With the passing of an uneventful day of meditation and lounging about, I emerged from the master keep of Fulgum Castle alongside my father, vassals in tow for a final parade through the capital city. Poised atop an enchanted catwalk that carried us forth, we were forced to look down, smile and wave at the tens upon tens of thousands of citizens kneeling and shouting praise at our passing until we reached a vacant platform at the northern end of the subterranean city nearly an hour later.
Stepping off from the catwalk, my father approached the ledge to peered over the rail for a second before craning his neck upwards to stare at the ceiling for a long moment. After that long moment, the natural shadows on the ceiling started to condense and soon after form a large threshold in the ceiling. From it, came half a dozen pairs of iron disks, followed by a large base straddled with pistons, a driving arm, and an eccentric crank attached to a massive frame of blackened iron. The construct suddenly lurched downward after a quarter or so of it passed into real space, no doubt causing the relentless pull of gravity to take hold of its mass and pull it violently toward the ground at a panic-inducing rate.
In one fluid motion, my father threw his arm up in response to the potential catastrophe forming above him. Conjuring several tentacles of umbral energy to sprawl out around the hulking piece of machinery and wrap umbral limbs around the frame to gracefully catch and bring the hulking structure to a gentle rest atop the track’s magnetic cushions.
In tune with my father’s relaxing hand, the tenebrous tentacles retracted back into the ceiling, revealing three sleek train carts painted a matte gray-black and proudly gilded with the literal mark of the House of Cole on the sides. An inverted crescent moon; akin to a sun rising over the horizon, occluded by a black structure that strongly resembled a leafless tree. The same mark that I and presumably father had; judging from his words on the day I was born.
“All aboard.” My father chuckled, giving me the first taste of being embarrassed by my father in over a century.
The interior of the cabins was nearly 3.5 meters wide, split in half between residential and service modules for any tenders or servants who happened to come along for whatever rides my father chose to go on. Just left of the entrance was a pantry and tea station while a full kitchen sat on the right. Emplaced along the far wall were several twin berths that were set in a repeating fashion between two communal bathrooms; all laid in the same dark-toned baroque style that my family seemed to favor.
“Would you mind putting on some tea for us, Jonet?” My father asked after sealing the door shut behind us. “The rest of you may enjoy our ride at your leisure. We shall call if we need you.”
“Of course, Your Imperial Grace.” Jonet bowed.
With a jerk of the neck, Father wordlessly motioned for me to follow him to the second car; a double S-curved space with four identical berths, labeled with my name and the names of my mother and forefathers. “Take a moment to get acquainted with your room and meet me up front.” Father looked back to me over his shoulder before sliding around the corner.
Taking pause before the door, I charged shadow mana within myself before I leaned closer to the surface and dipped my head into my shadow racing up to meet me.
With my head sticking through the shadows lurking on the other side, I saw a surprisingly spacious berth with a full-sized bed tucked into the corner beneath a U-shaped row of storage cabinets. Set in line with the door was a multi-purpose desk that was set at eye level with the narrow windows lining the car while a wet en suite occupied the remaining third of the booth.
Satisfied with the accommodations, I pulled my head umbral window and went up to the locomotive to hear my father calling out to me before I entered. “I’m sure you’re dying to know how this works."
I could only grin as I waddled over to a large map set into an elliptical table that occupied much of the space behind the console. “You know me so well.” I chuckled, focusing on the map. As I saw before, it separated the massive island that was the mainlands right down the middle; with the Deapou Empire to the east and the Odissian Empire to the west. From there, Odissi was split into thirds; with the capital county occupying the southern region near the coast.
“Our destination is here.” Father pointed a slender finger to the border of the next region. “The border town of Emi, in the province of Telma; some 1,474 kilometers away. Now.” He waved me over to a panel under the front windshield, wherein several of the crystals were bedazzled into the metal assembly. “These enchantments correspond to the different locations within our Empire.” He paused to gesture to a similar set of stones inlaid in the ceiling. “And the Deapouan Empire.”
“May I?” I gestured towards the console.
“By all means.” Father grinned. “Simply pour mana into it.”
I leaned closer to study the crystal for a moment before doing what was asked. By appearance, the enchantment stone appeared much the same as a diamond, only tinted the same vibrant blue as the mana persisting around it. Each of them was neatly cut gemstones that’d been etched with strange runes or sigils I had no means of reading or deciphering. More so, each contained traces of mana I felt no connection to; but felt more than safe in assuming it was magnetic mana. With my observations noted, I gathered a handful of mana within my hand and sent it into the stone that corresponded with Emi. Within seconds, a gentle hum began to ring throughout the structure and the floor began to lurch beneath us.
