“So this is Warfield, eh? Not exactly as glamorous as I’d expected.” Drake remarked.

“This is a place of battle, of death. There is no glamour or glory here, only honor and the will to survive.” Kymien responded.

“Oh blah blah blah, honor this, honor that. All I’m saying is, this place could do with some redecoration, and some foliage.”

“It bears its battle scars with pride.”

“Well some battle scars should really be healed then.”

“Cease bickering, the both of you. This is a serious endeavour, not the training yard. Idle banter will not do.” I scowled at the two of them before returning my gaze to the terrain before us. Warfield was as ever more reminiscent of a blasted heath from a horror novel than any location found on the six planes.

“Yes, sir.” Kymien said respectfully, while Drake simply smirked and went silent.

“I do hope you actually remember the mission, Drake.”

“Of course I do, Fitzy, it’s the first time I’ve been on Warfield. To ol’ Kymien here this is just another battle in a war, but I’m still new at this, so of course I’d remember. We’re here to take back an outpost lost in… the last conflict right?”

I nodded. “The outpost was taken in a push by Fire and Light, along with some other territory. It was given to Fire to control, and now that Fire is weak from fighting other elements we have a chance to take it back. Expect a motley crew, only enough to keep watch and ensure it doesn’t fall instantly.”

Drake nodded, a bit more serious now, and we continued our march through the wasteland. We were approaching a mountain pass, and the two slayers we’d brought with us were grim. Drake asked, “It’s at a high elevation, right?”

“The outpost is an overlook in the pass, nestled against a point midway up one of the mountains. There’s a trail leading to the entrance, but the overlook gives a perfect view of anyone approaching, while the fortifications allow for defenders to freely attack invaders while remaining safe from retaliation.”

Drake frowned. “Um, not to criticize, but I’m not really seeing how we’re supposed to get to the outpost if it has such good defenses.”

“Leave that to me. I will get us to the entrance, and then it is your job to make a battle plan. Kymien has already been tested in battle. If you want to be as respected as a potential Champion as he is, you must also test your abilities in true combat, including planning abilities.”

“Got it. So… how are we getting to it? Like, seriously I’m kind of worried about getting blasted with fire.”

“We are almost there. I will explain once I see the trail.”

We walked on for a few more moments, Kymien stoic and Drake uneasy, until I saw the beginnings of the trail that led to the overlook. I motioned for the group to halt, and then pulled out a stone with a rune carved on it. “This will make my task much easier.” Drake furrowed his brow and walked over, looking at it. I began waving my hand over it, muttering nonsense words under my breath to help clear my thoughts.

“The stone… has some magic in it. Stored energy.” I nodded in confirmation as a bit of darkness began to seep from my hand, into the stone. The runes began to glow with a purple light. “It’s activating, and… I don’t recognize that spell.” He looked at me in confusion.

“That’s because it is an old one, and few have learned it. My studies and my training have given me skills that those content with power would never seek out.” I clenched my fist, and the entire stone went black.

“That’s interesting, but, uh, what did you actually do?”

“I cast a cloaking spell, which is projected in a sphere around the stone. We are now invisible to all other elementals. The stone serves as a vault of energy from which the spell draws, so that I do not have to power it. Now we may safely advance.” Drake stared at me, a little bit in awe, and I smiled. It was nice, the few moments when someone recognized what I had accomplished. Not everyone was like Renessa, after all.

No, don’t think of her, or of Kiana. Just enjoy this outing, and watch the potentials. One of them must be Champion, and today is important to that goal.

We walked forward, and the overlook was revealed. The walls were stone brick with minimal markings, though the Fire elementals had splashed orange paint at random areas. Drake tensed up a bit as we came within range, but relaxed when there were no sounds of being spotted. We continued our travel, moving at a steady pace, and after a bit of time we reached the gate itself, high up the trail. “Now it is time for you to construct a plan, Drake. This cloaking spell will not last for much longer, and it will not hide our voices, so keep your volume down and speak quickly. I will cast a spell of blindness upon our enemies when battle begins, but it will only last for a few seconds, not enough to allow us a free victory.” I spoke softly but firmly, ever mindful of our limited time remaining.

“Wait, you can blind them?” Drake sounded impressed with me, but managed to lower his voice enough to avoid the enemy hearing.

“Only for a short time. It is another perk of being skillful, and of researching. Now, let us see how many there are.” I pulled out a mirror from the satchel I’d brought with me, and handed it to Kymien.

He waved his hand over it, and a few moments later said, “They have five slayers, and a single caster. The caster is off to the side, while the slayers are mostly bunched up in the middle, having a laugh. They don’t appear to have any sentries posted, so you can drop the invisibility spell now.” I nodded and released my magic from the stone. It returned to its dull color, and we became visible to any who would look upon us.

“Well, Drake, you have all the info you need. Construct a plan.” I retrieved my mirror, and put it back in the satchel as I waited for him to speak.

He tapped his chin thoughtfully for a few seconds, and started talking to himself aloud. “We’ve got two slayers… Kymien… the blindness spell… me… they have five slayers and a caster… hmm. Kymien’s got good defenses, he could probably take a few hits, and he brought his shield and sword… you did bring that right?”

Kymien nodded, and Drake continued his quiet musing. “I’m quick and efficient… the slayers are good at teamwork… terrain is… flat?” Kymien gave another nod. “Right, so flat terrain, stone brick walls, no sentries to watch the walls… someone could probably… right. Got a plan figured out. Kymien will charge in right before the blindness spell kicks in to get the attention of everyone, they’ll move towards him while the slayers get in position to flank. Kymien will try and draw their attacks. I’ll be climbing the walls, getting to the other side so I can sneak in from behind and kill a few. We’ll deal with the slayers first because there are more of them, then focus the caster together.”

I considered his plan. “It seems a decent plan, but we shall see how it works in practice. If you intend on crawling around back there, how will we know when to begin the attack?”

“Begin it the moment I’m out of sight, I’ll try and move quickly.” With that, he grabbed a handhold on the wall and began moving quickly and carefully. The moment he was out of sight, I nodded to Kymien and he unsheathed his weapon and shield before slamming into the door, which was made of wood unlike the walls. It splintered inward, and he charged the nearest slayer. The Fire elementals looked at him in dismay and surprise, and I cast the blindness spell, muttering a few quick words and making a single gesture with my hand.

A darkness fell over their eyes, and they panicked, swinging their weapons wildly in defense while the caster threw a fireball in the general direction of Kymien. Our slayers moved in to flank the enemy, and Kymien cut deeply into the first enemy, nearly killing her before the blindness spell wore off. I leaned against the wall, a little weak from my spells, and watched as the enemies attempted to defend themselves from our force.

Kymien proved capable of keeping their attention, finishing off one slayer while the two Dark slayers put the rest to task. Then, Drake jumped down off the wall and darted forward, running the nearest slayer through with his rapier. The slayer clutched their abdomen, and Drake imbued his sword with darkness and slashed at the slayer’s neck, killing them. He moved to the next, and took a bit more time with this one, slashing and stabbing with an attempt at flair as the slayer desperately tried to defend himself. Drake finished him off with another stab, and laughed.

His laugh was cut off as Kymien rushed forward, shoving him aside and raising his shield to block a powerful blast of fire from the caster. The two Dark slayers dueled the Fire slayers while Kymien and Drake rushed at the caster together, Kymien managing to block the attacks. They reached the caster, and she tried to run but Drake darted forward and swept his foot out, knocking her to the ground. He stabbed her through the chest a few times, and she perished, turning to flame. The two moved to join their allies, and together they finished off the last two Fire slayers.

Kymien hesitated, then said, “Nice work, Drake. Your plan worked well.”

Drake grinned and patted him on the back. “You too, big guy.”

I smiled at their camaraderie. Experience and instinct. I expect they will work together, regardless of whom is ultimately made Champion.

My happiness was brought down by the sudden arrival of a second caster, who rushed from behind a pile of crates and immediately targeted me, throwing a bolt of fire. Drake and Kymien rushed towards me, but I acted with greater haste. I threw up a square of darkness the size of the projectile and dismissed it the second after the fire struck. I took aim at the caster and with one swift movement I threw a small spike of darkness, which pierced his throat. The enemy caster clutched his neck, gasping for air, and fell to the ground. Kymien rushed over and finished him off.

Drake walked over to me, and looked at me with something approaching fear and respect. “That… was brutally efficient. When they said you were skilled, I’ve got to admit I underestimated you. That… I’m kind of glad we’re on the same side now.”

“I… appreciate the sentiment.” I said weakly, before falling against the wall, my vision blurring. I heard the others rushing over, and Kymien kneeling by my side.

“What happened, what’s wrong with him?” asked Drake.

“His ailment makes him weaker as he ages. It is the reason he has to be so careful with his spells. Casting four spells in the course of less than an hour? That must have taxed him greatly. He… should be fine, once he gets a bit of energy. Come on, old friend.” Kymien stretched his hand, and I took it, raising myself up before leaning against him. We walked over together to a table with some chairs, a dining area it seemed, and I sat down.

They brought some rations, and we all ate together. “Now that I… am less weak, I should congratulate you, Drake. You did excellent work there, even if you were a bit overconfident at times. Both of you have the makings of a fine Champion.”

Drake smiled at that, and we ate in a silence for a few minutes, but then he hesitated, and asked, “What about Shadow?”

I scowled. “Kiana’s only virtue is power. She does not have skill, she does not have loyalty, she does not cooperate, and she does not possess a moral bone in her body. Mark my words well; I will not allow her to become Champion, because doing so would be the beginning of a catastrophe affecting all elements, even Darkness. But you are both fine choices and while Shadow may complain and throw a fit, I do not foresee anything stopping one of you from becoming Champion. She would not dare stand against the full might of the Council, and a new Champion.”

The treasure room was rather simple, to be honest. Seven pedestals: three by the far wall, two by the left wall, and two by the right. On each pedestal rested an item of some kind, a piece of armor, weapon, or miscellaneous. I for one went straight for the far wall, seeing what I deemed to be the most important items; a sword, a mirror, and a book.

I picked up the item on the far left, the sword, and swung it about in an arc. It practically crackled with power and strength, and I could tell it was a superior sword to the one I’d lost. I examined it more closely, and was impressed with the craftsmanship. The blade was of some sleek, dark metal I’d never seen, pure black and shining. Glowing purple runes were etched along the edge of the blade on both sides, pulsing with power. The hilt itself was of fine quality, though not very ornate.

As I moved the blade around and watched the lights dance, I was struck with an insane thought. Swiveling to face the door, I pointed the sword directly forward, and cast a lightning bolt spell.

Electricity crackled down the length of the blade, and emerged from the tip in a glorious lightning bolt that tore apart the door.

Awesome! This thing is a freaking conduit.

A conduit is an item that can be used to channel energy through, like a wand or staff. Usually, they are items specifically crafted for that purpose, and useless for any other. But a sword that could channel, that was a rare find, and powerful too. Imagine slicing into an opponent, as they desperately block blow after blow, only to find the next blow is accompanied by a wild burst of magic centered on the blade, naturally flowing from it.

It is also of course possible to cast in unison with a normal blade, but a conduit blade like this one would be so much more effective, and efficient.

I grinned and sheathed the sword, turning to the next item, the one in the center pedestal. It was an elegant mirror with runic traceries on the edge of the glass, and framed in a circle of delicate gold. I suspected it to be a scrying mirror, a device specifically made for scrying: the magical art of viewing things in other places.

I tested it by casting a quick scrying spell, and focusing on the Council’s chamber in Raven’s Shade. The mirror quickly blurred, and after a moment showed me the chamber, where a few members of the Council were gathered, most notably Lord Pompous McAnnoying, the douchebag who denied me a role as champion. I nodded, satisfied with the mirror’s capabilities-

-and nearly dropped it when I heard Fitzdonald (the annoying one) talk. “I am repeating myself only because you seem unable to understand this, Korsky. We cannot trust Kiana, we cannot let her be Champion. Yes, she is powerful. Yes, she is dangerous. But think for just a moment how easily she could turn against us, betray us, or endanger our campaigns by misleading the soldiers. She does not know how to lead, or how to cooperate. Surely you have seen what she is like?”

One of the other members of the Council, presumably Korsky, replied, “If Shadow decides to betray this Council in any manner, being Champion will not make it easier for her to do so. She’s already powerful enough to take out at least half this Council if she catches us by surprise. Giving her the role will merely engender trust and cooperation.”

I kind of tuned out their conversation beyond that, because I was too much in shock. See, scrying is useful because you can see troop movements and such, but it has some basic limitations. Notably, because scrying works by projecting an image onto a reflective surface like water or glass, you can’t get sound. Thus, scrying can’t be used for true spying or information gathering, because little information is written down in un-warded areas.

But apparently, this mirror was unique. The revelation of the mirror’s capabilities caused me to reevaluate it, and look closely at it. As I did so, I noticed three runes that were distinct from the traceries. The highest of the three was glowing faintly, while the other two were dim. Curious, I pressed my finger to the glowing rune, and it dimmed. At the same time, the mirror stopped emitting sound. Then, I pressed the second rune, and as it began to glow, so too did the Council members.

I blinked, but sure enough the council members were now glowing with a purple-black energy. Struck by a thought, I changed the mirror’s view to that of Lux, and a random city. The mirror lit up with bright white lights, coming from the elementals walking about. Suspicions confirmed; the rune I’d pressed triggered a sort of aura-reader, or something that could detect energy signatures. It was displaying the basic energy of the beings and items in the chosen area.

I pressed the third rune, and the glow disappeared. In its place came numbers. Each elemental had a set of numbers displayed, and words to match the numbers; Health, Energy, Strength, Magic. It was showing their power levels, their basic abilities. Fascinating.

I dismissed the image from the mirror, and pocketed it as well.

At last I turned to the final item, the book. It was a very simple-looking book, with the outward appearance of nothing more than a leather-bound journal, albeit bound in black with brown traceries around the edge of the cover. I moved it around, and the traceries shimmered a bit, almost golden. There was no text on the outside.

I opened to the first page, and smiled. On the inside, the title was The Book of Power. I quickly skimmed through the first few pages, which introduced the book as being a guide to attaining ultimate power, usable only by beings with already considerable talent, skill, and raw power. I had all three of those, so I kept reading.

I passed by chapters with very interesting titles. To name a few: Ways to Become Unkillable, Advanced Mind Control and Mass Techniques, Portals and Gateways, and Elemental Fusion. I pocketed the book, and turned back to my friends with a giddy smile on my face.

I saw they’d already dispersed the items on the other pedestals; two to Malk and two to Clary. Apparently, none fit Wabbit.

Malk was now equipped with a wicked-looking shield, and a spiked gauntlet. Clary had a twisted and gnarled staff of some black wood, and a circle with lots of little gems.

“What do those do?” I asked.

Malk stepped up and said, “The shield seems to project a magical barrier whenever an attack draws near that won’t hit the physical shield. It’s also very resistant. The gauntlet… it seems to let me cast, weirdly enough.” He demonstrated this by gesturing with his gauntleted hand, and conjuring up a tendril of darkness, which he directed in a spike toward himself, only for it to hit a magical shield.

Clary said, “The circlet seems to boost my power, while the staff lets me focus my magic better, and cast more efficiently.” She pointed the staff at a wall, and a dozen bolts of darkness flew out, each one arcing slightly in a different way, slamming into the wall and cracking it. She swayed a bit, but then the crown flashed, and she was rejuvenated.

“So, what does your stuff do, Shadow?” asked Clary.

I unsheathed the sword, twirled it, and said, “This is Whisperdeath, my new sword. It’s a conduit, meaning I can sent bolts of lightning, blasts of darkness, or whatever else shooting out of it with ease.”

“Whisperdeath?” asked Malk incredulously.

“I can call my sword whatever I want, shut up.”

He snickered, and I glared at him before sheathing Whisperdeath and pulling out the mirror. “This one is less visually impressive, but more impressive from a technical standpoint. It’s a scrying mirror with absolutely no limitations. It can track power level, energy signatures, and it can produce sound too, making eavesdropping a lot easier.”

Clary looked impressed, though Malk less so.

Then I brought out the book.

“This, this is the most unique and interesting item I have ever found. It’s a guide to becoming all-powerful. It has listed in it ways to become invincible, ways to teleport, ways to mass mind control crowds, and much, much more. With this, I can become a goddess.”

They both stared in awe at the simple-looking book, and I smirked. I flipped through the pages, found the right chapter, and muttered an incantation. A second later, black energy tore a rip in reality open right next to me, forming a portal.

They stared in more awe.

“Let’s head to Widow’s Dusk. We have a murder to plan.”

“Alright, that was really, really fun. I killed the big guy, stole his magic, and learned about some vague prophecy that says all life in the universe will be destroyed because of my actions. So that’s cool.” They blinked at me, and I snickered. “Obviously I don’t actually plan on having the universe dead. I honestly don’t think the prophecy really means anything. Or at least, I can probably subvert anything it does mean. I’m pretty sure they were just hallucinating.”

They still looked a bit confused. “Ah, that makes… perfect sense, I’m sure,” remarked Clary. “Prophecies and hallucinations. Very sensible.”

I started looking around. “I’m thinking we should move on now, find the next room. I found mention of something, but I’m pretty sure it’s something we can investigate after we get the artifacts. The next room should be the last one, and then we can get all the wonderful items that were apparently awesome and powerful enough to be hidden away here. They’ll definitely let me accomplish my goals. Anyone see an exit?”

