It took a second attempt for my farewell with the amorous widow to go as planned. The first time, I was careless and allowed myself to be tightly embraced before I managed to exit the door. Due to this minor "slip-up," I had to linger "as a guest" for a bit over half an hour. This, however, barely disrupted my plans. When we finally got out of bed, and I dressed again, I chose to simply wave at the widow and send her a blown kiss. Because, had she embraced me so passionately during our farewell and pressed her warm body against mine again, I might not have left her house until morning. The prospect of spending the night with a beautiful and passionate woman was tempting, but I had different plans for the post-sunset hours. One could say this nighttime visit to Talia was more of an excuse than a primary objective. An excuse to leave Aun's house without unnecessary questions and vanish for a good part of the night. And the pleasure I received was nothing more than a delightful but secondary effect.
Unlike our previous encounter when, after almost fifty steps, I glanced back, today it was Talia who was watching me from an open window on the second floor. Such a trivial detail, which shouldn't make a difference, somehow brightened my mood, knowing that the woman I had spent several hours with was watching me from her window. Perhaps it stood out in contrast to last time when she neither came out to see me off nor watched me leave, which had slightly hurt.
Of course, I didn't tell Talia I was leaving the city today. In parting, I merely said I'd try to visit her again if circumstances allowed, and, in essence, that wasn't a lie. If fate somehow brings me back to Tries and the city hasn't fallen to demons by then, I'd truly be delighted to warm Talia's bed a few more times.
At the end of the street, I turned around one last time and waved to the woman. Then, pulling the hood of my cloak over my face, I stepped into an alley. Trying to stick to the shadows, I moved through the almost deserted night streets of Tries. At this late time, around an hour past midnight, the few passersby that happened to cross paths would hurry past each other, avoiding any prolonged eye contact. This suited me just fine. Despite the shadows hiding my face, I stood much taller than the average height in Tries, and someone observant and curious might recognize me. But since staring at people at night isn't the safest thing, and I moved as if ready to attack at any moment, no such incidents occurred. As I delved deeper into the southwestern - poorest - part of the city, most people I encountered would try to get out of my way as quickly as possible, even without any prompting from me. I deliberately took a slight detour to avoid known city guard posts and approach my destination from the slums' side.
Not that such a detour was necessary. The guards in Tries were, to put it mildly, lax about their night patrols. But when you have the chance to avoid even accidental events, like a sudden burst of diligence from the guards, I believe it's better to be safe. Hence, I emerged at the western city wall between the second and third towers. After that, hiding in the shadow of the massive, towering wall and bypassing the numerous paupers' beds and tents, I headed precisely in the direction I needed, without turning anywhere.
I was confident that as soon as I passed the fifth tower, someone started tailing me. But this confidence wasn't backed by observation; the surveillance was utterly discreet. Even though I viewed everything around me through the Shadow Affinity, I still couldn't detect the watch. Only the experience from my "past life" whispered to me that it was definitely there. When I passed the sixth tower, a man who looked like an ordinary beggar seemingly accidentally rolled in front of me from his resting spot. He touched my boots with his dirty hands and, while constantly apologizing and clutching at my pants, tried to frisk me. Naturally, he got nowhere. He was a Bronze, while I was Steel, so with a swift yet fluid step, I left him behind in one move. He didn't dare to follow me further, just lying in the puddle motionless. Still, he managed to send some signal. However, I wasn't too worried about being followed. In the dark of night, an unfamiliar person approached the secret True Altar of the Night Sister, and the Priest and his entourage couldn't ignore it.
Halfway to the seventh tower, two figures burst out from an alleyway. At first glance, they looked like typical homeless beggars: ragged clothing clearly belonging to someone else, bare feet, and a foul stench emanating from their bodies. However, what distinguished this pair from the other local residents was their high Spiral rank – both were of Steel.
"Gib monies!" the pair lunged at me, reaching out their hands.
