Book One – Chapter 3

As he delved deeper into this strange land, Yves discovered structures that defied logic and imagination. Despite its name, the mirror world did not reflect a reverse image of Yves’ reality. There were shadow constructions that twisted and turned in impossible ways, and structures that seemed to be made entirely of fractured ashen light, with twisted tree-like poles and jagged mountain formations jutting out of the ground. Yves couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe and wonder at that which he might not perceive. While he honed his skill as a glass wizard to near perfection, he was no longer able to become a seer or visionary. By day, he was a decent light shifter, but he could not see or capture light in the dark, as other glass wizards could. Not anymore. Likewise, as these skills are directly connected, he struggled to recognise the otherworldly and outerworldly without the help of his artefacts. It was a disturbing disadvantage.

Yves reached an overarching grey and fractured structure that appeared to him as a narrow tunnel surrounded by vast, thick, impenetrable grey masses. The dread of an unknown observer made him more anxious the further he moved away from his mirror. He entered cautiously, his eyes darting around as he searched for any signs of the eerie presence. While his reality and the mirror world differed greatly, he had often found that elemental forces coincided. He had entered the mirror world several times from within the lighthouse and it was here that he had first learned to see and walk this plane. By now, he recognised the thick, suffocating wades of grey that surrounded him as the ocean. Regardless of where he entered the mirror world, lakes and oceans always formed barriers as a high as heaven. He believed this unusual passage in between to be the narrow and flooded path of land that connected the lighthouse with the continent. He did not know about the pursuer’s abilities, but Yves himself could only leave the lighthouse area through this slim passage, and even here, movement was difficult, as if fighting against invisible forces. He looked for changes in the structures around him, hoping not to find any traces to the pursuer’s presence, any hints that he had already crossed the tunnel. But everything seemed untouched. If the wizard was still pursuing him, he did not yet find him in this isolated part of both their planes.