“The interior responds to your activity and expands to give you all the space you need.”

It took them about ten minutes of walking to reach the window. There were citizens standing there as usual and Alyssa wanted to keep out of earshot, so they hung back a little. To Iona the nature of the figures had always felt like an abstract question, a dinner party conversation about religion, forgotten the next day. It was not something that affected her day-to-day existence—or so she had always thought.

A figure appeared at the window and looked out impassively. Alyssa recalled her own theory that the window looked into a sort of parallel city and the figures were their counterparts. But now she saw this was quite, quite wrong. Embarrassingly so.

“Are they the native species here, then?” said Iona.

“Presumably,” Alyssa replied. “I didn’t get to talk to them before they caught me and put me in here.”

“How did I not realize we were in a prison before now? I mean, I know we’ve forgotten all this stuff but—how can you see the walls every day and not remember—”

“The cage makes you think everything’s normal. Stops you from questioning things. Stops you from trying to escape. You thought the citizens were real people because that was easier to believe than what was really happening to you, and the citizens acted like they were real people because they thought that was what you wanted.”

“Then why’s it stopped working?”

“Because I’ve disrupted things, perhaps? I’m sure it’ll reassert itself in time. We all need to keep remembering what’s real. Don’t give it a chance to take over your mind again.”

“But shouldn’t we get out as quickly as—”

“We will get out after I’ve found what I’m looking for,” said Alyssa impatiently. She turned back to the figures at the window. “Poor idiots. They’ve no idea what they’ve trapped in here. Or what it’ll do to them if it gets out.”

* * *

The king and his entourage had arrived at the Point of Return. He noted several officers from the Bureau of Order had been stationed by the door. The doors were closed. He walked up the steps and his entourage parted to let him through. The officers seemed very surprised to see him and they looked to each other for cues on what to do.

“What’s this?” the king asked one of the officers, whose name badge read MILNER. She saluted him.

“We’re stationed here until the man who attacked you has been put in the furnace,” said Milner. “There’s some concern that people might take their anger out on the body.”

“Would it be a problem if they did?”

“Well, we’re concerned that—”

“Doesn’t matter—look, just let me in.”

Milner looked uneasy. “We were told not to let anyone in—”

“Yeah, but I’m not anyone, I’m the king.”

“—including you.”

“What?”

“They said, ‘Not even the king.’”

“That’s outrageous. Who said that?”

The door opened and Saori emerged. “Your Highness. We thought you’d still be resting.”