The man moved with mechanical steps, walking from the glow of one streetlamp into the glow of the next, advancing through the pitch-black alleyway between the distant pools of light. The dim radiance fell upon his long cloak, flickering bright and dark.
He passed through alleys whose names Fang Hong could not even call to mind, one after another, from one junction to the next. His gait was stiff, yet without the slightest hesitation. The man always seemed able to avoid the bustling streets; at times only a single row of buildings lay between them, as he crossed a junction and brushed past a patrol of Knights in black-and-white war robes. Inside the alley and outside it were like two entirely separate worlds—one side slipping into darkness, the other ablaze with light.
