Mike Shevdon - The Road to Bedlam

"Half an hour or an hour on foot, maybe. Less in a car, assuming you can get a car up there." The only road in sight wound along the bottom of the valley, but there might be side roads up the hillside, hidden in the shadow of the hill. "If there's a Way-point it would be quicker."

"There is no Way-point nearby other than the one we arrived on. It is a closed end. That's why we are here. The only path from here is back where we came."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Learn, Dogstar. Watch and learn."

He stood, gazing across the valley. I sensed a creeping spread of power, enveloping and concealing, hiding us from view.

"I can do that myself," I commented.

A sudden chill fell on the hilltop, so sudden and distinct that it made me focus my attention on him. He was drawing in power, building a store of energy. The tips of my ears were suddenly cold and I wrapped my arms about me against the hard edge in the breeze.

Around Raffmir flickering fingers of light formed a nimbus. It built until he was outlined in white fire. He glanced sideways at me, grinned, and then stepped forward.

The light flashed and blinked out and it was a moment before I could see again. I was alone on the sunset hilltop.

I looked about me, searching for where he had hidden himself and then realised the point of the demonstration. Shielding my eyes, I searched the treeline opposite. Against the dark woodland, there was a darker patch in the distance. The figure raised an arm and waved slowly. Even from there, I could tell he was grinning back at me.

It was a grin that said, "I know something you don't."

After a moment, I began to see a glow around him. He made no attempt to hide it this time, and even from a distance I could see the white fire dancing across his shoulders. There was a bright flash, and he was walking back across the grass towards me.

"You will not allow it, but you are impressed."

"It's a fine trick."

"Do you always disparage that which you do not have? I find it tires me."

"It helps me keep things in perspective."

"I will give you free advice, cousin. If you stay that sour, the wind will change and you will stay that way. Learn to appreciate the things you are given and you will have a better time of it."

"Never look a gift horse in the mouth."

"Exactly so."

"And yet, gift horses do have a knack of dropping dead at inconvenient moments, don't they?"

"That cynical streak will give you ulcers. Now I want you to try. You may find it more difficult. The ground has cooled and it will be some time until it recovers. It will be possible, nevertheless."

"You want me to do that."

"You are wraithkin born, and gifted with power. Will you disappoint me?"

"I'm not here to please you, Raffmir."

"Nevertheless, it is a useful skill, is it not?"

I had to admit, the ability to travel a distance in an instant might come in useful. "Show me."

"Stand here. You need to see where you are going. Memory is not enough, you need to see your destination. If you can't see it, you can't go there."

I felt his magic creep out around us, concealing us once more.

"Focus on the distant point. Bring it closer with your eyes, if you can. What do you see between here and there?"

"Nothing."

"Yet there remains a distance between you. There is something. There is air, and space, and the distance between."

"Of course."

"But you are wraithkin. The space between is your space. The gaps between the gaps belong to you. If you concentrate, you can step around the distance. You can get from here to there without travelling in between."

"How? I don't see…"

"Don't see! Your sight is not to be trusted. It tells you lies. It says there is distance between here and there when there is merely a flimsy curtain with the world depicted upon it. Step behind that curtain and out again, do you see?"

"I'm not seeing it."

"More power; draw what you need. Use more than your eyes. Find the gaps, the cracks and crevices between the walls of the universe. Your sight tells you the world is solid. Your touch confirms the weight and texture of reality. But you are wraithkin. You have other senses. You can sense that the world is nowhere near as solid as it wants you to believe. It is thin and insubstantial. Push through."

"Into what?"

"Never mind what. Feel. Your element calls you as it calls all the wraithkin. Answer it and you will see."

And I did see. As I gathered power into me, the world began to dim. The sense of a solid reality fell away and I began to perceive it as a construct layered on top of something else. It lost its density and its stiffness and became more flexible, more permeable.

"Now. Focus on the hillside. Focus and step through."

I looked across at the copse of trees. I saw through the space between, not across the valley, but through space itself. And I stepped.

A blinding light flashed into my eyes. I raised my hand, but the light had already vanished. I was facing trees. The distant copse was in front of me, the leaves fluttering in the evening breeze. I turned and the valley stretched out beneath my feet. On the far side, a lone figure stood. There was no wave or acknowledgment. He simply watched.

He was right, it was impressive. I stared across the valley. As the man in the museum had said earlier, you get naught for nowt round 'ere. The Feyre were like that. They understood the basic economics of favour and return, and Raffmir had just shown me something quite spectacular. There was real value in it, so what did he want in return? Across the valley, he did not move.

I wrapped myself in misdirection, unwilling to be as open and obvious as he had been. Opening the well inside myself, I drew energy into me, letting it pull power from the surroundings. The light breeze acquired bite as the temperature fell. I lifted my hand to see filaments of white light drifting up my fingers, creating a tingling sensation and forming a corona around my hand. I let the power build, feeling a tension as the air and ground around me cooled.

The world dimmed before me, the hill becoming a shadow hill, the valley obscured in the dusk-light. It made me feel that I would fall through the delicate membrane on which I stood. In that veiled light, I could see other shadows, a wrinkle in the substance of the hill, flimsy curtains in the air, shifting layers in the air. I wondered what they meant, and whether I was seeing distortions in the fabric of reality or if it was simply the way things were formed.

Lifting my eyes, I saw that the sky had dimmed, taking on a twilight quality. The overcast clouds had faded, leaving a blue-grey mantle, prickled with faint stars. A sickly green-tinged moon lay close on the horizon. It was a world beneath the world, a level below or alongside, matched but subtly different.

I reminded myself why I was here and focused upon the far hilltop. This time it was easier to slip behind the curtain of reality and re-emerge on the far side. There was no rush. I didn't feel flung across space as I did on the Way. It was only a step. Raffmir waited patiently, his gaze focused far out where the purple hills merged with the grey cloud.

"You're right. It is impressive."

"What? No word of thanks? No gratitude?"

"Tell me first what you would have in return. There is something, isn't there?"

"I offer you my assurances. I would ask nothing from you that you would not give, and gladly. There, that is generous, is it not?"

I smiled wryly and shook my head. "I have no idea, Raffmir. But I will wait to offer my thanks until I know what it is you want in return."

"I desire only your trust, and your silence. The time will come soon enough when you will have to choose and it is never an easy choice between love and honour. I do not envy you."