Familiar White Fog appeared around Shade as he stepped forward. Entering an adventure in the past gave Shade a sense of ease, as though he no longer needed to think about or concern himself with anything at the current point in time.
He continued forward, and the scenery of Eternal Night City in the Fifth Epoch slowly unfolded before him.
Rain pattered softly as night swallowed the glowing mist. This time, however, Shade did not appear on a rain-soaked street. Instead, he appeared directly on the terrace of the castle at the city's center, in the area known as the "Twilight Place."
The semicircular area had tightly shut double metal doors in the wall along its straight edge, while floor-standing candle lamps the color of sunset stood in its two corners.
Against the curved wall near the edge of the terrace stood a small tent surrounded by a thicket of Tri-Color Moonlight thorns.
The tent was open. The Red Dragon Young Lady with the large tail sat atop the soft bedding, draped in Shade's coat and wearing a pair of tiny glasses from who knew where. Lowering her head beneath the light of the flame at her tail tip, she knitted something with knitting needles.
"Hm?"
The scene was quite cozy, but it did not fit Shade's understanding of this place.
For a moment, he thought Eternal Night City's final trial was to dispel an illusion. But when Fiona noticed his arrival and hurriedly hid what she was knitting behind her back, nearly knocking over the tent as she stood, Shade realized that everything before him was real.
With a snap of his fingers, the Tri-Color Moonlight thorns vanished, and Fiona emerged from the tent.
She said nothing, simply spreading her arms and hugging Shade. Shade thought she had been