Book One – Chapter 7

Yves initiated the Somsaraa ritual. Fears surged through him that his mirror might shatter upon attempting to return with mirror world energy, but reducing his form was impossible. He was breaking, he was losing his mind under the pressure and the pain, and yet, he pushed himself further to forge a path for his original Rothar like he did last time. It was crude, unfinished, insufficient, but it directed the ritual to first draw what was truly him,  his core and the Jabarrah before pulling on the mirror world energies comprising his form. His senses constricted drastically. The process was messy, rushed, and wrong, yet he felt his essence surge, the Vicha reach his core, his mind fracturing, and his reality shifting.

During the dimensional transition, the stalker’s lingering presence pressed upon Yves. The return to his reality, the shift from one form to another, was more disorienting than ever before. As his consciousness split, his ethereal form, now a towering distortion of broken light, bathed the void in disturbing radiance. It stood in stark contrast to his frail humanoid body. In a fleeting moment, Yves glimpsed the injuries inflicted by the Vicha’s veins — visible on exposed arms and part of his neck where clothing and the Jabarrah’s silver form offered no cover. The sight and sensation were jarring; Yves no longer recognised himself, neither in this distorted figure of a wizard nor in the ethereal amalgamation falling apart above him.

All the strength and power that surged through him moments ago now abandoned him, replaced by a mess of exhausted energies and flesh that felt painful and wrong — the aftermath of the Vicha’s touch.