Book One – Chapter 6

Now, if you can still stomach to delve deeper, force yourself to question this third premise on the foundation of all that you experienced and all that you have been taught. Learning in mere paragraphs what Yves needed years to piece together, you have already expanded your limited world view from one to two interconnected dimensions. You have acknowledged that you possess a dual existence rooted in both dimensions, while this curse must be rooted in another, third dimension. But confronted with the third premise, you now realise that again, something does not seem quite right.

Because when you pick it all apart, you understand that a common beast can kill another beast to then consume its flesh. But you ask: how can a Vicha disintegrate your physical body if it cannot actually access the Material Dimension? How does your body disappear?

Likewise, you know that a sprite, whose ethereal existence is anchored in the Alladharian Dimension, can eat off your Rothar. But you cannot explain: how can the Vicha do so, if it is not anchored in the Alladharian Dimension? How can the energy just vanish?

Yes, dear novice, you know your words. You understand that consumption means that your physical matter and Rothar go from you to the Vicha. But it is not the same as when you take in Adhar to do your magic, is it? Because what you do is draw energy from a dimension in which your own existence is anchored. Your Rothar, anchored in the Alladharian Dimension, takes energy from the same dimension. And if you realise matter through magic, your energy moves from the one dimension in which your dual existence is anchored to the other. The enigma that is the Vicha, however, takes in your physical matter and your Rothar while being anchored in neither. It took something from dimensions it did not belong to.

You ask, exhausted, disturbed and impatient: Well then, what is the difference? What does it mean to access the link?

It meant that Yves would never again denigrate witchcraft or believe that he could fathom its limitations. This was dimensional transgression. The Vicha was not an enigmatic, self-sustaining spell. It was an active dimensional portal.