Twilight was just getting warmed up above the baron corridors of Nibian’s Fort. The quick pitter patter of a single sandaled man could be heard, if one were to listen carefully in the right place. It had been a long time since anyone had had cause to be afraid in the city. Some two hundred years in fact. But now a just over middle aged robed man was running for his life. Already he was exhausted, run into the ground by the laughing Riders. He daren’t look behind him, for fear of actually seeing the monstrosities. He could feel them getting closer though, as he sprinted, and cried, hoping that when they caught him he would at least have a swift release. The Riders would only come after people when they knew no one could stop them.

In the end it was not the chasers who did him in, but an uneven paving slab, tripping him, and sending him stumbling hard and fast into a stone wall. Death was instant. The pursuers dismounted, and the leader took out a crudely crafted knife with a handle made of bone. He walked over to the corpse, and pulled its head back so that with two swift movements he could relieve the body of its emerald green gems. He held them up for the others to cheer at. Then, as swiftly as they had arrived, the Riders set off again, leaving the blind mans eyeless cadaver for the authorities to find.

Vorn swore, arriving too late to be of help. He descended from the rooftop, partially falling, and partially seeming to glide down. He had a long billowing cape which flapped behind him, and a four foot blade straddled to his hip. His landing was flawless. He didn’t do it for show though, as there was no one about to spot him, he just did it that way because the idea of hurting himself had never appealed. He strode over to the man he had meant to be watching. Against all warning he had slipped out, thinking he could make a run for it. A prayer uttered itself from his dusted lips, and a solitary tear forced itself out, and down his face.

There was no time for grievance now though. One of the Riders must have noticed him, for they were now turning back. The six foot man was peeved at this. Whilst his charge had been defenceless, he was far from it, and they were going to try and assault him on his territory? He would never live that down if he lost. The blade slithered out of its sheath, as if it wanted him to fight. The golf ball sized opal in the hilt reflected the blazing light of the post sunset sky. Vorn raised the sword up. The Riders were less than one hundred metres away, and fast approaching. Their dark weapons held in attack ready positions. In the light, the blade appeared to glow with a fiery aura, its edges glistening with an eager sharpness. The white streak in Vorn’s hair fluttered in the wind. He was ready now.

He made a swiping motion to bring the blade about, ready for a horizontal strike at the first one. The pale faces of the gruesome marauders were unphased by this. They had seen far worse a vigilante down, and were sure to see a fair few more after this one. They were but yards away now. Vorn swung with the strength in both of his arms, throwing his weight behind it as well.

In a far distant city, it poured in the dead of night. A stoked fire roared in the heath, showing its pleasure at having just been fed. Five cowled figures were glumly talking about the tactics of the war they had all been dragged into. No matter which way they tried to spin in the news, they couldn’t help reaching the same conclusion. They were still losing. On the streets, in the towns, or even in the open fields, the new up rising of the Death Riders, and the others aligned to their ominous cause, were wreaking havoc. “Faern, this latest development is quite disturbing. It is the fact that the Death Riders are now being so organised, so meticulous, that is worrying me. They used to be a lot more savage, driven by primal drives… now… now they’re…” She couldn’t put words to what they were.

“Controlled.” Finished the one who was leaning against the window, looking out at the cloud covered sky.

“Exactly! No one is supposed to be able to control them! We’re just too few to go against them, as well as all the other evil minions the bastard creates. Do the books say nothing about this strange event?” The woman finished.

Faern sat back in his chair behind the ornate desk. “To my knowledge it has never come to pass before. Nothing is supposed to have sway over them, my dear. They are though touching out to new places. I have a scout over Merrison way who will swear she saw them on motorbikes.” Three of the other five people in the room stared at him to see if this was true, whilst the one at the window didn’t make a move.

“They can make it to Earth? How though? Even the most experienced traveller has trouble navigating the paths!” A young sounding lad asked from next to the fire.

“Yival, it is indeed disturbing. At least two of them must have been guided.” Faern answered to the youth after a second of thought.

“Vorn is more disturbing.” The figure by the window commentated, startling them all.

