one’s from the last time someone came through, it’s the most recent pattern, but you could think up a different one, it’d be fine.”

Tiffany blinked, all her attention focusing on the woman in front of her. She glanced out of the clear clock face and saw the lush forest. She closed her eyes, and, bizarrely, thought of a chair from her home, the comfy spot she would fight all of her siblings over. Tiffany opened her eyes, and the chair next to Cassandra was now something like that chair from home. Cassandra smiled and clapped. She slumped down into the chair, letting out a very soft groan.

“I haven’t just relaxed and sat down in a long time,” Cassandra said, stretching her limbs. “Thanks again. I’m—”

“Cassandra Higgs? That’s what was on the buzzer.”

“Ooh, you got that nice lobby, right? Folks tell me how nice the lobby is. I haven’t been there ever myself. Yes, I’m Cassandra Higgs. You can call me Higgs or Higgsy if you want. Or Dr. Higgs, if you’re feeling deferential. Really, you can call me whatever, I’m happy to be called at all. If you happen not to like the name Cassandra Higgs, feel free to send a new one my way. I’m not too attached to it.”

“Um, Higgs, why—”

“How did you get here, anyway? You’re not supposed to be able to get here. Some of you seemed upset when you got here.”

“Some of me?”

“Yeah, only some. Some others seemed angry. It won’t make a difference if you tell me you’re one or the other. You’ve just got to know yourself, and it’ll sort out for me,” Cassandra explained. Tiffany opened her mouth to speak, but Cassandra kept going. “You want to know why this place is ‘like that.’ And telling you is simple, but it’s hard to understand. It happens everywhere, all the time, but so slow none of you can see it.

“Everything is made of matter, and matter doesn’t stay together like you think it does. Where you’re from, it takes a good long time for matter to shift, so that thinking’s understandable. But here, when you’re not looking, it spreads out, fast, stops being how you saw it be. And the moment you take a look, it’s something for sure. Might not be the first thing you thought it was, though. That’s how it is here, for folks like you.

“S’not how it is for folks like me, not that there are any more, s’far as I know. The universe doesn’t recognize when I take a look at things. They stay indefinite, and I can’t interact with an indefinite world. That’s why I haven’t sat down in a while; I have to wait for folks to observe my room, my house, in order for me to interact with anything. I haven’t seen the world outside in years. There hasn’t been a definite world outside in years. When you stop looking, this chair is going to diffuse, and not be anywhere.”

Tiffany was quiet a moment. “You might want to take a seat,” Cassandra added. “I’d offer you one, but you’ve got to decide it’s there.” Tiffany nodded, and a seat formed next to Cassandra. She sank down into it, still pondering.

“So that’s why the road won’t stay put,” she mused. “And why it changes the color and the pattern of the bricks.”

Cassandra nodded. “Likes to mess with you, this place. Or at least, that’s what I’ve been told,” she sighed, and was quiet a few moments. She turned her head, smiled gently at Tiffany. “So, why did you come out all this way?”

Tiffany cleared her throat. “I—uh, came to see you, actually.” Cassandra’s eyebrows rose. “I’m from Valence, and some of our people saw your tower, and we’ve tried before to send knights to make contact, and nobody else would take the quest, because the others haven’t come back—”

“Haven’t had anyone from Valence drop by in a good long while, couple lifetimes I’d imagine. I don’t know if they even got here, Anna.”

“My name is Tiffany.”

“Damn,” Cassandra swore. “Thought I might be able to observe somethin’ since you’re here. But guess I still can’t. Sorry about that. Any important news from Valence in the last hundred years?”

“We’ve abolished the hereditary monarchy. Made peace with the Southern Reach, thank goodness. Been a good harvest season, and the skies haven’t been too threatening. I…are you interested in allying with the Commonwealth of Valence?”

“Would love to, Tiffany, but I’m really rather useless, and it’s really rather impossible to keep in touch with any place. Can’t leave the room, ‘member?” Cassandra pouted dramatically, and then her face abruptly broke into a grin again. “Say,” she began coyly, “you said you’re a knight.” Tiffany nodded, and Cassandra grinned wider. She stood up from the chair and walked to the end of the room, looking out of the clock face. Tiffany followed her gaze, and saw the gently swaying gold of the field. She realized that in the midst of conversation, she must have stopped paying attention to the forest.

“Company distracting, is it?” Cassandra asked jokingly. Her smile turned sly. “You’re a knight,” she repeated. “And isn’t rescuin’ maidens a good chunk of the knightly image? I know your quest was to make contact, but what do you say? I’ve been up here too long. I want to remember a world that’s real.

“It’s awfully boring when no one’s been ‘round in a while. I almost feel that I’m starting to disperse! Maybe I do, without even realizing it. After all, there’s no one to observe me, and, as I’ve mentioned, I can’t really observe myself.