I intensified the illusion of shadows under my hood and straightened up. Without breaking stride and more so without stopping, I seized the nearest outstretched hand. I twisted it with a krav-maga grip, as Nate once taught "me," and using the pain to my advantage, spun the first disguised "beggar" around, causing him to crash into the second and knocking him off his feet. Of course, shaking off fighters of the Steel rank wasn't that simple. They immediately sprang to their feet, and in their hands, as if by magic, appeared boarding sabers that resembled hefty cleavers. But I paid no attention to it; the path ahead was clear, so I disdainfully shrugged and continued on.
Perhaps my strange behavior bewildered the pair, or maybe it was because three shadows "peeled off" from the city wall twenty steps ahead and moved in my direction, but the two Steel fighters didn't attack. Without sheathing their weapons, they spread out on opposite sides of the street, expertly cutting off any escape route for me.
Had I acted this way with any regular gang in any city, a fight would've been inevitable. But in this case, I was sure there would be no combat, which is why I acted with utmost confidence and independence.
The Night Sister doesn't have many rules that restrict her adepts. Seguna has even fewer limitations than any other deity. But one of her rules is unchangeable. One adept of the Shadow mustn't interfere with another as long as it doesn't affect their personal interests. One Shadow doesn't meddle with another Shadow's affairs. Naturally, even such a straightforward rule is violated everywhere in Ain. Because the majority who worship the Night Sister lead an illegal and antisocial lifestyle. As a result, they're almost universally renegade egoists, prioritizing their desires over everything else. But right now, approaching me is not just any bandit, nor even the head of the Assassins' Guild or Thieves' Guild, who worships Seguna when convenient. No. The one blocking my path is none other than the guardian of the True Altar, the Priest of the Shadow, and he simply cannot disregard the rules of his deity. Or, more precisely, he wouldn't want to break them. For only those who truly believe become genuine Priests, not just those who do it formally, or, so to say, "to check a box."
When there were only four steps between us, we stopped. The Priest looked up at me. All of my shadowy mirages based on Illusion magic, of course, couldn't deceive him.
"You..." The Priest recognized me. "Again."
"It's necessary." The Shadow doesn't like specifics, except when it comes to money, of course, where the situation changes dramatically.
"Show me." In an instant, the Priest was close enough to me to touch.
It happened so fast that I didn't notice the servant of Seguna's movement. One moment, he was three meters away, and then, without any transition, his probing eyes were only about ten centimeters from mine. Honestly, it was a bit eerie. If it weren't for the "memory of the future," I would've flinched and ruined my act. But I was prepared for something like this, so I calmly met his gaze and gave a mental command: "Visualize Affinity." A Sign appeared between our eyes for a couple of seconds, which disappeared as soon as the Priest nodded in satisfaction.
"Strange..." The servant of Seguna drew out, and then I noticed that a dagger had been at my groin the entire time. "I thought the Mistress would turn away from you when you accepted the Light-blessed gift today in front of thousands." Mentioning the Light, the Priest spat on the ground.
"She hasn't." I shrugged, maintaining a neutral expression, signaling I wasn't going to explain any further, and it was entirely my right.
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"I see now." The servant of the Night Sister nodded and cleared my path.
Having proved my Affinity with the Shadow, I became closer to the true Priest than even his own brothers and sisters. I am the one blessed by his true spiritual mother – Seguna. If someone from his entourage were to lay a hand on me now, the Priest would personally kill or maim them, depending on his mood.
"May your whisper be heard." Nodding to the servant, I offer a formal wish, addressed only to the Priests of the Shadow and no one else.
"May your steps be silent." The master of Shadows bowed his head.
These words are not only a formal blessing but also permission for me to proceed.
"Scatter." A brief command, a casual hand gesture accompanying the movement of all surrounding shadows, and within moments, the street seems to become desolate.