“What do you mean Lacross?”

“He is late.” The others looked around to try and confirm this. If Vorn was anything, he was always punctual for the meetings.

“Could they have got to him?” Yival enquired, slightly panic stricken.

“They can’t be strong enough to take him out yet, can they?”

“My dear Cassie, I doubt it.” Faern comforted. It didn’t seem to ease the group much.

“Get me? You have to be kidding.” Everyone turned to look at the uncloaked, drenched figure in the corner. Vorn shook himself down to get rid of the water he had picked up. “They did come bloody close though. Would you believe that the group leader tried to use the eyes of the prophet against me though?”

The final figure that was yet to speak rushed over and embraced him.

“Don’t you dare do that to me again!” She ushered, banging her fist against his chest.

“Sorry Lalia!” He apologised, hugging her close to himself.

“What happened my boy?” Faern asked.

“The nutter bloody well decided he could make it on his own didn’t he? Made a bloody break for it during the shift change and left the sanctuary I’d set up. They ran him down, until he died. They then took his eyes and started to flee, only one of them must have sensed me because they all turned back. I had to use the power of twilight to jump up my blade. The bastards are getting way too powerful. Well, to cut a long story short, I sent the leader back to his maker, his two generals, I trapped in the twilight dream realm via the twilight one, rendering them powerless, and the last one I dragged into the paths with me, where I acquired this.” He held out his hand to make the scythe materialise, surrounded by the orange blaze still wrapped around his own sword. Lalia, Cassie and Yival withdrew at the sight of it.

“You took his blade? He is going to hunt you to the ends of the world to get that back.” Cassie stated.

“As for the rest… He will just call them back.” Lalia finished in a disappointed tone.

“It is a good blow.” Lacross uttered.

“That’s what I thought you see. It will take a lot of power to pluck those two back from the dream realm, when He has no presence or power, likewise for the one that is in the paths, and yet more to remake the one I disassembled.”

“It may buy us some time. Enough to regather our own strength at least. May I ask you a question Vorn, what were the Riders travelling on?” Faern mildly enquired.

“They were on sodding motorbikes.”

“Then they have found the way to Earth.”

“It was always possible. We knew we couldn’t keep it hidden from them forever. But they don’t have a firm presence there. The bikes were still only ideas they are borrowing, which suggests they are not fully through yet. I should be off now though, and put this somewhere that is very hard to get.” Vorn said, indicating the menacing scythe. Faern nodded at this, and in a sort of rapid fade out Vorn was gone as swiftly as he had arrived, scythe and all.

“It must be getting close to the time we have to be getting back.” Yival proposed. None of the others were in a particular rush, home was good and all, but there they were just like everyone else. The great powers they could wield here had to be locked up, as the Earth wasn’t ready to have such forces unleashed upon it again.

“Yival, do you always have to remind us?” Cassie asked in a down trodden voice.

“I…”

“Leave him alone Cass.” Lacross commanded.

“She whining about having to go back again?” Vorn asked from the corner, now returned from his little escapade. Lacross gave a brief, single nod to confirm this. He was a man of few words, though the ones he did speak would always have an impact. He was the same back on Earth.

“Do the honours would you Yival?” Faern instructed in his kindly fatherly sort of way. The youth unveiled his pendant, shaped like a dancing dragon, and held it out in front of himself.

“Paths now part!” He commanded. The dragon lit up as green as an emerald. The air rippled as space was slid apart to reveal an opening to the between worlds. Lalia gave Vorn a final hug and kissed him on the cheek before she ran through. It was always best to try and spend as little time as possible in that rat maze, as it seemed to drain away everything that made you you. Cassie gave a mock salute with her index finger to her brow, before leaping into the labyrinth.

“See you at the game.” Lacross told Vorn as he marched through. Vorn, one who wasn’t going to be shown up by Lacross took it at a brisk walk, whilst Faern finished collecting up his books and carried them through. Yival walked around to the front of the doorway, cautious not to make the same mistake he had the first time he had done this. He jogged through, the pendant automatically closing the way behind him.