Clary shrugged, and Malk said, “No, actually. The only door is behind us and it still leads to the previous room.”

“Weird. What are we supposed to do now?” I asked.

As if in answer, all of the lights in the cathedral went out.

I turned around, and watched as the room descended into darkness, dim lighting coming from an undiscernible source, much like other spots in the dungeon. Then, the windows shattered inward, glass shards flying to land amid the corpses. Behind the windows there was nothing but inky blackness… and then that blackness began to move, flowing into the cathedral, swirling around, forming a whirlpool, a maelstrom, a well of darkness.

And from the center of that well, a shadow rose, and its form began to solidify.

I was shocked at the result; not just a shadow, but a Shadow.

Me.

Or at least, something very similar to me. The weird well version of me was different in several ways. First, she had no eyes. Her eye sockets were just black pits of malignant darkness that seemed to hint at untold terrors. Her hair, too, was gone, replaced by a wild mane of darkness. Oh, and she was naked. Tendrils of darkness covered a few key areas, but most of her skin was uncovered, revealing several markings here and there, strange runic tattoos.

She grinned, revealing sharpened teeth.

Nonchalantly, I asked, “So, who are you? And if you’re going to give me some silly, ‘I am you’ answer, what should I call you?”

The other Shadow laughed, and said, “I am what you will become, and I am the darkest parts of what you are now. You may call me Mirror, for I am the shadow in the mirror that shows your darkest self and mocks it.”

I nodded at Mirror, and asked, “So, what’s going to go down here? Are we going to fight as some test of my power, do some mirror thing, I’m a little lost. Are we going to do the mimic thing where we move in sync? Cause that’s usually entertaining.” I posed my arms and took a few steps back and forth to demonstrate.

Mirror’s grin widened, beyond what is typically possible of the mouth. It looked really freaking creepy, and I find few things disturbing. “I’m going to break you by talking. Then, I’m going to fight you to the death.”

I tilted my head quizzically. “Break me by talking? However do you plan to do that?”

Mirror strolled forward with languid grace, showing off her (technically my) body. She said, “Oh, I suppose it will be difficult, after all, a villain like yourself probably doesn’t even care about their faults.”

“Antihero, not villain. Antiheroes have personality stuff and caring and faults, they’re just badass enough to make up for it. I’m going to save Nyx, and catapult it into a glorious new era.”

She laughed richly. “Oh my dear, a sociopath like yourself is far from an antihero, and rarely do they have emotional weak points. That’s why I despair of this speech, really. You wouldn’t care if I killed your only two friends in the world, not really. Oh sure you might put up a fuss, be upset at the loss of minions, but you don’t care about them as people, as friends. At the end of the day, you only keep them around because they serve a purpose. Without that purpose, they are nothing to you. They are worthless.”

Mirror brushed past Clary, and her hand came to rest on Clary’s shoulder. “Would you disagree?”

“Obviously.” I sneered at her. “Your words are foolish. I like my friends, they’re fun. And I can do anything on my own, so your ‘serving a purpose’ argument is flawed too.”

“Oh, you are well aware of their use, their purpose, and your lack of emotional connection makes it easy to manipulate them like you do. You play up their poorly hidden desires, you lead them on and encourage them, all in a bid to make them more obedient, more willing to do what you say, to stay close to you and ignore the abuse you give them. It’s amazing what a few soft words and a flirty smile can get you, isn’t it?”

I fidgeted uncomfortably at her clarity, and said, “You overestimate me here. You claim I both abuse them and seduce them, when neither is true.”

Mirror smirked, and playfully traced her finger along Clary’s shoulder, up her neck, and then grasped her chin. She brought her face close to Mirror’s, and Clary blushed slightly, though she made a small movement to get away. “Look at that, there’s hardly any resistance. Oh, that’s more than psychological manipulation of the mundane kind. I bet you’ve dug around in their heads and changed things, drugged them, implanted thoughts and suggestions… there’s just so many ways to make someone go from a person to a slave. You probably tested your little mind trick on them, the one you used on the werewolf and the knight. Or perhaps you first developed that power much, much earlier. Devious girl, wicked girl, aren’t you?”

“Shut up!” I snapped. “Let’s hurry this along, I have things to do and artifacts of power to steal. It doesn’t matter what you say, all the senseless accusations you hurl, my friends are loyal to me and it isn’t because I did something to their heads, it is because they know that I am powerful, and because they enjoy my company and my protection.”

She laughed and came to stand before me. “Such arrogance… and really, arrogance is your defining trait. Normal people, they look at a city and see a place of refuge, a place to live, a place to work, or a place to marvel and admire. You see a place to put statues, a place to glorify and celebrate you, a place to house your subjects. It’s how you think about everything and everyone. Property. Subjects, servants, and slaves. You want to be a goddess, to be worshipped by all. Do you think even that will be enough? Do you think your arrogance, your pride and ambition, do you genuinely, honestly think it will be satisfied by simple deification? By mere godhood? Will your greed rest when you have all the wealth in the world? Will your lust be sated when anyone alive will be your eager toy? Do you think your need for more power, more glory, will ever be sated? Can it? Or will you eternally want more, never happy and never sated, always wracked by your vicious desires and your ravenous ambition, controlled by your darker nature?” The way she said it, it was less a question and more an accusation.

For a brief moment hatred and rage warred within me. How dare she insult me like this! How dare she call me arrogant! She should be punished for defying me! But a part of me was aware enough to realize that such a reaction would merely confirm her statements. I steadied myself, and with an air of nonchalance I shrugged. “I don’t really know. I’ll tell you when I find out, after I’ve conquered the elements.”

Mirror smiled, walking leisurely over to where Malk, Clary, and Wabbit still were. “Ah, that carefree shrug, that laid-back attitude to life. Don’t you ever worry that you just don’t care at all? When you break half the bones in your body, when you slam into a tree, when you take a sword wound to the stomach, does it never worry you that your reaction is not the natural one of fear, or anger, or even basic concern, but rather laughter? When you slaughter a forest of creatures and eat meat raw from their still-warm corpses, when you are covered in the blood of beings you have slain, when you stand over the body of a living, thinking, feeling being that you have just killed, do you ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe, joy and laughter aren’t the correct responses? Are you simply incapable of taking things seriously? Or perhaps it is some inkling of an inherently sadomasochistic and brutal nature, where pain is seen as pleasure.”

“What can I say, I just like hurting things. It helps me relax after annoying people like you talk my head off with their stupid theories. In fact, I feel like hurting something right now.”

“Yes, you love the thrill of combat, of the feeling that you might die at any second while plowing through hundreds of enemies, taking personal pleasure in each bone you break, each pint of blood you spill, each bit of fire and water and earth that falls from the elementals you wound. You love hurting creatures, and more than that you love hurting people. You love fear in their eyes, the begging, the pleading, and then the crying, and the screaming as you tear them apart. You love hurting things that can feel, that can communicate to you how afraid of you they are, of how much they’re hurting. You love taking a life, even more than you love life itself.”

“Fear tastes sweet indeed.”

“Ah yes, fear. I wonder, just what are you afraid of? You laugh off pain and death, and you respond to failure and refusal by getting mad and killing things. Really, what scares you? What deep, dark fears infest your mind? Are you afraid of losing, or making a mistake that could cost you everything, or perhaps of yourself and what you truly are? In all your mind… you have no fears. You are not afraid of anything, because you are incapable of feeling fear. When you are close to death, all you can feel is worry and idle concern. When you learn that your quest might bring about the apocalypse, the cessation of all life, when you learn that your actions might in fact have consequences, you laugh it off like it’s nothing. You can’t feel fear.”

At this I laughed, for a moment my anger and awkward mood abated. “You say that like it’s a bad thing? So what, maybe I’m just really brave.”

“The lack of fear is not bravery, it is the height of stupidity. Bravery is being able to act in the face of fear, it is not being incapable of knowing when to be afraid. A lack of fear is a lack of self-preservation instincts. You will never be brave until you have felt fear. And you need fear to know when to run. But you can’t feel fear. You’ll never run. And what if one day, you should? What if you find something you can’t beat and you don’t run. Then you’ll die, and you will never achieve your impossible ambitions.”

“Nothing can stop me from achieving my goals. Nothing.”

Mirror walked back to me, and began circling me, her body occasionally brushing mine. She whispered in my ear, “Yes, nothing will ever stop you. It doesn’t matter what stands it your way, be it monsters, laws, people, or basic morals. You’ll take what you want, you’ll take who you want, and you’ll do whatever you please, because in your world nothing, absolutely nothing is more important than your own cruel desires. You’ve stolen. You’ve killed. You’ve raped.”

Instinctually, flaring with anger and hatred, I yelled, “And I had a right to do so! I was strong and they were weak, so I had a right to take of them what I desired, be it their flesh or their life! I had a right, I had a right! They should have been grateful that I showed them even that much attention!” My defenses were fracturing, rapidly.

“You’re what society calls a monster, a criminal, a thief, a murderer, a rapist, a dictator, a conqueror, a tyrant. You are everything, every foul, vile thing that only appears in storybooks because no sane being would ever commit murder against someone of the same element, or rape another elemental regardless of their element! You are a monster, and you revel in being a monster.”

That cut deep. Struggling to maintain my composure, I snarked at her. “You know, I’m not an expert on these things, but isn’t the pretentious speech addressing all the character’s flaws supposed to come near the end of the hero’s journey?”

“You call yourself a hero? What a jest!”

“Yeah, I call myself the hero because that is what I am! I’m doing this for the good of all Darkness! I’m trying to save Nyx from its enemies! I’m trying to uplift all the poor, the starving, those who are denied resources because we are all too weak from just barely surviving the assaults of our enemies, especially those of Light! I may have my flaws, but I am the girl who will save this world!”

Mirror stopped in front of me, and her expression darkened. “Let me make this very clear for you. Every noble act, every good thing that will result from your rise, is just a side effect you use as an excuse to try and placate the people who actually care about morality. You aren’t the hero. You don’t have a journey ahead of you. You have a single room, three artifacts, and a string of atrocities. You are the villain. The antagonist. The Endbringer. The enslaver, the conqueror, the vile woman who will bring suffering and destruction wherever she goes. All free peoples will band together against you, because they will see you as the most powerful, most evil threat they have ever faced before this point in all of their known history. And they will be right.”

There was silence for a long moment.

It stretched on, as I shook in place, my fists clenched.

I could feel the fury inside me demanding to be released. All the rage, all the doubt, all the hatred.

And then I sighed, and went calm.

I looked up at Mirror, looked her right in her empty eye sockets, and with bitterness I said, “Okay. Fine. I’ll admit it, and I’ll accept it. I’m a monster and I know it. I know I’m a villain. I know that I am a psychologically disturbed individual who manipulates people around her and is virtually incapable of forming emotional connections to other people, and can only empathize with an animal that has been molded in her own image, her own personality. I know I have dark desires that seem to only ever want more. I know I control and dominate those around me. I know that I take joy in pain, both giving it and taking it. I know I would murder and steal and do whatever I wanted if I so desired. But here’s the thing. It works. And accepting this, acknowledging this, I’m still going after my goals. None of that was enough to ‘break’ me. So what was the point to it all? And why are you still talking? WHY!?”

She smiled. “I wanted to make sure you knew what you were. You are the most unique elemental ever formed. The most powerful, and the ambitious. The most dangerous, and the most monstrous. You will rise higher than anyone ever has before you, and ever will after you. But you are also flawed, and base, and incapable of seeing beyond your desires, incapable of looking and listening. And so you will fall farther than anyone has ever before you, and ever will after you. And if you accept that, I will let you fight me, and kill me, and take your artifacts, and begin your conquest.”

Scornfully, I replied, “I accept eagerly. Let’s fight, I’m looking forward to killing you now.”

Mirror laughed, and punched me, sending me across the room and straight into a wall.

“Ow,” I said as I slumped there, trying to recover.

I saw her running towards me, and quickly raised a shield to stop her. She sent three bolts of darkness at the shield, and each one threatened to shatter it. She was like me, but more powerful. Which was basically what she’d said she was, but still, now I had proof. She continued to rain blasts on my shield, and I worked quickly to enact the plan I’d thought up just a second prior. As the shield threatened to crumble, I put a new ward in place on it; the adaptive ward used by Abraham.

The next bolt hit the shield, and dissipated soundly.

Mirror grinned that wicked, creepy grin. “Well, it appears you’ve found a new trick. Stole it from the knight?”

“Yep. Along with the rest of his magic.”

“Really? Like what?”

“This,” I said as I sent a beam of light directly at my doppelganger. It exploded on impact, enveloping her in light and temporarily blinding me. When my vision recovered, I saw her charging at me, darkness wreathed around her fists, but slightly scorched from the blast.

I continued to work on the ward while she charged, hoping I could set it up completely before she reached me. I knew that Mirror possessed the firepower to destroy me if the ward had to take a few hits on every attack before adapting, but I hoped that she operated in a similar way, only using powers she’d seen me use. If that was the case, I could just have the ward scan everything I knew, and she’d be unable to do anything to me.

Her first attack rammed into my shield, fists pummeling the barrier I’d set up. After five hits, the ward adapted, but those five hits only failed to destroy the shield because I was still running on borrowed power. She switched to stone fists, like I’d used earlier, and attacked once more.

Just as the shield was about to break, I updated the ward, and her stone fists became useless against my shield. I held my breath as she switched to lightning, gathering it about her before sending three bolts at the shield.

All three dissipated upon contact.

“YES!” I screamed, filled with exhilaration.

Mirror snarled, and began running through all the powers I’d used, each one proving useless against my awesome mega ultra cool super ward of overpowered epic-osity-ness. I continued laughing and cheering, and jeering at Mirror. “Guess you’re nothing but a half-baked copy after all!”

Then she brought out a power I hadn’t used, and didn’t have. My laughter cut out, and I stared blankly as she conjured a blade of pure darkness, and summoned a ball of Dark fire. She threw the ball, which wreathed the shield in flames, blocking my view, and then I saw the shield shatter as she struck it with her blade.

She stood over me, wreathed in black fire and darkness, and said, “You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?”

I laughed nervously and said, “Uh, kinda.” I darted to the side, running as quickly as I could, as I tried to figure out my next move. I sent a few attacks back at her as she followed me, blasts of darkness, lightning, fire, beams of light, so on, but though each one seemed to do a little, none did a lot, and she kept coming seemingly unimpeded.

As I reached the other side of the cathedral, I turned to face her, and tried something crazy. I cast four spells at once.

Casting is complicated business, though once you’ve done it enough you can throw spells around with wild abandon like I do. But it’s still difficult to maintain multiple spells at once, such as a shield spell and a beam. Four spells is frankly ridiculous. However, I had a plan. Well, less of a plan and more of a last-ditch effort to delay things. I cast a lightning bolt, a fireball, a beam of light, and a bolt of darkness, timing each so that their impacts would all be at the same time. My hope was that enough trauma all at once would get a reaction out of her, and I could take the opportunity to figure out a real plan. The moment they left me a blinding headache hit. Right, and this is why I don’t cast more than one spell at once. Idiot.

The four spells hit Mirror, and sent her careening off to the side, collapsing on the floor. I saw her moving, so she wasn’t out, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I’d managed to do. In fact, it seemed like it was less the amount of magic, but rather the synthesis of multiple magic types. Wait, that can’t be right… but could it? When elements work in synthesis it exponentially increases their power and effect?

I decided to test my new theory. I summoned the darkness to me, a natural action, and then did something completely unnatural, and obscene.

I summoned light.

While my left hand pulsed with darkness, my right hand began to glow with light, and though it revolted me, it also fascinated me. Watching, I brought my hands together, and the light and dark seemed to meld together. For a second they shimmered with a faint green light, and then they became a mass of black and white, of purple and yellow glowing. It looks almost natural… which means I’ve become more powerful than I’d thought. Or perhaps it’s due to absorbing the power of that knight.

I turned back to Mirror, and waited until she was standing. She looked a bit worse than before, something exacerbated when I unleashed the dark and light in a single beam and it struck her. She screamed in rage and agony, and threw ten bolts of darkness at me at once. I activated my shield just in time, and the ward absorbed the attacks.

My suspicions had been confirmed though, so I enacted the second part of my master plan. I picked up my broken sword, or rather the piece with the hilt and the jagged bit of blade attached. I began to work on it as Mirror approached, pouring magic into it, weaving together dark and light and fire and frost as best as I was capable, ignoring earth and air.

When she arrived, I was ready, and as she struck at my shield with fists wreathed in darkness, I removed my shield and met her fists with my broken blade. Her fists struck the blade and bounded off, burning, freezing, and wreathed in a multi-colored aura that seemed to eat at her very flesh. She stared at me in awe, and said, “You… you are more than they ever imagined.”

I smirked, and said, “You’d better believe it.”

I pointed my sword at her, and sent a multi-colored ray out of it, which tore through her chest and left a gaping hole. As she sank to the ground, she smiled. “And yet all the power in the world cannot save you from yourself.”

When her head hit the floor, I heard stone move, and turned around to find a new door had opened, leading to what I assumed to be the final room. I glanced back at Mirror, but she was already fading, not even leaving bones behind. I looked at my friends, who were still on the other side of the room, having stayed out of the fight for their own safety. I called over to them, “So, ready to get tons of loot? Well, first I want to check something, but after that?”

