Belladonna

those currents, I don't think it's changed into one of the Eater's landscapes. Not yet." Glorianna rose to her feet and stepped away from the bank, her hand still linked with his.
    "Landscapes, like people, can change, Magician. This place didn't start out this way. It doesn't have to stay this way."
    "What about that?" He used their linked hands to point toward the stream.
    She smiled. "Ask the wild child."
    He studied her a moment and decided she wasn't teasing. Ask the wild child. Ask Ephemera. Lady's mercy, hadn't he seen what she could do by asking the world to make — or remake — itself?
    "This feels foolish."
    "Then foolishness is all that will come of it," Glorianna replied. "You are still the bedrock here. The connection hasn't been completely severed. Ephemera will give you what your heart tells it to give you. If you believe you will fail, then that is what you will do — because that is your truth in this moment. That you want to fail. Maybe even need to fail because you're not ready for the next stage of your journey."
    He couldn't deny the truth of her words, even if he didn't like the sound of them. "Would you mind standing over there, then?
    This is a private conversation."
    She looked at their linked hands, then up at him — and he realized he'd been the one holding on, reluctant to let go. He released her hand and watched her walk a couple of man-lengths away, the polite distance someone would give people who needed a moment of privacy. It felt too far. Much too far. Because he knew if she were standing no farther away from him than she was now but was in a different landscape, he wouldn't be able to see her, or even know she was there.
    Shaking his head to dislodge that thought, he went back to the stream and crouched on the bank.
    "Wild child," he called softly. "Can you hear me?"
    He waited, almost called again. Then he felt it — that same sensation he had in the pubs sometimes, of a child hiding in a corner, listening to the music. But now the sensation was more like a child hiding behind him in order to escape being seen by something that frightened it.
    "This access point," he said, pointing toward the stream and wishing he'd asked Glorianna to show him the exact spot. "It's a bad thing."
    No disagreement about that.
    "Can you get rid of it?"
    Hesitation. Confusion. Even a little fear? Well, the enemy was called the Eater of the World.
    Still crouched, he pivoted on the balls of his feet until he could see Glorianna. "What happens if we don't remove the access point, just try to change Dunberry?"
    She walked back to him. "Depending on how often the Eater checks the daylight landscapes It is changing into dark landscapes, It will sense a dissonance and come back to restore the balance in Its favor."
    Meaning anything he did wouldn't help the people in the village.
    "Removing the access point removes Its shortcut to this place," Glorianna said. "It could still return, but It would have to travel overland to reach the village."
    "It would know someone got rid of Its shortcut?"
    She nodded. "It would know the Landscaper who held this village had reclaimed the landscape. That may make It reluctant to return — especially if It wants to avoid you." She crouched beside him. "The core of your gift is the same as other Landscapers', I think — to be the bedrock through which Ephemera interacts with human hearts — but how that gift manifested is different. I wonder if that's true in other parts of the world."
    "Like a story, you mean?" She didn't understand him, but she was listening, learning the language of how he saw the world.
    "Stories change from place to place. The bones of them stay the same, but they're clothed a little differently, and that reflects how the people dress them up to fit themselves."
    "Yes," she said thoughtfully. "Yes. Guardians. Guides. All the survivors went into hiding in one way or another after Ephemera shattered and the Eater was caged. They called themselves by other names, and those names took on different meanings.
    But the core of what they were meant to be and meant to do didn't change."
    "The perception of the people around them did," Michael said.
    "Yes." She gave him a look that made him nervous. "It's time to change that perception again, Magician, for your sake and the sake of the people who need you and the others like you to keep the currents of Light and Dark balanced in the landscapes that resonate with your heart."
    Michael took a deep breath,