PROLOGUE

There's a thin line between the light side and the dark side.

"Would you like to dance, milady?"

Jenny was wearing a dress of silver silk that glimmered in the bright light from the chandelier. Her hair hung like a gushing fountain of gold around her bare, slender shoulders. She was standing alone, and a little smile touched her lips when she turned at his voice. She slipped her hand into the one he was offering her, and he entwined his fingers gently with hers.

The music was delightful and beautiful, with pure tones that no human could compose nor dream of. They moved together across the polished ochre floor, completely in synch with one another.

"I hope you like the music. I orchestrated it specially for you."

She lifted her head from his shoulder. Her eyes were a vibrant goldy-green that gazed a quiet contentment up at him. He smiled and pulled her closer as they swayed together. He grazed his lips across her shoulder, drinking in the soft glow of her skin. She was radiating happiness. He closed his eyes and nestled his mouth against her warm neck, drawing in her sweet perfume. His fingers tightened around hers.

"I miss you," he murmured against her warm pulse. His grip in her hands turned hard and angry, bruising her delicate fingers like white flower petals. "I've been counting the days since I last had you in my arms...but in the end it doesn't matter. Every moment away from you feels like an eternity."

He spun her out to the side, and she flowed gracefully with the motion. Her smile was wistful, as though she felt as empty as he did. As if she understood him. He frowned at the thought. "But do you?" He slowly drew her back into his arms and buried his face in the softness of her hair. She smelled like lilies, and his chest throbbed with the bittersweet memory.

"It hurts when I think of you," he whispered. "You make me miserable and yet only you can light up my world. Ironic, isn't it?"

"You hurt me," Jenny whispered.

Julian paused, and her body in his arms stopped swaying as well. He exhaled through his nose and scowled. It was his conscience torturing him. The image in his grasp couldn't speak, no matter how much he willed it.

"If you really cared... if you ever did. No. You didn't."

Julian stepped away and turned toward the voice, deep blue eyes feverishly scanning his surroundings. He waved his hand dismissively through Jenny, and she evaporated into mist. The ballroom they'd been dancing in dispersed a second later into thick darkness.

"All you cared about was getting what you wanted," Jenny said tiredly.

There, it came from the left. Julian chased after her voice, his feet skimming across the star speckled black air. His footsteps caused ripples and the world around him blurred. It was rare that Jenny would direct her words and energy toward him like this. It was a loophole that Julian was sure none of his elders had considered a possibility; he could still be summoned. This was the fourth time Jenny had summoned him.

"Oh, Julian," she sighed.

A silver tear in the void. He caught a glimpse of her from a distance; her head was hanging low, her back turned to him where she was kneeling in a white, compact space.

"No, no, no!" Julian cried out in frustration when his last couple of strides brought him to the tear just as it melted into the shadows. He stared at the place furiously, willing it to open the window for him and knowing that it was pointless. He only had access to Earth for as long as Jenny called on him, and she never gave him enough time to reach her. It was always curt, miserable, angry messages she sent his way.

He slumped down onto a floor that didn't exist and despondently stared out at the worlds. He could see all nine of them from here. Floating islands. It was only earth that held his attention. If only he could pierce the veil between the worlds; but that was the trick. He was in the veil somehow. He'd heard horror stories before of walkers getting caught in it - once you were in, you could never get out. But he'd always taken great care when walking between the worlds. He knew the way well. Though he hadn't accidentally strayed from the bridge, he'd been put here by his elder. Limbo is what they called the realm within the veil; where a nothing you could touch and see existed. It was real but it wasn't, like the nightmares he loved to spread. The fear was real albeit the nightmare wasn't. A peculiar, empty place filled with nothing.

Julian had spent a long time trying to free himself, but since he was stuck in nothing there was no way to get out. He couldn't break a nothing because it had no solid wards, and by all means really shouldn't have an entrance at all. He gave up trying to escape because it proved to be absolutely maddening. The emptiness around him had, after some time, seeped into his being. It had chilled his temper and replaced it with loneliness. The only thoughts he had were of Jenny, and the memory of her was like a ray of sunshine in this hollow world.

"Here you are."

Julian felt his stomach twist sickeningly at the unexpected voice. He held himself still, unwilling to show that he'd been caught off guard, and looked up at the deceivingly youthful face staring back down at him. Shadowed gaze locked with icy blue eyes that shot a challenge back at him. He backed down and cast his gaze aside.

"I thought I'd lost you in this place. I forgot just how wide and how far nothingness can stretch," Mikael said, settling down next to him and crossing his legs.

"Why are you here?" Julian asked.

"I thought you might like the company."

Julian blinked slowly at his elder's wit, and grimaced. "I'd rather be torn to shreds by Nidhogg than spend time in your presence."

"You still hate me then," Mikael said good-naturedly.

Julian glanced at him, and incredulity flashed across his face. "Things will never be what they were before, you know," he said, and narrowed is eyes when Mikael looked at him in surprise. "You and I will never regain what we'd lost after that mortal came to sow discord among us."

