The night always helped Tora clear her thoughts. The suffocation associated with obligations and rules eased when she was out in the open, watching the stretch of endless night of the city. She swung her legs, enjoying the light breeze caressing her skin and weaving through her ponytail. From the top of the monument in the city centre she could see everything. Fat in the distance, the sky was streaked with grey and dark blue like light dancing on ripples of water. Various parliament towers made up the skyline with its eerie gargoyles and twisted towers.

Far beneath her feet, the main street ran from one end to the other, peppered by yellow street lights and shop fronts. All the shutters were down, the workers home and asleep for the night. The odd human stumbled about and the homeless snuffled on the pavement, curled into a ball. The three- or four-storeyed buildings set a few streets back still host a few windows with lights on. Tiny humanoid silhouettes flitted back and forth. The occasionally passing car or night bus punctuated the otherwise pristine silence.

There was no new Tora or old Tora. It was just Tora – she didn't feel confident enough to embrace "Lilitha" yet. Although much of the past memories still escaped her, there was a darkness that frightened her. There were things she'd done in the past that she would regret, things that would have revolted old Tora.

And Maraduc...

His name twisted her gut. Details evaded capture but when she whispered his name out loud she was flooded with sweet sorrow. He'd been a source of light in the darkness that consumed her world when she first met him. She'd been young and naïve – but her father soon sorted that out.

She could see her father in her mind's eye. She never saw all of him – nobody did. His impressive presence made even tiny atoms in the air slow and all manner of life forms evaded him. A Shifter like no other, whose name reverberated throughout all the realms, instilling fear. Beiamolt. A breast plate of crimson, ringed with crimson fire provided the only source of light in the pitch darkness where he resided. Eyes of blue flames sucked all rebellion and confidence out of her lungs. The deadly mouth which issued her sentence of permanent banishment hidden behind his scarlet nasal projection. The atmosphere was stifling, the walls slowly moving in, crushing her resolve.

He was a formidable creature, but he was now dead. It was inevitable someone might; such as the law of the worlds. There was always a need for a stronger leader. Those who couldn't measure up to it must fall. She just didn't expect it would be Cimerus.

And she remembered his promise. The heartbroken, desperate look he'd thrown her as the portal opened. I'll find you. It was written all over his face, his golden eyes full of regret on his dark face. She never heard the words; she just knew them.

And then there was darkness. It was impossible to gauge how long it was she was tumbling over and over, with days merging into nights, pain scraping across happiness, hope colliding with despair. There was no top or bottom; there was no finish line. Whether she curled up and cried or lay spread-angled it made no difference. It was worse than being tortured and having organs removed; at least eventually the pain numbed into unconsciousness. Tumbling between realms had no ending.

Tora closed her eyes and shivered, but not from the chilly wind at fifty metres above ground. The cold air gave her clarity. She opened her eyes again. The night stretched on. Tora picked at the hood before settling herself in a more comfortable position sitting on top of her hoodie. Its loose sleeves fluttered.

So much information came back to her. The next part was the first haze in her memories after the clarity of her banishment.

Chaos, screams, blood.

She awoke staring up at a sky that was not quite night. In the Shifter world where the time was dictated by the different moons, seeing this moonless light-streaked sky was disconcerting. It was not day and it was not night. There was no moon, no indicating how time had passed.

She pushed herself up, feeling blades of grass beneath her hand. She flinched, expecting deep cuts to materialise – but there was none. This was not the ground of the Eali, where nature possessed harm to those of ill intentions. Plus, the Eali were permanently in twilight, with the glow of their halo and balls of dancing light to see by.

The sky was getting darker as she watched. At the far end, the castle became an ominous angular shape, with only its ground lights allowing luminescence. It occurred to her that she'd never visited the main attraction of the city, with its multitudes of secretive tunnels and pathways. Ross said some of the tunnels led to nowhere, but others open into dungeons, traps, and a few escape paths open into the cellars of stores on the main street.

Her ears finally tuned in to the present. Screeches – demon sounds – penetrated the air. Dull thuds and splashes of blood followed. A battle? Here?

Where is here?

Aware of how vulnerable her position was, she scrambled to her feet. Demons rushed past, ignoring her entirely. Her golden eyes flicked over them. They darted forward on all fours, their marble white faces and long-lashed black filled with bloodlust. Night creatures. There were perhaps thirty, forty of them.