The distance of the depth of a shadow away, Vorn got out at his stop. It was his bedroom, just as dawn was breaking. He held out his sword. “I ask the power of twilight to be sheathed.” He uttered, bracing himself. The opal orb in the hilt lit up as metal was converted to energy and taken back into its prison. That wasn’t the painful part. The painful part was the reverse transformation which immediately followed it. As always it started at his extremities and drew inwards. It was like pins and needles, only for every cell in his body. He felt himself being reduced back down to his five foot six normal height. His hair returned to its normal acorn brown colour, and his eyes lost their river blueness to be replaced by muddy brown. Once again he was Evan. The now lifeless orb gently fell to the ground.

He still had about 4 hours before he needed to start getting ready for work, which was a good stretch of sleep for him. Usually he had to catch whatever he could, whenever he could. To have one solid uninterrupted stretch was quite a relief. He picked up the orb and put it on the dresser before he dragged his now naked body over to the bed and collapsed into its welcoming embrace.

The alarm rang out shattering his slumber in an instant. With bleary eyes he glanced over and stretched out a hand to try and whack the snooze button. He got it on the third attempt and rolled himself over. That was a mistake. Every joint in his body yelled out at him, punishing him for sleeping in yet another odd position. Cautiously he started to untangle himself. His alarm went off again. “I know, I know!” He grumbled to it as he sat up and reached for the off button.

If he hadn’t been home alone while his family were off skiing in the alps, he would have put something on before venturing out into the hall to make a dash to the bathroom. But with no one else in he didn’t care. With the airs and graces of a lord of the manor he strolled and strutted to the bathroom, taking a moment to stop inform of the full length mirror. He didn’t have the body of an athlete, but his was still proud of what he had got.

He had set the heating to come on twenty minutes before his alarm went on so he could always guarantee being able to walk into a steaming hot shower. His uniform was where he left it from the night before. The bright yellow shirt and knee length orange shorts marked him as an employee of Leopold’s Home & Furnishings. It was a temporary job to help fund himself through university next year. At the end of the day, it was money coming in, and a discount on patio furniture, should he ever want it. He had just enough pride to decide he didn’t want his parents to be forking the bill. Not that they couldn’t afford it mind. But he didn’t want to be repaying them for how ever long it would take to work of the debt. His adventures in the other worlds already seemed like a million years ago.

By the time he had gone down stairs for his breakfast the postman had been. A disorganised pile of envelopes were on the floor, glaring at him. There was never anything for him, so he just put them on the side for someone else to sort through when ever they could be bothered. His keys were on the hook where he had always left them. It was about as close as he got to being organised.

His little car was outside. It was nothing special, a two door green thing with just under a decade from its licence plate release. It got him from A to B at least. As always traffic was a nightmare on the way to work in the morning. Parents busily rushing their kids to school, no longer trusting the safety on a bus, mixed with frustrated people in suites, and everyone else who was about at this time. It took close to half an hour for him to finally get into work. Not that he was in any particular rush.

“You’re late again!” His little old cranky boss yelled when he entered through the back door.

“Sorry Mr. Edison.”

“What if we had had customers in who wanted to know where the purple fuchsia, or the autumn crocus were?” He was tempted to point out that first of all, most people attending the garden part of the store this early knew their way around all the plants, and secondly, they did all have labels on them.

Instead he kept that quiet, and opted for “ It won’t happen again, Mr. Edison.”

“If you show up late once more I’m going to fire you! Now get out there start working!” He turned and stormed off. Behind his back Evan stuck his tongue out and scrunched up his face. There was no point getting wound up by such a small ego centric man, he just wasn’t worth the effort. Besides which, his wife was giving herself to every warm blooded man that knocked on the door while he worked.

He headed out to the back where the plants he tended to were blossoming. “Morning guys, how are we all today?” He enquired as he walked among them, checking for any discolouration or pest related degradation. That took close to an hour to check all the ones on show, and all the ones kept in storage. Some of the pots had started to show shoots, a great improvement over night. These were mostly the winter display ones that were kept in the warmth. Soon it would be time to change over to the plastic display models, which was a good few days work.

