Chapter 1

"Sit down Anton"

Gesar gesture towards the too familiar chair, every time I sat here meant trouble.

"There's a little matter I wish to discuss"

"Cut to the chase, what is it?"

I sat, what else could I do? The instant I was down a knock sounded at the door, and opened without waiting. Zabulon entered, dress in a dark tracksuit which didn't seem to fit. I must have sat there with my mouth hanging open as he smirk and in an almost jovial mood said "I was relaxing...what? Am I not allowed some down time as well?"

He sat in the big armchair by the door, out of my direct line of sight....it didn't feel good

"Anton" Gesar spoke in his more usual, business tones, even the head of the watches rarely let there guard down in front of each other. "I have called you here on an important matter. Svetlana's initiation of Nadya was a necessity but its caused us a problem. The sides are now seriously unbalanced in favor of the light. Now as things go I wouldn't normally complain but......" Gesar turned to Zabulon, "I think this should be your part of the story, Great one"

A lesser magician may have been shocked to here Gesar giving Zabulon an honorific as that, seeing as they were of equal rank, but I knew from experience that Gesar never did anything without a dozen reasons. With my interest piqued I turn to the head of the Dark Watch and boldly asked.."Well?"

"Always the impatient one Anton" Zabulon smiled, and it sent a chill down my spine.

"It seems that your little girls initiation has caught the attention of the twilight....enough to threaten another mirror. Recently we initiated a new witch, only a 6th level but with an uncanny ability to read the future probability lines...better than even myself and Gesar here....and I do not say that lightly. She has said a Mirror is imminent in 7 days time. Normally we would weather this, and enjoy watching the light lose a few, shall we say, extras.."

His grin aimed at Gesar was not unnoticed.

"But with the recent...events...in the twilight, we think this time it may not be so simple".

Simple! Last time a Mirror appeared it almost wiped out the watches!

"What do you mean Zabulon? I asked

"The twilight is empty....and growing hungry"

I snorted a derisory laugh. "How can it be hungry, it cannot feed off others, we're the parasites."

After I had released all the others souls from level 6 I had been back briefly to look....I knew the 2 heads of the watches had to, and Sveta had to take Nadya away from it just the day before, but I didn't see it was "hungry", but then I didn't know what I was looking for, or why I had even gone....something called me, but when I got there the call was long gone.

"Yes Anton, we both heard the call to" I hate it when Gesar does that....but its worse when its Zabulon, if feels like your psych has just been raped.

"The twilight is calling....and its others who are feeling it, all others, not just light, not just dark, all. Its "lonely" if such a thing were actually possible, and to "cut to the chase" as you so nicely put it, both myself and Gesar are worried that this time a mirror might not stop at just readdressing the balance."

"So what has this got to do with me?"

Dumb question.

Gesar rose from his seat and sat on the front of his desk, looking down into my face. "You wont like this Anton, but Egor has to be initiated into the Dark. He has the potential to be as powerful as Svetlana and would help at least in part with the imbalance....at least long enough until something else can be arranged."

"But why are you asking me? I cant initiate him? Isn't there someone in the Dark watch who can gain his trust?"

"I wish there were Anton". Zabulon was stood behind me, his hand brushed against my neck and I stifled an urge to scream. "But as you know Egor is a smart kid...he knows when we approach him. I'm looking forward to his 'joining' with us...but how still eluded me, until now".

"But surely all you need to do is put him into a negative mood and drag him in"

I knew this wasn't the answer...its never done that way for any of us, a subtle guiding of emotions is required, and you cant drag them in the first time, an uninitiated other must reach for the twilight themselves, then it does the rest. I always thought it was ironic that the difference between a Light other and a Dark one could simply be the mood your in when you first enter. Pass into the shadow for the first time in a good mood, such as in love, happy, even just relaxed and the twilight changed you for the light, sucking out all the negativity like a leech. Go into the shadow in a bad mood, jealousy, anger, or even a plain stubbed toe, and the twilight fed from your good side. It doesn't mean that you come back out a good or bad person after that first time...but your perceptions are permanently altered. I'd always found the difference blurred in many of us, but the Dark always seemed to try and find the easy road to a solution....kill a wrong-doer rather than reason and guide them.