The wind rustled past, bringing a new scent from upwind. She sniffed, curious. She followed the night creatures at a distance, on the lookout for enemies. A half-collapsed hut stood in the middle of the field. She squatted behind it and peeked round the side. Her tail swished behind her.

There were three humanoid creatures. Although in form they resembled the night creatures – two arms, two legs, a head with a torso and the same facial features – they were more vocal and colourful than the monochrome creatures. They smelt different, too. Night creatures smelt of stale blood and shadows. These were more... lively. Nothing she'd ever came across before. It was an oddly tantalising scent. She wanted to taste them, see what they were. The way they tore through the night creatures with guts and bodily fluid flying everywhere was fascinating. There was a sort of beauty in their union, not the chaos undeveloped demons embraced.

At that moment, her knees buckled. Her hands splayed open, catching herself. Claws dug into the mud. Her breath came in shallow gasps as pins and needles coursed down her body. That was right. Not many creatures could survive passing through realms like she had done in one piece, mind and body intact. Well, her mind wasn't that intact. Most of the memories had gone. She remembered blazing eyes and a punishment beyond measure, and then she was here. She hadn't eaten in moons and she was weak. No doubt they would kill her, thinking her the same as the night creatures, if they caught her. She needed something more subtle.

She could look like them. It would take the last of her power, perhaps even to the point of losing what was left of herself. But to survive, that was her only option.

Everything was clear in retrospect. The pieces finally fell into place. Tora sucked in another breath of chilly night air. The new Tora had vague memories of her banishment, and old Tora's began not long after her last shift into a human. The last of her injuries melted away when she turned from Shifter to human. The trickle of her anchor to reality fell away, too.

Tora grinned at the memory, now so clear. Ross had found her. A ferocious redhead, covered in blood that was a mix of her own scarlet and the tar-like substance of decomposing night creature, had grabbed her and slammed her to the ground. Tora hadn't reacted to the pain; she barely registered her new fleshy face pressed against the benign grass, her lack of a tail no longer tucked between her buttocks.

Her brain quickly adjusted to their speech patterns. The vocals were at a lower pitch than what she was used to and had a musical lilt to every word. Their facial expressions morphed to accompany their voices and they gestured their limbs to season their intentions. She absorbed all of that. She couldn't recall it back then, but it was how she'd blended into all of the other realms before. Her ability to blend into the natives with their varying speech patterns, vocabularies, cultures – and appearance, obviously – was one of the best. If not for the handicap being forced through realms had brought her, she could have become a human before the Seekers caught her. What was second nature to her saved her life.

Their words eventually made sense.

"She's a demon, I tell you!" Ross, her intuitions sharp as always. "She reeks like them."

"She doesn't look like one to me," said Markl, tapping his chin. His gaze swept over her like x-rays, taking in her dishevelled appearance and then averted his eyes – for she was naked as a baby. He took off his shirt and threw it at her. Confused, Tora grabbed it and sniffed, before realising what it was for and shoved it over her head and chest. "Damien?"

"I can't sense anything." Damien lowered the two fingers held at his temple and crouched, his light green eyes meeting hers. Of course he couldn't detect any demon in her at that point. There was barely any left. What remained had crept to a dark, undisturbed corner of her mind where not even Tora knew it existed. Cold tendrils pricked at her defence before easing in with deliberation. He probed around, exploring her very empty and drained head, before exiting. "It's weird... but it's like she's been brainwashed. There is literally nothing there."

"Let's sort it out quick. The barracks aren't far away."

There was such a debate as to what to do with her. Ross was convinced she was a demon in disguise – Tora realised in retrospect how right the lieutenant actually was, and almost felt sorry for her – and wanted to practically dissect her. Damien thought she was just a normal girl and should be returned to her family, which was such a typical Damien thing to say. Markl was torn between his trust in Ross's intuition and his own gut feelings when seeing the apparently vulnerable and innocent girl in front of him.

Ross was wrong about one thing, though: Tora never meant them any harm. For all she was in reality – a demon, a harbinger, a killer – she held no ill feelings for the Seekers. If Lilitha remained whole during that time, then she probably would have killed them, but not Tora. Whatever they now felt about her, she would never purposely hurt them.

Her hands curled into fists, the knuckles turning white. Markl was wrong. She was part of the team – she was. The Tora who didn't attack her own teammates and who had control over her powers was part of the family. This Tora – or Lilitha, or whatever – was a danger. With the Shifter world needing Lilitha back, it was only logical she returned with Cimerus. She could do less harm there.

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