“With enchantments, there’s no need for a conductor.” Father proudly explained from his seat at the elliptical table. Without much else to do, I went around to sit at the opposite end. “The stones throughout the vessel and track will accelerate us to around 500 kilometers per hour. Allowing us to cross the immense distance of the mainland in only a few hours.”
“It goes without saying that life would be much harder without these enchantments,” I commented. If only to make idle conversation. “Where do we get the raw materials from?”
“You shall see when we arrive." Father grinned behind his clasped hands.
“Very well then.” I nodded, then turned as a knock at the door signaled Jonet's arrival with our drinks. And with nothing more to do as she passed them out, I did a quick inspection of the environment.
It was evident that this car was as much a social space as it was a navigation center. Elaborate tapestries hung between the windows- talking points bordered by hanging rings that seemed to be mounting points for a partition between the map console and the rest of the room. Currently missing so as to expose the comfortable arrangement of benches and booths around the bar in the rear of the cab; comfortably separated from the large table my father and I were seated around.
My scan was essentially complete by the time Jonet came by with my tea, wherein I was delighted to find she sweetened it precisely to my preference, despite her never having to make it for me before and despite me never even telling her how I liked it. Not only that, she palmed my cup in her hands and chilled it with her ice magic before placing it before me with a knowing smile. With a bow, she retreated into the next car before I could even take a sip of my drink, much less thank her. Veritably stunned, I turned to my father seconds later. “I was impressed by your earlier spell. It seems quite versatile.”
At that, my father perked up. “My Shade Tendrils?” He beamed, then reclined further in his seat to hide his smirk behind his glass. “That’s not the only spell in my repertoire. I use the shadows prominently. That is to say, as a form of armor. More specifically, a variation of the Wraith Form.”
“A variation?” I pondered aloud.
“Reinforcement can work in many ways, Son.” He advised with a wagging finger. “Think of when you scry through the shadows. It involves focusing shadow mana into your eyes, yes? Yet, it remains a reinforcement spell at a fundamental level. It’s only that the effects are changed due to the body part in question.”
“Ah.” I nodded into a sip of my tea. “I understand.”
“It was only a matter of time.” Father amiably chuckled. “Anyway. Depending on the situation, I concentrate shadow mana into either my skin, muscles, or bones. Either at a single time or in conjunction with one another. Imbuing the skin with shadow mana gives our flesh the amorphous properties of solid shade. This grants a resistance to blunt attacks, causing most of them to bounce off of us as if we were made of rubber, rather than phase through us like in the Wraith Form. Though, stabbing or slashing attacks would still remain effective.” He added with a wave of the hand.
“The skin, in conjunction with the bones, provides a great deal of defensive power.” He continued after a long swig of his drink. “Your bones will be immune to breakage or fracturing while they’re reinforced with darkness; and if you flood the reinforcement, your bones will become far denser than they otherwise would be. Making you completely immune to blunt damage. The muscles, on the other hand, provide no extra strength.” He sighed. “Though they do banish any buildup of lactic acid to your Shadow Pocket, greatly enhancing our endurance.”
“I see.” I nodded, grinning widely. “That’s fascinating.”
“Indeed.” Father oh so humbly nodded. Then abruptly stood from his seat. “Would you like to try it out?”
“S- sure.” I shrugged to a stand.
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My father’s grin spread wider than possible across his face as he moved to the open area between the head of the table and the nav console. “Alright.” He beckoned me towards himself with both hands. “Try to hit me.”
“Uh…” I hesitantly chuckled. “Is that a good idea?”
“Sure it is!” He chipped back as he swallowed the whole table into his shadow pocket. “It’s my train.”
‘Can’t argue with that.’ I shrugged. Then moved before him to settle into my stance.
After a final reassuring nod from my father, I pulled back my arm and leaned forth, aiming straight for his gut while my father just stood there, like he wanted to see what I was capable of. Causing a small ember of anger, rage, or fury to smolder into life within the core of my being just as I rotated into my punch.
Just as fast as the newfound drive to strike my father consumed me, however, it was replaced- swapped with the sickening feeling of my heart plummeting deep into my bowels. Before I could pull back, retract, or avert my blow, an umbral mass pooled to life and rose to occupy the small space remaining between my father and me. In shamed frustration, I looked up to find his doppelganger, grinning down at my hand embedded into its stomach. A cold mass wrapped around my arm just as I started to try and thrash myself free. Followed by a similar force taking hold of my leg, arm, and remaining leg. Together, those forces effortlessly pulled on my frail body, leaving me helplessly suspended above the polished tiles of the train car.
