Chapter Sixty-Three

Ethan's awareness coasted in a void, an endless eternity that appeared to extend on until the end of time. There was no sound, no light, as though a harsh obscurity squeezed in on him from all sides. He couldn't feel his body, no torment, no movement, just the overpowering sensation of being gulped by the abyss.

But some place, profoundly inside the abyss, a faint light flashed. It was far off, nearly intangible, but it called to him, encouraging him to battle, to thrust through the darkness. Summoning each ounce of determination, Ethan constrained his intellect to center, to keep in mind who he was, why he was here.

The light became brighter, and gradually, the obscurity started to subside. Shapes developed around him, dubious to begin with, later on more honed, more characterized. He was not within the void; he was someplace else, some place interesting and outsider.

Ethan found himself standing in a tremendous, turned landscape, a place that appeared to oppose the laws of reality.