They walked over, Clary in the lead. When she got near, she looked at her feet, then up at me and asked, “Shadow… those things that Mirror said… that you said… were they true? Are you- are you really such a monster? Do you really not care? Would you really be fine if we just died? I don’t want to believe it, but the things she said… she said you’d tampered with our minds! I don’t know what to believe.” She looked so lost, so pitiful, so weak and alone.

I felt… something. And I knew I had to do something, as well. I gave Clary a hug, and whispered in her ear, “Believe in me. If after what Mirror said, you can’t believe that I am a hero, then don’t. But believe that you and Malk and Wabbit belong to me, and I always take care of my belongings. Believe that even if I am a monster, I will always take care of you.”

It wasn’t the nicest, fluffiest assurance ever made, and it certainly wouldn’t be comforting to someone who didn’t know me. But it was honest, and it was enough to ease Clary’s worries. She smiled up at me, and sighed.

With Clary satisfied and Malk not voicing any objections, I walked over to the wall and pressed the stone I’d seen in Abe’s memories. “Uh, what are you doing now?” asked a puzzled Clary.

The stairs emerged, and I gestured to them. “Investigating.”

They followed me down, and together we entered the catacombs. The walls were lined with skulls, all of them with faint glows that were dying down. I could practically feel all the energy in the place, like a buzzing in the back of my head. “This is glorious… they must have killed hundreds of casters to power this dungeon… I want it all.” I breathed in, and the lights all went out as faint trails of essence, of fire and water and dark and light and earth and air, all flowed into me. Alone, they would be as nothing, but together, they were everything.

Malk spoke up. “So, how are you doing that?”

“I’m taking in their essence. It was half-instinctual at first, copying something I’d seen in the memories of the lead knight, but now I think I get it. The energy that elementals have, it leaves when they die, but if you act quickly enough you can preserve it in some form… or take it for yourself. I took his energy, and now their energy. With the fall of all the traps, this energy was fading, but I was able to salvage some of it, and that’s still a lot of power. The people who built this place, the knights, they… they betrayed tens, maybe hundreds of casters from the other elements, and used them to power the traps and creatures in this dungeon. Quite clever.”

He nodded uneasily, and I took a few more seconds to explore the catacombs before coming to the conclusion that there was nothing else of interest. We returned to the cathedral, and entered the final room.

We walked through the door, and into a beautiful cathedral. It was vast and grandiose, with a white marble floor filled with silver traceries and inlays. The walls were made of some pale stone, lined with gold that formed delicate patterns depicting rays of light, and several golden orbs from which the rays came.

There were five golden orbs in total; two were on the left wall, two on the right wall, and one on the far wall. In between the orbs were painted glass windows, depicting scenes of battle, of light triumphing over darkness, of glorious champions filled with golden power. At the far end of the cathedral was a simple stone altar atop a raised dais, and a long carpet of golden silk stretched from the base of the altar to the entrance of the building.

Along the walls were silver and gold braziers, alight with pure white fire. There were no pews or chairs on the floor, simply the altar, the carpet, and the braziers. The whole cathedral seemed well-lit, with not a shadow to be seen.

It was a cathedral of the Light.

I wanted to destroy it.

Light and Dark; anathema and opposites, nemeses and archenemies, two concepts utterly alien to each other. They do not mix, and they do not ally unless circumstances are truly dire. If there was one thing about my people that I respected and appreciated above all else, it was our hatred for Light. One of the most important parts of my plan to lead Darkness into a glorious new era was destroying every last vestige of Light in the seven worlds.

As such, I was going to enjoy destroying whatever trap or enemy was in here. I stepped forward with my friends behind me. I said, “Well, this place is just wonderful. A place of the Light. I’ve decided I’m going to smash it to pieces.”

“Uh, Shadow?”

“Yes, Clary?”

“I’ve been thinking. Every room of this dungeon has had a different element, corresponding to the six major ones, with minor representation for the two weird variations. First there was Fire, then Water, then Air, then Earth, and now Light, right?”

“Correct. Get to the point.”

“Well… doesn’t that mean Dark is next? What would there be for that one?”

I shrugged. “No idea. It won’t be any more of a problem than the others though, that I can assure you.”

Clary still seemed apprehensive, but she acquiesced and didn’t continue.

“Now, what are we looking for here?” I asked, not seeing any obvious threat in the room.

As if in response to my question there was a blinding flash of light, and I covered my eyes with my arm. When the flash ended I looked back at the room in time to see the light coalesce into three distinctive groups; one big group on either side of the carpet, and one smaller, elemental-sized light at the altar. In moments those lights faded to reveal an army.

The two large groups had formed into columns and rows of figures clad in gleaming silver armor and white cloaks, with assorted weaponry and no flesh visible, though there were two point of golden-yellow light in each’s helmet where eyes would normally be.

The single light had formed into a similar being more grandiose than the others. It was slightly larger than an elemental, and certainly more muscular than most, clad in golden armor with a silver cloak and a massive sword, as well as a large shield. Its eye-lights were pure white.

Expecting a massive brawl I gathered the darkness around me and unsheathed my blade, and was shocked when the lead figure spoke in a booming, powerful voice.

“Kiana Vessian, she who has taken the name Shadow! You stand before the army of divine Light, and now you shall be Judged!”

I blinked at him. “Uh, what?”

The champion took a step forward and said, “Today is Judgment Day, and you shall be judged for your crimes. You, Shadow of Nyx, are the woman who shall be the Endbringer, and must be slain here and now, lest you rise to power and the Eternal Chaos descends on all worlds, snuffing out life until not even a spark is left!”

“Hey, I’ve got nothing against life, I’m planning on improving the lives of Darkness elementals. And I’m not doing this to destroy life, I’m doing it enslave life! If you’re going to accuse me of committing future atrocities, you should at least get it right.”

“You are the Endbringer, Shadow of Nyx. It is the Chaos who shall be the Destroyer, but today is your Day of Judgment, and it is your crimes for which you shall be punished!”

I snarled, and sent a spike of darkness directly at his chest, shouting, “Today is not my day of ‘judgment’! Today… today is my day of ascension!” I flung myself at him, shadows gathered around me, ready to end the pathetic wretch that dared to defy me!

The spike shattered upon hitting his armor, and the knight raised his shield to block my first sword strike, retaliating with his own. I dodged the blow and attacked again with my blade, infusing it with power. The knight reeled from the blow, but his shield held strong, even after I rained down blow after blow, attacking with heightened speed. At the first opportunity, he struck again, catching me off guard and slicing into my arm. I snarled and healed the wound, and flung myself at him once more, the darkness forming a shield around me.

I slammed into him with deadly force, and he crashed into the wall of the cathedral, dazed. As he attempted to recover and raise his shield, I switched weapons, attacking with my fist instead of my sword. My punch landed on his shield and dented it, so great was the force I’d imbued the attack with.

I punched again and again, taking advantage of my one victory to earn another, and another, until his shield was a metal wreck, and he cast it aside, taking his blade in two hands. I did the same with my weapon, and struck first, nearly slicing into his leg before he got his blade up to defend.

I darted back a few feet, looking for any openings in his defense. But instead of defending, he came at me, bringing his blade down in a lethal arc. I raised my own weapon, bracing against the attack.

And then I watched as my sword shattered in two, breaking at the point of impact. I rolled away from the descending instrument of death, and it slammed into the stone floor of the cathedral, sinking an inch. However, I was not able to take advantage of this, because I was too busy staring at my broken sword. While I stared in confusion, the knight recovered, bringing his sword back up and standing to face me. I growled at him, rose to my feet, and threw my broken weapon to the ground, gathering the darkness about me.

In response, he gathered light. He began to glow, focused around his blade, and he separated one hand from the hilt, raising it to point at me. A beam of light shot out and I barely managed to raise a barrier in time, bracing against the force of the attack.

Except, there wasn’t any force. I blinked at my shield, which had not taken an ounce of damage or stress from blocking the attack. My concentration broken, the shield fell away and only then did I realize why it hadn’t taken stress. The beam was a distraction.

The knight’s blade came down and I twirled to the left, inches from death. I sent three spikes of darkness into his back but the armor absorbed it once more, with a noticeable shimmer of light. The knight turned to face me and brought the blade in a horizontal arc, slashing at my midriff. I stumbled back to avoid it and tripped, falling to the floor.

The knight raised his sword over his head and said, “And now you fall, Endbringer.” He brought his sword down in an arc, light dancing around it.

I caught the blade of the sword with both hands, dark meeting light. I smiled wickedly at the knight, and asked, “So what’s this Endbringer business? You keep calling me that, and you say I’m going to cause a bunch of death and destruction, and there was something about chaos? Care to explain?”

“You know what is to come. It is what you have wanted, to be a goddess. In your arrogance, in your rise to power, you will tear apart all of your foes, and upset the balance. And with this upset, Chaos will return.”

“And what if I kill Chaos?”

“You are mighty, Endbringer, but you cannot stop such a primeval force. None can. And so you must perish, to prevent Chaos from rising.”

I smirked, and said, “You can’t stop me. No one can.” I focused on the blade, on the spells woven through it, on the spells that surrounded the knight, and sought to destroy them like I had twice previously. I cast the spell, shoved my hands forward to force the blade back, and laughed.

Nothing happened.

I blinked, and tried again. My spell crashed against those of the knight, and dissipated, useless. “What… how!?”

The knight chuckled. “Your tricks are futile, Endbringer. We have watched you, took note of your abilities and skills. Nothing you try will work, for we have already put precautions and countermeasures into place. And now you die!”

The blade came down further towards my body and I began to worry. The blade was inching towards me, to kill me, and my ace in the hole had been turned into a joker. I needed something else, some flaw or fault I could exploit.

In a flash of inspiration, I had it. Those flashes of inspiration are becoming oddly common lately. First, I needed to test something.

Imbuing my foot with energy I kicked out at the knight’s knee, hoping to elicit a reaction. To my glee it did, and the knight staggered. I took the opportunity to roll to the left, jump to my feet, and punch him like I had the shield. This time there were no dents in his armor but the shimmer happened, just like with the spikes.

So it wasn’t countermeasures, not exactly. It was more of an adaptive shield, a shield that altered itself to defend against any ability or attack it had witnessed. But it hadn’t witnessed my full arsenal.

I mentioned, back in the room with the storm wisps, that I’d studied Air magic, but only enough to make my flight spell.

That was true. But I’ve also studied all the other elements, and their magic. I hadn’t done much with Air because I could accomplish all non-flight spells with basic Dark magic. But the other elements can do things as well. One thing that captured my attention, during my many studies, was Storm magic. The ability to stir up a fierce gale, or rain and thunder…

Or lightning.

As the knight rose to face me, I gathered the darkness once more. But this time, they were there as a smokescreen. The knight came at me, sword raised, and prepared to bring it down in another deadly arc.

So I sent a bolt of lightning at his helmet.

Quick lesson on electricity. Metal conducts electricity but a suit of armor like the knight’s would act as a faraday cage and distribute the electricity into the ground without really touching the knight. So a blast of lightning wouldn’t electrocute him, but the electricity would generate heat, and the impact would deal a bit of damage

The knight screamed, and staggered back, as his armor heated up, likely causing burns on the being within. I laughed, rose to my feet, and sent a bolt of Dark-infused lighting at it, scorching the armor. I sent two more while the knight was still distracted, but the third dissipated upon contact, signaling that the magical ward had adapted.

The knight was weakened now and caught by surprise. More light began to gather around him, and it dimmed as it was poured into his armor, fixing it and likely healing him. He stood up straight, and said, “You are more resourceful than we had thought, Endbringer. But it does not change what I must do.”

He came at me again, and I smirked. As his blade came swinging down I grabbed it with both hands, using a new spell: an enchantment on my hands that gave them the strength and resistance of hardest stone. An Earth spell I’d picked up.

“Another impressive trick, Endbringer, but it will not save you.” He put more force behind the blade, shoving me back a few inches. However, I was not out of ‘tricks’ yet. I prepared a spell, and my legs, and with one swift motion I cast the spell and leapt back.

The knight dropped his sword, which had been superheated by my spell. It dropped to the floor, and the impact changed it. It melted more, and was by now absolutely useless. The knight snarled, “Bah! I need not a physical weapon to slay you, Endbringer!”

He pointed at me, and another beam of light came at me. I raised my shield, and this time there was a solid amount of stress, as the beam was an actual attack. Three more followed, and the third pierced my shield as if it was nothing. Which meant the adaptive ward applied not only to the armor and weapon, but to any attack the knight made.

I snarled in irritation, and cartwheeled to avoid the next beam attack. I quickly ran through the other spells I knew how to cast. I could send a gout of flame at him, do some heat damage, but I wasn’t sure I could do enough damage in the time it would take his ward to adapt. Additionally, he’d already managed to restore the damage my first lightning blasts had caused, mostly.

I could send spikes of earth rising from the floor to slam into his armor, and possibly stab through the armor. I could definitely get some damage done with that, though not enough to finish the fight.

I could just do a couple variations of the same attack. But that’s boring! True enough, let’s keep brainstorming.

Water was useless, so nothing there. Much the same for Frost, unless I wanted to slow him down. I twirled around another beam, and as I did something came back into my sight; the stone altar. That could be useful… hmm, idea.

First I summoned up a little orb, an experiment I’d been working on the past few months. It worked on the concept of artificial intelligence and was designed to be like a second opponent for when I needed to keep an enemy guessing. It would automatically identify key targets, or targets I pointed out to it, and use a number of preprogrammed spells against that enemy. It required a little on-the-spot tinkering, but I set the orb to the three spells I had in mind, and ran to the altar to do my part.

The orb started by sending a gout of flame at the knight, who raised his arm to shield himself more adequately. The moment the knight’s ward adjusted to the flames, the orb switched attacks, instead sending spikes of stone ramming into the knight, sending him careening in different angles, and at one point piercing his armor.

Soon, the knight’s ward managed to adapt, and the orb switched to its final spell; the Frost spell, the one that slowed things down. The knight found himself moving slowly, the intense cold focused on his armor hampering his actions. He said, “A cold spell? That is what you are resorting-“

He never finished his sentence, because at that moment the stone altar slammed into him, after I’d torn it from the floor with enhanced strength and thrown it at him. The altar was propelled by physics and operating on physics, unlike the stone spikes from the orb that had been moved by magic. The knight stood no chance.

He slammed into the wall of the cathedral, and slumped, the altar having crushed his breastplate and his helmet, and damaged other parts of the armor. I stalked over to the knight, and tore off his helm, revealing the pure white skin of a Light elemental. He was muttering something, over and over; “I have failed, and thus the end shall come.”

I peered into the knight’s golden yellow eyes, and they flickered golden brown as I sent myself into his mind.

It was similar to the cathedral, but when I looked back at the entrance I saw three doors, marked Secrets, Memory, and Personality. I suspected the knight was too far gone to offer supplication, regardless of what I did to his personality, so I simply walked to Memory. The reason for this mental intrusion was quite simple; I wanted to know why this elemental was here, how this place came to be, all those little details about this group that seemed to predict some terrible future that would come about because of me. Maybe not that simple, but still.

I passed through marble halls with murals depicting the life of the elemental; formed from a nexus, Academy of War, several years of service, and then the weird began. The next mural showed him going with a group of robed figures carrying staves and hammers, and from there it seemed he entered some secretive order or cult. Does the Light government have secret societies like that? Does the Dark government have secret societies?

I paused at an interesting mural, showing the knight crouching over a chest from which rays of light emerged. Etched above it was a title: The Discovery. I leaned in and brushed a bit of dust off the knight’s helmet, and the moment I touched the mural I felt the hall slip away, and I was enveloped in the past.

A solitary shaft of light shone down from a world above, into a dank cave occupied by two skeletons, both of them long dead. Looking around, I saw a chest like in the mural, very ornate and decorated with hardly any signs of aging. I lifted my hand, and saw it clearly. Well this is interesting. A few pebbles landed by my feet, and an armored form fell through the hole. Its descent knocked away more loose dirt, widening the hole so that I could more clearly see what was above.

It appeared to be Warfield. What little land I could see was blasted heath, and the sky was a mirage of infinite colors and twisting energy that only rarely broke to reveal the stars overhead, and the triangular land of a plane that I assumed to be Lux.

Satisfied with the location, I turned to the knight. He was disoriented, but managed to regain his bearings and was immediately attracted to the chest. Stumbling over, he knelt by it and carefully undid the latch, which was surprisingly unlocked. He opened it carefully, and there were no rays of lights like in the mural. I suppose those were symbolic then, or some dramatization of the event. There was however a glint of something, which he pulled out.

It was an ornate mirror, quite beautiful in fact. The knight removed his helmet, his silvery-yellow hair falling free. He peered into the mirror intently, and I walked closer, catching a glimpse of his lower face. He frowned at something, then shook his head. “Probably nothing, just a trick of the light.”

He put the mirror back in, and began rummaging through it. I heard the clink of metal and the turning of pages, and then a voice from above called out, “Abraham! Abraham! Knight-Caster, where are you? Are you okay, my lord? Abraham!”

The knight sighed and shouted back, “I’m fine, Wallace! There was a pit I didn’t see, I’m in here.” He walked over to the edge of the pit and pointed his hand upwards, letting loose a beam of light to signal his position. Footsteps were heard, and an armored head appeared.