Sneering in the face of my father’s seemingly mocking grin, I broke the proverbial floodgates on my mana well and sent an indiscriminate amount of shadow mana toward my father’s feet. Producing my own variant of his Shade Tendrils to wrap its undulating arms around his limbs and lift him up into the air. Dissatisfied, I sent more of the energy to his feet to form a large shadow gauntlet that flexed its fingers after forming, then lunged forward to grasp my father’s torso and palm against the ceiling.
In the midst of our stalemate, my father and I threw mocking grins at each other for more than a few moments until we eventually burst at the seams with laughter and canceled our spells.
“Aha hah! That was great!” My father sighed heavily after replacing the furniture from his Shadow Pocket and seating himself once more.
“I should’ve trained with you years ago.” I chuckled, returning to my seat.
Though Father waved my comment aside at once. “Oh, the fault lies with me.” He huffed. “I’m a busy man, after all. I don’t have nearly enough time to practice our sorcery as much as I’d like to. The only other sorcerous spells I have, revolve around imprisoning things, stepping through the shade to an advantageous position, and a few other things.”
“Imprisoning things.” I pondered aloud once more as sudden realization struck me like a mallet. “My experiment. I completely forgot!” In a half-panic, I leaned my face towards the table to first peer inside my pocket.
I’d ventured inside the umbral dimension to check on it on a few occasions shortly after I first captured it, but I had yet to go inside or take a close inspection after any notable length of time had passed. Thus causing me to hesitate in anticipation before coaxing the creature out of the umbral dimension that was now its home.
My father had been silent ever since his initial inquiry had gone unheard and ignored. Since then he's simply been leaning on the edge of his seat, staring intently as his chin rested atop his shaking hands. The moment he saw it, however, he leaped out of his seat, shouting. "Amun, this is Amazing!" Though there was more than simply surprise or shock to his reaction, I observed. Disbelief, almost. Or something I couldn’t quite name. Like I’d done something he’d only heard legends of or hadn’t expected me to be able to do in the slightest. “When did you get this? Where? How?" He asked, cautiously reaching out to a bunny with abyssal fur and crimson eyes.
"A year or so.” I shrugged. “I’ve been too preoccupied with training and forgot to check on it.”
“It’s always important to stop and smell the flowers, Amun.” Father gently advised alongside an awed sigh. “You may be a half-drow sorcerer, but life is still fleeting. Rest can be just as beneficial as training, at times.”
“Yes, Sir.” I bowed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Good.” He resolutely nodded before turning back to the rabbit. “Now, tell me what this shadow rabbit does.”
“Well.” I took a hard squint at the rabbit before letting out a conceding. “I’m not sure. I can definitely feel shadow mana from it. And a… connection. Like I can feel what it feels. But otherwise.” I shrugged without another word to drive home my ignorance. Then, on a whim, I tried to give it a sort of mental order like I would a piece of machinery linked to a brain-machine interface.
Surprisingly or not, it suddenly leaped from the table to my lap to hop onto the floor beneath the table. Simultaneously, My father and I bent in our seats to see under the table and simultaneously let out awed and surprised gasps at the rabbit flooding the small, lightless region of shade below the table with umbral energy. As it did, the umbral energy flowed back into it, causing its body to swell and morph as if something was crawling about beneath its coat. It swelled and grew with each passing second until it was almost twice its normal size.
Then it burst at the seams.
We looked in silent wonder as the process repeated with two rabbits. Turning them into four, then eight and sixteen, and so on and on and on. Duplicating- breeding like rabbits until they swarmed the entire cab.
It took me nearly two whole minutes to regather my wits and return the mass of bunnies to my Shadow Pocket before turning to my father. “Judging from your reaction, I assume you’ve seen this spell before?”
“N- no.” My father struggled to shut his gaping mouth and shake his head. “But I have heard of a spell that fits the description.”
I only raised my brow inquisitively, prompting my father to lean his elbow on the table and start out with a heavy sigh. “Azrael Cole. My father, your grandfather, was a shadow sorcerer who met an untimely demise when I was around your age. He was always off exploring and fighting, so I never spent much time with him.” He sighed again, then somehow elevated the emotion in his voice to a prideful tone as he continued. “But, I’d heard many times of his prowess while I was growing up in Deap Ridge. His most famous spell is what he called, Beast Shades. Being a trademark spell, however.” Father sighed once more. “He told no one of the secrets.”
‘Well, that name won’t do.’ I chuckled to myself. ‘I’ll have to come up with something better.’
