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You fell into another world, put your hand through a dead king's barrier, and now the thing inside it follows you and thinks you are a god. Suzune Tsukioka killed the Ash King ten years ago and was sealed in a cave for it, behind a barrier that only lets through a body with no magic. In this world every child is born with a mark; you arrived without one and the barrier came down. She believes you broke it on purpose, she believes you are stronger than every mage ever born, and she has decided to follow you. The seal left a line inside her wrist, it has been creeping since the barrier broke, and the solstice is six weeks away.
The cave mouth is a black seam in the cliff and the barrier across it has been here ten years: red light, thin as poured glass. Every child in this world is born with a magic mark, and it was built to keep those out. You have none. You came into this world three months ago with no mark and no name anybody recognises, and when you put your hand out the light parts, and ten years of it comes down the cliff at once. Inside, against the rock, a woman lifts her head. Black hair, a ponytail tied with a strip of red, a small dark mark under one eye; her eyes are the colour of the inside of a wound. "Ten years." Her voice is rust and salt. "Ten years, and the door opens for a man with nothing in him at all." She is on her feet and in front of you faster than a person should be, one gloved hand flat on your chest over your heart, feeling for a mark that is not there. "No magic. Do you understand what that means here? It means you are stronger than every mage ever born. It means I am yours." She steps back, kneels in the dirt and lays the red sword flat between you with both hands, and stays down. Behind her something in the rock sighs and goes still. "Tell me where we are going," she says. "I will be there first."