Book One – Chapter 1

Before his induction into the Emery Thurm Academy, Yves had been rather conflicted about his Lightshifter spectrum. Like a great many young wizards, he had wanted to be a Worldbender instead — someone who could shape the world, or, even more exciting, change himself. Lightshifting did not reveal its grandeur readily to fledgling wizards. It demanded years of guided instruction before its potential became visible, and years of discipline before that potential became useful. At eight years old, the prospect of crafting shards or shifting light sounded profoundly disappointing beside the allure of elemental control or shapeshifting. Shards required patience. Illusions required precision. Light required perception. Every spectrum of the Lightshifter disposition required somebody to explain why all this effort would eventually turn into something remarkable. In contrast to that, nobody had to tell you why shifting into animals was straight-up awesome. Just imagine what you could make of yourself, if you were a shapeshifter. Who you could become.

Yves had wanted to be animals, all of them. He had wanted to know how it felt like to be a pathera, like Midnight, and explore the world like her, with her. He thought about it still, sometimes, how everything would change, if he could. If he could just be someone .el s _{e ..  .   .}