The sun had set, but its glow still lit up the sky, sending dim rays throughout the quiet forest.
Shadows danced around the figure of a man darting through it as if riding the wind. No monsters, animals, or even plants obstructed his way as everything before him seemed to bend out of his way by his will.
"One day is all I ask for but no... Urgent report... If it's not..." the Celestial muttered to himself. "You'd think my subordinates of all people could understa-"
"There you are!" a chipper voice boomed out, startling the man on his flight as he fanned out his wings to slow to a stop. "I almost thought I wouldn't find you in time. Enjoying your evening stroll through the layers, Carien?"
"Tresil," Carien exhaled, relieved. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't sneak up on me like that," he stated, relief giving way to annoyance as he glanced up to his right into a tree where the old man sat.
"Funny, people always ask that of me. No one appreciates a good surprise anymore, do they?" the older man asked rhetorically.
Carien shook his head as he continued on his way at a slow march.
"How did you know I'd pass by here?"
"Mind if I join you?" Lemshire asked, ignoring his question.
Carien stared at him for a moment before shrugging off the blatant disregard. If he didn't want to tell, he wouldn't. It was too much of a hassle to even try and get a response out of someone like him.
"I don't. In fact, I was going to try and speak with you eventually anyway, so now is as good a time as any," Carien responded, motioning before him with his arm for the older man to join him on his walk.
"I refuse," the older man replied.
Carien paused and looked back into the trees, disappointed.
"You refuse to join me now? You asked-"
"I don't want to help with your war effort," Lemshire interrupted as he fell in line beside him. "We stay neutral for all wars between the races for a good reason, Carien. I won't break that for your dreams of peace, as nice as they may be."
"Tresil-"
"Nope," Lemshire stated with finality.
Carien hung his head a bit and smiled to himself. It would have been too easy had Lemshire agreed. King to the strongest defensively, arguably offensively as well, country on the continent... Even the Emperor would have to think twice about how he decided to act after the announcement was made.
He'd tried more than once to rope Lemshire into his cause, but they all ended this same way. Only a couple times had he actually gotten the chance to tell Lemshire what he wanted, and that was only because Lemshire himself wanted something from him.
Listening was the favor.
'Too bad.'
"Well then, unfortunately, I'll have to ask you to leave me be for the rest of this walk, Tresil," Carien replied.
"Oh, don't be upset; you had to know I'd refuse."
He nodded back in agreeance.
"Regardless, I am to meet with someone in private and would prefer if-"
"Yes, yes. The Shade on the edge of our forest. I can sense him now. You don't mind if I tag along until you get there, do you? I rarely see such an old friend and they're doing nothing but fighting back at the party. Can't we just talk?"
Carien glanced over from where he was flying.
"A fight broke out?"
"Figuratively speaking of course," the King shrugged.
"Right... Well, I don't mind catching up with you if you agree to leave once we get close," Carien assented, causing a grin to float across Lemshire's face.
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"That beast really seems to like you."
Damien glanced to his right and nodded his head in Oryen's direction.
"She better. I've raised her for her long life of a year after all."
"Twelve months," Kastra corrected from Alexa's right shoulder.
"Twelve months," Damien mimicked, nodding his head with a blank face. "And her name is Emra, not 'that beast.' She likes vegetables as treats and being pet behind the ear."
Oryen smiled while looking down at Damien's helper.
"Emra, then," Oryen corrected himself. "I'm surprised it has only been twelve months that you've had her though. I'd have assumed longer from her size."
"She grows fast because of how much I love her and feed her," Damien asserted, leaning a little harder on his wolf-sized Sylphen to give her a hug.
They had retrieved her and Piper from Gallion's and were making their way back to the house currently.
Alexa had become quiet ever since ensuring Damien could walk, albeit unsteadily, on his own and had been walking on his left since. She seemed distracted, staring forward while Damien felt sadness and frustration overwhelming her.
The weakness hadn't left him since he'd healed Alexa too quickly after expending so much mana to keep Petrina from killing him. His veins were upset with him and though he was healed, his body was lethargic.
The moment Emra and Piper had seen the family, the two had gone right to Damien's side. Piper acted the same as he usually did, climbing up, down, side to side, and just generally all over Damien and his two lovers, yet Emra had uncharacteristically stayed at his right side, close, unyielding. When they'd begun walking back home he'd tripped once because of her proximity and landed on her back. He'd got up quickly, assuming he'd hurt his baby, yet the animal just stopped and waited for him to regain his balance before moving again. Trying to push her away to gain walking room only resulted in her getting closer as well and eventually he gave in and took her offer to be a cane of sorts.
