Book One – Chapter 4

When he had first learned to use his ethereal mirrors, or rather, when he had begun to experience the sickening sensations of returning to his plane, he needed these feathers for hours on end. After he had seen and simultaneously been his torn mirror self for the first time, he could not close his eyes or sleep without being overcome by terrible anxiety. He had locked away his mirrors and had not dared to use his second sight or any magic, for that matter, for days. As he got better, he was left with a deep and unreasonable fear of darkness and silence, along with an absurd addiction to the feathery sounds. Nearly three years had passed since then. After a depressing period of self-discovery, Yves had learned to control his fears and suppress his urges, reasonably.

Nowadays, whenever Yves approached the leathery case concealing the feathers, Midnight’s observant eyes followed his every move a bit too closely for comfort. Today, she did not even attempt subtlety. Regardless of where she rested, she would leap up and trail Yves for every trip to and from the meditation crystal, which inevitably led past the corner shelf. She was not even polite about it, but made it her obvious obligation to walk between him and the shelves, to insert her presence squarely between Yves and the feathers.

Yves really wanted to prove that Midnight was exaggerating, but eventually, after several hours of researching books, he gave in. He had tried. Since morning, he had conjured a total of ten slumbering ducks, but they did absolutely nothing to calm him down. His mind was racing non-stop, continually returning to his fractured mirror, the transformation he underwent, and the split of consciousness he experienced.

What was beyond comprehension was the fact that since his return, a never-seen storm raged around the lighthouse — and the singular rocky path between the mainland and the promontory on which the lighthouse stood had disappeared, now fully flooded.

He had moved waves.

This was groundbreaking. It shattered everything Yves knew about the fundamentals of reality and magic. He had impacted this world from another dimension.