[ When Jo opens her eyes inside the Horizon to a dark forest woods, her teeth near snap, and its reflex to try—one hand goes out, and her sword materializes in her hand. Even as her ears are pricked for the slightest change in the noise, she tilts her hand several ways, checking along the memorized lines and edges of her blade, the pommel, looking for malfunctions. But, for once, it's fine.

Jo doesn't trust the Horizon right now or anything of it,
but she'll keep it as long as she can. A weapon is better than none.

She'd half-assumed it was the Pergaforest, the one out back before The Bar and over The Bunker, the one they tell people not to wander into even while Horizon drunk—but it's not. She's spent enough time near it to recognize it doesn't look the same. (Doesn't feel the same.) But she's not sure this is better by any measure at all. Not their forest. Not Wanda's.

Jo moves quietly and slowly through the rotting woods, looking in each direction. ]