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"It'll be the only way you're likely to survive," he said bluntly. Jeremiah's hand made a slight swish, hand flicking back and forth, and the fire dispersed and disappeared.

"Magic here is about your will, Kuroda, and your ability to shape it. At one point I may have found saying this ridiculous but I mean it when I say anything is possible so long as you're strong enough." Jeremiah briefly looked around again, making sure that everything was alright for the time being.

"Also that it's much like any kind of training. You're going to tire yourself out by practicing magic until you strengthen the 'muscles'."

"I talked with Heliodora when I wanted to make sure I understood." Jeremiah raised the umbrella and balanced it on his shoulder. "I don't know how much of a mentor she can be but she can give you guidance if you want to learn how she practices. There's other ways, of course."

His shoulders rolled, eyes focused on Kuroda. "Likewise, if you want I can help when I come over. I've been working with others." Jeremiah's grasp on magic here was fairly strong, he knew what he was doing. "... and I will tell you there is a type of magic that can be done on the other side but it will hurt you to try it. Magic thrives here but our side? It pushes against it."

"Her demesne is in the state forest. Just head out there, think of wanting to find her ... You'll come across the mangroves." Which Shun may not know about those trees but they were not native to these parts at all.

"... that may have been part of it," talking about Michael was a sore subject now, "but not all of it. Michael was not meant to be on our side at all and all of those that were bitten were immediately forced to transform which put them in the state that we had to deal with." Jeremiah ran a hand across his face, rubbing at his eyes a moment.

"I told you that my eyes are different now, that I see things differently. Remember the portal? The tear in the veil, in the elevator?" That one had been, for some reason, visible to all.

"Yes, mangroves that grow in the forest here, and ... she has ice that has become part of her, so do not expect that she will match the picture I have of her in my office or that you've seen." No, Heliodora had a certain grace to her now that was belied by the fact she had been in other ashdown for thirty-two thousand years.

"Michael looked like he was a gateway himself. It was hard to look at but he was something of this place ripped and pulled over to Ashdown."

"I don't think he was a gateway, more like ... he was bleeding out. That something was powerful enough to rip him to our side." It was hard to explain, really, what he had seen. "A piece of other ashdown had been forcibly pulled to our side and that was what he looked like to me."

Which, of course, Shun did not know, not yet. "Michael isn't the only warden, nor just the moonwalkers. Though they are likely to be the ones who guard but Michael is part of the cage." Was.

"At least one, yes," Jeremiah replied. "... and I've no desire to run into it." Anything that put him off was likely saying something but the silver-haired man did not want to introduce Kuroda to the Burning Man. "... other than it, I've no idea but it could have had something to do with it."

His eyes glanced out into the street briefly before looking back to Shun. "They hold back the darkness, they keep the cage closed." The crown, the stars, the sword ... Michael was the sword, wasn't he? "Heliodora is not a moonwalker, nor am I even certain that she would be able to live outside of this place. They're part of here now."

He shook his head. "There's a lot to this, Kuroda. I've been at this months but if you talk to them, if you talk to Heliodora, you'll find that she's been here for ages." His tone was serious. "That this is something that has been going on for far longer than you likely think."

"Well, I was trapped in here for what was a week on the outside," there was another wry look, "and it felt much longer than that to me." Never mind that he had not accrued any more of a beard that he had had when he had ended up stranded.

"It doesn't, so far as I can tell, but they've been here - the teenagers - despite disappearing in the early months of the year for several tens of thousands of years." A hand was raked through his hair, the umbrella then shifted in his grip so that he was standing with his hands on it and using it like a cane. "However it was hard to argue that she had not been here for some time as the injury of her foot has long since healed. It would take months for that to no longer look fresh and it looked old."

Kuroda was given a sympathetic look. "So far as I can tell we mostly come in and go back out around the same time but there are moments where time passes differently."

"Beyond that it is not reliable? No. The only constant seems to be that change will come, you will find yourself with abilities you did not think possible and that nothing is ever straightforward." Jeremiah tilted his head to start walking because the rain had let up to a light drizzle.

"I'll see about finding a way out of here. If you find yourself here again, I've no advice to offer to you than that doorways seemed to be the favored ways through but not the only." The umbrella was kept on his arm this time. "... and if you've not noticed, but it's getting closer to winter here, it seems like." Unlike Ashdown where summer was now in swing.