At the city wall, only the Priest and I remain. As for everyone else, they have dispersed and hidden in the alleys like frightened street rats. Apparently, the Priest intends to accompany me in my prayer. It wasn't what I would have preferred, but I couldn't object either; in this situation, he was well within his rights. Together, we approach the designated spot and sit in unison before a seemingly ordinary section of the city wall. The Priest mutters something incoherent, and we are covered by a Shadow Dome, making our duo invisible even to observers of the initial levels of the Legendary Coil.
Trying not to pay attention to the servant of Seguna sitting next to me, I place my hands on the cold stone and reach out to the True Altar. Of course, I'm reaching out not with my hands but with thoughts and desires channeled through the Shadow Affinity. Unlike the last time, the Echo of the Night Sister responds to my prayers almost immediately. With every cell of my body, every bit of the Core's energy, I feel the divine attention directed at me. The Night Sister was pleased with my antics during the award ceremony. The shadow is pleased with me. Seguna is smiling.
It's the perfect time to ask, and I pray to be granted the ability of the "Shadow Cloak." However, the Echo of the Lady of Shadows nonchalantly lets my request pass her attention. "Shadow Player" is Bestowed to me this night.
In the Last Cycle, I only knew two individuals who managed to acquire this skill. One was a local master of Shadows, and the other was someone familiar to me in this Cycle, met during the second group task, Rahu.
"Shadow Player," the one who plays with Shadows, unlike "Shadow Cloak," is a higher, legendary-ranked skill. Yet, I'm not particularly thrilled to receive it. In theory, "Player" is an incredibly powerful ability; at its peak development, it allows one to create a physical clone from their own shadow and remotely control it. The prospects opened by such a skill are hard to overstate. But, as is typical for Ain, it's not that simple. Firstly, this skill needs to be developed and trained, and no less intensively than Illusions. Secondly, with only three Talent Stars in Shadows, I won't be able to progress beyond its second stage, which allows one to hear and feel everything that your shadow touches. I'm not even sure that creating a full-fledged Shadow Clone is possible without five Stars. So it turns out that until I complete the questers' task of searching for forgotten altars, this skill is less useful to me than the simple and widely known "Shadow Cloak."
The echo of Seguna apparently believes it has granted me a great blessing, but I wish it had just heeded my prayers without its "extra touch." Of course, I did my utmost not to show my annoyance. I quickly thanked the Night Sister and hastily ended the meditative prayer. When my eyes opened, the first thing I saw was the edge of a blade, hovering just millimeters from my pupil.
"Your prayer has been heard." The Priest of the Shadow hissed at me like a python learning to speak, practically sniffing for any sign of displeasure of his Mistress.
The fact that the Shadows didn't curse me, despite my interaction with the Light, seemingly didn't fit into the Priest's worldview. To soothe him, I played my trump card:
"Visualization."
"Shadow Player." The Priest's throat seemingly dried up at the sight, and he coughed out the words rather than whispered them. "In all my time serving, I've never seen such a Gift. Neither did my predecessor or the one before him."
"The ways of the Shadow are mysterious," I replied, slightly altering a phrase familiar to every earthling.
"The ways... of the Shadow... are mysterious..." Drawing out each word, the Priest said, his gaze fixated on the sky where the full Seguna was just passing by. "I have heard the revelation." The servant of the Shadows stated more firmly. "Thank you for the guidance, Brother." Rising, the Priest of the Night Sister bowed deeply to me.
Since any word from me would break the spell of the moment, I silently rose to my feet, gave the Priest a formal nod, and stepped beyond the Shadow Dome's boundary.
Despite the Priest of the Night Sister recognizing me, his minions, and more so the rest of the slum dwellers, were unaware of my identity. Therefore, as soon as I stepped out from under the protection of the magic dome, I immediately covered my face with my hood and darkened it with Illusion. After the Priest acknowledged me and I offered a prayer to Seguna alongside him, his servants naturally did not pursue me. Nonetheless, before heading home, I wandered through the nighttime city extensively. I didn't notice anyone tailing me, and no curious slum dweller trailed behind. So, after making a considerable detour and nearly reaching the trading port piers, I turned towards the quarter that had almost become a home to me.
