We’ll start at the very beginning. A very good place to start.

Except the journey has only just started and already Willow Rosenberg is overwhelmed. Goddess, it’s so… Derivative. She’s standing on a train platform that is bustling with activity. Children run around, chasing each other. Birds come down from the old metal rafters still in place since the Industrial Revolution. A steam train, No. 10642, she notices, pulls into the station. There’s luggage everywhere. The Platform number is 9.33.

The children all have broomsticks, robes and cloaks. The birds are Owls. The train looks decidedly like something out of a movie she’s seen. Willow, is unimpressed. She passes a small boy, glasses on the edge of his nose, preparing to pass through a wall into a magical realm – and that’s Willow’s intention too. She’s approached by a woman wearing a pilot’s cap, in a motorised wheelchair. It appears, to Willow at least, to have a carburettor on the back of it. “Wizard school,” she says to Willow, condemnation in her voice, expletive not far from her lips. “It’s all the rage.” The woman tells her that it’s cool, but she’s still new at this. Willow suggests it looks fake, like a theme park. The girl in the chair looks at her: it’s made from the collective conscious of whoever’s here, so it’s the movie’s fault. It’s all to soften the blow. Willow looks puzzled. “There’s going to be a blow?” she asks nervously. The girl in the chair directs her to follow and laughs. “For a lady that almost ended the world, you’re kind of a puss.”

Willow turns and she finds that they’re now in a garden, an oversized one. Or maybe we’ve shrunk. There’s a bulb waiting to blossom in the centre: it’s a metaphor for her sexuality, the woman explains, but they’re going much, much deeper than that – this isn’t about her power and how she’s empowering women. It’s about how Willow relates to the outside world. Willow reacts in shock as she starts to sink, incorporeally through the ground, her companion non-plussed as she joins her. Okay then, Willow realises as her guide tells her to relax. Literally going deeper. She’s told to take a deep breath.

As they’re floating, or phasing, through the solid rock, the guide tells her that while she’s not actually breathing, she can still suffocate on this plane of existence. Especially if you think about it too much. Suddenly, a voice booms out of nowhere – and it’s scolding Willow’s companion, whose name, now revealed by her admonisher, is Muffitt. Willow and Muffitt, wheelchair and all, crash to the ground with a thump.

“That’s enough, Muffitt.”

A green-skinned demon woman slinks over to them both. She has a tail instead of legs, with a rattle on it. Her skin has snake patterns scattered across it. Her hair is the most brilliant white that Willow has ever seen. She’s a Goddess, Willow thinks. The demon lady turns to Muffitt and then looks at Willow. “I’ll take her from here,” she says, her pupilless, white eyes locking straight on a suddenly nervous Willow.

Three days earlier.

San Francisco, where the sun shines overhead, and people take advantage, sitting in the park, a hive of activity. Amongst them are Willow and Kennedy. The ritual Willow would like to try is a meeting with one of the elders of magic on a mystical plane of existence. It’s usually a stepping stone, but due to Willow’s sheer power, she missed that traditional step, and it’s something she would, now that she has more time, like to try. Kennedy is unsure – Since when has anything they’ve done been traditional? Willow skipped it because she’s a Goddess – and Goddesses don’t normally ditch their girlfriends to take a remedial magic lesson in a weird dimension with no cell phone service.

Willow looks at her, and takes a breath. “Kennedy, I have crazy power. Power is not knowledge. In a way, it’s almost the opposite.” She looks over at a group of Slayers nearby, training. “Look at those girls. A few months ago they became Slayers. They weren’t in the game like you. They didn’t know which end was up. Now they have you.”

Kennedy prepares to lose her temper, the way she does when her inner brat comes out. “I didn’t ask to be a drill sergeant!” Willow calls after her. No, but you’re a good one. It’ll keep her occupied whilst Willow is away and they need her. Kennedy makes a joke about finding someone else, but Willow threatens to turn her into a newt.

With a warm embrace, and a loving smile, Kennedy turns to Willow. “I just mastered monogamy. Just don’t forget about me.” She kisses Willow passionately. Just don’t forget about me.

“Forget about her,” the snake demon lady commands. She is another layer that needs to be peeled back for Willow to move forward on this path. She tells Willow that to fix the wounds, she must have no connections and no restrictions. Willow wonders if she even has a wound. The snake lady assures her that the darkness will illuminate for her and continues their path. Willow wishes Muffitt was with her. She may not have made sense, but at least there was some.

Once again, the location changes without Willow noticing. Now, they’re on a beach and a large, armoured Black Knight stands before them, smoke billowing from his helmeted head, blood-red eyes peering from beneath it, the only thing visible of his face. He’s also wielding a large and scary mace and he’s yelled “Stop!” in a loud voice.

The mace was scary enough. The Knight, taller than her by a mile, towers over Willow, declaring that this ‘tainted wretch’ can go no further. The demon gets in between Willow and the Knight. She tells him to calm down. “Aluwyn,” he says, revealing her name for the first time. “Are you mad? You know who this is!” He’s worried about what will happen if they let Willow in. Aluwyn tells him that the path is not reserved for the righteous and nothing they know is set. With the right guide, Willow could be something else. The Knight turns to the serpent: “You thrive on chaos. You’d love to see her corrupted.”