"Andrea only came because I brought her. You know that," Mikael said, looking away and plucking a star from the ground. He let it go and watched it drift into the air before it blended with the black once more. He puckered his lips when Julian didn't respond. "I meant to scare her off by bringing her home. She was too smart and too stubborn. She wouldn't accept that love wasn't destined for us. I had to show her what I really am."

"And still she loved you," Julian said resentfully.

"She's a crazy fool," Mikael said tightly.

"My journey from the Well of all Being... it blinded me with anger. It was the only thing that was real, all I could hold onto, and it drove me onward. My temper got me out of there. Who'd have thought rage was that powerful," Julian muttered.

Mikael nodded and traced patterns in the black before them. Unlike Julian's touch that only made it ripple like water, Mikael's strokes stayed imbedded like drawing in wet black sand. "When you're reborn, you're made up of the strongest emotion that dominated before your passing. It's not an easy feat to recall who you once were, or to rebuild yourself from memory alone. I'm the only shadow man who has ever managed that...and now you."

"I was angry when I found her," Julian said. "It blinded me from my purpose. I tormented her until she cracked, and then I laughed at her."

"All this time spent here did you good. I'm glad you're rethinking things because you haven't been thinking at all the last time we met."

"I should have taken the stave and banished you to this place."

Mikael shrugged. "Yeah, you should have."

The twirls Julian detachedly made with his fingers caused another legion of waves to ripple across the void. It blurred the lines Mikael had drawn until it was gone and the air was still once more. He tapped his fingers on the floor beside him, and waited. The silence was disturbed by their steady, quiet breathing. In that moment, despite the hard feelings between them, Julian was vaguely relieved that it was Mikael beside him. He'd much rather prefer being trapped with this elder than any of the others. He squealched the memory of their ragged, shallow, noisy, and annoying as hell breathing in his ears a long time ago; caged in such a small space with so many, and the smell of them had been excruciating. He knew their scent, but to be faced with it day after day, every second of every minute... he would have rather been stuck with Mikael than any of the other elders. At least he didn't assault his nostrils.

"I want to make you a deal," Mikael said.

Julian slowly looked at him, non-plussed. Mikael leaned forward and casually gestured as he continued, "I'll let you out of here in return for your help."

"I'm not biting," Julian said curtly.

Mikael continued as if he hadn't heard him. "There are conditions, of course. You are free to roam Midgard to your heart's desire, not permitted to use any magic that will affect mankind, and when you're done helping me," Mikael said with a grave look, "I never want to see your face again."

The younger shadow man was shaking his head iritably. "I'd rather go back home."

"To the Shadow World?" Mikael snorted incredulously. "How stupid do you think I am?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Kid, I'm giving you the chance to redeem yourself with goldie-locks."

Julian narrowed his eyes and spoke in icy disdain, "You are pathetic. Even Summer has a higher IQ than you do. After all I've put Jenny through-" He stopped at the sharp, unexpected ache her name evoked.

"She turned out better for it," Mikael said, frowning.

"And she'll be strong enough to slam the door in my face," Julian shook his head. "No, she's made it pretty clear that she doesn't want me."

"Uh-huh. Even though Tom is a dick and Jenny left him because he's a dick?"

Julian arched an eyebrow. "Don't play games with me, Mikael."

"I'm too old for games," Mikael muttered. "Jenny retained her memories. The others are clueless as to your existence, seeing as Jenny didn't buy any toys from you because you're stuck in the naughty corner until I say otherwise."

"So..." Julian said.

"So the door is open for you, kid."

"It doesn't matter. Jenny hates me."

Mikael moved closer to him and said in a stage-whisper, "Actually she regrets never meeting you in this life. But you didn't hear it from me."

Julian wasn't fooled. He glared at his elder. "She doesn't love me."

"But she does care about you," Mikael said impatiently. "You can fix things with her. If you cut the evil crap and do as she wants, and make an effort to keep her happy, you can still save yourself."

"No."

Mikael climbed to his feet restlessly. "I know you, kid. I know you're truthful when you say you weren't yourself this last round. That's not a problem. I can change her memories to suit."

"You can make her forget what I've done?" Julian asked.

"I can make Jenny believe she's a goose if I willed it," Mikael smirked. He slipped his hands in his pockets and gauged Julian's reaction. "The way back to paradise is paved with good deeds. If you want Jenny, you gotta conform to her expectations. You know what they say. Repent, and thou shall be saved."

"Jenny would be impressed once she figured out I cheated," Julian said sarcastically.

"Withholding information from her is not cheating, it's strategy. Look, the last clear memory she will have of you is the before and after of having your name cut from the stave. You have my word on that."

Julian stared off into the distance, clenching his teeth together. He was unwilling to be associated with Mikael but the temptation to get out was almost as strong as his desire to see Jenny again. Maybe he could work this to his advantage somehow.

"C'mon, kid, I can tell you're in," Mikael said, giving him an unpleasant thump on the back. "Let's trash this place and go to hell."

A/N: Revised 28/09/2012.