Early next morning found them deep in a forest. The whimsical trees featured leaves of all shapes and sizes. Some looked like stars or little men, others crescent moons, spirals or anything else left to the imagination; different shades of green on the same tree. They swept and swayed and rustled in the warm breeze.

Magie’s boots crunched a thick blanket of such leaves. She hopped over roots, ducked branches and pressed forth no matter the terrain. Everything felt clean and calm.

“Is this a forest or a jungle?” Magie asked.

“It’s a forest,” Mr. Shade said.

“How do you know it’s not a jungle?” Magie swung from a low vine.

“The climate’s too dry. I mean, it’s not raining,” he replied.

“It feels fairly moist to me,” she said.

“I don’t know Magie. Can we continue?”

“All I’m saying is at what point does a forest become a jungle? Because this is a very junglie forest,” she said, shuffling leaves into a pile with her boot.

“This forest is as close as I could manage but our destination is still far off. Evnyance is a realm of dreams and dreams are fickle, shifty things. Little pearls in the sand of a tide strum beach. There are select few who can control them but more with influence. I’m going to teach you how to lucidity walk. Do you remember that?” Mr. Shade asked, moving the conversation forward.

“No,” Magie replied. She was experimenting with her powers by blasting the pile with light from her fingertips.

“Well, damn; that would have made this considerably easier. Waking dreams have an essence or feel to them. Something that can’t be dissected or quantified by traditional means. You have to feel the dream and which way it’s flowing. Unfortunately, hailing from the main universe of Rainbow’s Wane, I’m not familiar with the process either. So we’ll both be learning together. Magie? Magie!” Mr. Shade stopped upon seeing her distracted making flowers grow at accelerated rates.

“Huh?” she asked.

He cast her shadow onto a wide tree trunk and crossed its arms, “Magie, this is important. The next shard is hidden deep within a forgotten orchard and the only way there is to shift these woods to find it. Would you please pay attention?”

“Such a bother. It’s boring and I want to see all the magic and amazing spells I can cast. I remember more and more. Like this!” Magie fired a bolt of lightning, which blew the tree to splinters.

“Spells are actually feats of signature engineering. You’re manipulating your core signature energy in ways it usually takes advanced crystalline processors to achieve. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” -Arthur C. Clark,” Mr. Shade said smugly.

“Well, whatever it is, it’s boring. Spells should be fun!” she destroyed another tree in a blast of green light. “Besides, is it not important that I’m familiar with my powers?”

“If we had all the time in the world then, yes, but we’re on a ticking clock. A maniacal time piece speeding us frantically in but one direction. The traveler’s bones are set to his watch after all. So we’ll have to learn as we go,” he told her.

“Fine.”

“Alright. Have you ever lucid dreamed? I want you to walk forward but be aware of the feel of your surroundings,” Mr. Shade said.

Magie began to walk, “the forest is lush and full of life. The birds chirping, trees and ferns. It’s like they’re all vibrating with energy.”

“That’s good. Orchards are where new dreams are born. They literally grow like fruit on trees. Go the direction you feel new life,” Mr. Shade instructed. Truth be told as a man of science, the fatuous nature of Evnyance made him uneasy. Although, like everything else, he hid it well.

Magie turned, she smelled the air. Its fresh and earthy aroma flowed through her nostrils and filled her lungs. The sunlight felt warm on her face. She closed her eyes and could almost see the golden lifeforce beating in each and every leaf.

“I can feel it. The spirit of the trees,” she smiled.

“Just like you and I, every plant has a unique soul signature. The dreams too. Channel that feeling, like when you’re first falling asleep. We need to find new dreams,” Mr. Shade instructed.

“New dreams. Yes. This way,” Magie walked faster. Her eyes were closed but the energy guided her through the woods, over creeks and across fields of grass. The trees changed as she traveled. They grew fuller, younger, more brimming with life. She could see it flowing to the branches and accumulating into fruits. But they weren’t fruits. They were something different.

She opened her eyes. The trees held objects on stems. Wrenches, chairs, tables and pens grew on one tree and an assortment of whimsical, brightly colored animals on another. Yet another held sculptures of bronze, marble and crystal.

“Amazing,” Magie marveled.

“You found an orchard,” Mr. Shade said. “That’s good. Incredible in fact. Most beings take decades of training to lucidity walk. Now try to find bigger trees.”

