For a long ti– no, not time, time is the wrong word entirely – there is nothing. Silent, colored swirls of nothing, seen from the hollow shelter of a deeper nothing. Somewhere else, sensed at a great distance through a web of power that crosses the nothingness, time passes.
The thing-that-watches is folded up and small. There are no thoughts except, wait. watch. not yet.
In another place, a tendril of power twangs, and the web echoes. Now?
...
Lionstar k'Leshya swears under his breath as his tunic catches on the rough bark. Stupid tree. Stupid rain. He twists to free himself, shoves aside a wet branch that returns the gesture by smacking him in the face, and tosses the last armful of branches onto his meager pile.
The new kindling is just as damp as the rest. Fortunately, Lionstar has options other than the flint-and-steel in his pocket. He squats by the heap and reaches out, focusing. He hasn't, technically, ever attempted this spell before–
...
Now.
The hollow nothingness turns inside out, and the everything-else rushes in. The thing-that-watches – he had a name, before, what was it – he unfolds, stretches out, grasps at his new surroundings. Where am I? What–
Something is screaming very loudly, not in his ear but substantially closer. Instinctively, he clamps down on it, and a tiny fraction of the storm quiets. The rest is – he seems to be in a body, but all wrong. Too loud after the peaceful nothing, and he doesn't know where or what, but finally, as he seizes control of a big enough corner for thought, he has a guess at how.
His name was Ma'ar, before, and he remembers dying. His first re-embodied emotion that isn't panic is satisfaction. It worked.
