“I’m sorry. There have been upheavals recently,” Josefa says shortly. He is a tall man with dark skin and amber eyes. His age is indeterminable. Middle worlders, not-human men and women, live longer lives than their human counterparts, but they, too, cannot evade death. Every city we have traveled to has a store run by a not-human person with whom we can exchange the Between diamonds for money that we use in the human world.

“What kind of upheavals?” Paheli asks, the usual joviality absent from her face. What she means is, How will this affect us?

Josefa gives us a considering look. He knows that we are of the Between.

“Power has changed hands. That which was imprisoned was set free. The streets have, once again, become hunting grounds. Those without magic are becoming reacquainted with their vulnerability. You…” Josefa looks at each of us in turn. “You ought to be careful. He has designs on the Between, and you who walk it freely are most in danger.” Josefa doesn’t specify who this he is. Instead, he holds out his hand, and Paheli drops three diamonds into it.

The Between is made entirely of magic. Sometimes excess magic is expressed as diamonds, hard gems made of solid magic rather than the usual carbon. If no one picks them, they are reabsorbed by the Between. And no one can pick them apart from us.

You see, middle worlders have to pay a measure of magic to traverse the Between. The amount of magic required is calculated by the distance traveled and paid when they touch the door leading to the city they want to enter. While magic is not exactly sentient, it is particular about certain things.

“This is the amount you’ll get in return.” Josefa names an amount, and our eyebrows rise. The amount is a lot more than we expected. He looks at our expressions and makes a face in return. “Magic levels are decreasing around the world, so the price for it has gone up.”

In the middle world, magic is both energy and currency. Middle worlders cannot function without magic, which also buys services and items. Magic has two states of existence: one is force, and the other is diamonds.

Every middle worlder is born with a level of innate magic. As they spend time in magic-rich places, the level of magic they contain rises until they are carrying the maximum magic they are able to. This is not always pure magic but a sort of abbreviated magic. A filtered magic of a quality somewhat higher than unrefined oil but barely.

Josefa hands over a large wad of local currency in exchange and cautions us to be careful once again. Immediately after, he returns to the back room, leaving us standing in the dimly lit store.