Having Alexa and Kastra walk him everywhere had gotten old really fast anyway and though he could talk his way out of that, there was no reasoning with Emra, made clear by her ignoring of his pleas and pushes. Giving in to her generosity had truly become the only option. No amount of 'walking it off' was helping and in fact, the more he struggled the worse off he was getting. All of that and the fact that the Sylphen could probably eat him alive at this point contributed to him accepting her assistance.
'I just want to take a nap,' he complained internally, keeping a content and comfortable smile on his exterior to put at ease those around him.
"People always assume they grow based on how strong the owner is or how pure their mana is, but all the research I've ever read from the Elves suggests it is based on the mastery of the element their owner has," Oryen said. "It wouldn't be far fetched to say that based on your prowess as a Mage and your Sylphen growing so exponentially, that you'd be quite-"
"Stop interrogating him about his damn powers," Alexa snapped, interrupting her father.
Oryen stopped leaning over towards Damien and straightened up as Damien clenched his mouth and tightened his eyebrows, staring straight forward as he continued to lean on his Sylphen.
"I only bring it up so that perhaps you can inform others that you've maybe had Emra here for about two years, not less than one," Oryen said in a quiet tone while petting the Emra behind the ears.
"Her back is only at my waist," Damien replied as he looked down, Emra looking back up at him with a look of bliss on her face from all the attention.
Her eye's had turned dark grey, similar to his. Her snout had elongated and her head as a whole reminded him of a fox. Her teeth were jagged like that of a predator, and her paws indicated that she had a lot of growing to do, one inch long claws occasionally being visible from beneath her long white fur.
"They shouldn't be this large until they've been with their owner for over two years at the very minimum, and that was the quickest ever recorded case in the Elven culture. They have quite a few Sylphen's, an entire division of their military force dedicated to raising them, in fact, and yet yours here has been with you twelve months..." Oryen trailed off.
Damien felt another sigh coming on.
"In fact, I'd say it might just be one of the reasons they allowed you to keep her. I assume you wouldn't tell them anything, and they tried a few different methods to find out. This must have been one of them. Give a young man who couldn't possibly know the fine details of a Sylphen's growth..." Oryen stated, trailing off again.
Damien let out the sigh as he continued to lean his forearm on Emra's back for support.
''Hi, my name is Damien and I think I can fool people over thirty times my age...' Up to my waist... who am I trying to kid. Where is she going to fit in our home?'
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"Report," Carien demanded, feeling the presence of his Shade nearby.
"You are alone, yes?" it asked in response.
Carien rolled his eyes and spoke in a threatening manner in response.
"Whether I'm alone or not is none of your concern. Now report what I-"
"The information could be misleading if the wrong person were to hear," the Shade interrupted quietly, irritating Carien further. "The Dwarves were not at the forefront of the attack on the Elves. We found who was, but..." it said, trailing off as if waiting for Carien to confirm he was the sole presence in the area.
"Yes, I am alone. Continue with the report, now," he commanded.
The Shade nodded.
"Three hundred Elves had been murdered alongside fifty Dwarves. It was assumed a Dwarven attack, but we uncovered evidence the Humans were behind it," the Shade responded in a compulsory and straightforward manner.
Just as Carien preferred. The creatures misled and lied about certain things when one let them have too much free say. Their master was intelligent, but commanding them always ensured a report free from tampering.
"Then, the Emperor found out. He would try to create infighting with them," Carien stated with disappointment in his voice.
"Additionally, the Nivari struck at the portal in Hathen. The city is cut off from the world. If the Hellials and they are working together, now is-"
"They attacked the receiver in Hathen?" he interrupted. "Did it work?"
"They saturated one of their stronger Mages with two other's mana. It fed off everything in a three hundred-foot radius around the sacrificed Nivari, including the receiver and more than a few innocents, before destroying it all," the Shade replied.
"Gods," he muttered, holding his head. "It'll take weeks to get anyone... We never assumed they'd have numbers to attack a major city like that. Only Hathen?" he asked.
"Yes," the Shade responded. "I have the report and casualty list here for the incident," it continued, pulling a few parchments out from its coat but making no effort to step toward him.
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"Well, bring them over," Carien demanded.
"No," it responded with a bit of mirth in its usual icy tone.
The Celestial furrowed his brows.
"And why not?" he questioned testily.
"The barrier to the forest. The incident a few months back... Lemshire has not given Shades permission yet to again have access to this country. I would be detected and killed. Getting any closer than this is already an affront," it responded, motioning to the ten feet away it stood from the exit of the barrier.