Magie walked, no she ran. She felt confident and collected. Cool in her budding abilities. The forest shifted and trees became larger. Now they held hovercars and starships, whimsically impractical vehicles with twisted gears, bright red pipes and spoked wheels of varying sizes.

As she continued the trees grew larger yet. Towering monoliths with trunks a hundred meters in diameter. The leaves that fell stretched as big as she. Entire buildings hung from their massive branches.

“Perfect,” said Mr. Shade. “This is where we want to be. We’re looking for a library.”

“I take it back; this is fun,” Magie wiped her face on her cape.

“Alright but now we should proceed with caution. We’re nearing one of Phallun’s vaults. Like Ravenessence, it’s in such a difficult place to reach that he probably didn’t expect anyone to find it. Otherwise it would be crawling with nightmares. But don’t let your guard down; he knows we’ve already raided a few and will be ready this time,” he said.

“That wasn’t a difficult find.”

“Well, for most people it would be.”

They searched the orchard, feeling like ants beneath the massive trees. In took a good ten minutes to get from one to the next as they had to climb root walls and crawl over massive foliage.

“Up there. I don’t suppose you can fly?” Mr. Shade pointed to a hanging building.

Magie jumped in the air but fell disappointingly down to the ground. “No, I can’t remember. I remember Fabel taught me but not how to do it,” she frowned.

“Well, we’re going to have to find a way to climb up this tree,” he said. “Is there an animal you can turn into?”

“Not unless you see one,” Magie grasped at the bark. Hard and smooth, it would be difficult to keep her grip. She climbed a few meter but slid right back down.

“We’re going to have to think of something. What am I saying? There’s a whole orchard of things to work with. Lets go back and find some tools,” he smacked his shady brow.

Magie ventured back to the tree with vehicles. She swung from a low branch and landed in the seat of some strange contraption; a boat of sorts. It shined seafoam green with bronze pipes. No roof was to be found but it had a sleekly curved windshield and a roll bar reached over her head. The interior was composed of pink leather, the sort of thing that really seemed like it would clash with the color scheme but somehow fit just right. The force of her landing dislodged it from its stem.

“Do you know how to drive this thing?” Mr. Shade asked.

“Does it matter?” Magie said as she floored the gas peddle. To both their surprise, the boat roared forward on a tide of soap bubbles. Magie could see them floating out in the rear view mirror. It functioned the same as a powerboat but on waves it provided.

“Tree left! Right! Watch out! Holy sevtch!” Mr. Shade yelled as Magie swerved.

“Hush up, I’m driving!” Magie hollered back.

“Can you actually see out the windshield?” he asked.

“If I don’t slide down I can’t reach the pedals,” she replied while hitting the gas with her tip toes.

“I’ll work the pedals, you focus on steering,” Mr. Shade said as they nearly ran head long into a tree. Magie pulled herself up in the seat while he pressed the gas but some ethereal force.

“We’re reaching the larger grove again. Keep a sharp eye for a library hanging from one’s branches,” Mr. Shade said.

“What exactly defines how a library looks?” Magie asked.

“I don’t know, watch for the tree with buildings hanging from it.”

“There!” Magie yelled. She sped strait for the mammoth tree.

“Magie, you’re going to hit it! Magie?!” Mr. Shade yelled. She pulled up on the wheel a breath away from colliding and the boat sailed vertically up the trunk.

“That miraculously worked out. How’d you know the boat could do that?” he asked.

“I didn’t,” Magie continued to scale the tree, leaving a cloud of bubbles in her wake. She turned onto a branch, as big as a highway, and sailed over to a hanging building with sculptures of books decorating it. The boat coasted to a gradual stop. They exited and climbed down a stem holding the building. From there they entered through a skylight.

 

“That was quite the adventure and we have only just arrived,” Mr. Shade said. They looked around. No electronic lights were present but instead the building was aglow with thousands of candles, resting on the shelves.

“This is the kind of thing Evnyance produces that wouldn’t happen in the real world. I sense no life yet all these candles are all lit. Not to mention the paper books. It’s been hundreds of years since I’ve seen physical copies. Everything now is digital through holoscreens,” he commented.

“I’m remembering something, about books and TriCora. I was studying a bestiary of Luvega. It is strange; that part of my life was when I was older than I am now. Adult things. I’m getting scraps of memories from all different time periods,” Magie said.

