Grey Spatium 29

Casting off the cloak, I pressed Regis, and he manifested from my long shadow, his paws on the wall’s edge. The aetheric pathways opened before me, and I appeared in the tower’s shadow, violet lightning bolts running up my arms and down my legs.

I felt the pressure exuded by the invisible figure for half a second, then it vanished.

‘On top of the city’s outer wall!’ Regis said, guiding me excitedly as he rushed along the wall to have a better view.

Feeling the paths, I God Stepped again, this time into the shadow of a guardpost that topped the tall outer wall on the south edge of the city.

‘Already gone,’ Regis huffed. ‘Over the wall somewhere.’

I had to search this time, but I was starting to see the pattern.

South of the wall, many low buildings had been erected to replace those demolished before and during the war. I searched their shadows and found the disturbance just as it vanished again, reappearing behind a building a few hundred feet farther away.

The aetheric pathways took me there, and again I appeared just as the distortion vanished.

Distantly, through his senses, I felt Regis leap off the high wall and strike the ground running behind me.

I found and God Stepped after the distortion again, but I had to look for my prey, whereas it just had to keep running, and again it kept just ahead of me.

But after a few more rapid shifts, we reached the end of the slums built outside of the city walls. What few trees had grown on these stony steppes approaching the bay had been cut down during the war, providing a clear view for over a mile, and with the only shadows provided by wild shrubs, low bushes, or young, straggly trees.

But the sun was nearly down now, and those shadows were growing longer by the moment.

The disturbance appeared in the shadows of a large rock, suddenly veering eastward. I scanned the area beyond the rock, where a row of wild berry bushes provided the only shadow of substance.

Charting the path through the aether, I God Stepped first to the rock, then to the bushes, not waiting in between.

I would have grinned as the disturbance swelled right beside me, like claws through the shadows, except there was no time.