On the other side she is even weaker. This world has been bleeding her dry for as long as she can remember, and the terrible times at the mercy of that evil human woman are her own nightmares. She relives them again now as she re-enters that world—she can smell its rot and ruin, and taste sickness on the air like the breath of a dying animal. Coming back makes her realise why she has grown to hate this place.

Her legs quake and she staggers to one side. Falling to her knees, she is shocked by how colourless the real world is when set against her Fold. It is grey and bland, bereft of plants and grasses, the land seemingly seared clean by some cataclysm. She wonders whether a lot more time has passed over here than she anticipated. It could be that the humans have finally destroyed themselves and their world, and that the girl has become an old, old fairy, haunting the ghost of an uninhabited place.

If that is the case, she has come to rescue her.

She remains on her knees as the shakes and weakness begin to lessen. Her hand is splayed in the dry soil, and she squeezes her fingers and feels, rather than a dead nothingness, a rich and thriving fertility. That surprises her. She lifts the soil to her nose and breathes it in, and senses the true story of this place.

Peace and coexistence. Conflict and fear. Water and death.

She breathes in deeply a few times more, enjoying the feel of the afternoon sun on her skin, and tries her old wings again. They part from her body and slap at the air effectively enough, but she knows that to use them now would drain what little energy she has left.

She needs it for what is to come.

Standing slowly, she’s aware of movement behind her. Something else is coming through the portal. She tenses, ready to dash across this grey land to catch any Kin that might be attempting an escape. She’s disturbed by her lack of concentration, and the fact that she has not considered the full implications of her actions. Usually her plans are so considered that they have the clarity of recent memories, and they almost always play out the way she intended.

She saw and sensed signs of the girl and ran. She should have known that pushing a portal through from her Fold to the world might allow her Kin to escape. She should have taken measures.

But once I have her, it won’t matter if I have the Kin or not.

She smiles. It’s not an expression she uses lightly, or often. She has dreamed of sharing her time with another fairy for many centuries. They will nurture each other, make each other well. Given time, perhaps they will fly together. Her wings twitch at the thought.