“What do you say, Tiffany? Care for a rescue mission?”

Tiffany blinked a few times, and opened her mouth, and closed it again. Cassandra’s confident face froze, and almost imperceptibly fell.

“Too forward?” she asked. “Oh goodness, some of you certainly do feel that. Which are you, Tiffany? Damn, I hope I haven’t screwed this up already.”

Tiffany jolted into speech. “No, no, I…I’d be honored, Dr. Higgs.” Cassandra brightened instantly and reached out a hand to help Tiffany out of her chair.

“Then we’d best be going, Sir Tiffany.”

“Oh, it’s just Tiffany—” Tiffany began.

“Well then, it’s just Cassandra,” the Seer replied. “C’mon. Can you think up the elevator for the way down? I’d really like to see that lobby.”

🜨

Despite Granny’s doubts, she and Tiffany had reached the Eastern Holt in a week’s time. The Eastern Holt watchtower was composed of a rickety crow’s nest perched on the base of the restored eastern turret of a ruined castle. The rest of the ruins had been similarly converted into mess halls, barracks, and a covered marketplace.

Tiffany and Granny looked up toward the crow’s nest doubtfully. Tiffany waved down a guard in light armor. “Hello, I’m the knight from Centre Valence, here to check in at the watchtower.” The guard saluted.

“Right, right. And you must be Granny,” the guard added. Granny smiled proudly, and Tiffany looked flabbergasted.

“S’right. We won’t be stayin’ long, I’d be much obliged if you could find us a homestead near th’ woods that’d be willin’ to take on lodgers for the evenin’. Be out of their hair by next morn.”

The guard nodded. “I’ll show you into the tower, and get right on that, Granny.”

Tiffany climbed the stairs to the top of the turret. A young guardswoman was waiting at the ladder to the crow’s nest.

“I’m just checking in,” Tiffany started to explain. The woman nodded.

“From the city, I know. What’d you want us to do? Should we keep lookin’ at the tower, or are we good to turn our eyes to other things?”

Tiffany looked out over the forest that extended from the Eastern Holt. In the distance, she could make out a tall structure. Must be the Seer’s Tower, she thought. “Keep an eye on it for two more days,” she told the guard. The woman nodded and began to scramble up the ladder to the crow’s nest.

“Oh,” she added, looking down at Tiffany. “Tell Granny I said hullo!”

Tiffany blinked in surprise, and futilely saluted her assent. As she descended the stairs, she thought about the structure she had seen. The shape of it was sturdy, but she failed to make out any details of the building. She wondered, passingly, if she had done the right thing, telling the watchtower two days. Granny had said they would be out by the next morning, and the tower didn’t look too far. She might have to push her horse, but she could make it in that time.

Granny and the first guard were chatting amiably at the foot of the stairs. Granny looked to Tiffany expectantly. “They’ll keep eyes on it for two more days,” Tiffany told her. Granny considered this before nodding.

“That’ll do. We’re off to Nan’s place, just a tad southeast of ‘ere.”

“Oh, Granny? The guardswoman on the watchtower says hullo.” Granny smiled.

“Ah, Patricia. She’s Nan’s girl, I’s been told. Come ‘long.”

Nan’s place turned out to be a disused inn on an overgrown forest road. Nan Artul welcomed Granny and Tiffany warmly. Granny bustled off to put down her things, and Tiffany followed suit. Tiffany was up half the night as Granny clanked about the adjacent room, preparing whatever ritual she planned to use to send Tiffany toward the Seer’s Tower.

Granny shook Tiffany awake at a surely ungodly hour, and Tiffany blearily got to her feet and shuffled over to her pack. Granny led her north of Nan’s place and a ways east. They settled by an oblong pond fed by the trickle of a dammed-up waterfall. Granny sat down and began rummaging through her things.

“Th’ mages’ attunement might help a little, but it’d still be tricksey, gettin’ yourself to the Seer’s country. Ain’t too far, it’s just…out of synch a bit,” she said as she started laying out objects and painting symbols on the ground around the pond. She paused and peered up at Tiffany. “I’m not sure how you’ll be gettin’ back. Can’t keep the door open forever, an’ I reckon you’ll lose track of it soon enough.” Granny paused, and for the first time since Tiffany had met her, she seemed old. Uncertain. She looked at Tiffany gravely. “Might not come back from this one, y’understand?” Granny took a deep breath. “I’ll help what I can, but I can’t help everythin’.” Granny sighed. “Really should’ve gone to a senior knight.”

