Gateways Through the Penumbra is a fantasy-novel where you walk through the haze of the penumbra into a landscape of broken and strange alternate universes...

Six was a normal woman, living a normal life until weird things start happening and strange people turn up on her doorstep wanting help. Before she can figure out what is going on, she finds herself wandering in an alternate reality, clear across the world in London-Otherside.

Always different, Six's "quarks" were actually a latent ability to open gateways in reality. In this new world, lightworkers are usually trained by The Light Brigade, a secretive organization that fights evil wherever it's found, but when Six stumbles into their corner of the universe and Jack, the emissary of the lightworkers is meant to collect her and explain things, it all goes awry.

Six realizes it is all real when she instinctively stops the nuclear blast Acelia attempts to unleash on the world. Jack is missing or dead and something evil is seeking to capture or turn Six before she can learn to control her powers and choose between the light and the darkness.

Six runs from evil, but is drawn into helping people wherever she goes, no matter the cost to herself. Just when she thinks she's finally found friends and might get some answers about her abilities and her calling, she falls for Rigel. Sometimes the strongest attractions are the most dangerous ones...

***

Under extreme duress, which you will no doubt hear about later, I promised Jack I would write a book about my adventures and by default, my frequent rescuer Jack. I promised that wherever I lived, wherever I wandered, and especially wherever I traveled, I'd mark my house or near my house with hobo's marks to let other travelers know they'd find safety and welcome with me when they traveled from one world to the next, through the penumbra.

Hobo's marks aren't anything special mind you, often they're just some chalk scratched on a sidewalk or a little squiggly on the bark of a tree, something that "normal" people would never notice and wouldn't understand even if they did.

At the time, I didn't think these promises were so much to ask in exchange for saving my sorry ass. Jack always had that righteous attitude, something like "help others since I've helped you, or else." It was only later that I realized that my promise and my intent to keep it meant that I could never, ever go back to having a normal life...
***
"Deuce, my name's Deuce," he replied, tightening his grip as I dug in my heels. "That old curmudgeon calls me Darth, that's his polite way of telling me he thinks I'm an arse."

"Oh," I said, feeling a little bad about it. I stopped pulling and he sounded like he'd decided to be kind to me after all.

"You'll need to find Jack, he'll be the one to be your guide. Last I heard he was out in Cort na Coribe, in Eire, so go there first," he directed. "I'll give you a map and we can go back to my place and we can sit down and I'll tell you everything you need to know about living in the Otherlands, but right now we've got to get off the streets before full night falls..."

But it was too late, the last weak beams of the sun had slid below the tops of the city buildings and the alley fell into deep darkness. The shadows lengthened and seemed to move along the wall, coming closer. As I watched, a solid form, black on black broke away from the wall and stood in the mouth of the alleyway blocking the exit. Darth shoved me behind him so fast my head snapped back. "Run"...

Gateways Through the Penumbra - nidottu, Englanti, 2022