Seeing the woman standing in front of me I raised my blade and took a stance, I could feel a strange sense of nervousness and dread, this woman was no joke. Looking closely the dress she wore had strange shadowy tendrils reaching down into the ground, although it was as if the ground itself was supporting her. She seemed to be one of those shades, however for some reason I couldn’t regain my composure, it was similar to when you’re caught in a scenario where your adrenaline spikes, you feel trapped, like no matter what you do you won’t survive…it was that sort of feeling. Reacting almost instinctively I leapt at the woman and thrust my blade downwards with the intention of splitting her in two. This didn’t happen however, instead I was the one spinning, I flew a few metres before crashing into the ground and sliding a few feet.

I stood up and the woman hadn’t moved, her dress slightly scuffed after kicking me but otherwise she remained as if nothing happened. I approached again, this time I did a feint instinctively again as I saw what I could only assume was her leg and used the momentum to land a kick myself, as I did so before hitting her my leg passed through as if she was made of smoke, in fact it looked like she was a shade. Her form slowly regained its original appearance as the shade reattached and she quickly, so quickly I couldn’t see, threw out her fist towards my face. I quickly evaded somehow and brought my sword upwards towards her throat. She saw this and without breaking her calm expression simply palmed the sword and grasped it, noticing the resistance I instantly released the blade, I wouldn’t normally relinquish my weapon but if I didn’t do something I was going to die. Even though this should be a dream it felt as such, as I let go my arm glided across hers and I planted my fist into her left cheek with full force, her head was thrown back slightly but she didn’t appear to have a scratch and my fist had somehow not only contacted her face, but had gone ‘into’ it. The ‘skin’ around my fist was swirling as if alive and as I slowly removed my fist and leapt back, I noticed the space had once again become filled.

At this she once again smiled and spoke, this time her voice seemed more human, it also did in fact seem to emanate from the expected location.

“As expected from the one I chose, truly splendid, you may have a greater chance than I anticipated.”

Suddenly her form moved and ‘flew’ into the ground, I saw a shape moving through the floor before it emerged in front of me.

“Once again, I am Erebus, I managed to call you here after your recent intoxication, you seemed to have a rather strong mental fortitude Kurt.”

I looked a her confused, I didn’t trust her at all, but I couldn’t beat her, so my options were limited and thus I played along. First though, one minor detail struck me.

“Should I first question how you know my name?”

She looked a little confused herself after I asked, I didn’t understand why, it seemed like a perfectly reasonable question. She then continued to smile as she placed her finger on my forehead and gave it a playful push.

“Of course, I know you Kurt, I’ve been with you since the beginning, living in your shadow, perhaps you’ll remember me if I look like this.”

Her form began to change again, she slowly sunk to the ground until she resembled a cat, black fur, sitting there, her skin began to move again as she reassumed her previous form. Suddenly I remembered the cat I saw before visiting my sister, the same cat that consumed that gem and forced Nora upon me, the same cat…the same cat that stopped me helping Rex while he was consumed. Remembering this I must’ve taken on a disgusting expression as I glared at Erebus, as she continued to speak, in a slightly softer tone, almost as if reading my thoughts.

“There was no saving the boy, by the time you arrived his ‘self’ had already been consumed by the Laar’ren. That’s their true name, unknown to humans of now. I believe you refer to them as Shades?”

I knew it, I knew what she was saying was true, it still didn’t make the situation any more bearable, even so I grit my teeth, it astounded me that I was so emotionally affected after all this time, it seemed I was safe (for now) so I relaxed my stance.

“You say you called me here, there’s a lot I want to ask, like why you were there before I met my sister, where exactly ‘this’ is, why the Laar’ren as you call them are particularly fond of me, I’ll keep in simple and ask what I consider to be most important at this moment, who are you?”

As I said that some shades began to protrude from the floor nearby, resembling a platform of sorts, Erebus took a seat and gestured me to do the same, I did.

“That’s a hard question.”

She looked as if she was pondering something.

“I guess some might refer to me as Shadow, or rather, a daughter of shadow. I myself am a living entity of sorts, my life is drawn from shadow here and it is my domain, we cannot exist without one another, while I may not age, I certainly am not truly immortal, I can die if requirements are met.”

