Belladonna

voice.
    "Can't it stay?" Michael asked, feeling a heaviness in his chest at the thought of the heart's hope going away.
    "When you feel its resonance, what does it mean to you?" He gave her a puzzled look, so she pointed to the rock, grass, and heart's hope. "What does that represent for you?"
    "My homeland," he said without hesitation.
    She hesitated, then said, "An access point. All right. It can stay there for the time being. Come with me."
    He picked up the travel pack.
    She stared at the pack. He didn't see anything that would distinguish it, but when she looked troubled, he wondered if she recognized it as belonging to Sebastian. Should he say something? Reassure her that Sebastian had loaned it to him? Or should he reassure her that he barely knew the incubus-wizard-justice Maker who ruled a place called the Den of Iniquity!
    Not sure what to say, he offered no information — and she asked for none as she led him to the gate in the walled enclosure.
    Then he walked into a garden that would change his understanding of the world forever.
    Glorianna fiddled with the gate to give herself a moment to think.

    He was carrying Sebastian's pack. She recognized it because of the luck piece Lee had given Sebastian — a small, flat stone with a natural hole. It was tied to the pack with a strip of leather and wasn't something that would draw anyone's attention. But that stone was one of the two one-shot bridges Lee had created to assure that Sebastian would be able to reach the Den, no matter what landscape he might find himself in.
    Which meant this stranger, this Magician, had been to the Den — or to Aurora — and had met Sebastian.
    "How did you get to the River Guardians?" she asked.
    "A man named Yoshani showed me the way to their part of Sanctuary."
    So Yoshani and Sebastian had met Michael — and they, having ways to send her a message, had made the choice to let the river test him. Why?
    So I would know he is worthy of what he seeks — even if I'm not sure I trust my response to him or his to me.
    "There's something I'd like you to do while I show you the garden," she said, turning to face him.
    "Another test?"
    The weariness in his voice tugged at her. "Yes, in a way it's another test, but not a difficult one. I'd like to know which parts of the garden resonate for you."
    "You mean which ones I feel in tune with?"
    "Yes."
    He immediately moved to the first bed on the left side of the garden and crouched in front of the statue of a seated woman. "A bittersweet tune for this one. A mother's tune."
    "Why do you say that?" Glorianna asked, intrigued by his choice and the way he described his resonance.
    "I look at this" — Michael waved a hand to indicate the bed — "and I hear the warmth and strength of a woman who loves and knows how to laugh but has also felt the sorrows that come in a life. So ... a mother's tune."
    Glorianna studied the statue she'd taken from her mother's garden in order to protect Nadia from the Eater of the World. So.
    This Magician from Raven's Hill resonated with Aurora, which was Nadia's home village.
    "Any others?" she asked.
    With many of the access points to her landscapes, he held out a hand and tilted it back and forth to indicate a so-so response.
    He wasn't repelled by those particular places, but they also weren't landscapes that resonated with his heart.
    Then they reached the part of her garden that held the dark landscapes. Michael immediately pointed to two of the access points. Then, after a moment's hesitation, he pointed to a third.
    "You know the waterhorses," Glorianna said.
    Michael nodded but gave her a puzzled look. "How did you know?"
    "You pointed to their landscape."
    That slight blankness in his eyes. He wasn't a Landscaper in the way she would normally use the term, but he clearly had a strong connection to and power over Ephemera. It scared her to think that he'd been going about his part of the world, influencing Ephemera when he had so little idea of what he was doing.
    "And you know the Merry Makers," she said, and added silently, And the Den of Iniquity.
    He nodded again.
    "What about these?" Now she moved quickly through the garden, not giving him a chance to tell her about other connections he might have to her landscapes. She stopped in front of the section that held the Places of Light.
    "Oh." He swayed to a stop, then closed his eyes and smiled. "Oh, this is a grand part of the garden."
    She could see the truth of it in his face, could feel the