Excerpt: Soul's Edge

She knew where the gateway was, even without the markers on the ground pointing the way. She thought she saw a shimmer in the air, two scenes interposed, bleeding through each other. The new tattoo on her inner wrist sizzled and seemed to shift when she stepped through to the other side. Her insides twisted in the spiraling effect that transferred travelers along the umbilical chord to the other plain from which they had been separated all that time ago. She closed her eyes as the scenery swirled and slewed before her. After what seemed ages that lasted less than a second, her insides settled and she felt safe to open her eyes.

She blinked hard. At first the image seemed unchanged and momentarily she thought that the transfer had not worked. Her focus sharpened and she noticed slight changes; the age and growth of the trees, the creeping weeds breaking through the ground where feet had not trodden for some time. Looking behind her, there was no city walls only decaying and crumbling shanty shacks. There were rough markers on the ground indicating the gateway for those that had passage but other than that, no indication of the place she had just come from in the space of one stride.