Carien nodded. That was true. In fact, that situation had to do with Damien as well. Some foolish Celestial ordering his father's Shade to kill the boy. Disgraceful.
"Very well," he replied, stepping forward towards the Shade.
He'd have to exit and re-enter, claiming it was a mistake on his part when Lemshire asked about it. The country extended beyond this forest for a while, but all inhabitants lived behind the forest. It was their first line of defense and therefore, the first sign that someone had entered.
Or left.
Carien took several steps forward and reached the edge, getting a bad premonition should he cross the threshold. He attributed it to the barriers unique characteristics and ignored the feeling, lifting his leg for another step.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Lemshire called out, causing Carien's foot to come crashing back down in place as he spun around.
"What did we just, just talk about?" the Celestial asked as Lemshire smiled down from the tree he was sitting up in.
"I'm just trying to help," the older man said, shrugging. "They'll kill you if you leave."
"You said you were alone," the Shade hissed out.
Carien turned back around to look at his Shade.
"I should have been; I don't know how the hell he got through my... Watch your tone, servant," he growled out, finding himself explaining his actions to the creature.
"I do not serve you," the monster hissed back.
"You serve me as long-" he started, stopping when another Shade, and then another and another... ending up with over fifty more appeared out of the forest.
"Told you I was trying to help," Lemshire said from behind him.
Carien stared on, confused. He didn't understand what was happening, but he knew that attempting to fight that many Shades at once was tantamount to suicide. The creatures only died on the rare occasion that they didn't get the drop on their target. Sure, he was confident in taking out four or five given how fast they moved and his ability to sense them... but fifty at once...
"Cross the barrier, Carien Duflos. You have been judged as acting against the will of the Gods. You go against the peace. You will be executed," his Shade demanded.
"Judged as going against peace?" he asked with a tone of disbelief.
"Your version of peace is unsustainable. You promote that which can't be achieved," it responded. "You speed along destruction."
"What other peace is there?" Carien questioned, disgruntled as he took a step back. "I won't be-"
"You will comply. The will of the Gods is not yours to interpret. Come quietly," it demanded.
"Well, this is fu-"
"Shut the hell up and stay out of this, Lemshire," Carien growled out. "And you. You are acting against our contract by not listening to your temporary master. You are threatening to kill a contractor. The world will-"
"The world will hear nothing. Lemshire will not intervene. You will be executed; nothing will be leaked," it interrupted.
"Oh sure, and I shit a Grask today."
"I mean, I won't interfere," Lemshire stated, Carien turning around to look at the older man with surprise evident on his face.
He and the Dean had always been friends of sorts. That he would confirm he would look away entirely from this...
"We have a deal, the Shades and I. I have to stick to my word," Lemshire said with a shrug.
Carien shook his head and refocused, looking back forward.
"Was any of that report even-"
"You will comply, or your family and others will be terminated," it interrupted.
Carien went silent.
"They can't actually-"
"Shut the hell up, Lemshire. I will not ask again," he demanded. "Will you leave my business to me?" he asked.
Lemshire nodded and lifted his hands in defense, shrugging.
Carien turned back to the Shades.
"If you so much as threaten-"
"It is a promise, Mr. Duflos. Your family, friends, and yourself will be hunted and disposed of the moment you leave this country. Could you ensure their survival? We will kill what we can until we get to you, starting with extended friends and family and moving to harder targets from there. Their lives will be ours, or yours will be. Our Master wills it," it spoke.
Carien's eyes went wide. He might not have the biggest family but... making connections. That was his specialty. If they really...
"Why?" Carien asked.
"Your peace. The war must continue less the stability be affected," it explained. "Come with us."
Suddenly, an orange glow came from the ground below Carien. Looking down, the words, 'I can protect you should you stay in my country,' were written in the dirt.
He went silent for a minute. His life, or that of his family and friends. It was a no-brainer, yet would it really end with just his life? The Shades were... everywhere. Masters of stealth, deadly to even the strongest of Combatants... Even if he got away here, would it guarantee he wouldn't be killed later? In a different location after his friends... Sriel... his daughter...
"They would have no life in this country," the Celestial eventually said, looking down at the words that were still burning in the ground. "My daughter loves a man that lives across the continent. She has always loved travel. As has Sriel. My connections... you couldn't house them all before they got to them," he stated, turning to look up at Lemshire.
The King nodded at him and stood up on his branch, turning away slowly.
"If it is what you have decided, to end your life selfishly before even saying goodbye to your loved ones, then I will not bear witness," Lemshire stated.
"Thank you," Carien said, turning back to the Shades. "I have your word; none will be harmed if I comply?"
