She stretched her tanned legs out in front of her and put her feet up on the garden table, baked a pleasant warmth in the golden sunlight. A crystal bowl of Greek salad stood on the table, her empty plate beside it and the cocktail in her hand nearly finished. Warm brown eyes inspected carefully painted pink toenails with satisfaction, then drifted past her small feet to the breathtaking farmland spread before her in a vast blanket of brilliant green hues. She tore her gaze from the beautiful landscape and focused on the book in her lap. It was one of the million others she owned and her favourite. Content, she resumed her place, sipping on the cocktail every few minutes.

Her relaxed posture transformed dramatically to one of complete tension when the earth shook beneath her and the temperature dropped several degrees. She looked up sharply, glancing around her briefly before leaping from the chair and bolting into the Tuscan villa behind her, sliding the door shut fast and staring out at the scenery wearily. Nothing changed. The sky remained clear and bright, the sun continued to shine its golden light and the green fields were solid.

The tremor vibrated through the walls of the villa and shook her to the core. Her stomach churned involuntarily, goose bumps danced across her arms and a chill ran down her spine. Something inside of her screamed.

"Gahiji!" She called out nervously.

The Shadow Man appeared in a corner of the lounge, beady eyes gazing back at her, amused by her momentary panic. She suppressed a shudder at the sight of him. He'd grown grotesque throughout the centuries, his once stark black hair having thinned out to near non-existence and his flawless pale skin now rumpled from dehydration and discoloured to a sickening off-beat grey. Still she had to admit, he wasn't nearly half as revolting as his companions.

"What is your wish, beautiful Faye?" His voice washed over her comfortingly in a wave of icy smoothness.

Faye sighed and folded her arms across her chest, shivering at the coldness around her. When she was young she used to fall over her own feet and melted when Gahiji swooned her like this.

When she was young. Faye closed her eyes and pressed her fingertips lightly to her forehead. She didn't look a day older than when she first came here. Sixteen years, eleven months and twenty five days. That's how old she was when she escaped from home and came to the Shadow World with Gahiji. She didn't know how long she'd been here as the days sometimes lasted too long and the nights were brief - time was but a fleeting illusion to her mind. She knew Gahiji wouldn't tell her and quite frankly she didn't want to know. She was happy here. Free from the slavery Gahiji had saved her from, free from undeserving punishment, free from chores. Her hands and feet had softened throughout the ages, her bruises healed, her being and confidence restored – her dignity restored.

"Faye?" Gahiji said in a lyrical tone of voice.

She pursed her lips and looked up at him.

"Are you bored? Do you want to play a game?" Gahiji moved around the room with too much ease for such a sickly form - a corpse-like kitten prowling about her playfully. "A game of Senet, perhaps? Hide and Seek?"

"Don't insult my intellect, you fool." Faye glared at him. "What's going on?"

She could sense something was wrong. Something was off. The world outside seemed out of synch somehow – she felt it more than saw it.



Gahiji's thin lips curled into a rotten grin. "Nothing of importance, beautiful Faye. A mere..." Gahiji gestured elegantly with scrawny arms, "Trade taking place. Are you pleased as you are? What is it that you crave and I shall give it to you."

Faye narrowed her gaze at him suspiciously. Human instinct told her he was hiding something big, had been hiding something for a long time from her now. Once again Faye felt as though the entire Shadow World knew some secret she didn't – she was left in the dark while the malicious demons laughed at some joke she wasn't included in. Purposely shut out.

Faye chewed her lip and glanced out the window uncertainly. There was nothing different in his voice or eyes as he offered her entertainment. That's what he usually did, and if it wasn't him, it would be one of the other Shadow Men.

The last time they offered to play a game with her, she'd set the stakes – if she won they had to allow whatever she wanted. Gahiji had for some stupid reason thought she'd want to go back to her own world. She'd won the game – with sly tricks bordering closely on cheating. Her prize – the Stave of Life. She remembered Gahiji patiently teaching her about runes and magical forces and how things worked in his world. They'd been petrified that she would carve out their names. She didn't.

She carved in a new name. She'd been lonely and desperately sought company from a creature not as hideous and deformed as all the others. "We are created in perfection," Gahiji had told her once. To make good use of her time, she created her own masterpiece. She'd have thought it absurd to create another life by simply 'willing' it into existence, but low and behold it was possible even for her in the Shadow world and she'd created a little ray of blinding light for herself. An angel... or what she'd have imagined an angel to look like.

"Anything I crave?" She repeated.

Gahiji's eyes flashed dangerously at her. He knew what she wanted.

"Bring me Julian."

"He will not come. He never does. He's too... preoccupied with other matters." Gahiji replied in a voice filled with impatience.

"He's a child compared to you, for heaven's sake, Gahiji! Bring him to me, I don't care if you have to drag him by the ear." Faye arched her eyebrows at him expectantly.

Gahiiji didn't move.

"Oh for..." Faye cut herself off, grasping hold of her rising temper as her suspicions were confirmed. They were playing with Julian. Again. "What trade is he doing with the others?"

"An irrevocable... trade."

If Faye hadn't known any better she'd have thrown a vase at his head. Instead she stood her ground, lividly staring back at him.

"What trade?" Faye spat.

Gahiji seemed to enjoy her anger and he let her dwell in it for a few minutes longer before answering with a sigh.

"An eye for an eye..."

"No!" Faye snapped and Gahiji looked at her curiously. "Take me to him."

"As you wish."