“That’s natural, I mean as natural as this completely unique situation can be. As we collect more of your soul it should fill the gaps in your memory as well. Speaking of which, can you sense it?” Mr. Shade asked.

“Yes, faintly. It’s here but then not here. I don’t know,” Magie scratched her head.

“Look around,” he replied.

Magie did. They had entered on the third floor and a balcony over the lower parts of the library. There were books, of course, but much more than one might expect. They overflowed the shelves, ladders, and were stacked in great piles with candles burning on top them. Beads of wax dribbled down their covers and pooled into patterns of runes and mandalas quite unlike the waking world.

Magie found an elevator but it too was packed with books. She descended the stairs, following a convoluted path where they were absent. The overflowing library played out not unlike a labyrinth, with walls of stacked books.

She wandered on a familiar feeling, like before, hoping it would guide her to the shard. She wandered for some time, someplace. Something or other yet she couldn’t place it. All around the library in its rustic elegance and clutter.

Magie remembered how she had loved books, loved learning, especially about animals. But as of now they seemed boring and bland. This excursion didn’t excite her and she craved excitement. Would collecting her soul shard and growing alter her personality so much? Did she truly want to grow up? Unfortunately, as dictated by the burning scar on her arm, she lacked choice in the matter.

On a whim, Magie stole a book from the shelf and flipped it open. To her surprise, a viscus gel sloshed out. It spilled and oozed all over her clothes, changing them to a grey suit, fedora, and tie.

“Eew,” Magie attempted to brush it off but to no avail. She looked down. The book had landed in a black and white puddle on the floor.

“Careful,” Mr. Shade warned.

Magie began to slink away but tripped on a low stack of books and fell in the mess. A cool wetness clung to her clothes, as if diving in water. She was sucked into a spiraling void of black and white and landed in a heap on hard asphalt.

People passed her by; the women all wore modest dresses with hats and heels and the men, suits and ties. Old-timey automobiles with bulging curves and round headlights honked in high pitched tones and Magie scrambled off the street. A bustling city stretched around them. No colors were to be found. The buildings, the sky, everything was in greyscale.

“What the oth?” Magie glanced around in shock. The sky, the townhouses, cars. Her skin and hair were the only apparent patches of color in the whole world. Nobody noticed.

“I should have guessed. The books act as gateways to other dreams, like fruits in the orchard. Although these have yet to solidify. Dreams within dreams,” Mr. Shade commented.

They walked the crowded sidewalk down a steep hill. Trolley cars passed them by. Palm trees swayed here and there. In the distance a great bridge was held aloft by metal cables.

“San Francisco. I should have guessed. Looks like the 1940s. Gods damn I’ve lived a long time,” Mr. Shade said.

“But, aren’t you dead?” Magie asked.

“Technically I died but my soul didn’t pass through the ghate,” he replied.

“Oh.”

“I don’t suppose we’re any closer to the shard?” he asked.

“Yes, faintly. I can feel it stronger here yet still far away,” Magie told him. She continued to walk, nose held high. It was a typical San Francisco day, warm and sunny. She continued several blocks without anything else unusual happening.

It was so odd though, the black and white. Magie found it difficult to judge light-sources or depth.

Then they heard something; a woman’s voice. She was walking down the street, talking to someone. But no one was near and furthermore no one seemed to notice her speech. She was different than the others, clearer. The world focused around her.

“What started as a harmless case locating a lost cat has suddenly turned into a triple homicide. I was hired by a police officer, a rookie, but I don’t work for no cops and I certainly ain’t on the city’s payroll. I’m a private eye, it says so on my door, and I’m cracking this case my way,” she muttered and lit a cigarette. She had a strong voice, although not particularly deep, and the muscles to go with it. Mr. Shade’s keen eye noticed her posture, her walk, and that she was packing a pistol in her breast pocket.

“What’s happening?” asked Magie. “I can hear her but everyone else’s conversations are muffled.

“We’re in a book. This is her story. She’s the main character,” Mr. Shade deduced.

“Ooo, lets follow her,” Magie squealed. She cast a spell to lower her notice; not her visibility but she appeared unimportant to those around her.