“I suppose you won’t tell me what those requirements are exactly?”

“Certainly, the simplest is via other members of shadow, some of which you call shades. If they were to consume my hosts essence, namely…yours, I would be transferred to their domain where I would be vulnerable. The other, is a lot more abstract. I can only exist in shadow, if shadow doesn’t exist, then neither do I. That Is to say, if my host dies by means not related to shadow, if I do not transfer myself to another uninhabited shadow, I die.”

“So, you can simply detach yourself to me and move on to another…”

“Not quite, I haven’t been able to awaken like this in a while, due to the way I interact with my host, magic interference is expected, therefore anyone with an affinity for magic cannot be my host, your lack of magical ability allows me to inhabit you.”

My lack of magic again…I’ve never wanted to have an affinity for magic more than now, I’d rather I didn’t have such a nuisance being a part of my ‘self’, Nora was plenty, I couldn’t handle another noisy companion.

“You can choose anyone who has a lack of magical ability then?”

Erebus pulled a large questioning smirk at this as if to ask if I was jealous, this certainly wasn’t the case, it was the opposite, my goal is to find my sister and return to my previous world, I have no need for shadows.

“Kurt, not only can you not use magic, you’re physically capable and have a strong sense of self, a lot of hosts would go mad (mentally) if I was to inhabit them, you really are more special than you lead yourself to believe.”

If being special means I must deal with misfortune, then I don’t want it.

“I’m here for a personal goal which I believe coincides with yours, while I chose to inhabit you my sister chose to inhabit the other human, she has a strong connection with mana and the other human seemed particularly capable.”

Hold on. She was referring to my sister right…what’s this?

“We really are quite the opposite, she wishes to shroud the world in shadow, she travels dimensions and consumes worlds, I wish to stop her at any cost. I don’t want anything as grand as saving people, I just can’t abide my family killing for sport.”

I stopped her, the matter was quite important.

“The girl you are referring to is my sister, right?”

I looked at Erebus with a serious expression, gritting my teeth to supress my rage.

“Yes, the pretty girl with magic, she seems to have become the host for my sister.”

As she finished that sentence I flung a fist at her face with as much force as I could muster, naturally Erebus caught it, even Erebus seemed to wince slightly as considerable force had gone into the punch, she regained her composure.

“You mean to tell me my sisters strange attitude and near psychopathic actions, leading to this whole predicament, was due to the two of you.”

Erebus, still holding my fist, lowered her gaze.

“Certainly, I don’t want to make excuses for my sister or myself, however I fully intend to find your sister and help her. However, as I am weakened in another shadows domain I need your help to challenge my sister.”

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I released my fist while leaking with anger, high and mighty beings interfering with my family, my friend Rex. Even Nora, everything linked back to them.

“I would rather you left and allowed me to let my sister see sense alone, I think you’ve done enough.”

I tried supressing my anger as I spoke however some words were fierce and sharp.

“I must apologise Kurt, but you simply can’t hurt my sister without entering her domain and my help, you’ve seen how your sword doesn’t affect me, challenging my sister without my help won’t end favourably. Make no mistake, if you want to help your sister, you will have to challenge mine.”

I still didn’t believe her; however, it would be stupid to refuse until I could confirm it myself, with that I set the rules if we were to travel together.

“I expect you to explain my other questions soon, where are we, why are we here and what is this shadow. I’ve never seen living shadow before.”

Erebus faced me once again as a smirk like the first, although much warmer, grew across her face as she gave her approval to travel together.

“Well then it’s decided, from now on I should be able to converse with you while you’re awake and you should be able to access my domain while you sleep.”

Erebus then walks up to me, embraces me and before I can push her away says a simple word that makes me well up with emotions I hadn’t felt in a while, guilt, anger and sorrow.

“I’m sorry this happened to you Kurt, lets fix this!”

I woke up.

It was a strange feeling, due to the constant moving I hadn’t had a decent sleep in months, maybe since I got here a few years ago. I had been moving from place to place within that forest avoiding the shades, although that was the case I still felt somewhat tired. As I got out of bed, I equipped my sword and wore my original clothing, just some simple loose shirt and baggy linen trousers, held up by a simple red piece of cloth to my waist. I left the room to the sound of chatter coming from downstairs, it sounded like a young woman, probably Nora was discussing her night to the owner and another young man?

