Interlude I: Something wants to get in.

In the intangible spaces beyond the reach of mortal senses, where energies ebb and flow like currents of an otherworldly ocean, the Sunny Day Mall stood enveloped in a maelstrom of magical Life Energy. Unseen by the shoppers who meandered through its corridors, laden with bags and buoyed by leisurely contentment, a swirling vortex of enchantment, a churning tide of life and attraction, had congregated and now swirled around the Mall.

But where there is light, shadows yearn to stretch; where there is warmth, the cold seeks to seep in. Hovering at the fringes of the magical vortex, drawn like a moth to the radiance, was an entity of insatiable darkness. It was a small almost insignificant thing. An amalgam of void and yearning, a thing without shape or name, a hunger without a mouth. Born from the crevices between worlds and the whispers of entropy.

The entity pressed against the torrential barrier of arcane energy, the coven's spell a tempestuous river, a cascade of liquid aurora denying entry. The entity recoiled, its form dispersing like smoke against a gale, **** to retreat to the shrouded margins from whence it came. But it lingered outside the mall, seeking some way in.

The shoppers below remained blissfully unaware of the cosmic tide that ebbed and flowed around them, of the unseen protectors that held the night at bay. For now, Sunny Day Mall remained a place of commerce and casual joy, safely cradled in the embrace of an enchantment as old as time, as fresh as a new dawn.