I walked through the virtually empty nighttime streets of Tries, pondering what to do with my new Shadow ability. Should I start developing it, focusing on the task of finding the hidden altars, or should I not risk it? If I fail to complete the quest within the given time, the penalty will zero out my Shadow Talent Stars, rendering all my related abilities, skills, and spells useless. Of course, I believe I can complete the task, but there's still a chance of failure, and ignoring it would be reckless. That's why, before finding all the hidden altars, I planned to acquire only the simplest basic Shadow skills that don't require much time to learn and are immediately beneficial, such as Shadow Cloak. Or those that provide situational advantages like the Kiss of Seguna. Alas, Shadow Player is a skill of another caliber. It could be a brilliant investment in the future or a pointless burden, requiring a lot of time and effort that might not pay off.
If I were one hundred percent sure that the quest to find the altars would be successful, I would have applied the bonus from the "Movement Against" achievement to the Shadow. Even if it went against my original plan, where this bonus served as a backup in case studying the Runes hits a dead end. The opportunity to master Shadow Clone by the beginning of the Invasion is too tempting to resist. However, since I currently estimate the probability of failing the altar quest at about thirty percent, I considered such a risk unwarranted.
On the other hand, even at three Talent Stars, the "Player" might be helpful. Not as a combat enhancer, but as a supporting skill, it's worth considering and not shelving "for later."
Upon activating "Shadow Player," I immediately noticed that this ability required more prana than mana to sustain - at a ratio of four to one. This was definitely a plus since most of my abilities, skills, and spells currently consumed more magical energy than spiritual energy, creating an imbalance. Walking through the night streets of Tries with the "Player" in passive mode, I probably looked like I was drunk from the outside. I constantly tripped, staggered, ran into walls, and sometimes just stood still. The reason was that my unaccustomed mind couldn't process the new flow of information. Even basic activation of Shadow Player resulted in me feeling everything my shadow touched. Every pebble, every crack in the wall, every puddle... These sensations couldn't be described with the usual set of feelings. It was neither vision, nor touch, nor hearing, nor smell. Something different, new, unique. Because of this, I sometimes lost spatial orientation, getting confused by the new sensory signals from my own shadow. It got even worse when I was under multiple light sources and began to cast several shadows. That's when my brain simply gave up, and I froze in place.
During ten minutes of this experiment, I bumped into walls three times, a lamp post once, fell down twice, and soaked my feet five times by walking straight through deep puddles. When, after stumbling, I nearly sprawled on the cobblestones right in the middle of a vast puddle just because some rat ran across my shadow, I decided it was enough and turned off the "Player."
This ability can definitely be useful even at my current Stars. Especially as a search skill. Wherever my shadow fell, I felt the slightest crack or roughness. I even "heard" when a tiny bug was scratching its legs in my shadow. Curious, new sensations that I'd never experienced before.
There's just one unpleasant catch – you can't master this skill overnight. It will certainly take time and perseverance. On the other hand, training "Shadow Player" will not only improve this skill but will also enhance the mind. To get used to this new flow of sensations, my brain will have to build neural connections and create new chains, which is always beneficial.
I'm sure that, against the backdrop of getting used to shadow sensations, maintaining four Auras at once will become a mundane task for me. That alone would compensate for all the time spent training "Shadow Player." However, I should've started honing the skill while sitting in a comfortable position with a single light source behind me. And initially, I should have cross-referenced the "readings" from the shadow senses with my familiar sight, hearing, and touch.
I was wrong at the altar. Even in its current form, "Shadow Player" might be more useful than "Shadow Cloak."
Lifting my head, I found Seguna with my gaze. I paused for a second, then bowed to the Night Sister, whispering softly:
"Thank you."