Granny finished setting up her materials and beckoned Tiffany to stand at the edge of the pond. She looked over her, nodded once, smiled gently. Granny reached up behind Tiffany, and Tiffany heard the thunk of Granny knocking on a door behind her. Tiffany heard the creak of old hinges. Granny placed her hands on Tiffany’s shoulders and shoved her through.

Tiffany stumbled backward, through the door, and onto a yellow-brick road.

🜨

Outside of the Seer’s Tower, the world looked different again. The path Tiffany had followed was gone; the familiar pattern on the tower’s doorstep—the tower itself, helpfully, had coalesced into the apartment building once again on their descent, much to Cassandra’s delight—suggested that it had merely truncated, and no amount of coaxing would inspire it to unfurl once more.

In the near-dark of the Seer’s world, Tiffany swore vehemently. Cassandra put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Let’s walk for a bit, heading directly from the door. See what comes up,” she suggested. Her hand dropped from Tiffany’s shoulder, and she laced their fingers together, tugging Tiffany gently along. Together, they ventured into the forest that had replaced the field as they descended from Cassandra’s chamber. As they strolled, they talked idly.

“What did you really mean, when you said that ‘some of me’ were angry?”

“Well, because the universe doesn’t recognize when I see things, I get to see everythin’ that could be happening. Say the chair, for example. I see all the different colors and shapes it could be, and all the different places it could be too, but they’re all mixed up in each other, an’ so I get to see all the chairs, but because the universe doesn’t know I’m looking, none of those possible chairs exist for sure in one of those possible places.

“With people, it gets more complicated, because the universe knows you’re looking at things, and if you look at things, they just become what you see. You do a lot of observing the world about you, but less observing about yourself. F’r’instance, if you’re not observing what emotion you’re feelin’, I can’t tell which of the possibilities is the one that matches the person in front of me until you do observe it.”

“And with my name,” Tiffany interjected, “you couldn’t tell because I wasn’t thinking about being named Tiffany.”

Cassandra beamed. “Right!” She grew wistful. “Would’ve been really cool if I’d guessed right, wouldn’t it’ve?”

Tiffany nodded in agreement, and then stopped Cassandra abruptly with an arm. “I haven’t been paying too much mind to the field. It should’ve gone back to a forest by now, shouldn’t it?”

Cassandra shrugged. Tiffany held her hand tightly, cast her eyes around the field, and saw, in what appeared to be the distance, a figure on a horse. Tiffany waved wildly, but the figure started to move further away.

“Merle! Lanval!” Tiffany shouted. The figure seemed to pause but didn’t turn around. Tiffany let her hand drop and looked down at her boots, resigned at the sight of the forest floor. Cassandra squeezed Tiffany’s hand. Tiffany stayed quiet.

“How did you get here in the first place?” she asked eventually. Cassandra looked at the ground for a long moment.

“Don’t remember, really. I just remember coming into existence and there bein’ someone in front of me. I’m not sure who they were. They might have thought me up to look like this, instead of everythin’ else I could look like. Maybe I’ve been someone else, and just don’t remember, because now I’m me. I…I really don’t know if I exist when nobody’s looking. Time does pass when there’s nobody around, but I can’t really feel it, y’know. There’s nothing solid to mark its passage. There’s no sunset here anyway, so s’not like seein’ the sky would be much help,” Cassandra quirked up her lips into a hopeful half-smile. She turned away from Tiffany and looked up ahead at the expanse of the cornfield. “Distracting you again?” she joked halfheartedly.

Tiffany squeezed Cassandra’s hand. They walked through the cornfield in companionable silence, until Cassandra’s eyes suddenly widened.

“I’ve got an idea,” she told Tiffany. “Close your eyes. And think about very tall trees.” Tiffany did as Cassandra instructed. Cassandra tugged at their joined hands and Tiffany stumbled forward, eyes still closed. Cassandra caught her other hand and led her onward. In another few paces they stopped, and Cassandra said, “Okay. Keep thinking about those tall, tall trees, and open your eyes.”

Before them was a tall, spindly tree, which extended into the perma-dusk with a chipper defiance. Cassandra was beaming up at it, tracing its ascent into the sky. Then her face scrunched up, and she swore even more vehemently than Tiffany had done in front of the tower.

“Forgot about somethin’ important, s’all,” she explained. “This bit’s goin’ to be tricky, but I think I can handle it. For now, keep your eyes on the tree, and I’ll try not to be too distracting.”

Keeping her eyes on the tall tree, Tiffany tried to elbow Cassandra and missed. Cassandra laughed. “What you’ve got to do is shimmy on up that tree and take a look in the distance. Say, how did you keep your eyes on the tower all the way from Valence?”

“Some folks in the Eastern Holt spotted it, their watchtower’s been looking for the past few weeks.”

“That’s perfect! Do you reckon they’ve still got eyes on it?” Tiffany pulled a frown.

