If the natives’ world had been given a Latin name, translating their own, it would’ve been called Arthropodia. There invertebrates, not vertebrates, were the dominant self-aware beings, and every major class of insects, arachnids and allied creatures were represented in their archetypes. They were all formed as close to humanoid design as those archetypes allowed, making them the stuff of dreams (or of nightmares) of many an ancient speculative fiction author in the Old First Realm. There were even warrior praying-mantis types, much like the rightly-feared Mantids of the Covenant Realm.

But this Realm had long been unknown to any created being of that Realm. The humanoid who appeared suddenly in a red flash through a Portal of Twilight that disappeared as suddenly as it came was only the third visitor from the Covenant Realm in many a year to step foot on Arthropodia.

It took a moment for Nicholas Blackthorn, the Archon Disciple of Chaos, to regain his mental balance and his bearings. Before him a city that looked like an anthill rose from a clearing in the middle of a dense tropical jungle. Large bees, beetles and even butterflies flew here and there, each piloted by one or another kind of intelligent insect. Each of the pilots was designed to stand upright on two or else four of his or her six legs, while the remaining limbs functioned as arms.

Nicholas was wearing his usual space-black shacharite armor, with his usual carmine-red cloak over it. His escape from Alain Harper the Undying Singer had been narrow indeed this time; and the effects of Alain’s Locus’ Ring on Nicholas Passport Ring had yet to wear off. Not even a durin ring could destroy another durin ring, but Alain’s ring was the more powerful and his use of some new technique with it – the Trickster Trap, he’d called it, calling upon his power over logical frameworks – had very nearly kept Nicholas from escaping the Realm of Midnight City through the Portal entirely. As it was, the Passport Ring’s powers had been scrambled and the Portal had deposited him at random here… wherever here was.

Presumably Edwin Bitterroot, who had gone through the Portal with Nicholas, was somewhere in the same Realm. Where Edwin went, the Passport Ring tended to follow when Nicholas and Edwin traveled together. But things had gone wrong, and Nicholas could sense nothing of the Shadow Master’s presence for the time being. Perhaps he was in another Realm entirely. The Hooded Man knew.