As I went down the stairs I spotted the three of them on some nearby stools eating some bread. The man looked up at me as I approached.

“You must be Kurt, I’m Lerz.”

He approached and as he did a small bow in my direction, with his hand placed on his chest, I had learnt this was a sign of respect from the Erze, thus I responded, although I maintained my simple standing position and showed no such respect.

“Hi.”

Lerz gave a small smile and returned to his seat, joining back in on the conversation, after taking bread handed to me by a smiling Unmy, I took my own seat, as Lerz directed his attention to me.

“Nora here.”

He laughs as Nora puffs up, it must be due to him using the name I gave her.

“Nora here says this is the first time you’ve visited a village, at your age that astounds me, if you want I can show you around. Nora and Unmy seem to be catching up and I’m sure, like me, you’d rather be doing anything else than listen to those two go on.”

He wasn’t wrong, although random acts of kindness don’t sit well with me, noticing my discontent, Lerz continued.

“I simply have a duty to deliver a batch of our seasoned meat to the nearby blacksmith who insists he’s too busy to eat food in the store, I may as well give you some sort of tour on the way.”

Knowing he has no ulterior motive, I accept, giving Unmy a simple nod as thanks for her hospitality I begin to depart.

“W…Wait Kurt! Your blade, leave it with me if you don’t want trouble with the guards.”

“Nora, I may have given you my blade upon entrance, but I don’t feel comfortable walking without it.”

Suddenly a soft voice spoke, it seemed to come from nowhere.

“Just hand her the blade you worrywart. I swear, people like you can be so uselessly difficult.”

I looked around as nobody reacted, it seems they couldn’t hear the voice, as I stood there confused for a second I realised it was in my head, it seemed to be some sort of telepathy, my suspicious were confirmed.

“It’s me! Erebus! So not only are you difficult, you also have a terrible memory, I’ll quickly jot down to repeat everything I say twice so you don’t forget again.”

As Erebus started to repeat the line again in a mocking tone.

“Stop, there’s no need for that, it was just rather sudden. I had forgotten last night, I assumed it was a dream.”

Suddenly I noticed everybody in the inn, namely three people, were all staring at me confused, I realised I had spoken out loud, they probably thought I was mad.

Erebus laughed.

“You have to sort of ‘think’ what you want to say, I would’ve told you earlier but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see this scenario.”

I quickly coughed to try and dispel the awkward air, I quickly handed over my blade and looked at Lertz to try and usher him to depart the inn.

“Damn you Erebus, are you sure I can’t throw you out of there?”

She continued to laugh.

“Well, you can certainly try, although I think I’ll stay for at least a while longer, this is rather fun.”

With that I left the inn after giving a small, inaudible grunt.

As me and Lerz stepped onto the street, I was instantly met with judgemental gazes, which I ignored and followed Lerz north towards a small collection of houses, seemingly in a town square area, centred with a small collection of bushes and a small fountain. As we neared, there were some Erze residents washing their face in the fountain, wishing each other a good morning, Lerz approached and did the same, He then gathered some water and as I noticed his intention, as to not draw attention I allowed him to lightly wipe my face before he explained.

“It’s a gesture, we believe in the old gods, cleansing yourself of bad thoughts and intentions for the start of the day, slaves cant touch the water but masters can wash them if they wish, not doing so is considered extremely insulting so I’m going to have to ask you to forgive me for that.”

I lightly wiped off the moisture.

“Seems slightly primitive, they sit in their village and waste valuable water to ‘cleanse’ themselves while committing atrocious acts such as slavery.”

Lerz looked somewhat surprised.

“Oh? I didn’t consider you to be a particularly righteous man, I’m surprised.”

I ignored the comment and proceeded to follow.

“I just have an uncomfortable past, I always hating others being treated like tools, subjects to help your own standing.”

I thought back to my sister and how she was subject to the whims of doctors, prodding her, holding a level of contempt and blame for her outburst towards them. Lerz took on a solemn look.

“I agree to some degree, although it’s the way the Erze have always operated, not to make an excuse but it’s just how things are, some slaves are treated respectfully by their owners, you can’t save everyone, thinking overwise is both naïve and selfish.”

