- Instead of continuing on with Roland and Maud's story, Possession's ninth chapter takes us directly into the written world of Christabel LaMotte.
- Specifically, Chapter 9 is a transcription of one of LaMotte's short stories—a folk tale called "The Threshold."
- The tale begins with a young man who has set out on a quest to find a special place "his father had told him of" (9.1).
- At dusk, the young man finds a group of standing stones and is greeted there by three ethereal women—one golden, one silver, and one "steely grey" —who ask him to choose between them (9.5).
- Each of the women offers special gifts to the young man. The golden one offers earthly power, the silver one offers his secret heart's desires, and the grey one offers him the Herb of Rest.
- Thinking of his father, who sent him out to find the Herb of Rest, the young man chooses the "steely grey" woman. She leads him through the threshold of the standing stones and down towards her kingdom…
- …and there the story trails off.