“As I was saying, there’s no reason for me to explain my actions to you. You’re not worthy of it.” Taraana manages to say that without wincing. We practiced with him till late last night.

A moment of shock trembles briefly in the room before anger threatens the existence of any equilibrium these middle worlders still have remaining.

“Why would we not be worthy?” the speaker manages to ask.

“As you said yourself just a few minutes ago, I am the Keeper of the Between. It is not up to you to question my actions. Didn’t you know that?” A bland smile flits across Taraana’s face.

“You think your position as the Keeper of the Between somehow places you outside the jurisdiction of the Magic Council?” a council member says, looking Taraana up and down, finding him lacking.

“Of course. Did you travel to Tokyo via the Between today? You couldn’t, could you? Did you find that no matter how hard you tried, you cannot call a door to the Between?” Taraana leans against a wall and addresses the room. “Perhaps it caused you some inconvenience. Perhaps the lack of the Between made you realize the difficulties of traveling through a world where magic is not equally distributed.”

“Are you suggesting you that you had something to do with the Between’s closure?” A young middle worlder scoffs. We don’t know his name and have no desire to learn it.

“I’m not suggesting anything,” Taraana replies, and straightens. “I’m telling you that I have closed the Between.”

“Why?” the speaker asks. Unlike his colleagues, his words are measured. Patient. Rather reptilian.

“I’ve heard that Wa’ad, who used to be a librarian in the exalted Library of Alexandria, has, many times, asked you for an audience. I learned that you, almost all of you, have been unwilling to listen to her,” Taraana says instead. “You should have, you know. It would have saved us a lot of trouble.”

“Are you going to continue speaking nonsense?” the magic user with the red hair says. Taraana ignores him. We silently applaud.

“Powerful middle worlders like you all should know better than to mess with magic.” Taraana clicks his tongue. We went back to Cairo, found Wa’ad, and had a deeper conversation with her after Taraana bonded with the Between. We learned a lot. “Since I am the Keeper of the Between, the Keeper of the Magic, let me tell you exactly what I do. Make sure you listen well because I don’t like repeating myself.”

All the middle worlders apart from Mama Magdaline and Tabassum Naaz bristle at this point. Our Taraana—we’re so proud of his thorns.

“Let me use an extremely prosaic analogy. It’s simple enough that even you will understand.” Taraana puts his hands in his pocket, looking confident in a way we haven’t had a chance to see him before.