“Knight-Caster Abraham, I’m so glad I found you! We should get back to the others.”

“Yes, we should…” Abraham turned to the chest, a glint in his eye. “…but there’s something I think the Lord Sentinel should see.”

The hall blurred back into shape, and I took my hand from the wall. Interesting. I’ve never worked with memories before, just personality and such. This is fun. That wasn’t very informative though… let’s see if we can find anything more useful.

I walked past images of training and talking, all these scenes that were probably quite meaningful but were useless to my quest for knowledge, until I found it. A mural depicted a lead figure intoning something to a gathered crowd. The title had an air of the grandiose, and a bit of zeal. The Prophecy and Our Mission. I pressed my hand to the mural, and was enveloped in the past.

Within a large, grey stone room, a crowd was gathered; a crowd of robed figures carrying staves, some with hammers and hints of armor. On a dais at the end of the room stood a figure in lavish golden robes, his hands resting on a wooden podium. They were all Light elementals, and I saw Abraham in the left corner behind the speaker, wearing ornate armor that denoted high status. I walked over to join him, leaning against the wall.

The figure spoke. “Silence, ye gathered. Today meets again the Order of the Lightly Sentinels, in eternal vigilance against the forces that would end our society. We are here for a very important reason. Three days ago I experienced a vision, and was given a prophecy by a powerful being. It calls itself Prevara, a spirit of balance that seeks to restore what might be lost, and preserve what might be taken. It has enlightened me, opened my eyes to what is to come, and what is now.”

The figure took a breath before continuing, “There exists a tentative balance between the eight factions of our universe. Each element is unable to ever fully conquer another, and thus we are eternally in conflict, but also in balance. The prophecy I received suggests that if that balance is ever shattered, it will release a primordial force known to Prevara only as the Eternal Chaos.”

The figure paused again, and then said, “The prophecy was thus; The seething Darkness and the blazing Light will meet in the place of balance, and unleash the Eternal Chaos upon all worlds, consuming all life until naught is left but dust. The Darkness shall be a girl, and that girl shall be the Endbringer. The Day of Judgment can be the only salvation.”

“I have thought on this, and had more revealed to me. I know now what we must do. Recently, a cache of artifacts was discovered, artifacts of strange and awe-inspiring power.” He nodded to Abraham. “You may thank the Knight-Caster for this discovery. The cache is now being held on a vault here on Lux, as the Order has been debating whether to use these for our own purposes or give them to the general Light military. This cannot be. Those artifacts will allow the Endbringer to rise, and if they are held on Lux they will inevitably be taken by the powerful forces of Darkness, and thus make their way into the hands of the Endbringer, when she eventually is formed. So, we must take the artifacts to a place where the Dark forces will never suspect to find them.”

A random nobody in the crowd asked, “But where could that be? The ambition of Darkness is without limit, and it is only thanks to our coalitions with the other elements that they have not taken all worlds. Where could such a cache possibly be safe from the Dark military?”

The speaker smiled. “Nyx.”

The crowd gasped in shock, and the speaker gestured to us. “I shall allow Knight-Caster Abraham to explain, as he was instrumental in this.”

Abraham stepped forward, nodding to the speaker. “Thank you, Lord Sentinel. Gathered Order, I must admit that I had my reservations about this plan, when the Lord Sentinel first told me of it. The cache seemed too useful, but the Lord Sentinel’s retelling of his vision convinced me. This Prevara must be thanked for saving us from that horrid future. Now, as for the plan itself… it is complex.”

He took a deep breath, steadied himself, and said, “The cache of artifacts shall be placed in a dungeon on Nyx, guarded by one trap from each of the elements. The acquisition of such magic shall be handled by myself and several trusted Knight-Sentinels, while other members of the Order work to construct the dungeon itself. The dungeon shall be cloaked by spells to mask its nature, and a group of local beasts shall guard it against any true threats. Hopefully these precautions will prevent the Endbringer from finding it, but if she does it will be up to us to bring about the Day of Judgment and kill her. When the construction is finished, I and any who volunteer will remain in stasis, awaiting her arrival. The Endbringer will not rise. This I promise.”

He stood awkwardly for a few seconds before stepping back. Obviously not used to public speech… but that was very informative. Thank you, memory.

I emerged from the depths of memory, back into the marble halls of Abraham’s mind. I found the information I’d discovered to be… very interesting. The dungeon bit was amusing, because they apparently built the dungeon way back when specifically so I wouldn’t get the artifacts, but the dungeon’s existence was the only reason I was going to obtain said artifacts.

Regarding the prophecy… well, it was interesting, to say the least. I doubted it was true, of course, but even if it was I was confident I could subvert it somehow. The hero always manages to make the prophecy work for them. Some could argue I wasn’t a hero, but an antihero is still a hero. Sort of. It’s complicated.

I had the basics of what I needed, but still… it was an interesting plot. I continued my trek, and soon a title caught my eye.

A Slew of Pawns.

The knight stood tall above a group of robed elementals. I pressed my hand to it, and entered the memory.

Abraham walked through halls covered in sigils that matched those of his armor, and alongside him marched several less armored knights, emotionless. A window showed that they were on Warfield with its ruined terrain, and soon they arrived at a simple door. The two knights opened it, and Abraham gestured for them to go inside. “I’ll… be with you in a moment.”

Once they were inside and the door was closed, he leaned against a wall and let out a sigh. “I do not know if I can do this, Prevara.”

I frowned, and then my eyes widened as a Light elemental clad in earth-toned clothing seemed to just appear in front of Abraham. He spoke in an echoing voice. “Abraham, remember that I am here to help. The Order of the Lightly Sentinels is the best hope for the balance of all worlds, and unless you receive the aid you need to construct the dungeon, you will fail. Let me aid you once more.”

“Your aid is… unconventional. I will speak with them without you. If I fail… then perhaps another more worthy might take my place.” Abraham walked through the doors, Prevara fading away, and I followed the Knight-Caster.

In the next chamber stood a collection of casters from all six elements. The exact number of each varied, but there seemed to be about thirty in total. Abraham looked displeased. “Are none else willing to aid us in saving our worlds?”

A Dark caster snapped, “None else are willing to believe the obvious tricks of a dimwit crusader. I myself only barely believe this meeting has merit.”

A Fire caster sighed. “Quiet yourself. We have agreed to this meeting, we might as well listen to what he has to say. And as for you, knight, consider us ambassadors. We are here to hear your appeal, and then we will decide whether or not to commit our resources.”

Abraham nodded. “Very well. What we face is… it is something we have never seen the likes of before. An Endbringer. An apocalypse.”

“How imminent is this apocalypse?” asked a Water caster.

“We don’t know. All we know is that it will come from Darkness. A girl.”

“Typical! Blaming us for all your troubles, why the nerve-“ cried the Dark caster.

“Only because you’re always at fault, wretch!” countered a Light caster.

Abraham snarled, “Silence! Your bickering is meaningless, all elements are threatened by the rise of the Endbringer. She will bring about a great chaos to all lands, and all lands shall be destroyed.”

“Chaos? You state that our enemy, the weapon of your ‘Endbringer’… is a philosophical concept? Really?” asked an incredulous Earth caster.

Abraham looked almost sheepish. “We… do not know everything. The vision was unclear. It showed destruction, destruction of everything, but no clear source. We believe that perhaps the ‘Eternal Chaos’ the vision mentions is perhaps a power she will create, or unleash. Ancient magic perhaps, that gains a life of its own. We do not know. But we know it is coming. The artifacts we discovered have the power to bring it about.”

“Then destroy the artifacts.”

“That is not possible.”

“Why not?”

“They are protected. We do not know by what, but they are protected.”

“Bah, you’re useless!”

The casters milled about, and argued with each other, and Abraham looked on with despair. Finally, he sighed and said, “Return tomorrow, I beg of you, when calmer heads might prevail. Today, let us retire.” They eagerly seized the opportunity to leave, and soon the hall was empty.

“Prevara… let them dream. Let them see what is coming.”

Prevara appeared, with a predatory grin that seemed almost too wide for his face. “Your wish is my command.” He vanished, and Abraham sat down, attempting to rest.

I sat next to him. It’s an interesting story, I’ll admit that. Ancient order of idiot Light dudes finds a box of magic items, starts hallucinating people and getting crazy visions of the end times, and host a meeting of casters from all elements. I’m pretty sure there isn’t any Endbringer after all, now that I’ve seen these guys in person.

The robed man from the previous memory walked in, looking grave. “Knight-Caster, I have dire news.”

“What is it, Lord Sentinel?”

“Our engineers have recalculated, and we believe we will need more energy for this dungeon. We think we have a way, but… we’re not sure if we should do it. I thought I would ask you before I made the decision.”

“It doesn’t matter what it is. We must stop the Endbringer. We must save the world.”

I returned to the hall of Abraham’s mind, some of my curiosity satisfied and yet more stirred. I walked further on, until I came to one of the latest murals. It showed the knight, with his sword wreathed in elements. Destruction and Creation.

“Well, that’s an interesting title.” I muttered.

I pressed my hand to it, and let myself enter the memory.

The head of a Fire elemental landed at my feet. Abraham stabbed a fleeing Fire caster in the back, and flung her to the ground. The bodies turned to flames that fell away from their skeletons, but Abraham extended his sword and the flames gathered to it. When they were circling, he picked up the skull of the elemental nearest me and poured the flames into it. The skull glowed red, and he tossed it onto a pile of similar skulls.

We were in the entry hall of the dungeon.

“I hate this task… but it is necessary.” Abraham muttered as he gathered up the skulls in a sack and muttered an incantation. The room glowed red, and then returned to normal. He walked out, past the sleeping kraken, and into a room with a staircase and heavy winds. He walked up the staircase to the exit door, and entered an empty cavern. He walked to the other side, and entered the cathedral where the others waited. “It is done, my fellows. The last of the casters have been slain. Their skulls are here, and they have been bound to the room. The runes have been laid. Is the crypt ready?”

“Aye, Knight-Caster.”

“Then take these in there, and we may enter stasis. This abominable task is at last almost over, and we can begin our wait.” A lackey took the sack and pressed a spot on the wall, which sunk into the wall. The floor shifted, dropping to form stairs, and the lackey went down into them, coming back up without the sack. So there’s a crypt. Glad I watched this memory, I wouldn’t have bothered looking for that otherwise.

Abraham looked at those gathered, and gave one last weary sigh, before walking to the altar and kneeling. Light enveloped him, and then the memory ended.

My information collected, I returned to the cathedral in dear old Abe’s mind, and then back to the actual cathedral. Abraham was muttering madly, lost in a malaise of memory. I casually snapped his neck, and his flesh began to turn to light. With the lead knight dead, I turned back to the rest of the cathedral, to see how my friends had managed against the army.

Turns out, not very well.

I saw Wabbit slashing up a knight, and there were about ten dead knights dotted around the cathedral, but Malk and Clary were huddled in a corner, Clary having raised a shield to defend against the knights, while Malk periodically darted out to slash at a knight, before darting back inside to avoid retaliation. They had managed to kill one, but even with eleven dead total, there were still about nineteen standing.

I contemplated, and had another idea. I turned back to Abraham, who was not yet a skeleton, some light still fading. I was reminded of his final memory, and checked his armor. The adaptive ward was still there, and several other spells, and I could sense some fading energy. He’d died only seconds ago, so most of his life force was still there.

So I stole it.

I opened my mouth and breathed in the energy, and drained it from Abraham, and poured it into myself.

I felt a rush of power, of adrenaline, and of endorphins, and I laughed with sheer joy. Energized in both literal and metaphorical ways, I turned back to the small army of knights, and sent out a wave of darkness, which latched onto each one and gripped it tight.

Then, I commanded the darkness, and it crushed each knight like a tin can. The darkness faded away, leaving a floor of dead elementals. Clary brought down her shield, and I walked over to my friends, rolling my shoulders and tossing my hair about, still enjoying the rush from the magic I stole.

It’s been years since I killed an elemental.

I’d forgotten how good it felt.

I walked into the next room in the hopes of finding something with a little less running about.

It was a giant maze of stone. Irony, you son of a bitch.

I sighed, and my eyes began darting over the maze from our elevated position, tracing the paths while I waited for my friends to catch up. By the time they were standing by my side, I’d figured out the basics of where we should go, how we should get to the end.

Then the walls started moving.

“And now I hate this dungeon.”

My carefully traced path was now obliterated, and the maze would likely continue to change as we moved through it. I resigned myself to a long, long, long walk, and started that walk by moving to the entrance.

Malk asked, “Okay, how are we handling this? It’s a big maze, should we split up, stick together, hug the left wall, hug the right wall, what?”

Clary said, “Right wall is always the best option. And we should probably stick together, there’s no point in one person finding the exit if they can’t find the rest of the group.”

I nodded at the two of them, and stepped into the maze, which activated the spike trap. Three stone spikes came rushing out of the floor, and I barely managed to backflip out of the way. As I landed beside my friends, the spikes receded back into the floor, which still looked perfectly innocent. “Okay, now I really, really hate this dungeon.”

I gathered the darkness about me and stepped into the maze once more. This time, when the spikes rose, I send the darkness cascading onto the spikes, shattering them.

“That’s that problem solved. Now, let’s hurry and get through this stupid labyrinth of annoyance.” I took a short moment to check if I could sense any traps, but found nothing. We all walked into the maze, and down the path. Taking the advice of Clary, I led us along the right wall, taking turns here and there where the maze had offshoots of the path.

And then the walls shifted again. As Wabbit and I walked forward, the wall behind us suddenly slammed out, blocking Clary and Malk’s path and separating us into two groups. I snarled, and called over to them, “Well this is terrific, this is just great. I hate this stupid dungeon. Look, try and follow the path as best you can along the same logic, we should eventually reach the same place. We’ll do the-“

My speech was cut off as a cylinder of stone suddenly emerged from the wall to my left and slammed into me, crushing me against the right wall. This angered me. Greatly. As the cylinder receded, I fell to my knees, gasping for breath. My ribs were broken again, and I expended a burst of energy healing them. Then I got to my feet, gathered my power, and punched the wall, shattering it.

I laughed, and then screamed, “Is that the best you have, huh maze? Some shifting walls, a surprise cylinder attack, and the inability to stop a punch?”

In response, another cylinder emerged, from the wall behind me. It sent my flying into another wall, which did the same trick, sending me back toward the first cylinder. Wabbit jumped into the air to try and slash them, but my response was to blow the first cylinder to pieces with magic. The maze tried to attack me again, this time with spikes from the floor, and I countered by stomping down with my foot and releasing a wave of energy that obliterated the spikes.

Next came another cylinder. I magic-punched it and it broke into pieces.

I felt a rumbling beneath me, and did a backflip into the air, just as a giant worm seemingly made of earth rose up from the ground and roared. I roared back at it, and sent a volley of darkness at different spots on its body, enraging it further. The worm surged toward me, its jaw open wide and filled with rocky teeth. I danced to the left, and send a spike of darkness into its segmented body, tearing a massive hole. The worm flopped around to face me again, and surged forward. This time, I met it head on, and gathered darkness in front of me in a sloped aegis with a spike in the center.

The worm surged at me, hit the aegis, kept going, and I emerged on the other side of the beast, having torn a gash through its entire body. I laughed the laugh of someone who is possibly mad, and darkness danced around me, wild and uncontrolled. I rolled my shoulders and looked around at the carnage I’d caused, which was quickly being reabsorbed into the maze. “Well? What now, oh mighty and powerful labyrinth of deadly traps and horrid monsters?”

The labyrinth walls shifted again, this time making a straight path toward the other side of the maze. I smirked, and began striding forward. Wabbit hopped onto my shoulder to better keep up. This dungeon seems too complex. Who made it?

I shrugged. “Not really sure. Hmm. Dungeons usually get made during wartime, by elementals trying to protect artifacts from the invaders. Then they forget, or the dungeon gets taken over by the attackers, or by monsters. Then they get rediscovered, which is how Clary found out about it, from some old journal or whatever. But you’ve got a good point with the complexity… there’s too many elements here, they’ve got wisps and vast monsters and intricate magical traps that are able to stop even me… this took a massive concerted effort. Whatever’s at the end of this dungeon has to be very, very powerful.”

Yeah… hey, there’s more rumbling…

As Wabbit wrote that, a new wall rose up through the ground, blocking the way. This one was covered in a circular pattern of runes, with a smooth crystal circle in the center. I sighed. “Will this maze ever learn when to give up?” I pointed my hand at the barricade and unleashed a blast of energy at it. Unfortunately, it had defenses. The energy got absorbed into the crystal, which quickly turned purple. “Great. Just great.”

As I prepared to launch another attack, a black handprint appeared on the crystal. I think it wants you to press the handprint.

“Meh. I’d rather blow it up… but it looks like I don’t have much of a choice.” I sighed, and put my hand against-

-the back of the nearest tree. I casually picked a piece of meat out of my teeth and flicked it to the ground. Ah, hunting. I’ll never understand why the others don’t do this more often.

A snarl interrupted my train of thought and I laughed as I flipped over a big furry thing with a mane and dark eyes. Of course, my laughter was dulled a bit when it turned on its paws and swiped at me. I bled darkness, and narrowed my eyes. Right, got to be serious sometimes. I should ask Malk what this thing is when I get back. I think it’s like, a lion or something? Eh, it probably dies the same as anything else here.