"Our word with King Tresil Lemshire as the witness," the Shade responded. "Our Master, the gods themselves, the balance... they do not want your life out of malice, only necessity. Give it freely, and none others will come to harm."
Carien stared hard to try and detect any hint of a lie from the creature but failed to do so now as well, same as always before. They never lied, only told the truth in misleading ways. He began to wonder just how many lives had ended similarly, the Shades deciding to break their contract and silencing the manner of death.
"They will not be killed; say it," he demanded.
"Your family and friends will not be killed, nor come to harm, by our hands or for any reason caused by our kind," the Shade responded.
Carien nodded, taking a few steps towards the edge of the barrier.
"Then I hope they will not miss me long," he muttered.
The first step was the hardest, the rest falling one after the other as if a cart just starting to roll. The knowledge that death was coming to him finally after three hundred and fifty-nine years of existence...
"I guess I won't see three-sixty," he chuckled, coming within a foot of the barrier as his steady gait continued.
The last foot past the slowest, his mind electing to slow time down as much as it could to reminisce on his memories. It had taken him hundreds of years to finally decide to have a daughter, and then her mother had been taken just shortly after. Cruel was fate; the man finally opening his heart only to lose what he held most dear yet gain another to hold. Now the twisted gods would take her father as well.
His mind fell on the smile and resoluteness in her actions and steps whenever he asked her to assist him in his work. Strong, indomitable...
'She will be just fine, my Gianna. Strong like her mother. Sriel will ensure she'll be ok.'
His foot reached the edge of the threshold as he took a deep breath and pushed it beyond, almost feeling the pressure of the barrier as it passed through-
"Wha- Ow! Gods dammit," Carien yelled out, his foot slamming into a solid wall of raw mana followed by his body and face.
"Oh dear, was that... I'm sorry," Lemshire said, appearing beside him in an instant as the barrier flared up blue for a moment.
"You promised you would not interfere," Carien stated, taking a step away from the barrier.
"I said I wouldn't bear witness to you being killed, and I won't," the man shrugged in response.
"It is not your choice whether I live or die!" Carien yelled. "Stand aside! The other lives are more valu-"
"Silence him please, Layla," Lemshire asked.
Immediately, a large burly hand covered Carien's mouth. He struggled to free himself but couldn't so much as budge the massive arms wrapped around him. Any attempt to call upon his power was suppressed by the King's mana as he stalked forward to the barrier.
"I don't care if your friends all die. I don't care if the Celestials all die, if the war continues or ends... I just care about why they want YOU dead so bad," Lemshire explained.
"We have a treaty; you will not-"
"Don't worry; no one will learn of this event," Lemshire stated to the Shade. "Carien Duflos has been killed in the eyes of the public and as promised, I will not reveal your Master's wishes or interfere in your war. But he belongs to me," Lemshire said as Carien watched on, still struggling and still failing miserably.
"You dare-"
"Mr. Terrel, we have uninvited guests on my territory," Lemshire interrupted.
"It seems we do," a voice stated, Ezra Terrel walking past Carien's right side and into view of the immobile Celestial.
"Even you dare not challenge us directly," the Shade hissed in response to Lemshire.
"You know, we always wondered how something could be so strong and yet... so weak. So subservient. Terrel here believed it had something to do with death magic and... whether or not it did; he created something. Something like you, but different," Lemshire explained.
The moment he stopped speaking, something dark shot by the man and outside the barrier. It dove toward the Shade which immediately caught it by the throat, revealing a skeletal form covered with taut skin. Yellow, glowing, crazed eyes, teeth that were the same nasty yellow color, and jagged claws long and clearly purposed for rending.
Carien watched on as the monster moved to rake at the Shade's arm almost instantly, the Shade itself ignoring the attack completely. Shadows weren't harmed by physical attacks, and thus, the creature was assumed not to be a threat.
Carien watched on with pity, changing to shock when the creature rent the Shade's arm clean off, dropped to the ground from where it was held, and gored a hole through the surprised Shade's stomach next.
Within a moment it was out the back of the Shade and looking for a new target, and within another moment, it was dead. Torn to shreds by the others while the main one stood still.
"Im...possible," it exclaimed, becoming much more corporeal as it fell to its knees, black blood pooling out of its stomach, glistening in the moonlight.
"Excellent, a successful test!" Lemshire exclaimed with a fervor in his voice. "Terrel, do the honors please."
"Gladly," the instructor responded, looking into the dark of the forest behind him and making a nudging motion forward with his head.
Shrieks and screams, piercing and inhuman, sounded out as countless disfigured forms shot beside them and out of the barrier, bowling into the line of rapidly retreating Shades.