A taxi cab bumbled up and pulled over on the street beside her. Despite the surroundings, it had the words “Yellow Cab Co.” printed on the door but Magie barely had time to read it as it swung open with a start. A timid and not particularly well built young man stepped out. He wore a suit and tie like everyone else.

“Son of a gun, rookie, what are you doing? I’ve been looking all over for ya. And don’t get out; we’re leaving right away,” the woman said and shoved him back into the cab.

Magie excitedly climbed in the front seat. The spell worked; they didn’t notice her, even when she turned around and poked her head back to get a better view of the conversation.

“Why’re you looking at me like I’m some dumb broad? I’m Louise Angleman and I shoot straighter than you or any of the men you work for!” the woman, Louise, twirled a 45 automatic on her index finger. “I’m the ace here. You hire me, you get results. I know you want to keep this on the hush. The chief thinks it’s bupkis. That’s why you didn’t bring the black and white. Now you get ready because things are going to light up real quick. Driver, take us to the Flamingo Club!”

The young officer barely had time to open his mouth before Louise spoke again, “there’s a dame where we’re going, a kid actually, but don’t you be fooled by her demeanor. She’s no baby doll. She’s the don’s daughter, bad business you hear? And she’s killed more men than you’ll ever care to know.”

“We get it. It’s the 40s,” Mr. Shade said.

Louise paused, not fully processing his voice, but as if something had distracted her. She continued talking, “her name’s Ann Pisces of the Pisces family, a real piece of work. And she’s a sadist. If anybody knows what happened to your partner, I’ll bet your badge it’s her. And let me make this clear rookie: that’s exactly what you’ll be betting if you carry on. Keep your nose to the ground. We’re here.”

The cab stopped at a club with big neon letters and a flamingo above the entrance. Night had fallen in the few minutes they’d been driving, without cause or transition. They’d arrived in a different scene than they’d departed.

Magie followed them into the club. Tables lined the perimeter, cocktails, food with dancing and a band in the center. The ambiance crackled with noise and energy, music and laughter. Bright lights hung all around. Were they colored? Who could say? But none of that registered any significance except a certain table off to the side.

A woman, mid twenties, sat there surrounded by tough looking thugs with scars on their cheeks, cigars and everything one would expect out of typical gangsters. More hats, suits and ties. She was kissing one and slapping the next. They all leaned over to light her cigarette. People in the room steered well clear of them.

Louise watched them out of the corner of her eye but sat at the bar for a drink. She ordered one, a Manhattan, and downed in in one swig. The young officer sat beside her.

“I knew she frequents this club, likes a good time. Here’s the plan rookie, when she leaves we tail her. Keep your distance and play it cool,” Louise told him.

She didn’t wait long before one of the gangsters took a notice of her long hair. He wasn’t bright, that was a given, but proposed a different kind of trouble. He strolled over and began to make himself acquainted.

“Hello doll. It’s a bit hot for that big coat, ain’t it? Come on loosen up. Let me buy you a drink,” he said.

“Shove off,” Louise replied.

“Come on baby you don’t mean that,” he grabbed her arm. Louise slugged him, knocking him hard to the ground.

“I like her!” Magie said.

The other gangsters witnessed the scene and hurried over. Soon Louise was decking men left and right. The rookie tried to join in but took a hit square to the jaw.

“I have to help!” Magie jumped into the brawl. She blasted one of them with light from her hand. Not the best idea as this brought guns into the mix. Louise tipped over a table for cover.

Shots rang out and people cleared out. Running and screaming. Louise grabbed the rookie and vaulted behind the bar when the table started looking like Swiss cheese. Bottles exploded in a rain of glass behind them.

The situation was looking dire. She was good but they were many and well armed, all of them. The club looked like a war zone.

“Listen rookie, we’ve got to make a run for the backroom. It’s our only out on my lead...” Louise reloaded her gun.

“Scram, the bookworm’s coming!” one of the gangsters hollered. This caught their attention as they all went quite pale. They cleared out in a hurry.

The rookie looked like he was about to ask something but, true to his character, didn’t get a word out before Louise interrupted him, “listen, you’ve heard campfire stories, kid dreams of monsters hiding under your bed? Well, they’re real. The bookworm’s a real monster strait from your nightmares. I don’t know how, if it’s an extraterrestrial or something from the RAND Corporation, but we’ve got to clear out in a hurry!”

“The bookworm?” Magie asked.