I threw a few bolts of darkness at it, and my eyes widened when the creature simply shrugged them off. It jumped at me, and I rolled to the side. Shit. Well, I got out of the Academy of War a few months ago, time to see if the training paid off. I pulled out my sword, and then the creature slammed into me again. The sword went flying, and I got shoved up against a tree. It mauled my chest, ruining my shirt, and I enhanced my strength to push it to the side, falling to the ground gasping and quickly running to reach my sword.

The lion roared, and I barely managed to grab my sword, turning on my heel and pointing the sword at the oncoming monster. Moving too fast, its shoulder was run through, but it bit my arm, clenching it between its iron-grip jaws. I screamed in fury, and took my sword out. Before the lion could move away, I stabbed it downward through the thing’s skull. It gave one last yelp, and fell dead.

I took a few breaths to steady myself, then vindictively ripped off a piece of the creature and bit into it. I took the energy, and used it to heal my various wounds. Well, that thing was tough. And yet…

I grinned, and took another bite, and another, letting the weird red blood of the creature flow down my face and chest, which was now barely covered by the ruins of my shirt. I let loose a savage cheer, and ran through the woods, not really caring where I was going. My hair, the blood, the rags of my clothing, all of it flew in the wind as I raced past trees that began to blur. I took a single step and dodged an oncoming tree, aided by senses more than natural.

I stopped only when I entered a clearing nestled up against a rocky hill. On second glance, I saw a cave entrance. Well that seems like it could be interesting.

The roar of a bear issued from the cave, and I smirked. Well, now I just have to investigate. I walked into the cave, and didn’t notice any bones or other leftovers in the first chamber that might indicate the residence of a bear.

Seeing that it was dark further in, I quickly put together a torch from rags and wood, and lit it. Secure in my light, I investigated further into the cave, and soon found the source of the noise; a bear was mauling apart the warren of rabbits that had made this cave their home. I dismissed the rabbits as unimportant, and focused on the bear.

I gathered the shadows and readied my sword. The bear noticed me and reared up on its hind legs, an action usually designed to scare things away. I simply smiled and sent a bolt of darkness in the general direction of its heart. The bear’s next roar had considerably more fear, and it came down on all fours, charging me with its jaw gaping open. I jumped over the bear as it came forward, landing behind it and twirling to send more bolts of darkness, wounding the creature further. It turned around, charged, and I ran it through with my sword. I shoved it to the side and relaxed against a wall.

I love fighting. I really do. I turned to the dead rabbits, poking the bloody mess with my sword. There were lots of them dead, mauled to pieces. The one it had been attacking last was mostly intact, with only a few marks. Of course, it was just as dead as the rest. I debated eating or skinning it. On the one hand, food. On the other hand, pointless trophy to squick out Malk and Clary.

I decided to take a catalogue of the rabbits. I identified the intact one as the mother, a torn apart one as the father, and the big pile seemed like cousins and siblings. As I looked I saw a twitch from the pile of siblings. Tilting my head with curiosity I walked over and began moving aside the corpses.

At the bottom of the pile I saw a rabbit still alive. It was small, one of the youngest of the litter. “You clever little cutie. You burrowed under the broken corpses of your kin to survive the bear. If you were more like an elemental, I bet that would leave emotional scarring. Luckily you’re just a rabbit.”

I picked him up and brought him close to my face. A spark of inspiration fueled a few seconds of rapid thought, and then I grinned. I breathed out heavily, and the rabbit opened its tiny mouth, breathing in what I’d exhaled.

“Just a rabbit… for now,” I said as his eyes briefly flashed bright purple. I rose to my feet and-

-stumbled back away from the wall, and it quickly fell back into the ground, leaving the way open. Wabbit rushed to my side and looked worried. Mum, are you okay?

“Um… sort of. Yeah, I’m fine.”

What happened? You just stood there for a few seconds, and then you fell back.

“It made me relive some memories. I don’t know why. This fucking dungeon is really starting to piss me off!” I fumed, stamping the ground. Wabbit watched with concern, and nuzzled my shoulder. I patted his head, and sighed.

We continued our journey through the linear path the maze had turned into, and up ahead I saw another door. Snarling but resigned to my fate I hurried to reach it and pressed my hand against the crystal.

Nothing happened.

I frowned, and then thought back to the first one. I’d only touched the crystal once it was already purple, and it became purple after I blasted it. Shrugging, I sent energy at the wall, and the crystal changed to look like the other one. Sighing, I placed my hand on the crystal and-

-stepped into the cave. I admired the changes I’d made. You know, you really can do a lot in two months. The cave was now well-lit, there was some plush furniture, and I’d even left a few books.

I called out, “Wabbit!” and watched him come running. I smiled as he nestled by my foot, and I walked over to a bean bag, plopping down on it so he could rest by my head. I pulled out a packaged container of blood and vegetable soup, and opened it up, setting it on my lap for convenient feeding.

He eagerly began feasting. “At some point I should get you into hunting, so you can get your own food. Start small with squirrels, eventually transition to things like bears and dark lions.” He looked up at me and twitched his ears before returning to his meal.

He’s probably smart enough to understand me, but unfortunately rabbits don’t really possess proper vocal capabilities, nor can they write with their stubby little paws. Good thing I’ve been working on this.

A few days ago I’d managed to create a new trick, where I created words with shadows. It had been mostly a joke to play on Clary, changing her shadow every few minutes to spell a different word like ‘cute’, ‘geek’, or ‘hopeless’. If Wabbit could cast like I could, he’d be able to communicate through the shadows.

And that of course was the key phrase. If he could ‘cast like I could’. Whatever I’d done when I found him, it had changed him subtly, but it wasn’t enough. It felt like he had been primed to be a receptacle for something, but he still needed to be filled. And after a bit of research and experimentation, I’d discovered a potential way to do that.

I took a deep breath, and started explaining to Wabbit. “Hey, little guy. So, I’ve been working on a spell. It… it isn’t normal, I doubt it has ever been done before, but I think it should work. It will take a portion of me, a portion of my intellect, my magic, my strength, my speed, and my personality, and give it a recipient. In this case, you. The portion should regenerate naturally… I hope.”

His ears twitched again, and I gave a nervous laugh. “I hope you can actually understand me. Right, well, here goes nothing.”

With a single expenditure of effort I breathed out like before, but this time with more will, more focus. Wabbit breathed it in, and I felt a sense of loss, as if a part of me had just been taken. No, given. Wabbit’s eyes widened, and then they narrowed in concentration.

A moment later, his shadow flickered, and then changed.

Mum.

I let out a shout of-

-frustration as I fell back away from the wall and it slammed into the floor.

I scowled. “Again, I don’t see the point here.”

What was the memory of? Was it the same as the first one?

“They were both of scenes with you. Finding you in the first, feeding you in the second. Maybe this thing works on proximity, makes me relive memories to do with whoever is nearest. I just don’t understand why. Is it meant to slow me down? Is it trying to force me to come to terms with the decisions I’ve made in the past in an attempt to reform me as a person, for better or for worse? Is it just fucking with me because this dungeon was designed by pricks? How can it even do this anyways? Answers to all these questions next time on the Douchebag Memory Reliving Show!”

We continued the dull drudgery of movement until reaching another wall. Sighing, I sent some energy at it, and reached my hand out to touch the-

-head of Wabbit, scratching his ears. “You’re looking healthy today. Want to try a few routines before I introduce you to my minions?”

Sure, mum!

Wabbit hopped his way out of the cave, and began shaping his shadow, gathering energy and then unleashing it. He did a series of blasts, cuts, and defensive maneuvers before enhancing his claws and manually destroying a tree. Well, looks like the infusions have been working quite nicely.

“Looks good. Head back inside while I go fetch them.”

He obeyed, and I went to fetch Malk and Clary. They were at home, so I gave a quick wave and gestured for them to follow me. Before they could say anything I walked out of the city, and they hastened to catch up. Soon, we reached the clearing, and I stopped to let them reach me. “Hey, friends. I’ve got something to show you.”

“What is it? And why are we in the middle of the forest?” asked a curious Clary.

“Shush. Just watch.” I turned to the cave, and began to chant. “Oh great and magnificent creature of darkness, I call to thee! This humble being requests your presence, for you are indeed greatness made manifest!” Malk and Clary looked at each other in confusion, then took a few steps back when they saw the darkness gathering at the cave mouth. “Rise, rise my dark child, and show these two the greatness found only in you and in I!”

The darkness surged forward and tendrils lashed out, slicing apart several trees. As Malk and Clary grabbed each other for support, the darkness suddenly cleared, revealing Wabbit. His shadow reshaped itself, forming words. They look silly like that, mum.

Clary and Malk both stared, their mouths wide open. Clary said, “It’s a rabbit. A rabbit that can cast. How… how is that possible?”

“It called her mother, it… it called Shadow its mother. What did you do?” Malk asked in horror.

Wabbit twitched, and a few dark tendrils crept up to Malk. Be careful, lest you anger me, swine. I haven’t hunted in a few days.

“It… it hunts. It hunts and it threatens people and what did you do Shadow, what did you do?” asked a terrified Malk.

“Relax, Wabbit. That’s his name, by the way. Wabbit. Wabbit, meet Malk the boring artsy stoic dude, and Clary the cute geeky nervous girl. Boring dude and geeky girl, meet Wabbit. He’s my adopted son, a rabbit infused with a bit of power and a bit of my essence. He’s fun.”

Malk nodded after a moment, his face returning to its passive expression. Clary continued to stare at Wabbit. “He’s… interesting.”

“Yes he is…” I laughed, and continued, “I can’t wait to show him to Fitzdonald.”

Clary smiled at that, and said-

-“Shadow! Wabbit!”

I stumbled forwards, catching myself, and saw Clary running towards me. “Minions! Are both of you here?” Looking around I saw that we were now at the edge of the maze.

Malk responded to my question with, “I’m here, and Clary’s here, though I haven’t seen any minions. Perhaps you meant to say, ‘willing assistants, allies, and valued friends’? Unless you brought a secret group of cultists or something without us noticing.”

“Hmm. It seems we are at an impasse. Perhaps we should compromise with something like ‘friendly servants’.” Malk came into view from around a corner, walking calmly. Clary caught up to me and waited for Malk.

“I’d actually prefer ‘friends who occasionally serve’ if it’s really that important to degrade us.”

“But that doesn’t have anywhere near enough degradation. It’s like saying ‘enemies who occasionally damage you’. It’s a thing that while rare is still perfectly natural. Enemies damage, friends serve.”

“Then I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree.” He said calmly, shrugging as he reached us.

“Hmm, yes. Or I could just bend your mind to my will to make you obey me completely and call yourself a minion. But perhaps I should save such an action for a more important occasion.”

Malk laughed. “Right, of course.”

It’s so funny whenever they think I’m joking.

We emerged into a big area, and started looking for a door. Then the ground began to shake again, and I laughed. I turned back towards the maze and called out, “What, you’ve got one last hurrah? One last attempt to beat me? That’s unexpected considering how I tore apart all your little attacks, and you had to resort to cheap memory tricks that didn’t actually stop me! I mean really, what kind of maze-“

I stopped when the maze vanished. And by vanished, I mean the entire thing sank into the ground, leaving a level field of stone all the way back to the entrance. At that point, the rumbling stopped, and instead I heard the sound of stone breaking.

I turned back around just in time to see a massive stone giant emerge from the ground. “Schist!” I said. Yes, I am in fact not above making bad puns. The stone giant roared, which should be impossible because you need vocal chords to roar, but maybe it was the sound of stone grinding against stone, and I really needed to stop thinking scientifically when fighting rock monsters.

The giant charged at us, and at me in particular, its fist coming down to smash me into dust. I quickly raised a solid shield of magical energy, and imbued it with an enchantment that would damage anything that came in contact with it.

The fist hit the shield, and the giant roared in pain, before hammering at the shield again and again, attempting to break it through. I waited until the shield was about to break before hitting him from behind with a blast of magic, at the same time that Malk and Wabbit slashed at his legs.

I had left the shield the moment I raised it, of course, leaving it there to strain the giant. It realized its mistake, and barreled toward me once more, to meet another blast of magic head on.

The giant reeled from the blast, but as it did so I noticed with dismay that for all of the harm I had inflicted on it, it suffered no wounds, had not reduced in size, and still came at me with the same speed as before.

Clearly, this fight would take a little extra effort. So instead of sending more brute force at the giant, I began to think on how to defeat it. Slashes and blasts hadn’t worked, so what would?

I decided to take a look at the magic of the creature, see what it was vulnerable to. I opened my senses and peered at it, revealing that it was in fact a magical construct, one designed to be very difficult to defeat, having the strength and durability of stone and earth.

Of course, it was a magical construct, which opened up an easy way to disable it. I simply reached out with my magic, found the spells that wove it together, and attacked them.

In a few seconds the giant went from a rampaging goliath to a heap of rocks. So why was that thing less powerful than the random wards?

The others looked at me, impressed, and I gave a brief bow before walking over to the exit door. “Shall we?” I asked.

With the kraken dead, we could take a few hours to rest. I sliced up the kraken, and we spent a bit of time cooking it, eating to regain energy. After a few minutes of devouring the delicious sushi, our wounds began to close, and our vitality was restored. We slept for an hour, and then we were ready to move on.

I led the way up to the broken door, and stepped through into the third room of the dungeon. We were on a balcony, in a vast cylinder of a room (much like the previous, only bigger). The floor was a few meters below, and full of spikes. Dotted about the room in a haphazard ascending trail were circular platforms, discs made of some white stone, several of which were just floating in the air.

Four of the platforms had thin grey monoliths on them, with lightning arcing around them, and a beam of lightning stretching away to another part of the room. Tracing the beams, I saw that all four led to a door at the top of the room, which was covered in lightning. Obviously, we’d have to disable the lightning rods to unlock the door.

Of course, there was the problem of getting to each. I gathered the darkness about me, and tried to fly, but once more it failed. “Okay, this is annoying. I can’t fly in this room, so how do we reach those lightning rod things, to unlock the door?”

Clary pointed to something at the end of the balcony, and said, “What about that?” She was gesturing at what looked to be a miniature cyclone of wind, standing in place. I tilted my head at it quizzically, then walked forward and extended my senses. It seemed to be a magical construct, designed to do… something. It looked to be Air magic, of which my knowledge extended only to flight, seeing as my flight spell was based off an Air spell.

I took a deep breath, stepped into the cyclone, and was rocketed into the air, the wind rushing past. Before I could get my bearings, I landed on one of the discs, above the balcony I’d started on, where the others were staring in awe. I steadied myself and cheered. “Now that was a rush! Come on, we should probably move quickly, and go disable those monoliths.”

Wabbit went first, calmly stepping into the cyclone. As he flew through the air, he lost his composure and landed on the platform as a pile of ruffled fur. He shook himself and began settling his fur. This entire dungeon hates me.

Malk stepped forward next, landing at the platform on the wrong foot and tripping forward, reaching out and clutching my shoulder to keep from falling. I smirked at him. “It’s unlike you to be so forward, dear Malk.”

He coughed awkwardly and quickly moved to the side. “My apologies.” He took a look at the cyclone and murmured, “It makes me want to paint just looking at it… I wish I’d brought my brushes.”

Clary was last, and after a few nervous glances at us she steeled herself and ran into the cyclone with forced glee, which became genuine as she twirled through the air, continuing to spin once she landed on the platform. She twirled into me and leaned, coming to rest in a comfortable position. Her face was flush with excitement, and she cheerfully declared, “That was awesome!” Then, she blinked at my closeness and stumbled to the side, blushing even more. “You’re a, um, you’ve, you’re a very good support, Shadow.”

I chuckled at her. “Onward, fellows. We still have the rest of the cylinder to traverse.” Now that we were all on the disc, I started looking around. This platform had two cyclones; one cyclone was where we landed from the balcony, and the second had to lead somewhere else. Shrugging, I walked into the gust of wind and whooshed through the air.

This time, I was prepared, and I landed gracefully in that action pose where you have one knee and one hand on the ground. I’d always wanted to do that. Looking around, I saw that this platform was only a little above the first platform in terms of elevation, but was on the opposite side of the room.

The others followed, this time a little steadier than their first landings, and I started looking around the room for the lightning rod thingies. Now, which of these is closest… I blinked in confusion when I noticed something strange; a bit of crackling lightning appeared to be moving, and getting closer to us. I focused on it and realized it wasn’t lightning.

It was a storm wisp.

Wisps are strange creatures, sort of related to elementals. See, elementals embody their element in a big way, but we all still maintain similar forms. We’ve all got skin, and hair, and we’re all sapient. But wisps seem to be more different. More disorderly, for one thing, and made of a pure element. A fire wisp would be something made entirely of flame, roaring across the wilderness and setting things ablaze. A dark wisp might be a living shadow, oozing through the dark places or hiding behind someone before consuming them.

Note to self, I should really figure out ways to manipulate my own shadow. Like, create living shadows of myself that can travel across walls and stuff and kill people by attacking their shadows. Or maybe have a second shadow, and do stuff with that? Something to think about.

Anyways, storm wisps are basically living pieces of lightning, rain and wind. Some, like this one, were less like storm clouds and more like lightning with a bit of wind. I alerted my friends. “Storm wisp is coming towards us. Probably more, I’d wager they’re summoned by those monoliths. Kind of obvious in hindsight, every room has to have some sort of obstacle.”

