Soar Away
an excerpt

INTERLUDE: 进

"You can still back out."

"I'll be gone and back in a second. And we'll finally have our answer."

"Kielyn, you don't have to do this."

"Maybe if you had all tried to think of other ways to solve our problem, instead of trying to convince me not to."

"Use some of our magic, then, at least. Be careful."

"I'll be right ba—"

Kielyn abruptly fell away from her body, into an immense void. She remained connected tenuously to her life by a delicate thread; all around her was howling nothingness. She felt for the direction, and slid down, seeking the bright mind of the earth magician from the past. She reached it, touched it cautiously. It turned, surprised, then accepted her in. Slowly she moved into its form, a guest 900 years in the past.

And slipped. The thread linking her to her body, her form, her life suddenly became much thinner. Kielyn threw caution to the winds and pulled, trying to reverse her descent into the world of the past. But the thread was slippery, and she couldn't climb back into her own world.

She flailed, her mind grasping for a hold. For a terrifying moment she was neither here nor there, one tiny spark lost in the world of things unmade. Then she slid further back into the body of 900 years before, someone else's mind.

She gave one final, urgent grab, and felt her consciousness catch on something. Another mind. Desperately she tried to link to the new mind, to bring herself back into her own world.

She felt the new mind shriek. She saw her own body fade further. And just before her mental strength failed, she saw the new mind, lost and disoriented, settle into her body.

Then nothing.