“It’s there,” Trillian assured him. “And it’s significant. Your power is much more interesting than Mira’s or Honor’s. Their gifts are not small, but yours is unique. Under other circumstances, I would endeavor to unlock that potential.”

“What do you mean?” Cole asked.

“I have trained all the Ellowine enchanters of any consequence over the past several centuries, including the Grand Shaper Callista. You would be a fascinating pupil.”

Cole remembered the warnings about Trillian from Skye. He was evil and had been trapped here for years. Why would he help train shapers? Was he telling the truth? Was he just acting courteous and reasonable until he sprang his trap?

“Go ahead,” Trillian said, his eyes grave. “Ask me.”

Cole wasn’t sure how exactly to put it. “Why? You know what I’m thinking.”

“We’re having a conversation,” Trillian said. “Ask me.”

“You’re a prisoner here,” Cole said. “Aren’t you dangerous? Why would people let you train them?”

“I am extremely powerful,” Trillian said. “Dangerous? I suppose that accompanies power. If I had come to the Outskirts today, I would rule unchallenged. But as fortune had it, when I arrived, there were some shapers of astonishing might here, including some who helped frame the different kingdoms. I wielded great power, but this place was different from my world, and before I could master using my abilities here, they had me.”

“Are there others like you?” Cole asked.

“Many,” Trillian said. “An entire world of us. Only one other torivor journeyed here with me. Ramarro. He must have been captured as well, or else he would be ruling. I could not perceive his fate after I was caught, and those I sent abroad found no trace of him. I cannot see beyond my prison, except dimly on the Red Road. What I know I learn from my traveling servants or from people who come here, like you have today.”

“Why haven’t other torivors come?” Cole asked.

“The shapers who imprisoned me sealed the way to my world,” Trillian said. “I do not expect others of my kind to find their way here in the foreseeable future.”

“Why’d they imprison you?” Cole asked. “Did you attack the shapers?”

“I interacted with them,” Trillian said. “Some of them tested themselves against me. They feared my power. Hostility erupted. They tried to harm me. I fought back. They couldn’t kill me, but they did imprison me.”

“You can’t get free?” Cole asked.

“Not for lack of trying. The shapers knew their craft. They not only shaped a prison to hold me. They shaped me. I am not as you see me now. I am bound deep beneath this place. But my power remains active inside my domain.”

Cole wondered how much of what he was hearing was true.

“I cannot lie,” Trillian said. “I can mislead, or evade questions, but I only speak the truth. It is more than a matter of honor. It is an essential part of what I am, where my power comes from. If I lied, I would be undone. If you could perceive my true nature, you would see that it is so.”

“If they hadn’t imprisoned you, would you have taken over the Outskirts?” Cole asked, testing his honesty.

“Yes,” Trillian answered. “I would have bound the other torivor and ruled unthreatened until the end of this place or until I chose to move on. I would have reshaped this entire realm into a paradise. All who served me would have prospered under my rule. You suspect I’m telling you this because I want you to free me. Rest assured, you lack the ability to release me.”

“If you got free, what would you do?” Cole asked.

“I would rule as the highest shaper the Outskirts has known,” Trillian said. “Any who opposed me would fall. I would remake the boundaries between the kingdoms. I would unlock the true potential of this realm between realms.”

“The boundaries between the kingdoms can be changed?” Cole wondered.

“You glimpsed this when you used the Jumping Sword against the Rogue Knight. Others have tested the possibilities as well. There have not always been five kingdoms, nor have mortals always dwelled here. The five kingdoms were made. They could be remade.”

Cole tried to imagine what it would be like if Trillian got free. Would the people come to accept him as their king? Could it be a good thing? With the kind of power he was describing, he would be a dictator. It mostly depended on whether he was really good or not.

“I would be demanding, but I could also make life easier in many ways,” Trillian said. “I confess that I have no deep love for mortals. You’re all so fleeting, though a number of you intrigue me. I would not be your servant. Your genie. You would serve me and work to make the Outskirts the paradise that I envision. A higher mind would govern you. Some people would resent me, and I might toy with them. I crave a measure of revenge for my incarceration. I cannot predict for certain how much you would enjoy my rule. I come from an eternal realm where I dwelt among equals. Here, I would be in a temporal realm, ruling over lesser beings.”

“Why come here?” Cole asked.

“To varying degrees, all torivors feel the call to move beyond our home world,” he said. “Life there is perfect, except for a certain . . . sameness. I am not the first to depart. Leaving eternity to enter time changed my very existence. Sequence became relevant—yesterday, today, and tomorrow. In a realm of beginnings and endings, I could die. What happens to an eternal being who dies in a temporal reality? Would I be erased? Or would some part of me journey on?”

“You said I would live on,” Cole said.

“Part of you will, yes,” Trillian said. “I can see that plainly. But can you recognize it in yourself?”

“Not really,” Cole said. “I hope it’s true.”

“I see the eternal component in you, but I can’t perceive anything in myself besides what I am here and now. I would not want to risk dying here. If I found my life in jeopardy, I would rather return home.”

“But for now you’re stuck,” Cole said.

“Indeed,” Trillian replied. “You’re stuck here too.”

“I want to find my friends and get home,” Cole admitted. “We never meant to come here.”

“I know.”

“Do you know where I can find Jenna?”

“No.”

“Could you find out?”