Across the Threshold

Encounter

Shade
(In the Fractures Universe)

Shade scrambled to his feet, only to have a knife pressed into his back. He glanced behind him, to find a woman with gray skin holding the knife. She did not look happy.

"Who are you?" the man in front of him demanded. "How did you get here?"

Shade examined the group around him, and found that he was in quite strange company. The man who had just spoken had one blue eye and one red eye, with a scar across the red one, and there was a woman who seemed to have horns. As he had noticed before, the woman standing behind him had gray skin, and there was another man who also had gray skin with very odd eyes. The irises was pure white, while the sclera was a  dull purple. Shade was thoroughly confused at this point.

"Hey," the woman with gray skin said. "He asked you a question, and I think you'd better answer before I stab you."

Shade swallowed nervously.

"I don't know how I got here, or even where here is," he told them. "All I know is that one minute I was standing outside the store that I work at, and the next minute I'm here."

"So you're trying to say that something transported you here?" the woman with the horns asked. "That seems like very advanced magic."

Shade's eyes widened in shock. "Magic?" he asked weakly, thinking that he must have misheard.

"Yes magic," she replied. "You must have been from somewhere extremely remote to not have heard of magic."

"That is, if he's telling the truth about that," remarked the gray skinned man.

"Yes, I'm still not convinced that he is," said the man with the scar. "It seems very odd that some stranger would appear right as we started journeying back to the Frostbourn."

Shade was not following their conversation. He was still thinking about what that lady had said about magic. Any other time, he would have dismissed the notion of magic instantly. But what else could explain what had brought him here?

"I don't know Rain," the horned lady said. "He seemed genuinely confused when I mentioned magic. If he was from the Nether, he would be very familiar with magic."

"While that's true," the gray skinned man replied, "he could just be a great actor."

"I think that we should just kill him. Eliminate any risk," the gray skinned woman said.

"Ciara, no!" exclaimed the man with the gray skin. "We can't go around killing anyone that might be dangerous. If we did that, we would have to kill everyone we came across."

"Fine," the woman, Ciara, growled. "Then does anyone else have any ideas?"

"I don't know what we should do, but I know that we can't just kill him," said the one who was called Rain.

"What we should do," the other man said, "is continue on, keeping a close eye on this one."

"Good idea," replied Rain. "Which reminds me, you never told us your name."

"I'm Shade," he replied. "Can you tell me your names? "

Ciara scoffed at that. The gray skinned man glared at her.

"Ciara, calm down," he ordered. "Of course you can have our names. I am Kane, and as you've heard, that is Ciara. The man with the scar on his eye is Rain and the woman with horns is Stella."

Shade nodded. He could sense that in telling him their names, Kane was testing him. He was watching for any hint of recognition in him. This group must have been well known.

"Thanks, but could you get this knife out of my back?" Shade asked. "It's very aggravating."

Rain nodded at Ciara, and she reluctantly backed away. She was a bloodthirsty one, Shade realized. He would have to be careful around her.

As he stood there, Shade felt something stir inside him. It felt similar to the energy that surrounded him in the void while he was transported here. He yelped as his vision started to fade.

"What's happening?" he asked. "Why can't I see?"

"You can't see?" he heard Stella say. "What do you mean?"

As Shade watched, a scene appeared in front of his eyes. He realized that what was happening was similar to his transport, but only his vision was affected.

He saw a landscape of white rock, with large obsidian monoliths, rising high into the sky. They were arranged in a ring around a small structure in the center. The sky was a void, similar to the void he had passed through when he was transported. Most of the activity in this place seemed to be centered around a stage near the center.

In front of the stage, kneeled a group of tall, lanky creatures with black skin and glowing purple eyes, that Shade somehow knew were called Endermen. They were chained down and guarded by a group of pig men.

As he watched, Shade saw a woman with purple-pink hair led onto the platform. She was chained as well, and Shade got the impression that she was the leader of the Endermen. Another figure, a skeleton with a purple robe and a crown came up behind her. He appeared to be giving a speech.

It suddenly struck Shade that this was an execution. That woman on the stand was about to be killed.

"They're going to kill her," Shade mumbled

"What did you say?" someone asked. "Who's going to kill who?"

Shade didn't respond. He was desperately trying to think of a way to stop what was happening, even though logically he knew that there was nothing that he could do. Even so, something primal inside of him was urging him to help.

As he watched, something was revealed to him by the energy inside of him. It told him that he could follow his sight, he could transport himself to this place that he could see.

"I could go to her," Shade whispered. "I could help."

"What do you mean?" the same person asked. Shade still couldn't tell who it was. "You're not making any sense."

In that moment, several things happened at once, though Shade was only aware of a few of them. A blast of energy radiated outward from Shade, knocking the others back. Rain's left eye transformed into an Ender Eye, and he collapsed on the ground, while Kane jumped as if he had been stung. And Shade, as if in a trance, lifted his right arm as an Ender Armblade appeared on his wrist. His eyes opened, revealing two bright Ender Eyes, right before he vanished.