STOP! NO! NO! NOT BACK! Fir screamed, but she was only watching, as if through someone else’s eyes. She screamed, until her words ceased to be words and only meaningless cries of despair.

Every step she took, she felt a part of herself tearing away. She wasn’t going forwards anymore. A voice shrieked in her head, then died. But she didn’t even feel like she was moving anymore - she certainly wasn’t going further along the path anymore, even though her eyes told her she was. It almost seemed like the light was approachingg her, not the other way around. No. She knew the light was getting closer.

‘Elena.’

Fir took another step forwards, or was it backwards? The path seemed even narrower now, but how was that possible? She had just walked through here - the path ought to be getting wider, not narrower.

‘Elena.’

The Unquiet grew restless, stifling, despite the increasing proximity of the light. In the back of her mind, Fir had a chilling realisation. This wasn’t Palelight.

‘Elena.’

As the light got closer, it became tinged with orange, gaining a warm hue unlike the cold grey Palelight. It became brighter too, and Fir’s vision became spotted and distorted with blinding shapes.

‘Elena.’

It dawned on her. This was sunlight!

‘Elena!’

Sunlight. Not Palelight. Sunlight wasn’t real - it was impossible.

‘ELENA!’

It wasn’t Palelight.

Fir looked beyond the sunlight, and saw darkness darker than night. She saw herself being swallowed by bottomless blackness, a void. The Unquiet shied away from this light that was not light, tendrils creeping back from the path, leaving deep scars in the cobblestones.

She saw Pine - or was it Iris? - beyond that light. She saw more impossibilities: colour, emotion untinged by sadness, others. But that wasn’t here, that wasn’t real.

Fir grabbed hold of her unquenchable sadness, used it to drive herself through the barriers of her own mind, and feeling returned to her body. Cold, so much cold. Pain, anguish, more than what was simply in her memory. This wasn’t light. This wasn’t Palelight.