Time slowly trotted by until it was finally his lunch break. He sat on a wooden bench inside the café, drinking a bowl of soup with some crusty bread. During this time he checked his phone to find three text messages. One was an advert about free weekend calls to any landline, one was a message from Lalia, a.k.a. Natalie, asking what he was having for lunch, and how he was. The final one was from his mother, reminding him to pick the cat up from the vet when he was finished with work.

Evan had just finished replying when he had a familiar cold shiver. But it was out of place. He looked around startled, but couldn’t see the source. Not that he really expected to without being infused by the twilight power. But that should also provide him with some anonymity in return. The power fully withdrew each time he sheathed it, so even if o Death Yival had stumbled into this world, they wouldn’t have been able to find him. “You’re just being paranoid.” He told himself as he took a gulp of his lemonade, to finish it off. Evan cleared away his things and headed back to the plants.

He felt nothing else through the rest of the afternoon. Finally five o’clock arrived, and he was able to leave. The skies had gone grey by this point, promising a light August drizzle. He grabbed his keys from his locker and headed out to his car. There were still a few others in the staff parking lot, from the workers who had to tidy up and lock up. Usually he would help, but the vets closed in half an hour, so he had apologised and slipped out. The traffic slowly started to build up as he drove across town.

Shampoo, the family’s beloved tabby cat was curled up in her carry case when he arrived. The receptionist gave him her ear medication, as well as the bill, which he settled with a couple of crumpled notes, before heading back out to his car. He felt the cold shiver again, but this time much stronger. He got the feeling someone was looking for him specifically. He unlocked the side door and put the cat on the front passenger seat, belting her in, just to make sure.

Quickly he went around to the driver’s side, and scrambled in. Yet again he felt the cold shiver, and knew this time that he wasn’t being paranoid. He grabbed his phone out and looked through the address book. He only had Natalie and Lacross, who went by the name Greg here. Either one would be good, they didn’t really have any commitments at the current time. He dialled up the first one he came across. It seemed to take forever for the other end to be picked up.

“Hey, what’s up? Not having second thoughts about the game are you?”

“No, listen, I think the Death Riders are here.”

“Are you sure man?”

“I wasn’t at first, it was just a cold shiver, but the second time I recognised the mindset. I think they’ve come through and are looking for me.” Evan felt extremely vulnerable with the opal orb still sat on his bedside table. He had felt there was no point taking it everywhere, and was now regretting the decision.

“Where are you?”

“I’m at the Eastvale Vet’s.”

“Get somewhere quiet and use the orb.”

“I can’t… I left it back at mine.” Greg swore heavily on the other end.

“Did you drive there?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Make a dash for it. I’ll meet you at Highstreet Park.” There was another cold shiver. This one felt like it had a purpose and direction. Evan could feel it from behind him, less than a mile away. Not that distance mattered much to the Death Riders once they were on the trail of prey. At the barest turn of the key the car jumped into life. Evan hung up. The quickest way to the park was to take the Edwin Ferris Overpass. Evan sped off. At the end of Eastvale road he turned left, heading toward the King Henry pub roundabout. He got beeped at as he cut across it, not bothering to stop.

The junction for the overpass was a couple of hundred yards down the road, which he covered in next to no time. Out on the Overpass he really pushed his foot down, getting into the fast lane. The distance between himself and the Riders had halved. They were easily going to catch him before he could get to the next turning off for the park. He could just make out their ethereal forms in his mirror, at the very edge of the reflection. If he had the orb with him he could summon up all manner of things to delay them.

He didn’t even need to be touching it, just close enough to feed its power through himself. All he would need really was a spark, just enough to have some impact, to buy him some time. He could remember the feel of the power. He wasn’t sure how that was relevant, but the thought kept pressing against his mind. Also plaguing his mind was the image of the orb sitting like a paper weight next to his alarm clock. He had a quarter of a mile to go before the turn off.

