On a green-blue planet, in a dark forest, a witch stands in her house, in the back brewing up a potion when a man casually walks into the workshop curious.

The witch watches the man calmly, enters her house, and observes her cauldron, “It's a potion.”

“Why not a brew.” The man asked.

“A potion is a brew. It’s just a matter of semantics.” The witch explained

The man looks down at the liquid, seeing its thick viscosity, the sniffed gagging slightly. “Purity too.”

“Meh.” The witch shrugged, “That's just an extra step to make it taste better.”

The man cringed, “Well they need for it to keep it down to work.”

The woman sniffed, “Hey! If they're dying they'll keep it down. Besides my brews taste like a delicious soup.” The woman bragged.

The man looked disbelieving at the witch, wondering how she pulled off making a witch's brew taste good. He was thinking of taking a little taste to see if she was lying or not. When she asked a question. “So are you here to take me?”

The man for the first time stopped to get a good look at the witch, feeling her power. “It's one thing to see me, but know what I am?” The man scrutinized the witch real close. “You’re strong, but not quite strong enough to..." The man recognized her. "Oh."

The witch smiled, stunning the man. This had happened before but it was so rare he never believed it would happen again, but seeing the witch he asked, "Was it an adventure?"

“It was more than one.” The witch clarified, a wistful smile playing across her face/

The man nervously smiled trying to compose himself. "I never get to ask this, but what happened?”

The witch giggled seeing the man’s reaction, “Your standard kids get summoned to another world. They promised we could go home if we helped save their world from the evil demon. Bonds were formed, then betrayed. Then we were betrayed by the church, stereotypical am I right?”

“Why is it always the church?” The man opined.

“For us they declared us demons, saying demons were really dimensional creatures from another world, that it was their duty to rid their planet of all of them. Including us.” The witch explained.

“Wow, and that spread?” The man asked surprised by the flimsy excuse.

The woman gave an annoyed snort, “Let's say some of the kids went rogue, for a whole, and needed to be hunted down. Kind of helped to spread the message.”

“I guess that would make it easier to for the people to swallow.”

The witch continued summarizing their lives, “We were hunted, supported, courted, and some became nobility. A couple of people have families here now.”

“Did you all beat the big bad?” The man asked curiously.

“Yeah, the so-called demon king was just trying to keep his people safe. It turns out it wasn't even him who started the war, but we found that out too late.” The witch said bitterly.

“Yeah. Demons like them are just another species, look different but still people. Not like the void monsters.”

The witch stopped considering the man’s words “So that’s what those things were.” She shook herself continuing, “Confronted the king, blah blah blah and here I am now. A proper witch with her own team of assistants.” She said proudly waving her hands to her workshop.

“Wow, it sounds like you've had a true adventure.”

The witch continued to stir her brew. “So are you here to take us home as they promised?” The witch asked tentatively.

The man's smile fell, “Sadly no.”

“Can we ever go home?” The witch asked hopefully.

“Not yet.”

“If you’re not here for me.” The witch began to think. "Then…"

The man nodded.

The witched stopped stirring to look at the man, “I don't know if I should try to stop you.”

“Please don't.” The man pleaded, “This is one where I don't have a choice.”

——

Sometime later outside of a witch's house, a group of witches in training are leaving their job for the day. They are waving goodbye to their boss and teacher who looked to be tearing up at their departure.

The witch was waving goodbye, which was strange because she never watched them off, “Remember everything I taught you all. and Don't forget to look out for each other.”

“Don't worry boss it's just a vacation. We'll be back soon enough.” The oldest apprentice said, yelling towards her.

The witch smiled. “Yeah, I'll see you all soon.” The woman turned to rush back into her shop.

The 3 assistants all between 16 and 20 years old are walking home after a long day. They move through the woods laughing and joking the entire time. When one of the girls notices something strange.

“Hey what is that.” The youngest witch asks as she begins walking into the woods.

Seeing this the girls look troubled the oldest yelling, “Hey don't go following wisps!” as the youngest walked away.

The youngest stopped and rolled her eyes at the two, “It's not a wisp. It's an object.”

“OH! I want to see.” The middle witch said excitedly running ahead.

“Hey.” The youngest says indignant as the middle past her, and she is forced to give chase.

The middle witch ran looking for something, but she hadn’t thought to ask what she might find, and quickly stopped to ask, “What am I looking for?”

“Your standing in it.” The youngest giggle and gestured toward the area around them.

The other two witches looked around the completely empty clearing only finding mushrooms, “It's just a bunch of mushrooms.”

“Yeah, but look at them.” The youngest pointed to the cluster in the center.

“Yeah, they’re all clumped together. I mean we all walked over a bunch when we came over here.” The oldest said.

“Weird.” The middle commented.

The mushrooms began to glow.

“I don't think that's good. The youngest commented.

“No, it isn't let's get out of here.” The oldest said.

The girls agreed to take each other's hand trying to leave the circle, but they were too slow, as a light engulfed them.

——

Right outside the Fae ring, just out of phase, a man, a witch, and a woman standing in the woods watching as three witches disappear into a glowing light. The witch watched her three apprentices leave with a heavy heart before turning to the man.

“Will they be safe?” The witch asked worriedly.

The man scratched the back of his head, “We never really know.”

“But they will have each other.” The woman said trying to comfort the witch.

The witch looked towards the two entities who had taken her long ago, “Thank you for letting me see them off. Instead of making me wonder and worry.” The witch paused looking back to the circle, “Although I'll still worry.”

“It was something I could do.” The man said, then added, “And it felt right.”

The woman looked at the man oddly.

The witch looked at the ring of mushrooms. "A fairy ring, so those are real?"

The man gestures his hand back and forth while explaining, “Sorta they don't go to Underhill, or to the Fae realm, but somewhere else.”

“Fae are real? The woman asked, having traveled so long with the man she had never seen any hide nor hair of the Fae in any world.

“Of course! It's a big multiverse.”

“Multiverse? Is this another version of earth then.” The witch asked, surprised the two were speaking so candidly in front of her.

The man stopped to look at the witch surprised, "hmmm.” The man then did, something the witch didn’t understand as he seemed to scrutinize the planet, “I think this is another version of mars actually. Where the world spawned life and magic."

The witch took another look around only seeing the planet she had arrived on years ago, “I'm on Mars what about the Earth.”

The man began to stare off far into the distance, "Not sure honestly."

The witch snorted. Well good to know.

“We need to go.” The man said turning to the witch, giving her, what he thought was one last encouragement, "the rest will be up to them.”

The witch did not feel any better, remembering her own journey, filled with both wonders and horrors. She did not know if she would wish any of that on someone else. “Till we meet again.” The witch said watching the man and woman walk off into the woods.

——

The woman turned back to watch the witch, just catching her fall to her knees and cry. She felt pain in her chest, “Why does it hurt?”

“It's called empathy.” The man said taking the woman's hand, pulling her away.

The woman looked towards the man, “I don't think I like it.”

The man tried to give a comforting smile, but it kept faltering, “Trust me it's a good thing. There’s always good with the bad, it's just the bad stands out more.”

“Why did you let her watch?” The woman asked, not knowing whether or not what he had done was a kindness.

“A gift for one so spiritually connected.”

“So because she has special powers she gets a gift?”

The man shook his head, “No, she saw me even before her world changed. Now she might use her power searching for their souls. Never knowing what happened, it's important to do what you feel is right.”

“Why?”

“If you don’,t you start losing pieces of yourself.”

The woman had no idea what to say, as silence engulfed them, all the way to the truck.