I couldn’t disagree with that, I wasn’t going to purchase every slave here after all, I have my own tasks to complete, it just didn’t sit well in my stomach.

As we approached the blacksmith, Lerz gestured me to remain by the door as he entered, apparently slaves weren’t allowed indoors unless called by the owner, during which time I was subject to a few curses and unpleasant gazes, however I still remained disinterested, as far as I was concerned these people were all pampered and useless, if they were attacked I could imagine them all getting wiped out. I didn’t care for them.

As I was wiping off some food thrown at me by a pedestrian passing by and almost breaking my vow to not bring attention to myself, I was accompanied first by the voice of Erebus.

“What a backwards people, it’s funny how they don’t realise you could snap their neck if you wished, although it is wise to lay low for now.”

As I nodded in agreement I heard a light cry coming from a nearby alley, it looked as if nobody else was paying any mind to the outburst. I quickly moved to investigate the source.

Upon arrival I saw a girl, who had scaly skin, two horns above her head wearing tattered clothing, surrounded by three Erze men in robes. They were talking in my tongue it appeared, during this Erze had told me language comprehension was shared between us, it seemed there were some benefits in our ‘contract’.

‘Fucking Drake! You got my robes dirty with your presence! Kneel and clean them now!”

It seemed the girl was standing with a sign to advertise a nearby slave seller, she gazed upon the Erze man with a pair of dead eyes, she was expressionless as she muttered with cracked lips.

“Clean them yourself.”

“What!”

The Erze man planted a foot into the girls chest causing her to keel over. He didn’t stop there, him and his two friends proceeded to stamp on the girl while screaming insults.

The girl simply received the blows without uttering a word. She slowly raised her head at the first opportunity.

“You guys are way weaker than my brother, he could beat you up easy peasy!”

The first Erze man, appeared to have reached his limit, he pulled out a staff and a ball of compressed water began to form as he aimed it at the girl.

“Die bitch, I’ll make sure to tell this brother of yours you died pissing yourself.”

The girl seemed to react slightly to this but didn’t protest, Erebus had informed me that the slave seal restricts any sort of aggressive activity via a magic pulse that strains the body, causing sudden and sharp pain, this was soon demonstrated as the girl lashed out but instantly fell to the floor silently while holding herself.

As the ball of energy was pointed at this girl about to be released, I quickly lept forward and before the magic could be released I tried to subdue the attackers silently to avoid an uproar. I pushed his arm upwards behind him and restricted his arm movement while holding my other arm across his throat to cause him to lose consciousness.

Finally realising what was happening, the two others ran at me to help their friend, I quickly placed the Erze I was choking between us and as he lost consciousness, I pushed him into the younger robed assailant. As he caught his friend I wrapped my arm around is neck and slammed his head into the pavement. The last Erze had once again lost sight until that moment.

“Y…You bastard!”

He began to retreat while casting a spell, I lept off a nearby wall to propel myself and landed in front of him, as he began to run while shouting, I quickly silenced him by striking with my palm against the back of his throat, he slowly fell to his knees then planted himself to the floor after losing consciousness. As I assumed they wouldn’t want to publicise their defeat from a slave, I expected the girl was safe from punishment and threw her some bread I had from this morning I was feeding on.

I could harm them as I wasn’t a slave, of course.

The girl had been watching the entire time, she seemed young, around 11 years old but still looked physically capable of holding her own in a fight.

“You’re strong, I want to fight you.”

I was slightly taken aback, wouldn’t the first words typically be thanks, I didn’t do it to be thanked, I simply hated stereotypical novel scenarios such as that and wanted to teach them a lesson, I didn’t expect to be challenged though, it was interesting.

I approached the girl who was holding the bread without taking a bite and knelt in front on her.

“I like your spirit girl, finish that bread, if we meet again before I leave, I’ll happily take you up on the offer.”

She began to chew on the bread after nodding as I left to return to the store, Lerz had been patiently waiting outside, I had no evidence on me suggesting I had been fighting, so he simply gave a nod as I arrived after mentioning I don’t go too far as to draw attention from the guards and we continued our tour of the village.