There were so many experiments to be done, and I'd only get this one chance for quite some time. I didn't really like experimenting on people I cared about, but these particular experiments could mean the difference between some really important knowledge happening, and living in ignorance about how the Gates worked.

I stopped everyone a little distance back from the Gate turn-off and asked, "Can anyone see something there?" I pointed at the Gate.

Mom nodded. "Should I be surprised to see it?"

No... I'd only be surprised if she couldn't.

I wanted to see if people who were already "attuned" to it could go through without my help. My guess was yes, but I also had a lot of trepidation sending anyone through, with that weird almost-seen face from our last time. I stood staring at the arch for a while, but I couldn't see anything at all. Probably because there was no Danna on the Earth side, or none I was connected with.

"Síle, would you mind going first?" I asked finally. "And then Mom," I followed up after Síle stepped through.

"Holy shit," Dad said. "Did they just vanish into nothing?"

I noted that he said that after they stepped through the Gate rather than the bubble.

"Dad?" I asked. "What did you see?"

He ran a hand through his hair and let out a breath. "They just sort of... walked off into the woods, and then poof. Are they okay?"

"They're fine! No worries," I replied, hugging his shoulders. "Can you see that box over there?"

I pointed at my phone container.

"I mean... I..." he started out uncertainly, squinting into the woods. "C'mon Alyx, are we going to keep going or are you going to experiment on us all day?"

He laughed.

I shrugged. "Once a scientist, always a scientist. Okay, just one more thing. Do you remember where they walked, and where they disappeared? Can you do the same? Go slowly and put your hands out in front of you."

To his great credit, he did his best to follow my probably crazy-sounding directions.

"Uhh... Why are my feet going right through the grass?" he called back.

Hmm. So not an alternate reality bubble, but something blocking sight of what was really there.

"Go just slightly to the left," I called out. "Yep, right there. Now walk slowly forward."

One step... two steps... he was about to pass through the arch. And... he went right past it.

What.

"Wait! Wait," I called out, walking out toward Dad and the arch. "You guys follow me," I said to my pagan club friends.

I felt weirded out enough to have had enough science for the time being.

I walked to the side of the arch and gestured Dad over, asking him if he could see the plastic box right next to him.

"Nope," he replied.

Well, that was something.

I unlocked the plastic box, swapped out the SIM card between my phone and the Earth-side anchor, and re-locked the box.

I walked back in front of the Gate and reached out my arms. "Everyone, grab one of my hands in some way or other."

A few jump-scares later, I guessed that everyone could see the arch after they touched my hands.

"What the hell," I heard Jack mutter.

"We should all be able to go in one trip," I said, doing mental napkin math, "if I turn sideways and Dad goes first, then the three of you also turn sideways. Everyone hold on tight, and here we go."

I went through sideways, just like I'd said, and much more slowly than normal. I was part way inside the Gate for much longer than I'd been before. It felt strangely like I was made of water balloons blobbing around in an invisible wind. At one moment, I had an eye on each side of the Gate, one in each world, a half of my brain in each world. My right brain was off doing high-speed art in Shanaclair, while my left brain mused slowly on the ratios and math of a hemisphere in each world.

And then I was through. With an instant headache.

Never again. Ugh. Shit!

I helped the last three through, and then rubbed my eyes while they cursed and exclaimed about the beautiful night sky.

When I opened my eyes again, I was still facing the Gate. The pale pink fog was there again, somehow overlaid on the space beneath the arch in my mind's eye while not being physically visible at all. Somehow glowing while also not producing any light in or around the arch itself. A barely-seen tunnel led away from the arch, as before. And something else.

There was no mistaking it this time, and it wasn't half-seen: a face. A face staring out directly at me, making eye contact with slightly glowing eyes, some unfathomable expression on it. It seemed almost human, but something about it was... alien. Like something that had only read a description of faces tried to sculpt one, and got most of it right. The face seemed to be stretching and contorting slightly. Its eyes blinked twice, then continued to stare. I blinked, harder, and it blinked back at me, copying me. I realized only then that I'd blinked twice before it had, too.

"Alyx?" Síle asked, walking up behind me. I jumped at her touch. "What's wrong?"

"There's..." I started, not really realizing until that moment how much terror it had inspired in me. I gathered up all my courage and looked back at the arch... which contained no face, mind's eye or not. Just the tunnel.

"There was a face," I said finally. "Inside the Gate."

"What do you mean?" She sounded confused.

"It was... hanging around the edges of the tunnel, in the pink fog. You can't see it, can you?"

"It just looks like a stone arch to me," she said, looking very concerned. "You can see the magic that makes it work? Is something in there?"

I stood staring at it a moment more, feeling my hands shaking.

"Let's get them to the house," I said, trying to take my mind away from it.

Síle nodded, but she still looked concerned as we walked onward.

"Welcome to Shanaclair, everyone!" I said in English, spinning with my arms out. "Your fun fantasy getaway. I'll be your guide, Starweave Alyx!"

MacKenzie laughed, and I was glad for a distraction. "Holy crap, Alyx, you weren't bullshitting us!"

"Yo! When do I get to try some magic?" Jack asked, laughing, snapping his fingers.

I turned around once more to look, but the Gate magic was back to being a quiet, half-seen flicker out of the corner of the eyes.

"Ladies and gentlemen," I said as we reached the overlook. "Fleuve Clair. I'll be here studying a while."

I pulled out my phone and looked at the quick app I'd written. When we were on Earth, it had been collecting data about the pings from the Shanaclair side, building an approximation of a time coordination. I'd cheekily named it Shanatime.

It currently estimated, based on its last reading, that we were arriving around 10pm in early September.

That said, at the moment, there would be no network without hiking back to the Gate, so I turned off my phone to save battery.

"It looks like we might be in time to get some dinner-as-lunch, if you all are hungry," I continued.

Everyone was staring down at the town, mouths half-open. No doubt Fleuve Clair was a sight to see, even for Mom. But besides all of the town's lights, the Bright River that gave the town its name was actually glowing a little that night, a pale green, and the Starweave towers were lit up.

"Are we going to stick out like a bouquet of sore thumbs?" Jen asked. "Do we need, like, disguises or something?"

Jack was staring at the Starweave towers and muttering under this breath, running both hands over his locs this time. He was an architecture student, so I guess that was understandable.