“Why was his work always taking him to abandoned quarries and deserted mines and seedy inner-city bars? He needed a new occupation, a job that would entail extended visits to lazy tropical beaches and quaint woodland cottages.”

This quote introduces the twilight world that John Dart inhabits. Though the reader won’t see the contrast immediately, his world is the polar opposite of the innocent daylight world of the Blue Falcons. As the novel progresses, the Falcons become enmeshed in Dart’s grimmer reality through their involvement with Mrs. White.

“Taking a final peek at the map, John set off up the street. Another lonely road in the middle of the night. Not unsettling, except that it felt so familiar. Alone in the dark, he was at home.”

As in the preceding quote, this statement creates a disjunction between Dart’s experience of life and the terrain he is traversing in Colson. Most of the tasks that Mrs. White will later assign to her assistants must also be conducted under cover of darkness. So, the Blue Falcons might make a similar comment about their new familiarity with nighttime.

“‘I saw some children playing out there.’ ‘But I don’t know them.’ ‘Then go get acquainted. When I was your age, I was friends with whoever happened to be out roaming the neighborhood.’ ‘Sounds like a good way to get stabbed by a hobo,’ Nate grumbled.”

Nate’s father has just advised his son to make friends with the neighborhood children in their new town. Nate’s grim remark is meant to be humorous. However, he is about to be introduced to an alternate reality where getting stabbed isn’t an outrageous possibility. In the realm of magicians, it’s an everyday occurrence.