Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Nope, not me.

A/N: Wow, thanks for the overwhelming response to last chapter! Hope this one - a Sirius interlude - is up to scratch!

One reviewer asked about the titles of the chapters. They're all from quotes, and the theme of the quote is generally the theme of the chapter. For example, the title of the prologue, 'Binding With Briars' comes from a poem containing the lines, Binding with briars / My hopes and desires. It's about being trapped - as, in essence, the prologue is.

I hope that clears it up for you!

And while you're waiting for the next chapter of this fic, check out my others - particularly 'Cheese'!

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"This place is disintegrating," Sirius whispered.

"Yes," Regina replied, her fingers entwined with his.

Sirius turned to look at her. "Reggie," he said, "before we were interrupted - before Remus and Aemilia managed to talk to us, I mean - you said -"

"- that I could travel from place to place?"

"Yes."

Regina sighed. "Sit down, Sirius," she told him, "and let me explain."

*

"To enter into the Third Circle of the Temple of Arachne," Regina began, "you must give blood."

"Blood?"

"Many think it no more than a religious quirk," she continued, "and others think we use it as a means of control over all who have given it. You are familiar with the concept of control through ownership?"

"Yes."

"But there is a third use for blood," she went on, "and it is one often overlooked. Only the Arachniae know of it now, because only the Arachniae still study the lore of wights."

Her grey eyes were still. Sirius pressed her hand.

"This world is not the only world, Sirius, nor is this reality the only reality. The world is meta-implicate."

"You… you have told me this before, I think."

Regina smiled. "That is highly likely. It is one of the most common known concepts of the Arachniae, and hence the one most often overlooked. But that is exactly why it is important."

She took a deep breath. "It is possible, if the rites are done right, to travel across the barriers between the world. It requires blood, and the earthroot. A great deal of both."

"The earthroot?"

"Simply put, ley lines. There are veins of eldritch power that run all over the earth, veins of deepest power. Wights are drawn to them and work by them."

Sirius's heart fell. "But, Reggie… here -"

"- there is no earthroot, I know," she replied. "But there is an alternative."

"An alternative?"

Regina gestured with one slender, white hand, to the other people huddled in the corners of the Void-bubble. "Most people exist only in their conscious mind," she explained. "They are shallow. It is not until a person experiences real love, real danger, or some kind of vivid emotion, that they become deeper. When a person is deep enough, ripples of their presence run through all the meta-implicacies of reality. If a person runs deep enough, the power that radiates from their soul can be used as a substitution for the earthroot." She smiled. "Remus ran deep. Before I retreated to Telae Domus, I worked my early magic using his soul."

"But if all it takes is blood and a soul," Sirius asked, "why did you not escape from here before?"

"Because no-one ran deep enough, Sirius," Regina explained. "These people… they are effigies, shadows of what they once were. What passion, what deep feeling they might have had… it is long gone." She took one of his hands in both of hers. "But you, Sirius… I knew it the first time I heard you play your violin. Sirius… you burn."

"I… run deep enough?"

Regina nodded. "You do."

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