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“Are you sure this is okay?” Sera asked. “I’m a little creeped out by the thought of walking into something that looks solid.”

“I know what you mean,” Ophelia said. “But I’m sure it will be okay. I trust Silver.”

“So do I,” Sera said. “But that doesn’t stop it making my skin crawl for some reason.”

“Well, we promised we’d do this, so let’s do this.” She thought for a moment. “Perhaps we should close our eyes like in Harry Potter. That should stop us freaking out.” Ophelia grinned as she heard Sera choke at that, then took a deep breath, scrunched up her eyes, and walked into the illusion-masked portal.

They emerged into a vast hall of living wood. Silver was floating near the entrance waiting for them. “Ah, here you are! I was worried that you’d freaked out on me,” she said. “Welcome to my home.”

The two girls stared around with open mouths.

“Oh, wow!” Ophelia said. “It’s palatial. Is this place for real or another illusion?”

“It’s real,” Silver said. “Do you like it?”

“It’s amazing.” Sera reached out and touched one of the ornately carved pillars that supported the cathedral-like vault of the roof. “But it’s larger than the tree.” She smirked at Ophelia. “I don’t think the entrance was illusioned… this place just has a functioning chameleon circuit.”

“We’re not Time Lords but a Tardis analogy is not misplaced.” Silver said. Sera and Ophelia stared at her. “What, you think just because I’m not human I don’t watch television? I like Doctor Who. But anyway, making pocket like this one is one of my people’s abilities.”

“Ah. So this is something like a bubble?” Ophelia stared up at the ceiling.

“Yes, something like a cross between a fold and bubble.” Silver seemed pleased that she understood. “Come on. I’ll take you to see gran.” As she spoke, her form began to shift. After a few moments she would have looked like a normal human dressed in a white robe but for the wings and hair of silvery flame – and the fact her equally silver eyes glowed unaturally. “Oh my! That’s better.”

“That’s a nice trick,” Ophelia said. “But you didn’t tell us that you were a shapeshifter.”

“Hey, we only met yesterday!” Silver said. “It just hadn’t come up yet.”

“I guess.” It sounded feasible enough but Ophelia couldn’t helping think she also sounded defensive. “And you look a lot like that green creature that attacked that girl in London.”

“Yes, that was one of the Kithreiri as well,” Silver explained. “We think it was a loyalist. This is our natural form but we don’t use it much on Earth, especially not where humans can see, because it’s rather obvious.”

“Yes, I can see how that would be,” Ophelia said. “Shall we go and meet your grandmother? We can talk about not hiding things later.”

They followed Silver up an ornately carved winding staircase. It seemed to go up forever but Ophelia guessed they were really only about halfway up when they alighted onto a long landing. Silver led them along the corridor to a pair of ornately carved doors and knocked. “Granny! I brought them.” After a moment the door creaked open on its own and she led them into a dimly lit room.

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