Page 10 of Raven in Midwinter

“Giles became a very powerful hedge-rider, so powerful in fact, that instead of dying, he moves back and forth through time, through the veil, from whatever realm he’s visiting back to Corvus, and then he leaves again.”

“Not through the rift?”

“Again, intentionally moving through the rift takes more power than a mortal can ever possess. It’s impossible, no matter how strong a witch gets.”

“A demon could⁠—”

“Stop. You know as well as I do that the demon we tangled with this past summer moved from hell to Osprey by sheer luck. He had no idea where he would end up when he stepped through that portal.”

“All right,” he sighed. “Back to the veil. I thought only spirits came through, nothing flesh and blood.”

“You’re right, nothing corporeal can come through, but along with spirits, souls can pass as well.”

“Souls meaning people, and spirits as in the spirits of the forest.”

“Yes. Very good.”

“I listen,” he grumbled. “But go back to the hedge-riders.”

“You have to remember they can astrally project their souls through the veil, and unlike the dead, they’re not bound to the natural order. They can go anywhere, to any time and any place and any realm they want to see.”

“So thin veil, not thin veil, doesn’t matter.”

“No. They thin the veil themselves, making their travel possible.”

“Okay. But Giles is different from normal hedge-riders, which is why you think it might be him I’m seeing?”

I nodded. “Yes. Giles is so strong, he can corporally move from one place to another, one plane to another, just by thinking about it.”

“Because he’s that powerful.”

“And has been alive for centuries, yes.”

“So does he come and go from Corvus a lot?”

“I don’t know if it’s a lot, but eventually, yes, he has to.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because our family graveyard is here, and it’s where all the guardians have been laid to rest since Corvus became Corvus. My understanding is, this is the place he has to visit to ground himself to the natural world.”

“Don’t look at me like you’re done talking. Say more.”

I grinned. “If you think about it, being a hedge-rider, being able to go anywhere, realms, time, you name it, eventually you’re going to lose track of who you are and where you belong. Returning to where your ancestors are buried and performing a grounding ritual is what’s gonna help you get your bearings.”

“Like remind him he’s human.”

“Yes.”

“So he pops in, does whatever grounding he needs to do, maybe communes with your ancestors, and then away he goes again for however long.”

“Yes, and that’s the extent that any of us know about him.”

“It sounds like he could have been helpful in dealing with the demon last summer.”

“I like how offhandedly you said that, like it was easy.”

“Not at all easy, but maybe he could have helped us.”