Annika did not feel herself hit the ground, because she didn't. At the last moment, her father swept in and grabbed her.

Then, they were both gone with the shadows that hid under the the noontime sun.

Back to the Everdark, back home, Jack carried the exhausted child up the stairs, down the hall and to her room. Silent like the grave, he deposited her into the bed, where Nochalla hopped up and stayed with her for the next few hours. It was always strangely quiet in this world, like the ground was listening and the sky was watching. It was her decision to keep going, but he wasn't even remotely surprised she did. Annika wasn't related to him by blood or even from the same [i]century[/i] as him, but they were both full of tenacity.

He could remember when his tenacity cost him dearly, the many times he flew close to the moon and paid for it, with no one to catch him when he fell. That would not happen this time. By the time the child woke up, almost like it was planned, Nochalla was awake and looking at her with half-lidded eyes. The third eye in her forehead was closed, and Jack sat over them both. A steaming cup sat on the nightstand.

[color=6644ff]"What have you learned?"[/color]

[hr]

Jack had many stories to tell from a life of wandering the world. Tales of friends long gone who were better magicians than him, of legends he proved wrong when countless others could not. Tales of love, loss and what it meant to be hopeful for better things to come in life.

Not all of those stories were good.

It was never "day" in this world. But there were ways to tell when it was day relative to the nearest world. A stable rift had existed in the backyard of the house for years, it was why he chose to conjure it up [i]here.[/i] By that metric, it was midday, so it was morning here. Jack stood in a kitchen, cast in a soft gloom like everything here. To an unfamiliar eye, it looked like pans and bowls were moved by telekinetic force, but it was a realm of shadow that he lived in, and this house was never fully lit.

Nochalla scampered up the stairs, as she did every morning, to pester Annika.

And deep below the house, in a basement that did not exist, locked behind walls that were never built, something snapped awake for the first time in years. It was a simple thing, a book covered in [color=#FFFFFF]g[/color][color=#FFFEF9]o[/color][color=#FFFDF3]l[/color][color=#FFFDEE]d[/color][color=#FFFCE8]e[/color][color=#FFFCE3]n[/color] [color=#FFFBD8]f[/color][color=#FFFAD2]i[/color][color=#FFFACD]l[/color][color=#FFF9C7]i[/color][color=#FFF9C2]g[/color][color=#FFF8BC]r[/color][color=#FFF7B6]e[/color][color=#FFF7B1]e[/color] [color=#FFF6A6]a[/color][color=#FFF5A0]n[/color][color=#FFF59B]d[/color] [color=#FFF490]g[/color][color=#FFF38A]l[/color][color=#FFF385]i[/color][color=#FFF27F]t[/color][color=#FFF179]t[/color][color=#FFF174]e[/color][color=#FFF06E]r[/color][color=#FFF069]y[/color] [color=#FFEF5E]f[/color][color=#FFEE58]l[/color][color=#FFEE53]e[/color][color=#FFED4D]c[/color][color=#FFED48]k[/color][color=#FFEC42]s[/color] [color=#FFEB37]o[/color][color=#FFEA31]f[/color] [i][color=#FFE926]l[/color][color=#FFE921]i[/color][color=#FFE81B]g[/color][color=#FFE816]h[/color][color=#FFE710]t[/color][color=#FFE70B].[/color] [/i]

A recess formed in the cold soil, surrounding it in empty air. Big enough for a small child to fit inside of.

[i][color=FFE600]IT HAS NOT BEEN FINISHED YET.[/color][/i]

The next page of something long dead, a story long put away, never meant to be opened again, was turned. 

And inside the house, the floorboards merely creaked.

[center][youtube]https://youtu.be/zYTEb7fVdzw?si=tu6kIJdCryU27nuU[/youtube][/center]