The Knight is not budging on his wishes. If Willow tries to move forward, she will be killed. Aluwyn sighs. She turns around to Willow, who notices that she doesn’t seem that upset. “It’s always black and white thinking with these demigods. ‘Order’. ‘Chaos.’ As if they aren’t intertwined like lovers. As if the universes don’t depend on both.” She turns to the Knight and smiles. “All right then. A fight to the death.”

Willow steps back, fear on her face. Whoa! Why exactly can’t we be friends? The Knight ignores her question and Willow prepares for a blow. He swings his sword down towards the witch, who effortlessly glides out of the way. She raises her hands, preparing to defend herself.

“Stop! In the name of Love!”

Willow yells at him, as Aluwyn telepathically contacts Willow. You have to fight back, child. Willow realises she can’t speak at the moment. Is she under a spell? She promptly discovers that, somehow, she can only speak in song lyrics!

“I believe I can fly,” she says, as she soars into the air above the Knight, once again avoiding his attack. Aluwyn tells her the song lyrics are there because she hasn’t let go of the surface world yet… she hasn’t let go and she’s caught in a loop.

Willow throws a fire blast at the Knight, “Do you really want to hurt me?”

The Knight asks her if she even understands what a power like her – what a threat – she poses? Willow looks at him for a moment.

“Don’t go breaking my heart.”

She powers up and with an almighty blinding flash of light, the Knight is blown backward, his armour pierced, dropping to the ground around his battered body like scrap metal. Aluwyn inspects the body – she didn’t kill him.

Willow says she’s not a killer. Good, the song lyrics have gone. Aluwyn tells her that she has passed her first test. A small sailing boat appears before them – the next part of their journey takes them over the sea.

Willow declines. “No thanks. That’s not the journey.”

“You all keep telling me to get beyond the surface. Then you toss cliches at me. The Black Knight, the sea voyage, this isn’t my path, is it? This isn’t my path and you,” a tiny bit of anger, now creeping into her voice, “You are not my guide.”

Suddenly, she’s in mid air, as is Aluwyn. Above them, on an incomprehensible scale, are a coven of higher beings, all female, all made out of a different substance. One is ice, another wood. One is made of what appears to be papers of math equations, while another has scales and is blind folded – Lady Justice. One seems to be made, literally, of lightning! Willow is humbled and honoured at the same time. The void is vast, and impossible.

Not knowing what to expect, Willow is surprised when one of the higher beings smiles and chuckles: “Well, she got there quicker than most.”

“So many get hung up on the idea that space and time have rules out here,” another says. The one made of ice tells them that Willow could run Aluwyn in circles just for the company.

The one made of math points at Aluwyn. She commands lightly, “Shame on you Aluwyn. Slither away to your mad realm and leave this witch her reason.” Aluwyn, without question, and without looking in Willow’s direction, slithers away.

Willow asks who her guide is, if she even has one? The beings tell her that guides can come in many different guises for many different paths for many different reasons, but they have chosen one for her.

From behind Willow, a bright golden light fills the black void. A field is before them, mountains stretched in the distance, the sea roaring unendingly on the breeze. It’s calm and serene. Standing there, looking exactly as she did then, stands Tara Maclay. She has been chosen for her.

Willow looks at Tara, tears filling her eyes, a smile growing on her lips. She’s just there, like I could touch her. She takes another look and then swipes her arm. Tara disappears. “No,” Willow commands. “No, thank you.”

The elder beings are confused. But subconsciously, that’s who Willow chose.

Willow flies towards the great beings, floating to their eyelines. “I wanted. I hoped.”

She looks down in sadness. “I lied.”

She floats down, sitting on something solid, and closes her eyes. “I said I wanted to understand my power, and I do. But under that, I wanted to know my fate.”

“Darkness? Enlightenment? Was I a good witch, or a bad witch? I feel the pull of each. That was my secret motive. Under the under, I just wanted her.”

She looks at the beings, who are listening enraptured, having shrunk down to Willow’s size. “She was my light. She was my order. She was my journey. Completed. But either she’s an illusion, or Tara is at peace. And either way, no thanks.”

There is a moment of silence, which is broken when one of the elders starts to cry and wail. One of the others comforts her, while another sighs. “She always gets like this.”

The ice being tells her that she still has to choose a guide for the next part of the journey. They have many trusted friends they can choose from. Willow says that she will need a guide, but she has someone in mind.

Elsewhere in the magical realm, a seething, angry Aluwyn criticises Muffitt and the Black Knight. They all had a part to play and Aluwyn is pissed – they failed to convince Willow that Aluwyn would be her best choice and now all her plans are ruined! She finally had a chance to ally with the most powerful witch of her time and her own team couldn’t keep up!

Suddenly, Willow comes up from under the water of the lake they’re near, naked as nature intended. Aluwyn jumps out of her skin. Willow says that the water is cold, and Aluwyn stumbles over her words, nervously.

“They say you’re no good. That you run in circles. The snake that eats its tail,” Willow says to her, emerging from the water. “I’ve got a bit of a rep myself.”

She stands in the clearing, the sun drying her body as they all turn to look at her. She has her back to them, but they know that she means business.

“There is no journey. There is just within. So my path is where none’s beaten, and for truth I choose the trickster.” Aluwyn smiles. “You’re putting yourself in my hands.” Willow doesn’t turn to look at her. “I expect it will come to that.”

Muffitt and the Black Knight look confused. Willow and Aluwyn look at each other, both smiling, the attraction between them rising with every breath. “I’ll know if you lie,” Willow tells her. Aluwyn claims that she always lies.

Willow smiles. “That’s how I’ll know. So, how do we start?”