The roof began to shake. Plaster chips tumbled to the floor, then lights, then wooden beams as a demon burst through the ceiling. Unlike the rest of the book, it was colored, ruby red with violet splotches. A lion’s head slithered down. Its main was braided and shape pincers protruded from the sides of its mouth. A long snake like body flowed from it, belly covered unevenly in human arms and back crested in a shell of human skulls also with pincers. All glossed in rough fur. A centipede tail was found at its tip, rank of venom. It tore a gangster in half and eyed Magie.

“Magie run; that thing’s not from the book!” Mr. Shade yelled.

“I can take it!” Magie flipped onto a table, blasting green light from her hands. It neither flinched nor faltered and lunged at her, sending her skidding across the room. She landed in a pile of broken wood.

“Magie, the bookworm’s not a nightmare; it’s something more powerful. An ancient demon. You have to run!” Mr. Shade told her.

“No, I’ve got this,” Magie formed a golden scythe in her hands. She leaped at it, swinging wildly. It caught and crushed the weapon in its mighty jaws and flung her against the wall. Magie’s breath was knocked out of her.

She struggled to get up. The bookworm slithered forth but some force held it back. It was Mr. Shade. “I can’t hold it: run!” he yelled. Magie nodded and took off as the demon broke free.

Police cars had gathered at the entrance of the club. Magie bolted out and sprang off one’s roof. The bookworm plowed strait through them; flipping the cars over as it passed. Magie wall jumped up an alley onto the roof with it close behind. It scuffled up the wall.

“There a portal!” Mr. Shade pointed. Magie jumped through the black and white spiral. Back in the library a book burst open and she flew from the gelatinous mess that spilled out.

“That wasn’t the same book we entered,” he observed. “They must be connected. Try another one; we have to keep moving.”

Without a glance at the title, Magie grabbed the nearest book and flung it open. Again gel sloshed out but this time in pastel colors. She was sucked into another portal.

She landed in something soft and sticky. A sweet aroma wafted through her nostrils. This world appeared to be drawn with crayons. Pleasant grassy lawns of sugarcane, gingerbread houses and layer-cake hills greeted them. Even the sun in the sky was a smiling yellow cupcake.

Cookie people skipped gleefully down frosting streets. There was a milk fountain and cars with gumdrop hubcaps.

“Run, the bookworm won’t be far behind. Magie!” Mr. Shade said, finding Magie to have taken a large bite out of a sugar cookie man.

“She bit me! Oh my god, she took a chunk out of my arm! Oh the humanity! Someone call an ambulance!” the cookie wailed in a comically high pitched tone.

Magie ran as the bookworm burst through the portal. It crushed cracker houses with peanut butter cement and left little but a trail of crumbs behind. The cookie citizens screamed in childlike voices and ran around in circles in a panic. They bumped into each other and slipped on sprinkles. Some began to cry.

Magie came across a solid black wall, which ran both ways on to the horizon. It drastically clashed with the otherwise childish style of the story. She pounded it with her fists to find them stained with ink. She blasted it to no avail. The wall was impenetrable and the bookworm close behind. Sensing the impending peril she dodged aside as the bookworm plowed into it head first. The demon bounced back, dazed without leaving a scratch on the barrier. The one element it couldn’t force its way through. Magie jumped down a manhole and into another portal.

The book she emerged from had an inkwell spilled across half its open pages. The wall in its world must have been caused by this illegibility. There was simply no more to read. She didn’t have time to ponder it though as the bookworm sprang from the book in a slosh of literary lacrimation. Magie hurried to the next book.

Magie continued from one book to another, into their gelatinous portals and bursting out through a different section. Swashbucklers, sci-fis, fantasies... which were looking more and more like her everyday life. Cover to cover, end to end. All different styles of illustration. Had she lost the bookworm? She didn’t see it.

Magie looked around the library everywhere except where she was walking and knocked over a large stack of books. They flopped open and their contents spilled together in an oozing puddle of various colors and letters on the floor. She didn’t have time to contemplate the occurrence as the skitter of a thousand hands could be heard in the distance. She hopped in.

The world within featured an odd amalgamation of all of the books. It had black and white buildings in torn strips straight across from a cookie park with pirate ships stranded in the sand box. Origami bushes grew from decks of cards, pink pastures and mile long starships. The sky shone blue of all styles like someone had began a watercolor painting and transitioned mediums several times before settling on crayon.

