The bang reverberated in my ears as I dragged myself up, plucked the book and sprinted towards Cae's limp form. I heaved one of his arms over my shoulder and snaked my arm around his waist pulling him next to me as I aimed for the door of the library. Hearing no more noises from behind me, I stopped and turned cautiously, still clutching Cae to me. The floor that I had been running on moments ago was now a gaping abyss, but the attack had stopped its approach, seeming to reach the extent of its reach. For now anyway.

"For someone who said they had no kindness to give, you're surprisingly gallant," Cae whispered in my ears. Rolling my eyes, I dropped Cae onto the floor unceremoniously and strolled to the door, relishing his moan of pain at the sudden contact.

"You can find your way back on your own, fellow Shadow." I dead-planned, his answering chuckle and a scrape of - what I assume - him getting up with labouring pants was all I heard, as I carried on through the corridor. Ignoring the sounds, I walked past the doorway and stopped at the mirror, frowning at my reflection because my eyes had gone back to normal, and now that I thought about it, my ears didn't feel as sensitive as before and the points had disappeared. But something about me seemed different... something felt wickedly wild. 

Shaking my head slightly, I went back to the stairs and climbed them towards Terra's room. 

Pausing in front of the wooden door, I felt a flood of grief suddenly escape the coils of darkness I had wound around the shards of my heart and wedge itself in my throat, the emotion strangling me. I gasped, trying to get some air into my body, blindly reaching around myself 

Without warning, I slammed into something soft and unyielding, a thing that radiated nothingness but I could feel told the story of everything, the start and end of all things. With a start, I noticed it was a tapestry, woven from strings of night as dark as sin, pictures flitting on it so quickly they blurred together, but through all of that, a single silver thread shimmering down the middle of it. My hands drifted to the silver line of their own accord, my fingers reaching through the haunting artwork and folding themselves around the bright line and gripping it tightly. 

As soon as I pulled the line, a faint click sounded, and I was hurtled out of wherever I was and slammed back into my body with a choking gasp. My chest heaved with shallow breaths, and I looked up to grab onto something to hold onto before I crumpled to the floor. My searching hands froze in place and I stared around in bewilderment and fear.

I was still in Tia Terra's house, but everything had been leeched of colour, the different things now all swathed in varying shades of greys and blacks and whites. But the weirdest things were the hundreds of shining threads that covered the whole area stretching from the roof to the floor. I was trembling now, the tremors starting from my fingers and then spreading to my whole body until eventually, my knees gave out and I slumped to the floor.

What was happening? What are these thing? Why...who..what is going on? 

My eyesight blurred, and I realised I was shedding tears, the drops trickling down my cheeks silently.

Don't worry my child.

My head snapped up so quickly, I heard my neck click loudly in the emptiness around me.

"Who are you? W...What is happening?" I asked, mortified at the stutter in my words. A beautiful giggle sounded from my right, and I swivelled towards it, only to find more emptiness.

I am you, just as you are me

"What? What do you mean? Just explain to me already!" I near shouted, my fear changing rapidly to anger.

In good time. This is your birthright Mata Dolors, you must accept me and this power.

"Mata...Do..lors? What is that? And what is this power?" I was tiring from the constant what questions by now. Another extremely beautiful sing-song giggle floated to me.

Oh but that is your name. You are special, my child, you possess this extraordinary power and I am your secondary form should you accept me.

"What will happen if I accept and what exactly is this power you preach about?"

You will become second to none. You will gain the ability to alter the real, to make what is unseen, seen. To make desires and fears alike rise into being. I can hear your heart crying, my precious child, for the Witch of Nature. But you carry her symbol so you have been blessed by her. Don't you crave to follow her last wishes? Make them pay. Accept me, accept your birthright.

The ethereal voice had utterly bewitched me, and it took everything in me to tear myself from the trance I was stuck in. I was about to refuse when I stopped myself quickly, the offer was very enticing. To be second to none? Oh how I would revel in making Amiable bow down to me, but there had to a sort of loophole to this exchange, so I asked cautiously,

"At what cost? What do I risk losing if I accept?"

Oh my, you are as smart as you are beautiful. But don't worry, I am unable to deceive you as I am you. I am magically restricted from being able to concoct a scheme that disadvantages you or puts you in any risk.

As strange as it was, I believed their every word and found myself answering clearly,

"I accept you and this power."

Just as everything went black again.