194 The Nobody Test

Reluctantly the Master of the Black Cloaks allowed us to leave. He didn't threaten or bar Shade from leaving, he just kept giving advice, asking questions, and offering treats like food, pipeweed, alcohol or hallucinogenic drugs.

She led me through a maze of narrow, unused corridors and through a couple of secret doors before finally arriving at a barren room with a translucent green wall. The wall moved like the surface of a pond or a portal and I could not discern much through it because it was like looking at a picture through a tank of murky water.

"This is a test," she said. "Beyond that wall is my place of rest and solitude. No black cloak has found this place. The most powerful black cloaks would struggle to pass through the curtain."

She was going to show me behind the curtain literally, I just had to pass through.