Book One – Chapter 3

As he walked, he kept his eyes peeled for any signs of a pursuer. Yves was no stranger to having a stalker, and he was quite familiar with believing to have a stalker. He actually felt stalked and watched more often than not, especially when Midnight was not around to reassure him with her senses that there was no beast, or rival, or witch. Or elf. If you must know, he was currently stalked by a quite horrible witch curse; in his dimension, that is. But all of that paled in comparison to this moment right now. This now was simply horrible, even for the experienced stalkee.

With his surroundings more refined, the distinction of grey shapes was much clearer, but he kept seeing nothing out of the unordinary. This did not put him at ease. It just raised his anxiety. And the fact that he really needed a distraction to calm down while he should not leave his guard down raised it even more. But there was nothing except the fractured shadow beings. They seemed to avoid him and flock to the closed path. With his improved sight, Yves could recognise their movement several steps in the distance and their shapes more distinguished. He could also see, for some reason, that they were engulfed by countless layers of nets of light. It appeared as if the nets were not breaking as they passed, but remained attached to the creatures like harnesses. It was an eerie sight to behold, and an equally disturbing explanation for their sluggish, heavy gait.

Yves looked from them back to his imminent surroundings. The world was full of extensive, perfect nets of light fragments. In contrast to the creatures, he could pass through them. They opened and closed around him as he walked. This is how light behaved in his world, too, though you would have to travel to the rarest of unspoilt places to find it in such elaborate and natural structures. The nets were countless, spanning the clearing from end to end and reaching far off into the sky. Yves needed to regulate and limit his second sight to not get lost in the sheer geometrical beauty they brought to the fractured formations they framed and adorned.

His mirror, too, stood out more. Yves saw it in the distance, shimmering ever so slightly amidst the overwhelming towers of impenetrable ashen waves, its smooth surface a wondrous drop of clear light in this fractured world.