That was the politest way I could think of it, the Dark had the vampires and werewolves..more genuine killers on there side than I could stomach. Although after recent events I had being to wonder.

"No, no, if only it were that simple" the Dark one continued, "Egor isn't technically uninitiated...he was "becoming" one of us until someone decided to play with a piece of chalk".

Zabulons hard stare at Gesar spoke volumes, I'm glad I wasn't on the receiving end of it.

"No, its not that simple now...when Egor enters the twilight this time he will know what to expect and guard against it. He has to enter with a Dark other now, and the twilight will use the ...Pattern if you like.. of the dark one to initiate him into that mold. Unfortunately, due to his potential power, a normal Dark other will not do...it can be a..painful..process even to someone equal to the one being initiated this way."

Gesar interjected. "Its standard procedure as you know to initiate someone with a higher level other just in case." He looked at Zabulon with a 'We do teach our members correctly' kind of frown.

"Quite, quite" sighed Zabulon, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. "But the fact of the matter is Egor knows or can sense, either way its the same, our higher ones. An the Inquisition is digging its heels in and demanding that we settle this matter ourselves, seeing as mirrors tend to be regional. In my opinion Edgar stole so many of there precious items and pulled so many of their teeth they're afraid to even lift their pathetic heads out of the statute books".

Zabulon bent down and spoke close to my ear. "No, what we need is a Higher Light one to change, one who he wouldn't think of as being Dark".

I suddenly got a sickening feeling in my stomach, "Not Nadya....no, shes only just become a light other, your not having her!"

Zabulon burst out laughing. "Oh Anton...if it were that simple the mirror could be held off forever, swapping your daughter back and forth between the watches, and she could to if she wanted to. A zero point doesn't come along very often. The problem would be that eventually she would either choose permanently one side or the other, or be driven totally insane....best to leave well alone in that department. No what we need is a more permanent solution."

Zabulon commenting on my daughters future sanity in such an offhanded manner angered me, but I kept quiet.

"No, we need Egor...more than one Egor really but one is all we have for now. When we had him the last time..." and a sly look was thrown at Gesar who completely ignored it, "we could tell he was at least level 1 material, even as a higher with a bit of maturity. And with a few new acquisitions we've made on the way " another look "...the balance, while not restored, will at least be swinging back the way it ought to be. "

"So what do you want me for, I'm no help to you, or hadn't you noticed I'm the wrong shade?"

A creeping thought began to play at the edges of my mind, but I pushed it away....it was ridiculous.

"Anton", Gesar's reasoning voice...the creeping thought became a weighted dread, "Look at this office in the twilight".

Something we rarely did was enter the twilight in this office...Gesar valued his privacy highly and no one wanted a pissed off Boss on there tail. But he had given permission, so I entered the shadow and dropped to level one.

The weighted dread became screaming, cold fear. The entire room was charged with power. Hundreds, if not thousands of artefacts lit up the gloom like a solar flare, there must have been years worth of work to create them all...many many years worth, and they were all active. I looked at the two watch leaders, both were bursting with indrawn energy, and the weaving of a spell on there fingertips I didn't recognise...and the worse was they were both holding back the same spell.

"Anton" Gesar spoke again. "There is a way"

Zabulons hands were around my neck a fraction of a second before I realised what they were going to do, Gesars a fraction after. I screamed as a searing pain burned its way through my soul, I fought back, not physically, to a human observer none of us would be moving a muscle, but the power coursing through the room and me was more than I thought possible. I shielded and struck out, it was countermanded each time by both of them. I could feel Zabulon pulling, Gesar pushing, my soul tearing. I screamed again, and was joined in unison by both Dark and light. Power flowed through me, a strength I never knew I had, but the pain seared my mind into a sheet of while light, which gradually dimmed to nothingness....darkness.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I must have passed out, when I opened my eyes Gesar was slumped on the floor holding his head in his hands. Zabulon had crawled back to the chair, sweat caked to his tracksuit. I understood why he was wearing it now, he was so exhausted he was having difficulty holding his full human shape, just slightly, but enough to make more normal clothes uncomfortable and, more importantly, noticeable. But that didn't extend to his eyes, they sparkled with delight....and that frightened me most of all.

