“You mean you want to find the doors to all the oldest cities and bleed on them just in case one of them is it?” Paheli says, her voice containing no censure.

“Do you have to word it that way?” Taraana asks with an annoyed expression.

“Yes,” Paheli replies.

Taraana sighs. “Yes, well. That’s what I want to do. Bleed. On doors.”

“Okay. We can help you do that. It will be safer if not all of us accompany you, so we will use New Orleans as a base. Does that sound good to you all?”

We nod at her question.

The next day, before Paheli, Talei, and Areum accompany Taraana into the Between to search for the door to Varanasi, Eulalie stops us and hands a phone to Taraana. He takes it with a questioning look before he puts the phone to his ear and hears the voice on the other end. His expression crumples and he sobs out a name. “Assi.” He doesn’t ask her where she is or if he can go see her. We know why. We have all learned to let go.

Taraana’s forays into the Between are unsuccessful, but he doesn’t give up. He bleeds on the doors leading to Cádiz, Thebes, and Larnaca. In between those days, we give him secret looks at the New Orleans we know. The day before the trip to bleed on the doors of Thebes and Larnaca is a sunny one, so Paheli, Daraja, and Talei take him for a picnic in the City Park where Paheli hugs trees and Taraana tries not to be jealous.

When some of us (Kamboja, Valentina, and Paheli) accompany him to bleed on the door to Athens, we run into Baarish’s minions in the Between. This time, the scaled middle worlders make no attempt to capture Taraana or hurt him; they do nothing that can be construed as explicitly malicious. In fact, there is always a careful distance between us and them. All these scaled middle worlders do is look, but somehow it is a violation. Paheli chases them off, but the damage is done. Taraana’s sense of security is eroded again.