I hovered between the elemental realms, concentrating on an ability unique to myself, even amongst elementals. I had even been praised by gods for this ability. My sense was astoundingly accurate, even when hovering in an unstable chaotic plane of existence as I did now. Yet, with my amazing ability I could not pinpoint him. It was as though he was many. I thought perhaps these were decoys, but they were indistinguishable.

I can’t fail Duval. The consequences would be too dire. I thought back to that moment…

“Jemal.” The imposing voice resounded deeply behind me. I jumped with a start at the sudden appearance of Duval.

“D-Duval! I-I thought we agreed that…” I faltered off in protest.

“That was the case, however,” Duval paused and placed one hand on my shoulder, as if to prevent me from fleeing. Too bad, because that was exactly what I had planned… “There is yet one more. Track him for me. You realize the consequences should you fail. I’m not fond of an eternity of my master’s whimsical punishments, nor should you be.”

I shuddered as I imagined an all too real and possible scenario. Duval seemed to take that as affirmation, vanishing with a sense of confidence. I had no choice now.

Re-imagining those ‘whimsical punishments’ snapped me out of my reverie, and I attempted to focus. There were too many copies of this shadow element. I needed to find the real one! But… They all registered as the real one. They were like exact copies! I grasped my head in frustration and fear.

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“Kage! Kage!” I heard Obscura’s voice calling for ‘me’. That ‘me’ was currently occupied with an errand for Pluvia, so I divided myself. I have yet to find a limit to how many ‘me’ I can make, but after one hundred and fifty copies of myself I began to feel slightly strained.

“Yes Obscura?” I asked upon approaching her.

“Kyaaa! I SAID STOP DOING THAT!” She yelled at me, shaking her fist towards me. I can’t tell whether she seriously fails to detect me every time or if it is some playful joke.

“No promises.” I chose to tease her. I’ve found that though she often seems displeased, she never harms me or goes through with her threats, so I could not resist the temptation of toying with her. Her response was to simply glare at me for a few extra moments.

“Kage!” She repeated.

“Yes?”

“Go chase away the elemental staring at us. It’s annoying.” Huh?

“An elemental? Staring at us? Why?”

“Because it’s obnoxious. Go to the elemental in-between and chase him off!” Obscura snarled at me. I hadn’t meant why I should chase the elemental off, but rather why was he observing us?

Well, I now have every reason to go and sate my curiosity. Following Obscura’s directions, I mentally searched for the place she referred to as the ‘elemental in-between’. It was difficult to sense at first, but I eventually found it. It seemed to be a place where the elements bled together, yet managed to remain separated by some kind of non-existent barrier.

I shifted there to search for the observer. Ah, turns out I shifted directly behind the observer. It appeared to be an elemental made of copper. The observer appeared to be male in figure and his metallic skin was smooth and appeared as malleable as human skin. He was grasping his head between his hands.

“Hey, you.” I spoke out.

“Waaaaa!” The elemental flat out screamed and flailed his arms wildly in a panic. “I’m sorry! Don’t hurt me!” The elemental shouted while shifting away. Curious. Well, Obscura shouldn’t be bothered by his prying eyes anymore, so job accomplished.

I shifted this ‘me’ back to the Unseen Maze only to be assaulted by Obscura on another front. She managed to intercept the path of a ‘me’ which was very rare for her. Why could she detect that other elemental yet so often be surprised by my presence in the first place?

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“Did you need something, Obscura?” I calmly asked while I divided so as not to fall behind in my self appointed tasks. There was an ever growing mountain of requests no matter how many times I divided. At first they only trickled in and it seemed as though I could complete them all quickly, though that was only an illusion as the more I completed the more came in exponentially.

“ I wanted to say good job in getting rid of that… Stalker.” She blushed slightly as she said so. It isn’t like the ‘stalker’ put up a fight or anything. Curious that she sees the need to praise me. “Also, come with me.”

“Where to?” I asked somewhat baffled. She had never asked me to come with her anywhere before.

“To this stuffy old meeting I need to sit through every so often. The gods and goddesses and their direct subordinates stand around and review our standings in the balance and other stupid things. Unfortunately it is mandatory for me to attend or I would just send you.” Wait, she would have just sent me while she got to skip out on work? If I had a discernible eyebrow, it would be twitching right now.

“When is this meeting then?” I attempt to ask calmly, but my voice is just a little strained.

“Mmmm… I think it started forty eight minutes ago?” She cocked her head and placed a delicate finger upon her lips in an attempt to think...

“We’re late…” I pinched my where my nose would be. Fortunately my features were just a mass of shadow otherwise I may have accidentally pierced my nose with my clawed hands.

“Yep. Pretty late.” She said with a cheery smile that seemed to say ‘aren’t I awesome?’

“Well, lead the way then. If it is mandatory we probably should not keep them waiting…” I urged her to continue where we needed to go, and somehow followed her shift. Interesting, I can follow shifts? Then perhaps I could have pursued that copper elemental and found out why he was ‘stalking’ us. Well, past is past.

We appeared in an area devoid of… Existence. The only exceptions of course being numerous gods, goddesses, and their secretaries. They all stood in a circle, their secretaries standing behind them. The non-existent space was a pure white as far as the eye could see.

When we appeared, all eyes were on us. A majority of those gazes were actually glares. In our position of the circle we stood between Pluvia and Tranquil to our right, while Tochk and the god he served were to our left.

“About time you showed up, brat.” The god standing to our immediate left growled out. He was a burly pasty skinned looking man with freckles, bright orange hair styled flamboyantly, and all-consuming amber eyes. Tochk briskly nodded his head in agreement with his god.

“If you call me brat one more time, Ignis, I would drown you for twenty years.” Obscura sneered at the god evidently named Ignis.

“Perhaps if you’d-” Just as Ignis began to speak again, Obscura abruptly turned away with a “Humpf” and vigorously waved at Pluvia and Tranquil. I followed her lead and gave a slight bow towards each of them. Pluvia waved vigorously back, while Tranquil returned with a bow of her own, mimicking our very same greeting.

I looked around, curious to see if the copper elemental was a secretary, however I did not see him.

“You drew the short straw too, Kage?” Tranquil whispered to me, breaking me from my uneventful search. “Oh, sorry that is right, you are the only subordinate to Obscura… Sorry…” Tranquil apologized clasping her hands together in front of her in apology. I just shrugged in response. It isn’t like I took offense to it.

“We will begin then.”