“That depends. I told them to only look for two more days, and Granny pushed me through the door this morning, so, unless time moves faster here, too, they just might still be looking our way.”

“Who’s Granny?” Cassandra asked. Tiffany burst out laughing and slumped against the tree. When she stopped laughing, she smiled radiantly at Cassandra.

“You’re the first person I’ve met in my life who doesn’t know Granny, one way or another. You’ll get to meet her as soon as we get back to the Eastern Holt. I think you’ll get on fine.”

“Brilliant. Let’s get back on that. So, shimmy up the tree, look for the watchtower in the distance. Then comes the tricky part. You’ve got to keep your eyes on the watchtower, but stop paying attention to the tree. Let go of it entirely. I’ll try to help with that, but don’t take your eyes from the watchtower, whatever you do.”

“Won’t I—”

“Yes, the tree will diffuse, and you’ll fall. I’ll catch you. This is another important bit: once you start falling, keep your eyes on the watchtower, but think about landing in my arms. Think about exactly where you’ll land, and I’ll know. And I’ll catch you,” Cassandra promised. “If you’d rather just keep walkin’, we can do that. But I think this’ll work, if we can do it. If you can do it.”

“I can do it,” Tiffany said. Cassandra smiled like the sun.

The tree seemed to stretch indefinitely into the sky, and Tiffany had the impression she was nowhere close to halfway up when she spotted a structure in the distance. She locked her eyes on it and called down to Cassandra.

“I see it!”

“Great! Keep your eye on it! And let go of the tree in your mind. Forget about the tree. Focus on the tower, and on me.

“Uhmmm, let’s see. What’s distracting…hm, I’ve told you about the road, why it gets like that, told you about seein’ all the things that might happen, told you about myself, gee, I’ve just about exhausted my repertoire of monologues, you must forgive me, I haven’t had so lovely a visitor in—”

The tree dissipated under Tiffany, and she started to fall. She kept her eyes glued to the shadowy form of the Eastern Holt watchtower as she fell. She tried, desperately, to think about the spot by the base of where the tree had been, where Cassandra was waiting. She held the image in her mind and hoped.

Cassandra sagged with relief as Tiffany landed, stumbling backward a bit with the weight of her armor. Tiffany’s peripheral vision caught the golden strands of grass that now stretched out before them, and grinned. She turned her head and caught Cassandra’s gaze. They grinned at each other a moment.

“Oh thank goodness I was watching the trajectories lots of ‘em right over here but I couldn’t be sure—” Tiffany hugged Cassandra tightly and drew back, still smiling. Cassandra blushed, and looked away. “I know I’m nice to look at, but keep your eyes on the watchtower,” she chided gently. Tiffany blushed and turned to look at the watchtower once more. Cassandra set her down gently, and laced their fingers together.

It was nearly dark when they reached the edge of an only vaguely familiar forest. The field came to an abrupt end, and as they stepped into the forest, the shape of the Eastern Holt watchtower grew instantly more solid. Cassandra squeezed Tiffany’s hand. “I think we did it.”

🜨

“I ain’t believe you’ve done it,” Granny said, embracing Tiffany warmly. She stepped back and looked her over for any serious injury. Then she turned to Cassandra, who was standing awkwardly in Nan’s doorway.

“Granny, I’d like you to meet Cassandra Higgs, the Seer.” Cassandra inclined her head and held out her hand to shake. Granny looked at Cassandra’s hand curiously and looked Cassandra up and down.

“Hm. So y’are,” Granny murmured. “Pleasure. I’m Granny.” Cassandra let her hand drop back to her side. Granny stood aside from the door and let Tiffany and Cassandra pass inside. “Nan was kind enough t’ let me stay on for a few days while I waited for you. Sup’s still on, Patricia just got off ‘er tower shift. Lucky you got back tonight, I think they just stopped th’ watch after the sun set.”

Granny had set up in the spare room, so Tiffany and Cassandra nestled in a pile of quilts Nan had made for her large extended family. Cassandra dropped off to sleep almost as soon as she had lain down, but a question burned in Tiffany’s mind. She turned over and faced Cassandra. She nudged her shoulder, shaking her gently awake. “What about the cat?” she asked insistently. Cassandra looked at her blearily.

“What cat?”

“The one at the tower, in the elevators, he moved between the cars somehow, and he jumped through the closed doors onto the seventh floor. On my way up.”

“Oh, that cat.”

“Hey, couldn’t that cat make the world solid for you? I mean, a cat can see and register things, right?”

“Tiffany, people have been trying to puzzle out the cat for centuries. Go back to sleep.” Cassandra patted Tiffany’s shoulder and closed her eyes again. Tiffany was quiet a moment, thinking.

“…Cassandra, can you walk through walls?”