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Darkness Silence I&039; to protectwebs Then I realise I&039;m not on fire There&039;s no pain I relaxcobweb ash from my cheeks

I can&039;t see Total blackness I reach out with"Hello?" I call, then wait for Shark or Dervish to respond

No answer

I get toI count steps inside my head Ten Fifteen Twenty Fifty A hundred Onsoft and sticky I pause and explore withthrough the webs, they resist

"Dervish!" I shout "Shark!"

No answers No echoes Only silence

Walking, keeping one hand on the webby wall I co the way ahead I turn right and follow the neall Only get twelve paces before striking another wall So I&039;, narrow room or some sort of alley Hand on the wall, I start back in the direction I ca hard not to panic

After sixty-two paces there&039;s a left turn A long walk after that, the wall curving slightly Then I come to the mouth of another roo in touch with the wall After twenty-two paces I co I start to follow it around to the left then pause I&039;ve had an idea

Lowering ht and find the wall opposite I continue straight ahead, right hand feeling the way After thirty-six paces I come to a halt Turn left Walk ahead Ten paces twelve twenty

I stop, shtly I knohere I am now In a maze

A few seconds later, the se this ht be Or even if there is an exit I guess there&039;s only one way to find out Keeping a hand on the wall, I start ahead again, further into the pitch-black, de theto remember all the twists and turns I&039;ve taken, the paces between the on numbers helpsall alone with no idea of where

The darkness

I co why I find the darkness so unsettling It&039;s total darkness - there aren&039;t any patches of light! For the first ti darkness as other people understand it The lights I&039;ve grown up with - which I used to create s betorlds in this universe - have disappeared

A terrifying thought strikes like a missile - maybe I&039;m blind! Perhaps that&039;s why the darkness is absolute Maybe Lord Loss burnt ht as day in here

My heart thuo weak A life of blackness, lost in a maze, no friends to turn to for help Maybe that&039;s what Lord Loss meant when he said I had to find and na He knew that blind, I wouldn&039;t have any way of identifying Cadaver He&039;s tricked ht! Strandedhope, theinside my head I should have listened to Beranabus What made me think I could strike a fair deal with a des its claws into ic, a voice inside ht Then you&039;ll find out if you&039;re blind or not

"I don&039;t kno to do that," I whiood time to learn, the voice says drily

I nod slowly The voice is right No point freaking out whenupon the , but let&039;s see how I fare in other areas

I iht, like the bulb in ht - that can&039;t be too enerate one Or else I&039;ve created light, but can&039;t see it

No, the voice says You&039;d know if you had done it There is no light

"So I can&039;t tell if I&039;h I don&039;t suppose it ht as well be blind"

The voice doesn&039;t answer i to a simpleton, it says, Remember the chess board?

"What about it?"

It had black squares and white squares If those squares correspond to the worlds within the Board

"then half the ht!" I shout

Exactly So all you have to do is find your way to a white square Then you&039;ll see again