Sebastian

Lynnea rushed toward him.
    "Don't!" His hand still tingled from the released magic. Since he was pretty sure the wizards' lightning didn't usually splinter like that, he didn't want her to touch him until he felt more confident that he wouldn't sizzle her, too.
    "There's no door on this side of the wall," Lynnea said, looking at the solid stone. "Why isn't there a door?"
    Because they tried to seal her in. Because… Damn you, Lee! You never told me why. All these years, and you never told me why.
    He pushed away from the wall and looked around. An overgrown, abandoned garden—with a way to escape hidden in the fountain at its center.
    "This way. Hurry." Still not daring to touch her, he followed a path to the center of the garden, Lynnea right behind him.
    When he reached the fountain, he circled it, looking for whatever was hidden here that would get them out of this place. Moss on the stones that shaped the fountain's pool, green scum covering most of the water.
    Nothing! But something here tugged at him.
    Crouching, he thrust a hand into the water. His fingers brushed over stones—and his heart jumped as he heard the sounds of creatures fighting over the remains of those he had killed. But charred corpses wouldn't interest them long if they sensed living prey nearby.
    His hand moved through the water. Then he felt a tingle, a tug, a sense of warmth right… there.
    His hand hovered over the stone—and he remembered something Lee had told him during a visit to the Den.
    "People expect bridges to be large enough to physically walk over," Lee said. "But a one-shot bridge can be small enough to Jit in your hand."
    Sebastian stopped picking at the remains of his dinner and frowned at his cousin. "One-shot?"
    "A small object, filled with just enough of a Bridge's power for one crossing to a specific landscape."
    "Doesn't sound like it would be much use."
    Lee hesitated, then said quietly, "Sometimes it gives a person the only chance to escape where they are."
    Too bad Lee hadn't told him how these one-shot bridges worked. Was there something he needed to do? Or would he be pulled into another landscape the moment his hand closed over the stone?
    "Sebastian," Lynnea whispered.
    He looked up. Saw a spider coming over the wall.
    "Take my hand," he said. He didn't dare look around to see what else might be coming over the walls.
    Holding on to Lynnea with one hand, he closed his other hand over the stone. He stood up and turned away from the fountain at the same time the spider reached the ground inside the garden.
    He took a step, pulling Lynnea with him.
    The spider ran toward them.
    He didn't know where this bridge would take them, but he trusted Lee, who was the only Bridge who would have put an escape route in this garden. And he trusted Glorianna Belladonna.
    As Glorianna's name echoed in his mind, he and Lynnea took another step—and disappeared a moment before the spider reached them.

    We look human, but we are not. Ephemera shaped us, manifested us, brought us into the world in answer to the cries of human hearts for guidance.
    Some of us have gathered in the places where the currents of Light are the strongest. These Guardians will keep their distance from the chattering of the human heart, will live simple, peaceful lives that will feed the Light and keep those currents flowing in the world. And those currents, in turn, will nourish hope, courage, love.

    The rest of us are Guides. We walk among people and feel as they do—glittering moments of joy, warm moments of contentment, moments full of the jagged shards of envy, anger, disappointment. We drink from the wells of sorrow and feast at the banquet of love.
    But we understand what Ephemera cannot: That the human heart is as fluid as itself, that a heart is touched by the winds of emotions, bending with them for a moment, sometimes breaking beneath the violence of a storm. But those feelings are the wind, not the bedrock of a heart.
    And yet, even bedrock is malleable. A seed can find its way into a crevice, root itself in the dark while it grows toward the light. Given time and the things it needs to grow, the plants roots can widen that crevice, become strong enough to break stone. And things change.
    So it is the bedrock of the heart that resonates for us, not the winds of changing feelings. It is the true desires, the deepest yearnings, the hearts need to make its journey through life that calls to us.
    Be careful what you wish for, because Ephemera