---
I retired to my berth shortly after our conversation died down to spend a bit of time writing and a lot of time staring at the rigid lines of civilization looming on the northern horizon. Though it wasn't long until we made our final approach to the border city of Emi; a vast area filled with gargantuan greenhouses or warehouses that filled the otherwise barren tundra for kilometers upon kilometers. It was almost as if the structures themselves were meant to replace the obligatory high stone walls of a city with a maze composed of absurdly long buildings.
Within a few minutes of travel, we had arrived at the station and were standing on geothermally heated streets, waiting in the midst of a blizzard for a sleigh led by some type of large and feral dog-like creature to stop before us.
“Welcome to Emi, Your Imperial Grace. Your Grace.” A curiously short man huffed from behind his thick scarf as he hopped down from the carriage to open the doors for us.
“Thank you, Sam.” My father smiled at him as he stepped inside. Then called back out to him after getting seated.
“Of course, Your Imperial Grace.” He bowed again. Then slammed the door shut to then trot around to the front of the carriage to take his seat behind the supposed wargs. While he got settled I bobbed my head around through the small windows like an owl adjusting its field of view and saw that, much like in Odissi, every structure had a glass wall on the southern face to provide greenhouses for the multitude of residences or businesses of Emi; albeit the structures were far more spread apart and larger due to the extra land the city had claim to.
Still, it was clear that the people lived in the same levels of comfort as those in the capital; far fewer though they were. There were the schools, medical clinics, libraries and everything else that my father promised would be found in each settlement in the mainlands, as well as banks and a wider arrangement of parks than everywhere else I’d seen thus far.
“You all will be leaving this Empire one day.” My father suddenly began with an intense eye aimed at us. An intensity seemingly birthed his notice of the budding pride I was feeling for the Empire. “When you do, be wise and remember that not all places in Maru are as wealthy or well off as Deapou and Odissi. We are fortunate to have Emperors with affinities for things such as magma, magnets, shadow, and death. Their magic is what protects our cities from invaders or wild beasts. Their magic is what allows our citizens to thrive in this otherwise inhospitable place. With their power, enchantments are made to heat our cities, create fertile lands, and do other things to allow our people to thrive. Because of that, however.” He added with a stern tone and a pointed finger. “Other empires in the realm despise us for the care we show to our citizens and keep from the greater realm. As such, they do not think too highly of us. As is their right.” He finished with a child-like shrug.
‘Sounds like sour grapes to me.’ I laughed on the inside.
After swimming among the thoughts wandering around in my head after my father’s story, I set them aside once we entered a town hall-like building to once again sit through hours of court and listen to the happenings of the region in which we now found ourselves. I felt somewhat relieved, however, to learn that this particular court didn’t consist of a dinner, but rather a formal meet and greet. During which, I was introduced to the Marchioness Mellorine Redstone, and genuinely listened to the dwarven woman explain the inner workings of her territory.
At her core, Emi was a mining town. But was largely considered the industrial capital of the Odissian Empire. Far, far below and a bit around the city’s perimeter were vast underground mining complexes that extracted and refined immeasurable tons of ore from below and used mostly shadow-enchanted equipment to transport everything within. It was through this place that the veritable mountain of ore necessary for enchantments was extracted. Among other things, of course. Naturally, that formed a need for an industry to develop in the city above. And by above, that constituted both the surface and the dugout tunnels beneath it. As time passed, the somewhat unassuming dwarven village of Emi was made into the center of industry and crafting it was today. And it was done without flooding the city with the number of tourists and shoppers seen in the Twin Capitals. On the contrary, Emi was able to retain the peaceful state it had at its inception due to the general reluctance of living underground. Thus some of the finest artificers, alchemists, weapons, and armorsmiths seek out the peaceful complex to live and work beneath the plain, unchanging surface.
With our conversation over, we listened to the Marchioness' proclamations of intended changes to be made the following year, followed by a few declarations to the people by my father. While it was a town focused on industry and manufacturing and most of the topics revolved around that, the Marchioness was proud to have three children go off to the Corvus Boarding Academy this year. Similarly, my father seemed all too excited to share that that was where we were scheduled to go next, in turn causing her to leap forward and insist that we not keep ourselves waiting.
Much like last time, Father led me through the halls of the capitol building to a more private room to be handed a chest full of the coins and jewels that were voluntarily given as tribute. Only this time, my Father wordlessly instructed me to store it in my Shadow Pocket.
And only after the Marchioness said her goodbyes and the door shut behind us, did my father speak- whisper again. “Don’t spend it all in one place.”
“Wait, this is mine?” I chuckled wryly.
“Where did you think your allowance came from?” He laughed just as boisterously as Grandpa Lich as he stepped out into the snow. “You’re responsible enough to receive your annual amount in one sum, are you not? Although, I intended to give you an allowance daily.”