"By the Dark! Such power! Gesar, why don't we just keep this one and call it keeps eh?"

Gesar looked up, and he was crying...crying! With a trembling hand he pointed at Zabulon. "That was not the agreement and you know it. And the power was not his, he is no match for even one of us, what you felt was the twilight fighting back, we were fighting against that, not him. But, by the light, I didn't expect it to be so hard."

An admission of weakness by Gesar!

I trembled as I tried to stand up. "What have you done to me?" I managed to whisper horsely.

"Enter the twilight" Zabulon said. Gesar only nodded.

I reached for my shadow and entered the first level again. All the artefacts were dead, completely drained, including ones I hadn't even noticed before, and then I became confused. Nothing felt right, nothing looked right, my skin crawled like it was being caressed by cobwebs, in my head was a savage throbbing pulsing its beat with my heart. And there were claw marks on my body, invisible in the real world but real here. I tried to call up a simple healing spell and I keeled over, vomiting on the floor, huge pain spasms coursed through every nerve in my body. I fell out of the twilight curled up on the floor.

"What have you done to me? What have you done?"

Gesar pulled himself up off the floor. "I said there was a way".

Zabulon smiled..... "Welcome to my world Anton"

"But why?" I groaned "Why me?"

Gesar gave my a rye look

"You could have asked me first! I cant be a Dark other, I didn't... I.." I broke down and cried, I'm not ashamed to say it. Sveta warned me, Nadya warned me in her little way, my daughter, my baby.....

I felt a breath in my ear as a voice rasped "I told you I would keep an eye on you...now your mine"

"Zabulon! Stop scaring the boy" Gesar was fast regaining his composure

"Anton...we did something that was suppose to be impossible. We...changed...you to the dark against your will"

"Arina...that damned book"

Gesar nodded, "The Fuaran was many things, including damned".

I screamed and lunged at him, but Zabulon caught me, he was always faster.

"You bastard! You've destroyed me!"

"Oh stop being so dramatic" The dark boss said. "It had to be against your will, its not permanent, if it had been your idea...it would have been. Such high morals you light ones have, you would have sacrificed yourself willingly to save Nadya."

"Save....?"

"If a mirror comes, who would be the first one it would seek out?"

Gesar nodded, "As much as I hate to say it, for once Zabulon is right. Nadya is the keystone to the imbalance. Egor will go part way to addressing that. It had to be you, Egor knows you as a light other, not a dark. Once you initiate him it will be too late."

"Once I initiate him? What makes you think I can persuade him?"

Gesar starred into my eyes. "Innocent lives may have to be sacrificed, as a light other you couldn't do it, as a dark you will at least have some protection from the guilt".

Zabulon added "You must get him mad, sad, bad, before you drag him into the twilight....then it will do the rest...you initiate the same way as a light other...the twilight will forge him for us"

Despite the strong words, I could see Zabulon losing more of his human form...he was draining his power still. Gesar noticed to. "Drop the shield now, the deed is done"

Zabulon seemed to visibly sag as the shield around the room was dropped...Gesar, to, seemed to start recovering himself better. Anyone else would never have been allowed to see any weakness in these two...I had no choice in the matter.

Zabulon reached out and shook my hand...."Welcome to the Day watch fellow Dark magician...and may your stay be a long one".

"Seven days" Gesar added. "Seven days to find and Initiate Egor. I don't like the idea but there is no choice."

"And what about me" I croaked "What about this"...I waved my hand through my aura, already changing with the Dark overtones.

"Come back to us in Seven days, and we will re initiate you, the change back will be much easier as its your nature to be Light. But don't leave it any longer...or we might not be able to."

Gesar ran his fingers through his hair and whispered "I don't truly know if we can even now..."

I remembered screaming again as suddenly a portal opened behind me and hands roughly dragged me through...my last image being the total surprise on Gesar's and Zabulon's faces.....