Little Jade's figure vanished behind the stone gate.
The endless light that had flooded into the darkness now reversed like a tide, fleeing after that small departing figure.
Black Cat watched it go in silence.
She watched the mist of light that had just spread out recoil like a startled rabbit, rolling back into the crack. She watched the warm light within the crack cool and fade into the stone gate. Then she watched the towering white marble gate slowly close, until darkness swallowed her view once more.
There was no sound in the darkness.
Yet as the gate closed, she could almost hear the rumble of a turning millstone.
The sound seemed strangely familiar.
She narrowed her one remaining eye and thought for a long while before remembering: it sounded just like the tide of fate rolling beneath the True Self, above the River of Time and Fate.
;
"The sound of fate," Black Cat murmured.
She sighed at the thought.
As she did, the black lightning around the towering white marble gate suddenly grew thicker and larger. The bolts joined together into a vast, flickering black net that swallowed the white gate in an instant.
Or perhaps the gate had already left this dark region after closing.
Perhaps the great black net had swallowed only the shadow it had left behind.
Black Cat could only guess.
Ink-darkness flooded her vision again. Then pale white began seeping into its deepest reaches. At first it was a tiny speck, but soon it spread like mold in a corner or red algae in water, rapidly eating away the black.
"If it isn't pure black, it's pure white. This world could use a little variety!"
Black Cat sighed again.
As if to illustrate her point, the clear clink of metal sounded intermittently