The sent another chilled scan out, and it felt like they were taunting him. The problem with being Vorn, when you get right down to it, is that you are still Evan underneath. Evan thought to himself. Flash power, and a makeover don’t change that. It probably wasn’t the best line of thought. But it was oddly comforting to know that all along it had been him doing those things. Vorn was just a myriad of him, at the end of the day. A lesser part of the whole.

“It’s not Vorn that becomes Vorn, its Evan, and as Evan, I don’t want to go out this way.” The memory of the orb came back to him. He knew what he wanted. “I ask the power of Twilight to be released.” He whispered to himself. In his mind’s eye the orb flared for a second, as if it could hear him across the distance. He felt a slight tingle in the nibs of his index fingers, and smiled. He let one hand slip from the wheel so he could hold it behind himself. “Just give me an extra minute or so.” He pleaded, and felt the miniscule power he had called to him release itself. Less than an eighth of a mile behind him he heard an ethereal bang as an ethereal tire suddenly got an ethereal puncture.

It didn’t come without a price. He felt absolutely drained afterwards. It wouldn’t take long for the Rider to repair it and restart the chase. But he could see the junction now. He checked his wing mirror before pulling over to leave the Overpass. The Highstreet park wasn’t anything impressive, it was mostly grass, with a few trees scattered around the edges, and a children’s play set in one corner.

The turning for the car park was about one hundred yards after the Overpass. Evan pulled in, and got out, turning off the ignition, and grabbing his phone to call Greg again. He didn’t need to though. The now blonde haired man a few months older than Evan came bolting across the road. The air around him shimmered ever so slightly, a sign that he was transforming the space around him to hide something. He three bounds he was by his friend.

Evan could feel the flow of power about them. Inside the bubble Greg was wielding, Evan could see that his friend was in his altered form. He too was made taller, he was made a lot hairier, like some feral beast. The group believed this was a symbolistic form from the crest moon shaped amulet Greg had been bestowed. “What’s the word for displace?” He asked holding the spell wielding itself incomplete.

“Yuvenicollianasseoalach.”

“Thanks.” The spirals began spinning faster around the glowing sphere that Greg was creating. An intricate design erupted around the two of them.

“So what will happen?”

“In theory… er… well, just wait and see will you?” The Rider had left the Overpass by this point.

“I hate it when you improvise. You know that right?”

“Well, this was one thing I hadn’t completely planned on… Sorry!” The Rider extended its scythe, raising it above his head, ready to bring it in a descending attack upon them.

“If this doesn’t work, I’m coming back as a ghost to haunt you to the end of your possibly long and unnatural life.”

“Well, at least I’ll have some company.” Evan smiled briefly across at him. The Rider charged at them. He brought the scythe crashing down. There was a brief second when the two clashed. There was an outburst of light as the two interacted. The scythe vaulted back and away, to imbed itself in a rock. The Rider glared at them through its empty sockets.

He extended his hand out to the weapon, seeming to call it back to him. But it didn’t budge. He flexed his fingers before clenching them, and still nothing. The skeletal figure looked over at its impediment. “Did you do what I think you did?”

“Me?” Greg asked innocently. The Rider stormed over to the stone and grasped the handle, tugging hard.

“What’s the next step in the plan?”

“How long have you known me?”

“Well, not including that time you were in a coma, 5 years.”

“What makes you think I’ve planned past the first step then?”

“Blind hope?” The Rider had placed both bony feet on the rock for extra leverage. “…He’s having a bit of trouble with that, isn’t he. In what sense did you use the word displace?”

“As in send far from this place…”

“Did you use ‘Annoushenouka’ or ‘Derusarga’ for far?”

“Neither, I used ‘Renohoaertae’…” Evan began to laugh. “What’s up?”

“It alters the meaning to… Send far away and displace from all connections. It’s now bound to the next thing it came into contact with.”

“The rock? Will it come free?”

“How much power did you put into the spell?”

“I thought it was a reasonable amount.”

“Meaning?”

“About half the amulets power.” Greg answered after a second.

“I think it’s a safe bet to say he won’t get it back any time soon. Lets go watch the game, eh?” Greg shrugged, and they walked over to Evans car to drive around to his. All the while, Shampoo had slept comfortably, not stirring once.

15