They nodded and prepared for a fight. Malk readied his sword, Wabbit his claws, and Clary nervously stood there. The wisp was still a ways off though, so I stepped into the next cyclone and was brought to another platform. This time, we were a lot higher up but only a meter to the right of the previous disc. The storm wisp was much closer now, and a bolt of lightning blasted towards us, originating from the creature. I casually waved my hand, catching the lightning and deflecting it into the walls.

I calmly entered the next cyclone and was deposited on the other side of the chamber, this time only about a meter higher, and far from the storm wisp which was harassing Malk and Clary, who were taking a few extra moments to enter the cyclone. Clary got hit by the edge of a blast just as she entered the cyclone. Once she arrived, I asked, “You okay?” She nodded, and I dashed to the next gust of wind.

I came out on a platform level with the lowest monolith but in a different area of the chamber. On the lightning rod disc, I saw two more storm wisps fly out of the monolith and begin making their way towards me. The one below rose swiftly to join them, propelling itself upward at impressive speeds. The descending wisps seemed almost slow in comparison. That’s odd.

Malk, Clary and Wabbit reached my platform a second later. “Okay, so those storm wisps are going to keep shooting at us while we try and reach the monoliths so we need to thin the herd now, before there are too many of them. They’re going to try to stop us from reaching the lightning rods, and if we get bogged down trying to fight them it will be a losing battle. Clary, Wabbit, try to hit them with projectiles. Malk, do what you can. I’ll be focusing on the things summoning them.”

They nodded and I stepped into the next cyclone, bringing my lower down but closer to the monolith disc. A new storm wisp was close enough to attack, sending a blast of lightning. I retaliated with a bolt of darkness and while we both took hits, it got off worse. I sent two more bolts and it backed off as I stepped into the next cyclone, not waiting for my friends.

I landed on a disc above the lightning rod but closer to it, and snarled at all the time this was taking. Ignoring the cyclones, I just jumped down to the monolith. I took a quick glance at the others. Malk was fighting a single wisp back on the platform where I’d given them instructions, swinging wildly any time it came close enough, while Clary was throwing darkness at the storm wisp by the platform immediately after Malk’s. Wabbit was right behind me on the previous platform, sending slivers of darkness at the third storm wisp and the wounded one. I sent a quick blast of darkness at each wisp, and then turned to the monolith.

The monolith was covered in shallow carvings of runes, and as I took a step towards it the thing crackled with lightning and ejected two storms that blasted me with lightning too quickly for me to react. I fell back towards the edge, and the moment I recovered I sent shadows surging at the wisps. They shook off the attack as I flipped into the air and landed behind them, bringing my sword out and slicing into the left wisp with a darkness-infused strike. It dissipated at my attack and I was left facing only one.

The last wisp sent a bolt of lightning that I deflected with my sword, and I changed the thing. It blasted past me as lightning, slamming into the ground on the other side of the platform and reforming. I ignored the now-weak wisp, and turned to the monolith. I sent bolts of darkness at the structure, each one cracking it, and then swung with my sword, shattering it, the lightning fading. As it did so, it unleashed one last wisp. I snarled, and threw darkness at it, but that was intercepted by a bolt of lightning sent by the wisp I’d left on the other side of the disc.

I directed tendrils of energy at the new wisp before turning back to the original one. To my pleasant surprise, my friends had arrived, having apparently beaten the wisps they’d been fighting. Wabbit went to harass the new wisp while Malk and Clary rushed to my aid, and we quickly dispatched the wisps. We ran to the next cyclone and continued the ascent.

We went through a few more platforms, traveling from cyclone to cyclone, and I noticed an increasing number of storm wisps coming toward us, from all three lightning rods. When we were by my estimation a few platforms from the lightning rod, the storm wisps struck, raining lightning and wind and rain. Buffeted by the storm, I called out, “Keep moving! We can deal with these ones after we’ve reduced the output of wisps.”

“By destroying the monolith?” asked Malk.

“No, by asking them nicely to stop. Of course by destroying the stupid monolith!” I answered.

We ran through the cyclones and reached the next lightning rod. I blasted it quickly and took a head count. There were twelve storm wisps chasing us now, and they were fast. “Clary, Wabbit, hold them off. You two are better at fighting them than Malk, so hold off the bulk while Malk I get to the next monolith.”

“Why can’t we just keep running and smash the monoliths, then deal with them?” inquired Clary.

“Wisps get dangerous in large numbers. Malk, you’ve studied them, right?”

“I have. Wisps are basically energy, and when there are enough of them in one place they can reach critical mass and combine to become pure incarnations of their element. There are only two instances of wisps doing this, and both times resulted in the destruction of entire armies. There were no survivors able to communicate what happened, so we don’t even know what gets created, just that it is very, very bad.” He stopped for a moment and pointed to the wisps that had reached out platform. I put up a quick wall of darkness to deter them, and then motioned for him to continue. “These monoliths… from what I’ve seen, it looks like they have enough energy, enough wisps stored, to reach critical mass. We need to move quickly to stop that.”

Clary paled and nodded. “Okay. Wabbit and I will fight them.”

I grinned and said, “Don’t worry, it’ll be fun!” I grabbed Malk’s arm and dashed through the next cyclone, and the next, trying to get through the platforms as quickly as possible. At one point I caught a glimpse of Wabbit and Clary, fighting nine wisps with more on the way. I focused on the objective and we kept running.

After what seemed like ages we reached the third monolith, but to my extreme annoyance it was using different tactics, what almost seemed like an adaptation to my quick destruction of the others.

This one had no active wisps, but was instead funneling its energy into a massive wall of wind and lightning around the monolith. I prepared to attack it, and was surprised further by a blast of storm sent straight at me, which I barely stopped by summoning a shield. I pressed my hand against the wall of wind and started funneling darkness into it, but another blast emerged and I changed tactics.

I began circling the monolith at fast speeds, sending bolt after bolt at its shield while it did the same to me. Just as I managed to break through its shield, it sent a final bolt, this at Malk! Caught by surprise, he was sent flying off the platform, and I stroked my chin as I considered the dilemma; help Malk, or destroy the monolith.

On the one hand, Malk was useful, and one of my only two friends.

On the other hand, if I let the monolith recharge, it could do the same thing when we got back up to it. Also, I wasn’t entirely sure I could actually do anything to save Malk.

What if…

An idea came to me. I’d spent at least a few seconds thinking this over, which was a little longer than it usually took me to debate an idea. I placed my hand on the monolith and sent energy surging through it, shattering it in moments. Then, I dived off the platform, the air rushing past my face in an exhilarating surge.

As I raced towards Malk, the platforms and walls blurring into a mesh of monotone, I noticed cracks in the floor between spikes. Evidence accrues for my theory.

I fell for what could have been seconds or hours before reaching Malk. I quickly spread my arms and legs to increase air resistance and grabbed onto him. “Sup, Malk?”

“S-shadow? What are you doing? You said you can’t fly here!”

“I can’t fly, but I can…”

I snapped my fingers and darkness exploded from my back, quickly forming into wings that spread out and caught the air. “…glide! Haha, this is fun!”

I opened my sense, found what I was looking for, and glided towards it. Once I got there we flew higher into the air and I was able to glide over to where Clary and Wabbit were still fighting wisps. Malk stared at me in shock and asked, “Uh, Shadow, do you know how to land… wings?”

“Not a clue!” I screamed in happiness as we crashed into the platform, and I giggled, moving my hair out of my face. “That was awesome!” I sent a few blasts to help Clary and Wabbit finish off the latest batch of storm wisps, and got up. Clary looked at me, then at my wings, then at Malk still on the floor.

“What.”

“This, dear Clary, is what happens when I have an idea. Now, we need to get to the final monolith, and I know how to do that quickly, thanks to the power of science!”

Clary blinked in confusion.

“See, I had a suspicion about the wisps, since they seemed to be able to ascend quickly but descend slowly, and so I took a look when I was falling and confirmed my theory. They’re using thermal columns. They cause… well, I guess you could call it ‘rising air’. Birds use it to glide and catch an easy ride, and I discovered it coming from the floor in different areas. “

“Okay… and the wings?”

“I’ve been working on them from time to time. I thought it would be cool. Kind of like bat wings but not exactly. They’re fun and probably could freak some people out, frighten them. And it seems this chamber doesn’t have a counter for them.”

“They are pretty cool. But, uh, I doubt you can carry us all up to the final platform. We’ll still have to fight through wisps.”

Malk spoke up, climbing to his feet. “Actually, I don’t see any more wisps.” We looked up, and saw that he was right.

“Well that’s strange…” I muttered. “Whatever. So, I can’t carry all of you, but I can give Malk wings for a few minutes. He can carry Clary, I’ll take Wabbit. Come on, let’s go!”

I snapped my fingers, and Clary started staring at her new wings while I grabbed Wabbit and dived off the platform. I hit a thermal column at a perfect angle and rose swiftly through the air, past the third monolith and up to the platform right before the final monolith, which was on a balcony like the entrance. I dissolved my wings, done with them.

Clary landed a few moments later, crashing. The two sprawled on the ground, and quickly got up, dusting themselves off. “That was… actually kind of fun!” mentioned Clary.

I bowed and said, “I must thank my wonderful assistant Malk for nearly getting himself killed and thus inspiring me to put my wing plan into effect. Now, let’s go through this last cyclone and destroy that monolith. And possibly figure out why it isn’t sending any storm wisps. I mean, not that the wisps have been very good at hurting us, but still.”

“Maybe it doesn’t produce any by default. Or it stopped the same time the third monolith did.”

Clary frowned at Malk’s suggestion. “No, I saw wisps coming out of it even after you broke the lightning rod.”

I shrugged, and we stepped into the cyclone. The monolith seemed… dormant. “I guess we just blast it?” The others shrugged, but as I gathered darkness I saw a faint crackle. “Wait, it’s doing something. Let’s watch, I’m actually a bit curious about these things.”

Wind rustled, and lightning began to crackle. Then, I saw some of it come from below. I looked over the edge of the platform to see the cylinder full of wisp energy being drawn upwards. “Uh, that doesn’t look good. That really does not look good! Malk, is that enough wisps to create a critical mass event? And how are they still around, I thought we destroyed them!”

“I-I don’t know! I don’t think it’s enough… they don’t look like full wisps, I think our attacks managed to disperse the energy, destroy their cohesion and weaken their power, but some of the energy stuck around. It… it probably isn’t enough to reach critical mass but I don’t like the look of them either way.”

“Well, it would probably be better if we just destroyed the monolith then.” I turned to it, and then blinked in confusion. “Well, that doesn’t bode well… the thing’s dormant again. Whatever it did, it’s too late to stop it now.” I sent a quick few blasts to shatter it, and then turned to watch the energy rise.

As the storm gathered, it began to pour into one spot, and assume a shape. A… very familiar shape. We all stared in astonishment as the storm took the form of an elemental, sort of. It was shaped like one, but it seemed to have lightning in the place of hair and dense grey gas in the place of skin. It extended one arm, and in its hand formed a staff of lightning.

It took a step forward, and flickered, a bit of itself briefly falling apart and reforming. It snarled. “Looks like the thing didn’t get nearly enough energy. I’d bet it’s leagues away from a critical energy event. Let’s kill it.” I grinned, and gathered the darkness.

The amalgamation of wisps pointed its staff at me, and sent a blast of lightning I easily ducked under, running towards him and cutting upwards with my sword. The creature crackled and dissipated before I hit, reappearing elsewhere. Malk and Wabbit charged it while Clary flung a bolt of darkness. It extended the staff and send a flurry of wind cutting at them, shoving them back while it flickered and flowed to the other side of the disc.

As the creature sent another blast of lightning I sent darkness to meet it, and we fought with twin beams of energy. I proved stronger and dashed forward, the darkness pooling around the staff and shattering it back into energy. The collection of wisps (wisp-person?) reformed its weapon into a sword and shield, and charged with the shield raised. I flipped over it and put my hand on its back, sending darkness into it and shoving it forward.

The creature turned to face me and Malk struck, slicing into it. It sent a bolt of lightning at me, and then shoved its shield into Malk’s face. I retaliated with a blast of darkness and it rolled to the side, coming up next to Clary and slicing through her illusory form. The real Clary smirked at it a few meters away and sent a blast of shadows into its shield. Wabbit came in and slashed, and it turned to wind and rushed to the side, reappearing near me.

It stabbed at me, again moving too slowly, and I sent a bolt of darkness that shattered its shield. Its faceless head rippled, and its arm temporarily flickered out of existence. It recovered its exposure and tore its sword apart, forming the blade into a bow. It began firing lightning arrows rapidly, which I twirled past. As I got closer, it shifted its foot and a gust of wind knocked me into the next arrow.

I snarled, and jumped at it, shoving through the thing. It reformed right behind me and turned its bow into a dagger, stabbing it into my back. Before it could take the dagger out I grabbed its arm and flooded the thing with dark energy, turning the arm black and purple. Then, it collapsed, and the creature fell to the side, churning and roiling.

When it finally reformed, it was much wispier and gaseous. I darted towards the amalgamation and gathered the darkness. As I ran through it I left the shadows behind and they wrapped around the creature, trapping it. For a brief moment, it formed a screaming, anguished face, and then I closed the darkness in, killing it. As the last wisps dissipated, I smiled. “I’m starting to love the fights in this dungeon. There’s actual risk…” I spared a second to heal my wounds, and pulled out a bit of food from my pocket, quickly munching it down.

I leaned against a wall and gestured for the others to rest before heading to meet the next challenge, whatever it would be.

Personally, I was hoping it would be something with a little less running.

The door shattered with a quick blast of energy, splinters showering the next room, which was… very different from the first hall.

To start with, it was a lake.

The entrance opened onto a stretch of dirt that continued around an oval-shaped lake, the room being a giant oval. Cylinder? Prism? I have no idea. The dirt was covered in grass that was short, dark, and blue, while the lake’s water was bright aqua, almost fluorescent. The room was lit by various glowing spikes attached to the walls, said walls also having various stone platforms interconnected. The platforms were accessible via some stairs near the entrance, and there was another door on the highest platform, all the way on the opposite side of the lake. The door had a strange spherical receptacle in the center.

While the sloping platforms were strange, the strangest part had to be the ceiling, which was covered in frost that extended to the large stalactites that might have been actual icicles.

Wait, strike that. The strangest bit was the tentacle horror slowly rising from the lake.

It had rough teal scales, with the soft bits being a more blue color, and had dozens of long tentacles with sharp, pointed tips. As it rose, its head was revealed, a large bulbous mass with hundreds of different eyes, and one giant eye in the center. It roared, revealing a maw filled with rows of sharp teeth, and turned its baleful eye to glare at us.

“Well, this should be fun. Clary, set up some illusions to distract that lovely beastie. Malk, do whatever damage you can, working with the illusions. Wabbit, get to work on loosening those stalactites, I want them ready to come crashing down on that… kraken? Sea monster? Beastie? Thing? Whatever. The enemy!”

They nodded and got to work while I raced up the stairs, ready to play my part. I watched with interest as Clary summoned two illusions of Malk, and sent a stream of darkness at the kraken, grabbing its attention. It lashed out with a tentacle, barreling into one of the illusions, while all three versions of Malk stabbed it.

Hold on a second…

I took a closer look, and saw a faint flicker of a fourth figure – Malk had been made invisible by Clary, which meant all three copies were illusions. Clever girl. It’s good to see her using the invisibility spell I gifted her. The real Malk took his stab, and the creature gave a snarl of anger, swiping with two more tentacles, which Malk managed to dodge, even if his copies didn’t.

Malk cut at another of the tentacles, denting the scales, and the creature roared again as it slammed two tentacles at the dirt, nearly knocking Clary to her knees. Malk raced over to defend her, stabbing upward at a descending tentacle, which bled sickly green ooze.

I turned my attention to Wabbit, who was darting up platforms and across the walls to reach the icicles, his claws once more readied. When he got to the top he started hacking at the base of each stalactite to wear down the ice. For my part, I was almost to the top of the platforms, climbing steadily. I wanted to take some data.

I took a look at the door once I reached it, inspecting the receptacle. I compared it to the eye of the kraken. It wasn’t an exact match, but I couldn’t really think of any other key. It seemed to be made of stone, so I doubted it would be as easy to break as the wooden door I’d blown apart. I shrugged, and went back to observing events.

The kraken continued its rage against Malk and Clary, stabbing and slamming and swiping, coming perilously closer to actually hurting them each time, despite the illusions. Clary was straining to keep the illusions running, and as the kraken struck one again it flickered out of existence. Then, the kraken noticed her and sent two tentacles straight for her. Malk shoved her out of the way, breaking invisibility to cut at them. The rest of the illusions vanished as Clary rested against a wall to catch her breath.

As Malk stabbed another tentacle, I called out, “Now!”

The rabbit sliced away the last bit of an icicle’s base, and the stalactite fell down toward the kraken. Unfortunately, it immediately switched targets and swiped its tentacles up at an angle to deflect the icy spike into the wall, where it shattered. Wabbit hopped to the next stalactite but the kraken flung its tentacles at the rabbit to stop him.