Carien watched on aghast and unmoving, confused at just what he was seeing. Layla had let him go the moment the other creatures had shown up, yet he stayed still. Hundreds of years of Shades being something that were hardly ever targetted for death, now upended as he watched another five die as each second went on, the two sides of pure offensive power ripping through one another for survival.
What would the world devolve to without these spies, these informants? Without them making each and every leader feel safe.
"Stop," Carien muttered.
"What happens when you take an Elerian and remove all inhibition, all sanity, all that which makes it sentient, and replace that with an urge to kill? Ah, yes, Mr. Duflos, you have an answer?" Lemshire asked, pointing to him as if a student.
Carien said nothing.
"Excellent answer. It becomes something... different. An abomination, of sorts. Uncontrollable... It rends, kills, and grows at a rate unachievable by the rest of us. Its mana becomes corrupted, its claws and body becoming something that is specifically designed to tear through mana with ease. It must be killed, lest it kill you first. Not a good soldier, is it?" the King asked. "Now... yes, Mr. Duflos again. What happens when you take that creature and put a slave collar on it?" he asked.
Carien went white as the last of the monsters continued past Lemshire, leaping into the night as the screeches, screams, and sounds of death rang out behind the old madman.
"Wrong, wrong. It does not obey. It kills itself, trying to murder you. You see, they feel no pain nor desire to live. Only the drive to kill... But, Mr. Terrel... You see, he found the answer. What happens when you bring that creature back to life, as a member of your undying?" Lemshire asked again. "Now then, you see, the creature must follow your orders to an extent, though its original will is still there. Telling it not to kill, impossible. It has too much desire, too much need. It will still kill, fight your control over it, and win, eventually resulting in a rogue monster feeding off your own mana. Terrel found out the hard way. But!" Lemshire said, stopping his pacing in front of the still Carien. "What if... What if instead of taking away the want to kill, you instead instilled a strong, overbearing, all-consuming fear of the pain a slave collar will bring to your entire being should you disobey orders? Promising death and vengeance eventually, allowing them to fight each other when they get restless, hunt prowlers and ripplers for sport... Then, well, control is simple. Just point... and they kill. So long as they don't disobey their Master's orders," Lemshire continued with a manic grin, "they get to murder endlessly without the fear of pain. It took years and years to..."
Carien stopped listening as he stared up at the man with horror... and respect as he continued on. He'd created something eerily similar to the Shades, something that had been around since the beginning of time but was never understood. He'd made a new race of sorts... But at what cost?
"And the bodies? All these... things?" he asked, interrupting Lemshire. "Where did you get them from? What... what have you done, Tresil?"
The man stopped waving his hands around and smiled down at the Celestial in a disconcerting way.
"That's the best part: the unwantables of society! People who already had an inclination towards nasty deeds. Those who would be executed, or exiled anyway. Why not use them for our own good?" he asked back. "They serve the country this way."
Carien hung his head, no longer willing to look at the King, at his old friend.
"You... you have lost that which made you an Elerian, Lemshire. You are no better than those Shades. You... this crusade of yours-"
"Not a crusade, Carien," Lemshire said, putting a finger on the Celestials lips to silence him. "No no. A war. A war against a God, just one. Now, doesn't that seem more interesting that suicide?"
Carien stared up at the man again, disheveled hair falling around his face.
'War against a god... he's gone mad,' he thought, dropping his head back down.
"Why?" he asked the ground.
"Simple: for fun," Lemshire stated with a giddy finality that brokered no argument, truly appearing to be the only reason the man held. "So join me! You won't regret it."
Carien sighed.
"And if I refuse?"
"Hey, we all have free will here," Lemshire said as Carien glanced back up again, watching the Dean turn around to stare at the carnage he had caused.
The fighting had stopped, less than half of the monsters before him present as they tore into the downed figures of both friend and foe, fighting each other for scraps. Not to the death, but just for dominance. Some were cowed, some were confident. All were beasts.
"We all have the right to make choices. Whatever you choose... I will respect. You will live on, of course! But as what, you must decide," Lemshire finished, Carien observing the figure of one of the creatures walking around on all fours, two skeletal wings growing out of its back.
A single white feather was left attached at the top until it was tackled by another monster, fighting over the dissolving shadow beneath them. The jolt caused the last feather to dislodge, a strange wind causing it to float slowly to the ground before him.
Carien stared at it as he felt Lemshire's gaze from above, recognizing the faint mana signature that was still left on the feather as that of a young gentleman he'd met a few years ago.
"Secrets must be kept, after all."
"...Are you threatening me?"
"It's not a threat, old friend," Lemshire replied. "It's a promise."