People from cartoons, baked goods and graphic novels, some inked dark in solid lines, others sketched light and scratchy, gathered in the odd neighborhood. They took in the situation as relaxed or frantic as their genres dictated. The cookie people seemed delighted to meet new friends but most were more cautious. They didn’t have time to fully access their new world however as war horns sounded as an army of ogres crested the hilltop on the horizon.

Their skin was green with red warpaint. They stood meters tall, wielding giant clubs and axes. Some rode massive boars pulling catapults, cannons and other siege weapons. A particularly important looking ogre in a crown of skulls yelled something and they charged.

“The hoards arrive! Make ready for battle!” a knight in shining armor called out. Others dawned their swords, mounted steeds and prepared for the coming fight.

They raced gallantly ahead but found themselves hopelessly outnumbered as the ogres ransacked the town. Flames flared, buildings burned and every conceivable plot-line crumbled into nonsense.

Some pirates stayed to defend their ship while others fled like rats. Monochromatic police officers fired pistols on the ogres but with little more effect than bee stings. Mechs, clanking on tall mechanical legs, stomped around in disarray. A few of the cookie people even remained to fling gobs of frosting.

Louise too could be found in the fray. She took out several ogres with shots between their eyes before wielding a fallen knight’s sword when her bullets ran out.

“Magie, we have to help them!” Mr. Shade said.

“I’m one step ahead of you,” she replied bounding in.

Magie climbed to the top of the tallest tree she could find. From there she surveyed the battle; the ogres were many but they were just one story. Together the other characters outnumbered them ten to one.

She felt a commanding voice rumbling through her chest, one that had lead an army against the Heart of Crystal order. A newfound confidence and purpose boiled up. She knew what she had to do.

“Attention! Calling all literary characters! You can beat the ogres and defend your books but you have to work together,” Magie’s voice rang out across the realm; it carried to every creature clear and true as if amplified tenfold. “Knights in armor, hold the perimeter. All who can fight, join them. Take a strategic position on top that hill. If you have guns or bows climb to the roofs of the noir townhouses. Cookie people, we need frosting, lots of frosting. Make it thick and sticky with honey then pour it from the roofs, down the hill. Robots and mechs, aim for the ogres’ siege instruments and cannons. Don’t let them set up. If you can fly, bombard them with frosting. Everyone else tend to the wounded. Go!”

The characters heeded her words. Some joined the fray right away while others lingered but eventually they too did their part. Louise, and other authority figures rallied the troops and directed them. Everybody had a role to play.

Magie leaped into battle, forming a scythe in her hands. She flipped off ogres, blasting them left and right. Furthermore, she quickly found she was really good at it; the enemy seemed to move in slow motion. This was awesome! Although her strength was not on par with the other warriors, her magic and agility more than compensated.

Magie bounded across the ogre’s heads. She saw him, the general, or commander, or whatever ogres had. His skulls and feathers stood out like a summer squash in a jar of ugly pickles, riding an equally extravagant and large boar. He was hers! This was her moment of glory! She would slay their leader and earn her place in legend.

But the hoard’s archers had entered range. The readied a volley of burning arrows for the sky. The casualties would be heavy. Magie paused, what to do? She was so close to glory but, no, she must save her troops. She climbed the fire escape of the black and white buildings and cast a magical barrier to repel the enemy’s arrows. The onslaught took a harsh toll. In her prime, she remembered deflecting blasts from a much larger and more advanced army but as of now she lacked the power. Arrows continued to rain and she was all that was keeping them from their deadly purpose. Too many, too much! Her barrier broke and she collapsed on the roof.

It was enough; the ogres began to flee. Victory was upon them. The characters cheered but there was much to be done. The battlefield was strewn with the injured and fallen. They bled not blood but whatever medium they were inked from.

Magie felt exhausted but smiled. She had won. She climbed to her feet but, at that moment, the bookworm fell from the sky on top of her. It knocked her to the hard cement. She rolled and attempted to blast it away but was weak, too weak to even flinch it. The demon roared a horrible, blood curdling screech and dug into her chest with its venomous pincers. The searing pain! Magie cried out in agony.

“The bookworm!” someone called. Characters rushed over to assist but it was too late. The world was fading to black. Magie collapsed and began to burn of decay.

 

 

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