In response I let loose a salvo of my own. I sent out tendrils of darkness, yanking the glowing spikes out of the walls and flinging them at the kraken’s tentacles. I watched gleefully as the spikes impaled various tentacles against the far wall, tangling the kraken up and letting Wabbit unleash an icicle. The kraken moved with more swiftness than I’d given it credit, and managed to escape the worst of the damage, though it lost a tentacle.

The kraken turned to face me, ignoring for a moment my two friends down at the shore, and sent three tentacles surging towards me. I cartwheeled to the right of the first tentacle, jumped above the second one, and stabbed the third one with my sword. I shoved that tendril to the side, then placed my hand on the tentacle below me and flooded it with energy, shattering the scales.

The creature tried to swipe at me again with the unharmed tentacle, but I jumped to a nearby platform and laughed at it, stopping to lean casually against the wall.

The kraken roared again, but its roar was cut off by pain as Malk stabbed it from a platform. It swiveled to face him and brought all its free tentacles to bear. I quickly grabbed another glowing spike and used it to impale another tentacle against the wall. The kraken turned back and forth, unsure who to attack first, and I took the opportunity to send another spike at it, bringing its full attention to bear on me.

Wabbit kicked another giant stalactite free, and the kraken veered to the side, slamming into the wall trying to avoid the icy crystal. It sent several of its surviving tentacles to bash at Wabbit, knocking free more icicles and sending the rabbit falling to a platform. I started wildly grabbing and throwing the glowing spikes, trying to get lucky and pin some tentacles, and the kraken grew furious in its defense. Just when I managed to hit another and felt confident in my victory, the kraken surged towards me and ripped its tentacles out of the walls. They bled freely, but now it was ready for battle once again, and lashed out at my position.

I ran up the platforms, past spikes and past the door, and jumped to reach another set of platforms, watching as the walls of the chamber withstood every attack, and the door was completely unaffected by the blow.

I enhanced my speed and ran over to where I’d last seen Malk. I found him with sword in hand, ready to strike but looking fairly battered. “Hey, sup?”

His brow furrowed and he gave a short sigh, and then said, “I’m glad you’re here. I don’t really have any idea what’s going on. I just keep seeing stalactites and tentacles and spikes, and Clary’s still hurting from when that thing tried to kill her. We need to end this quickly.”

“Killing the giant monster quickly is a good thing? I had no idea. Truly, Malk, your wisdom surpasses that of the oldest elementals. Look, the situation is actually fairly simple. I’m convinced we need to get the thing’s eye, or maybe something in its eye, and use that to open the door. Wabbit fell from the ceiling after the kraken whacked him, and the kraken managed to free all of its tentacles – side note, I really need more words that mean ‘tentacle’ because it gets old really quickly. Anyways, the general plan is to find a way to get an ice spike past the tentacles, because that seems the surest way of killing it. I’m thinking that you and Clary should harass it some more with the glowy spikes and with your sword, and I’ll see if I can get up to the stalactites and empower them or something.”

Malk nodded. “I can… try. Also, why are we able to have this conversation with a giant kraken in a rage right next to us?”

“Talking is a free action! Also, I’m pretty sure Wabbit is still in the fight.” I pointed to where the kraken was slamming at a wall with its tentacles, which came away with more cuts than they’d started with. Malk nodded again, and raced off to join Clary, ripping spikes out of the walls along the way.

You know, he’s actually pretty strong for a painter. The Academy of War did good work.

I noticed a stray tentacle nearby and casually impaled the wriggly thing with one of the wall spikes. These things might be cute if they weren’t trying to kill me. Actually, things can still be cute if they’re trying to kill me, so these are most definitely cute.

The kraken turned to me and tried to bash me with more tentacles, but I just did more acrobatics and danced through the attack. It returned its attentions to Wabbit as I smirked. Then it snarled again, giving up on the agile rabbit, and swiveled to face Clary, who was still leaning against a wall, immobile. My eyes widened and a split second later I took a running jump, gathering the shadows about me to fly-

And fell to the ground, deprived of flight.

I blinked a few times in shock, before realizing what must have happened; the chambers must have countermeasures in place to prevent actions that would make the trap too easy. In this case, flying would naturally be prohibited, as it would let someone access the stalactites more easily. In fact, we were probably meant to have used ranged attacks on the icicles in the first place.

I was taken out of this contemplation by the sight of a dozen tentacles crashing into Clary. In the distance I heard Malk yell in horror, while I narrowed my eyes, suspicious. His cry predictably cut off a second later when Clary reappeared a few feet to the left of the attack. “Atta girl!” I cheered. She must have set up an illusion in case the kraken attacked her again.

Of course, the kraken was still after her. I raced over to where she was slumped and gathered more darkness to block whatever next attack the kraken made. Malk threw me a spike and I immediately launched it at the kraken, ready to fight.

It gleefully and wrathfully obliged, having been denied even a single kill so far. Five tentacles raced towards me while the rest attacked Wabbit, and I didn’t bother to dodge them. Instead, I jumped at the tentacles, unleashing the gathered energy at the oncoming tendrils. They were torn apart, and I continued straight past them, landing on the kraken’s body.

I raced up its slimy surface as it began hitting itself with its own tentacles in an attempt to stop me. I reached its head and jumped off of it, boosting myself with energy and reaching the ceiling, grabbing on to a stalactite. The kraken roared as it looked up at me, gathering its tentacles into a shielding formation. I smirked. “Fat lot of good that’ll do you, beastie.”

I punched through the base of the frozen stalactite, and started pumping it full of dark energy, the icicle swiftly turning black. With a savage grin I threw my full weight onto the stalactite, and it snapped off. In seconds I was surging downward towards the kraken, which futilely tried to stop my descent. I crashed through tendril after tendril, and as the kraken screamed in rage and horror my stalactite went straight through its throat, killing it in moments.

I laughed, and laughed more, and after a fit of mad laughter I climbed up the throat, coming out by its eyes. I stuck my hand into the large eye and fished around, quickly finding a stone of some kind, which I tore out. I winked at Malk and Clary, gestured for Wabbit to follow, and hopped over to the door, fitting the stone into the slot and opening it. “Onward!”

I entered the dungeon proper and inspected the first room, which was very obviously trapped. The nature of the trap gave further credence to my ‘changing difficulty dungeon’ theory.

The room was a long hallway with the walls and ceiling covered in small holes that likely shot something out, such as darts or spikes. Possibly fire, but that would be harder to control with spells if you weren’t a Fire elemental. I briefly got distracted thinking how someone could set up a system using spells and artifice to control flame traps, then returned to the task at hand.

The floor was covered in plates that were not quite level with each other and the small section of floor in the antechamber before the hallway.

So, step on the plates and something probably shoots out of the walls and ceiling to murder whatever did the stepping. There’s probably an inexhaustible or near inexhaustible supply of whatever gets shot out to prevent someone from just throwing rocks. The plates are probably attuned to specific weights, so something as light as a pebble wouldn’t trigger it anyways.

Actually, if I was going to put a trap like this in one of my future death-fortresses, I’d make the first few plates able to be triggered by pebbles, and seemingly stopped, but they’d have    a second weight trigger that would activate when an elemental steps on it…

I’d designed quite a few traps for death-fortresses, so I knew a bit about them. Possibly too much, actually.

“So, how to get past this trap…well, how to get all of us past specifically.” I mused aloud.

“We could try-“

I cut off Malk with a quick, “Quiet, I’m thinking.”

Flight was a possible solution, but it would be hard to maintain with four people, as I was the only one who could fly. I could try making a raised platform across, to walk through without stepping on the plates. That was a great idea, but there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to hold it up long enough. Walking through the hall with a shield around us could work, depending on what came out of the holes.

Well, no matter what, the first course of action was to figure out what would be launched from the various receptacles. I went back outside, picked up a big rock about the size of Wabbit, walked back inside, and threw the rock onto a plate.

Nothing happened, as was to be expected if they attuned to the weight of an elemental. “Well, this could make it easy. Wabbit can just get to the end and look for a way to disarm the trap.”

“Are you even sure there is a trap?” inquired Malk.

“Of course there is. Those holes aren’t decorative, and neither are those plates.” I looked to Wabbit and gestured for him to step on a plate. He was hesitant, but hopped onto the nearest one.

Immediately, fire spewed from the walls and ceiling, and Wabbit darted back to the antechamber in a ball of darkness. His body shook, his ears falling down to the sides of his head, and he shakily spelled out, What. The. Fuck.

I picked him up and petted his head while I mused. “Hmm. Unexpected. The rock weighed about or even more than what you do, Wabbit. So it can’t be a pressure plate, it must be looking for something else. Malk, I need you to walk into the fiery inferno of death.”

He blinked at me and in a shocked tone asked, “WHAT?”

“Oh relax. If the things go off I can raise a shield around you for long enough to get you back over here. I’ve got a theory that the plates only go off in reaction to caster energy. Wabbit, Clary, and I have that energy, but you don’t.”

“Can’t you just use your ‘senses’ or whatever, like you did with the door?”

“Yep!” I smiled at him cheerfully, and then shoved him forward into the hallway.

He yelped in surprise, and clumsily stumbled forward onto the plates. There was no spew of fire, but he scrambled back to the door, clutching it and breathing heavily. “Seriously!?”

“Oh don’t be such a coward. You’re fine.” I opened up my senses once more, and investigated the plates. Each one had a spell that looked for caster energy, as well as a protective ward around each spell.    I knelt by the plates and attempted to attack the spells in a similar manner to the way I’d nullified the door, but the ward was very resilient, and after a minute of trying I gave up.

That’s very strange, and very bad.

“Okay, so the plates are looking for caster energy. So the question becomes… what do we do to not die?”

“You could fly us over, or raise a shield-“

I cut Clary off, and said, “I’ve already considered those possibilities. Flying over could trigger the plates, and I’d need to design the shield to block heat, which would be tricky and energy-consuming. What I’m hoping is that there’s some lever or device at the other end of the hallway that can deactivate the traps. That would be easiest. Malk, start walking.”

He sighed, and carefully stepped forward onto the first plate. He walked slowly at first, as if he expected to be roasted alive at any second. Granted, that actually could happen if I was somehow wrong about the spells, but it was still cowardly of him.

When he failed to die horribly in a fire, he gained a bit of confidence and strode forward at a brisk pace. Within minutes he reached the end of the hallway and called back, “I’m past the plates, there’s a hall leading off to the side. What am I looking for?”

“Lever, button, anything weird.”

I heard him walk off, and a little bit later he returned. “There’s a crystal in a side room, glowing with energy. Do you think that’s powering the spell?”

“Probably. Break it and find out.”

I watched the tiles carefully, and a few moments later their energy began fading. “Right, looks like Malk succeeded. Come on; let’s get on with this dungeon-crawling.”

I strode forward across the dormant tiles, and came to a corner. The hallway stretched off to the left, and I saw two doors closed and one door open, all three facing further into the mountain. Wabbit and Clary followed me, and we reunited with Malk, who was leaning against the plain wall, his sword lying on the ground amid the shards of a large red crystal. There was a pedestal with ornate carvings, next to the shards.

“Nice destruction, Malk. It worked to deactivate the pressure plates. Also, is there a reason you’ve left your sword on the ground.”

He pointed to it. “I’d rather not touch that until I know what’s going on.”

I took a closer look at the sword, and saw that it was crackling with energy, which seemed to be draining from the crystal. Already the shards were a paler shade of red than when I’d entered the room. Interesting. I crouched down by the sword and squinted my eyes. With a bit of focus, I made out some faint runes on the ground. I followed them one direction to reach the pedestal, and the other direction led out of the room.

“Harmless. Probably.” I picked up the sword, and the energy sloughed off of it, the runes on the ground briefly lighting up. I handed the sword to Malk. “Your sword interrupted the circuit. Seems the crystal was getting its power from somewhere else in this dungeon.”

He took the blade and sheathed it before he said, “So why didn’t say, stepping on the runes ‘interrupt the circuit’?”

“Because they’re better crafted than that. Your sword wouldn’t have normally done that, but I’m guessing the excess energy from the destruction of the crystal made it easier for that energy to escape the runes. Come on; let’s check out the other doors.”

We moved to the second door and opened it, revealing an anvil with a spiky metal sword embedded in it. The sword seemed to be marred with fiery cracks that spread to the top of the anvil. Sensing no traps, I quickly strode forth and grabbed the sword to tear it out. “It’s a bit ‘Sword in the Stone’, isn’t it?” I said as I encountered difficulty.

“Oh I wouldn’t make such a direct comparison to fiction, dear Kia,” spoke an echoing, arrogant voice. The world flickered around me as everything got cold and dark. I spun around, one hand still on the hilt, and saw a tall man in broken armor, his face hidden behind a twisted, spiked helm. His eyes glowed a sickly white color through the helm, and flared in time with his speech.

I snarled and shot a spike of darkness at him, but the moment I moved everything seemed to flicker again and suddenly he was standing right in front of me, his hand around my wrist, twisting it to the side. “You can’t fight what doesn’t exist. I look forward to seeing you challenge my more corporeal compatriots though.” He laughed coldly.

“If you don’t exist, then you have no power over me, apparition.” I tore my arm out of his grip, passing through his hand, which blurred briefly before everything flickered and he appeared on the other side of the room, walking around my friends.

“Clever. Though the term apparition wounds me, Shadow. That is your name, right? The spell that brought me to life was not as well designed as you would have made, I’m afraid.” He laughed again.

“Jovial, aren’t you? My name is in fact Shadow, so I’ve no clue why you called me ‘Kia’. Now, I take it you’re bound to this sword?”

“Hmm, that thing? It’s so boring… especially when compared to your little pets here.” As he walked past Malk, Clary, and Wabbit, he casually brushed his gauntleted hand across their cheeks. “So interesting, they are…”

“That’s why they’re my friends, after all.”

He laughed. “Friends, of course… Wabbit, the savage beast tamed to your will and your soul… Malk, the soldier who rejected that life for art and morality, only to be entrapped by your wiles… they are very interesting friends.”

“You’re forgetting Clary.”

“Ah yes, the boring, unimportant one. We can ignore her. To answer your question, the spell is bound to the sword… and won’t last long.” As he said that, the world flickered again, and my friends moved slightly.

“Time dilation? You can manipulate time? Wait, no, you said you don’t exist. And since I’m touching the sword you’re bound to, it must be… a mental thing? You’re in my mind?”

“Perceptive. And now our time is up.” The world flickered again, and then he was gone.

“What was the point then!?” I exclaimed in irritation.

Malk, Clary, and Wabbit blinked in confusion at me. “You were just looking at the sword… why’d you move so fast like that? And what’s the point of what?” asked Malk.

“Long story short, there was a spell on the sword, a stupid apparition got into my head and started talking to me. And I have no idea what the point of that spell was, because it didn’t exactly damage me, or stop me, or do anything besides annoying me.”

“Maybe it was scouting you?” postulated Clary.

“Meh. Possibly. Whatever the reason, I’m having none of this blade.” I turned back to the sword and sent a pulse of darkness, shattering it into pieces. I took a deep breath, and walked out of the room.

I turned to the final door and placed my hand on it. Forcing myself to grin, I said, “Let’s make an entrance this time.

All wounds fully healed, we continued our walk through the forest. Once more I led the way with Wabbit at my side, while Clary and Malk walked together behind me. Conversation had returned a while after we’d left the wolf pack, but it was far less interesting than before, so I tuned most of it out.

After what I judged to be about an hour, Wabbit’s ears pricked up, and I felt something in the air, a faint sense of power. We had to be nearing the dungeon.

I grinned and sped up, the others following a second behind. In moments I broke out from the forest into an open area, and now that there was no canopy of leaves to block the sky I could see a vast mountain. The mountain was quite sheer at its base, forming a flat wall that cut the clearing into a semi-circle.

Built into that wall was a very big door.

The door was ornate, with runes and symbols scattered about the surface in a way that seemed random. Chaotic, but there had to be some sort of pattern to it… especially since there was no clear method of opening the door otherwise. I reached out with my senses, and felt a faint magical current running through the various runes, and permeating the door as a whole.

Malk stepped forward and said, “This must be the dungeon.”

“Yes, but how do we open the door?” asked Clary.

Malk smirked and took another step toward the door. He said, “We could try this,” and with a sudden movement he lifted his foot and kicked the door.

He then gasped, “Oh wow that hurts,” and hopped away whimpering. He made his way over to a tree and leaned against it, still whimpering.

“It’s never that simple, Malk.” I said.

“He’s such an endearing idiot. Alright, let me try.” Clary walked over to the door, inspecting it from different angles. She hesitated, then knocked on it twice.

Malk laughed through gritted teeth, and said, “Brilliant idea. Really. Knocking.”

In a wounded tone, Clary replied, “Hey, it couldn’t hurt to try!”

“Unlike your wonderful idea to kick it, Malk. Really, so much more ‘brilliant’ than knocking.” I shot at him. He grimaced, and Clary began taking items out of her pack, laying them around the door. She made a circle of salt and began chanting, drawing little bits and pieces of darkness around her in what was some kind of spell.

“So what’s this?” I asked.

She broke her incantation for a moment to answer, “I’m performing a ritual of opening, designed to address the door and tell it open for us. It should work, I’ve tested it on a bound door. Admittedly, I bound the door myself, but… well, let’s hope!”

She continued the chant for another minute before taking all the energy she had gathered and flinging it at the door with a distinct lack of grace. Using my sense, I watched two things happen.

