Alyssa was sixteen, and perfectly capable of taking care of herself, but I guess if you're treated like a child your entire life, it takes time to adjust to change. She had asked if she could move in with me, which I said yes to right away.

I woke up the next morning to find breakfast already on the table. I had known that Alyssa tended to wake up earlier than me, but I hadn't expected her to make the two of us a nice meal to eat in the morning.

"What's all this for?" I asked, yawning. "You didn't have to make anything for me."

She shrugged. "When was the last time you had a nice, home-cooked meal? I figured it's the least I could do in return for taking me in."

"I suppose that's fair. Thanks, though. You're right that I haven't eaten a meal like this in, well, years." My stomach was already growling, so I sat down and dug into what she had prepared.

After we had eaten a large part of it, Alyssa spoke up. "You know, I've been doing some thinking. About Mot."

"I'm sure you have," I replied. "We all have. What conclusions have you come to?"

She twirled a strand of her long brown hair with her finger. "Well, the obvious stuff, of course. He must have found a portal like the one that we found when we came here. The question is whether he ended up in Ruxomar or in yet another realm, with more alternates."

"Everything seemed to make sense, with the whole two realms thing," I added. "Throwing in a third realm would mess up the perfect pattern that seems to have been formed."

"That's what I thought," Alyssa rested her chin on her hands. "But him ending up back in Ruxomar wouldn't make much sense. Although I was thinking about another point. It's been ten years since we arrived here, hasn't it?"

"I suppose it has." I finished eating and began to clean up the table. She took little notice.

"I have a feeling that there's some high being behind all of this. I don't know who, or why, and I have no predictions. But clearly they wanted something from us when they sent us here, and something from our alternates when they sent them to Ruxomar. Perhaps the plan ends after ten years."

I started to wash the plates in the sink. "You could be right. But why would only Mot go through the portal this time? And nobody's arrived here."

Alyssa finished her food as well, and stood up to help me clean. "Maybe it's a one-at-a-time thing? Or maybe, if there is a third realm, we're all going to go, one by one, into the third dimension so we can meet our alternates."

I dried my hands. "But what would the point of that be? Where would that get us, or anyone?"

"We would find out in the third realm," she said excitedly. "We would get to meet the higher being. And... Mot would be alive and well and I could see him again."

"Well, no matter what happened, I'm sure we'll see him again," I answered softly. "Somehow, and in some way."

Alyssa, fighting back even more tears, hugged me for the millionth time that week. "And then... when we see Mot... we'll see your family too. Your wife... and your daughter... and I can meet them too."

I held her close to me. "I'm sure you'd love them. But, until then, I guess we're all the family we have left. Us and Spark."

Everyone was gathered around the priest's house, feeling hollow and empty. "Well, Spark, didn't you say you noticed something?" Ianite asked.

The old man sighed. "I don't know. Mot had been acting a bit strange the past week. Pacing around in the middle of the night and stuff. I was suspicious, but... not of this."

"I noticed something too," Alyssa added quietly. "The night before he left. He asked me to bring him one of the flower crowns I had made him, and he hugged me right before I went to sleep. I guess it's not all that unusual, but still."

I tapped my fingers on the stone wall, which I often did when I was thinking. "Doesn't that mean that Mot knew he was leaving? Was it planned? Could he have, I don't know, created a portal?"

"Unlikely," Mianite answered gravely. "It would be very difficult for Mot to make a portal, and he couldn't have dialed it to go to Ruxomar without the help of Ianite or I. I think what's more likely is that he found a portal and was wondering whether or not he should go through it."

The priest let out a small gasp. "But we've explored all of the land around here! We would've seen if there was a portal around here."

"Not recently," Champwan reminded him. "The portal could have appeared, and Mot knew where it was."

"Why wouldn't he have told me?" Alyssa looked betrayed. I couldn't blame her, honestly. She was supposed to be the one person that he truly cared about. In this world, at least.

"He wouldn't have wanted you to follow him," Ianite pointed out. "He probably thought that it would be dangerous, and if he didn't make it back to you, he didn't want you to go through the same things he's going through."

Alyssa's eyes widened with fear. "But then why would he go through it in the first place? If it could hurt him like that?"

"Because of what it could be instead." Mianite's eyes were glazed over, but it seemed more like he was deep in thought. "There must be someone or something he misses back in Ruxomar. Or perhaps he felt so trapped here that he felt the need to leave."

"He would choose those feelings over the family he has here?" I felt rage burning in my stomach, mostly out of pity for Alyssa. How could that man do that to his daughter and feel like it was okay?

Ianite was beginning to look scared of the strong emotions rising from all of us. "Please, don't jump to any conclusions! Mot was not a selfish man. We don't know where he went, or why he went there. Nothing is for sure. Before we get angry over something we don't understand, I think we should all just sleep it off. We're not going to come to any conclusions like this. Some secrets... will always be secrets."