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This was a nerinkle He and Poppy and Josh got up fro a little silly They brushed themselves off and stood at attention

"Each of you has a choice, whether to go or to stay I cannot guarantee that anyone who passes through the door will be able to return here But if you do not go now, there will never be another chance"

"But what’s really there?" Quentin said "What’s it like?"

She looked at Quentin, calmly and directly

"It’s what you want, Quentin It’s everything you’re looking for It is the adventure of all adventures"

There it was The real end of the story, the happy ending All he could think was: Alice She could be waiting for hiroup, where they stood in a loose half circle in front of the door Her eyes " His voice was as serious as Quentin had ever heard it "I can’t go I’le, who still had the sloth on his back, peeking over his shoulder like a baby koala Bingle closed his hooded eyes

"It was never my destiny to return," he said He stepped forward So he was right after all Quentin supposed that by now Bingle had earned a free pass on the drao," the sloth said over his shoulder, in case anybody had forgotten about her

Elaine stood aside and indicated that they should proceed Without hesitating Bingle walked up to the doorway and opened it all the way

He was silhouetted against the iht sky beyond hi merrily like a cheap firework This hat passed for outer space in Fillory, Quentin supposed At the bottom of the doorway he could see just the tip of one of the silver ular appearance in the night sky of Fillory

It felt like you could be sucked out through the doorway if you got too close, like through an air lock But Bingle just stood there, looking around

"It’s down," Elaine said "You have to clile turned to face the the sloth, and felt around with his foot till he evidently got it on a rung He nodded goodbye to Quentin and began to climb down, step by step His narrow olive face disappeared below the edge

"Once you get halfway gravity turns around," Elaine called after hi up It’s not as tricky as it sounds," she added to the rest of them

She turned to Quentin

Two times before Quentin had made this same decision He’d stood on the threshold of a neorld and then stepped over it When he’d arrived at Brakebills he’d thrown his whole life away, his whole world and everyone he knew, in exchange for a shinyworth keeping He’d done it again when he came to Fillory, and it wasn’t much harder the second time But it was harder now, the third ti to lose

But he was stronger now too He knew himself better It turned out his journey wasn’t over after all He wasn’t going to go back He looked at Eliot

"Go," Eliot said "One of us should"

God, was he that easy to read?

"Go," Poppy said "This is for you, Quentin"

He put his arms around her

"Thank you, Poppy," he whispered Then he said it to all of theht on the phrase He didn’t care

Standing in the doorway, he took a deep breath as if he were about to climb down into a pool He could look out and survey it all: he was backstage at the cosle and the sloth, tiny, still clis The entirety of the lorious in the abyss, gloith its own light It looked like he could jump to it It was smooth and white, no craters He hadn’t realized the tips of the horns were so sharp

He knelt down to start his client frowned "Wait a moment Where’s your passport?"

Quentin stopped, on one knee

"My passport?" he said This again "I don’t have it I gave it to the kid in hell"

"In hell? The underworld?"

"Well, yes I had to go there That’s where the last key was"

"Oh" She pursed her lips "I’h without a passport"

She couldn’t be serious

"Well, but hang on," Quentin said "I have a passport Eleanor made it for me I just don’t have it on me They have it in the underworld"

Elaine smiled, a tired smile that wasn’t co over with it either

"Eleanor can only make you one passport, Quentin You’ve used yours I’h"

This couldn’t be happening He looked past her to the others, ere standing watching hiers in a car look at the driver when he’s been pulled over for speeding He tried toon the order of, can you believe this shit? But it wasn’t easy He was being asked to be a good sport, but this cut deeper than that This was his destiny here, and she wasn’t going to take it away on a technicality

"There has to be a loophole" He was still kneeling on the threshold, looking up at her, halfway out the door He could feel the Far Side pulling at hiravity This here his story led "Soo to the underworld And not to put too fine a point on it, but if I hadn’t we never would have opened the door We wouldn’t be here The world would’ve ended--"

"That is what makes this all the harder"