The transition was jarring as always, but what was even stranger was when Anise looked around to try and get her bearings, and she realized this wasn’t where they usually teleported to. A short distance ahead was the dark mouth of the tunnel she’d been staring down just last night.

But in the end, that was good. They didn’t have to deal with tolls, or crossing the creepy lake. They just needed to go forward.

“Well, there’s only one way to go from here!” she said, trying to muster up a cheerful, optimistic tone. “Now we can find out where this leads.” Even though she was worried this could be another trap, part of Anise was excited. There had to be an end to all those stupid trials, and maybe this was it.