In the physical world, that which Clary and the others observed, the darkness seemed to flood over the door and dissipate quickly, expended. The door seemed unaffected, as if the spell had just failed in some way, some fault of Clary’s.

But in the realm of magic and energy, I saw the darkness flow towards the door and stop, as if it hit a wall. The current of magic I’d seen was forming a barrier that stopped anything from reaching the door. Without a way to reach the door, the spell just faded.

Clary sighed. “Alright, I’m spent. Wabbit, any ideas?”

Just a more competent version of Malk’s plan.

Wabbit jumped and blinked out of existence, reappearing mid-air in front of the door. His claws had grown long and dangerous, covered and fused with darkness. He slashed wildly, a storm of cuts and gouges, then hit the door, bouncing off it. He created a platform to bounce off of, flying towards a different part of the door and repeating the slashing.

He soared across the door, cutting and slashing at different parts, before finally returning to the center of the door and slamming it with all his might. As he touched the door, a wave of darkness exploded outward and he was sent flying, landing back by Malk and Clary.

The door was completely unharmed, as I’d expected.

Irritably, Malk said, “Well there has to be some way in. Clary, you told me the traps seemed easy, the items rewarding. All I see is an impenetrable door!”

“I don’t understand it either, there was no mention of impassable barriers, the writer mentioned that he was able to just shield himself and walk through most of the dungeon, observing various items behind traps, some obvious and some not obvious. He said there was a big door, but that it just opened at his touch.” Her tone was defensive.

Then how do you explain this? Did you lead us to the wrong dungeon, accused Wabbit, or did you just completely fail at your research?

My mouth tilted into a smirk. “You three really need to start paying attention. Put the pieces together, think it through, do something other than approach the problem so… linearly.”

They looked at me in confusion, and I sighed before continuing. “Clary, did your research mention werewolves? Wolf packs? Having to fight off a deadly threat before even reaching the door?”

“Well, no, but…” her face lit up with understanding, and she said, “…the werewolves!”

Malk raised his hand. “Uh, hi, I’m still confused.”

“The werewolf I broke said that he and his kin would only attack those who were deemed likely to surmount the dungeon and retrieve the items. They were a layer of security only employed when needed. This door, and likely the rest of the dungeon, operates on the same principle. If the entrant is incapable of overcoming the dungeon, it relaxes its defenses, probably to save energy. We are competent, so the door is activated as a layer of defense to try and stop us,” I explained.

Malk frowned and said, “Okay, so that’s why the door is impassable, but that doesn’t fix the problem of the door being, well, impassable.”

“Oh, I know how to open the door. I just wanted to see if any of you would get creative, or have a flash of intellect,” I said as I strolled forth to the door.

I placed my hand on it, and darkness flowed from me across the door, and at each of the carvings they dug into the wood. As the darkness flowed into the areas I’d selected, cracks appeared on the door, and after a moment they flared up in a flash of purple light and vanished. I nudged the door with my foot, and it creaked open.

The others looked at the door, then me, then back to the door, then back to me, and stared. “How?” asked Clary.

And how do I learn how to do that, asked Wabbit.

“It was fairly easy. You three attacked the door. I attacked the spell.”

“There was a spell on it?” inquired Malk.

“Yes. Sort of. In a weird way. Basically, the door was completely ordinary, but there was some kind of magical matrix woven into the runes. They formed this current of energy that sort of functioned as a shield and sealing spell, keeping the door closed. You all tried to target the door, and the shield functioned properly. I targeted the shield, and it buckled. Make sense?”

They nodded, so I opened the door the rest of the way, and walked inside.

Somebody coughed, and I felt the vague desire to murder them for disturbing my rest. “You’ve got… like… some number of seconds or minutes to… do the explain-y thing.”

“Shadow, we got the information!” shouted a voice far too cheery and upbeat. That would be Clary then. Malk probably coughed.

“Stop… talky… sleep good.”

Somebody poked me, and I opened my eyes, glaring at the perpetrator. “Explain yourself, Clary.”

“Come on Shadow! Wakey wakey, we’ve got stuff to do! I found a dungeon, and Malk found some monsters!”

I sleepily muttered, “Stop being so cheery.”

“Physically impossible, Shadow. Now come on, there’s work to do!”

I groaned and finally got up, Wabbit hopping off me and onto the floor. I took a deep breath to gather my wits, and blinked my eyes a few times to clear my head. Ready, I jumped to my feet, grabbed my gear, and exclaimed, “Onward we go!”

“Uh, are you really going to go out dressed like that?” Malk gestured to the bloodstains all over my outfit. I scowled, but shrugged and snapped my fingers. The darkness enveloped me, cloaking me from view as it wrapped me in tendrils of shadow. The darkness melted into my clothes, and when it receded I was wearing a completely different outfit.

That is of course how I change my clothes. Malk and Clary and normal people do this boring thing involving wardrobes and changing and dressing, all scattered and needing to be placed properly. It was all quite boring so I just did it this way. I gestured, and we walked out together, me in front with Wabbit at my side.

Once we were into the forest I took out my mirror from my pocket, and moved it in front of my face. Clary and Malk were used to me being vain, so they took no notice. Of course, I wasn’t interested in vanity at that moment. More interested in watching them, actually.

My new outfit was boots, a tank top, gloves, and tight jeans, all in grey with flashes of purple. I wanted to see their reactions.

Clary was dressed as normal, with a skirt past her knees and a t-shirt with the logo of one of the shows she loved, along with some hiking boots. All in blue and pink of course, and she had a dagger at her belt. She was talking to Malk, but kept glancing back at me, trying to avoid staring.

Malk was in pants and a shirt, in red and white. He had his sword at his belt, and wore a backpack probably containing supplies. He too, was staring.

I smiled to myself, and put away the mirror. I continued walking along, and checked my own gear. My sword, a simple thing with glowing purple runes, rested in my belt, but I took it out for a moment to admire it, swinging it around gracefully. Or haphazardly, depending on your definition. “Right, where are we going, Clary?”

“It’s a dungeon that should have good loot, but has never been plundered, and is nearby! Let me just grab a map…” she opened up Malk’s backpack and began digging through it, eventually taking out a map that she fumbled open. She turned it around a few times before settling on a way to hold it and said, “That way! I think.”

I shrugged, and we walked on.

I sort of tuned everything out, bored, until some idle chat broke my lack of concentration.

They were chatting, as they always were, and Wabbit had managed to get Clary riled up.

I just don’t see how it can compare to actually doing those things in real life, he sneered in writing.

“Because in Broken Storm, everything is so much more interesting! Vanessa is such a complex character, and way more confident than I am. She has all these guys and girls that want her, and there’s all this drama, and she goes on these wild adventures, and it’s just so much better than real life!” she gushed.

Malk said, “You do realize you’re going on an adventure right now, don’t you?”

“It’s different! Broken Storm is a story, so we know that Vanessa will get out all right, so it’s more enjoyable. Pretty soon I’m sure I will be too scared for my life to enjoy the adventure. And you’re one to talk, always watching those art shows.”

“Hey, those shows are very intellectual, and I learn new techniques for painting! What do you learn from watching your shows, hmm?”

“Plenty! On Professor What, they have all sorts of science involved in the episodes! And, and Broken Whispers has stuff about, like, life and people!”

You’re both pathetic, watching those shows all the time. Shadow goes out and actually does those things, every day, wrote Wabbit on the path ahead.

“Now, now, they aren’t completely useless! Granted, Clary couldn’t fight to save her life, and Malk has the brains of a slug at times, but at least they have some useful qualities, with Clary’s knowledge and illusions, and Malk’s fighting and artistry. That’s more than can be said of the commoners,” I said in defense of my minions.

Yes, but that’s because they’re commoners, wrote Wabbit.

I laughed at that. Stupid commoners.

“Hey, that’s not fair to commoners. I mean, they can… well, they… okay, it is pretty funny,” said Clary, and soon she was giggling along. Malk was too quiet and boring to laugh, so he just gave a little smile.

Once we had all stopped laughing, I asked, “So, what have you lot been up to while I was away? Clary?”

“I got promoted. I’m now the head librarian for the magic wing, and the history wing. Mostly, it means I get to delegate tasks to lackeys. Oh, and I watched the season finale for Game of Whispers. It was good, though I admit I liked the book version better.”

“Always is. Malk, what did you get up to?”

“I sold a few paintings, but business has been slow and I didn’t get much money. Once I get more, I’ll spend it on new art supplies, I’ve been dying to try out something besides painting, keep the creativity fresh. And I found a new monster manual.”

“Nice. Wabbit, what were you-“ I stopped mid-sentence, having detected something faint. I looked to Wabbit, and he wrote, I heard it too. Something’s out there.

I looked around with keen eyes, searching for anything that seemed off. My gaze swept past tall trees with grey bark and brown leaves, past thick bushes, trying to find anything out of place. Then, I saw a glint of light, the kind that signifies a knife or an eye. Considering the stealth of our stalker, I assumed it to be a beast, and they rarely carry knives.

The instant I made eye contact, the beast emerged… alongside fourteen others.

Dark wolves, and werewolves, two of the deadliest creatures in the forest, especially when working together.

“Monster-boy, give me details.” I requested casually.

“Dark wolves are both vicious and intelligent, capable of using darkness to augment their speed and power, letting them dart forward in deadly bursts. They hunt in packs, and try to separate their targets, to more easily take them down. At minimum, takes six slayers and three casters to take down a single pack.”

He’s where I get most of my monster knowledge.

He continued, “Werewolves are deadly, intelligent, and have magical powers on par with weak casters. They can augment their speed, and summon weapons of darkness similar to those used by elementals. A common but incorrect assumption is that werewolves were once elementals. Werewolves merely share a similar skeletal structure. At minimum, a pack of werewolves takes six slayers and four casters.”

By most of my monster knowledge I mean all of my monster knowledge.

I grinned. “Easy pickings.”

The tallest of the werewolves, likely the alpha, snarled at me, and rushed forward with two werewolves and two wolves, while the other ten split off to either side, to attack my friends and bunny.

As the group came at me, I flipped into the air, landing on the other side of them and flinging a fan of shadowy knives at the wolves and werewolves. The alpha avoided those near it, but the others took several hits, enraging them. One of the wolves darted forward using the magic trick Malk described, and I dodged to the side, sending a smaller fan at it as it landed. It howled with anger and pain, distracting me long enough for one of the werewolves to slash at my arm, leaving a line of inky energy.

I didn’t take the time to punish it, instead flipping backwards a few feet, guessing that another creature would try and attack me while I was distracted, like the werewolf did.

I was right, as the other wolf darted forward, darkness around it. In response, I enhanced my own speed, drew my sword, and held it out in front of me like a spear. The wolf hit the sword face-first, and the blade sank into its gullet, killing it. I slid the creature off the blade and flipped to the right as quickly as possible, to avoid falling victim to another attack.

I almost made it, but the alpha was faster, and barreled into me, a blade in one hand, magically enhanced claws in the other. We dueled, and I saw its three helpers rallying to attack me again.

Past the group I was fighting, I saw my friends battling for their lives. Malk dodged a werewolf’s claw before rolling forward to quickly stab a wolf in the side three times, critically wounding it. He dodged another attack, took a hit from a werewolf, and finished off the wolf he’d wounded.

Clary was fighting two wolves, and using illusions to disorient them. She’d subtly shift her appearance in their view enough that they hit each other, trees, or just missed. She saw an opening, and darted forward to cut the throat of one of the wolves with her dagger, while sending a small dart of darkness at the other’s leg.

Wabbit simply darted from shadow to shadow, letting loose with lashes of darkness or slashes of his augmented claws.

Back to my predicament, I had only a few seconds before I would fight all four of the creatures after my head. So, I came up with a plan.

As the alpha attacked again, I cast an illusion at the speed of thought, and quickly backed away, leaving it to fight a falsity. It wouldn’t take long for it to figure out the truth, but I only needed a moment.

As the wolf darted at my illusory form, I flew into the air and landed behind the alpha. It turned to face me, confused, and I cut off its head with magically enhanced speed. It had no chance to defend itself, and fell to the ground dead.

Then the two remaining attacked at once, the wolf on one side, the werewolf on the other. I twirled, my blade catching the wolf, knocking it aside and leaving a gash in its jaw. My hand came to rest on the werewolf’s chest. I grinned at it, and send a massive spike of dark energy surging out of my hand, tearing open its chest and obliterating its heart.

I laughed at the carnage, and stretched, filled with exhilaration and adrenaline. I sent a spike of darkness at the remaining wolf’s throat, killing it, and walked over to where my minions were fighting.

Of the ten that had attacked my friends/minions, only three remained, one werewolf and two wolves. I sent out tendrils of darkness to incapacitate the werewolf, while the others finished off the wolves.

I called out to the group, “Good to get those endorphins flowing, eh? I love a good fight.”

Malk replied, “I’m just glad it’s over,” and Clary nodded, but both had faces flush with excitement, so they probably enjoyed it and were just trying to disguise that.

I walked over to the werewolf, and brought it over to a tree, which I leaned against. I told it, “Talk. Uh, they can talk, right Malk?”

“Yes, most werewolves can speak.”

“Good, good. Anyways, wolf-boy, I want to know why your pack attacked us. It’s possible you were just attacking at random, but there are far better targets in these woods than three armed elementals and a rabbit that oozes power. Seriously, you wolves and werewolves are supposed to be smart enough to know whether an elemental is a weakling without power, or a Champion-level fighter and caster like me.”

The werewolf snarled, “Never! I still have honor!”

I grinned. It was always more fun when they resisted.

I grabbed his chin, stared into his eyes (which briefly flickered golden-brown, as all eyes flickered when I did this), and delved into his mind.

I told you I was a bit different from other elementals.

I found myself in a forest, one much like the one on Nyx, except there was a red circle in the sky with what looked like craters marring the surface. Strange. I looked around, and saw eyes glinting in the bushes, likely wolves like those in his pack. I walked forward along the path I was on and soon found myself at a crossroads.

There were three other paths to take, each with a sign. Checking the sky, I saw that I had come from the south. To the west, the sign was labeled Personality. To the east, Memory. To the north, Secrets.

I went west.

Oh, sure, what I needed to know why the pack had attacked. But how I wanted that to happen was a different matter entirely. It’s never enough to find information.

No, far better to have the victim give it to you.

I walked down the path, and found the walls of this path filled with swirling images, faint sounds, and more of those eyes. Soon, I found myself in a glade, a glade with four things.

In the center of the glade, a tree carved into the image of the pack’s alpha, who I had so recently decapitated.

To the north of the carving; a snarling, savage werewolf, pacing constantly, its eyes darting between the other three things in the glade.

To the southwest, a gleaming werewolf, standing tall, its arms at its sides.

To the southeast, a werewolf kneeling beside a wolf, the two leaning on each other.

Symbolism, obviously, all of it. The carving represented the creature’s subservience to its leader. The snarling werewolf represented its bestial fury and independence. The gleaming werewolf was its honor, and the union represented unity between the two groups.

These things would need to change.

First, I walked to the savage creature that represented independence, and I grabbed its throat, lifting it into the air. It snarled and kicked, but I had more power than it, and I threw it to the ground, weakening it. As it attempted to recover, I snapped my fingers, and chains of darkness sprung up, imprisoning the werewolf, shackling it.

Next, I walked over to the union, and sent spears of darkness into each creature, wounding them gravely. As they struggled to get up and attack, I sent out more tendrils, tearing them apart. I threw the pieces over to the snarling werewolf, for it to devour.

Then, I walked over to the gleaming one, and threw it to the ground, kicking it over and over again. When I had beaten it and broken it, I let it lie there, still alive but just barely.

Finally I came to the carving. I pressed my hand to the base of the carving, and darkness flowed up it, warping the wood and darkening it, changing it. When it had finished, the wooden carving was there no longer.

Instead, there was a black stone statue of me, tendrils of shadow caressing me and flowing from me.

I smiled, and flew from the glade, back to the crossroads. There, I saw that the path labeled Secrets was now gone. Laughing, I walked back along the south road, toward the exit. I took a deep breath, tasting briefly of the werewolf’s faint energy, and then left.

Emerging from the mind of the werewolf, I found it screaming, and I released its bonds, watching as it knelt before me, the screams subsiding.

“I ask again, whelp. Why did you and your kin attack me?”

The werewolf sniveled, and cried out, “Oh glorious Goddess, a thousand apologies for my actions and those of my once-brethren. We were here to defend the dungeon from any that possessed the power and skill to acquire the items within, while leaving alone those that are not capable of retrieving them. You, oh Goddess, were considered by yourself able to retrieve the items, and so we tried our best to stop you, in our foolishness. Mercy, oh Goddess, mercy!”

I smirked at the creature, and said, “Mercy? Mercy for the beast that defied a goddess? Very well. You shall have a merciful death, and thus not suffer the fury I would visit upon your living form.”

“Oh thank you Goddess, a thousand pardons and thanks, I-“

Its supplications cut off as I slit its throat, and gestured for Wabbit to enjoy. He did so, eating the werewolf’s arm. Luckily, he had a physiology similar to that of an elemental, as a result of me raising him, and infusing him with darkness from a young age.

I ate a bit of wolf to get some healing energy, and offered some for Malk and Clary. They refused, as ever mystified by my tendency to eat meat raw. I shrugged, healed my wounds, and we walked on.