> “The end of the Second Age was the catalyst for the development of the cultivation traditions employed by the sects of the Golden Valley in what is now the Jin Empire. The great mages who had once founded kingdoms, waged wars, and built cities died off without any successors. Anarchy led to tribes and clans forming sects where the goals were safety and the development of techniques to wield magic in the changing world. The result was a tradition of martial arts combined with complex, resource-intensive, structured training that would raise children into powerful mages. Over time, the mages of the past were deified and cultivators seizing magical power for themselves were believed to be on the path towards ascension into the heavens.”

-Professor Dryden Lumley, excerpt from Magical Traditions of the Known World.

Al woke to the sounds of chirping birds feeling like a different person. Everything around him felt more real? It was an odd sensation. He was also more aware of his own body and the movements it was making. He could feel his heart pumping, blood flowing through his body, muscle fibers stretching and contracting, and yesterday's food making its way through his digestive tract. He looked around the room and noticed that he seemed to pick up more detail, especially in areas untouched by the morning sun. Distracted by his enhanced senses, it took Al a few minutes before the memory of the previous night came back to him. What happened?

One moment, he had been resting in the dark and in the next, the darkness embraced him. There was a surge of power and changes to his senses. He knew this is what happened to someone who touched an awakening stone and attuned to an element. What he did not understand was how it had happened to him and the nature of the power he now had. It was both terrifying and exciting.

He knew that when someone attuned to an element, a core formed that enabled the person to hold power. It existed alongside a person’s magic channels in a parallel plane. People did not have magical organs floating around their intestines. Everyone with a core developed The Sense, an ability that allowed individuals to sense their magic channels flowing through them as well as the core.

He closed his eyes and imagined his own body, focusing on a spot below his navel. There was something there. It was weak but it was a spot of pure darkness with a consistency he could only describe as misty. It was as he suspected but what was this power? It wasn’t any of the elements granted by the Caldynian awakening stone nor did it match any of the elements the Caldynian wizard families had passed down to their descendants. He was not very familiar with the stones in Burgun, Variny, Aragille, and Isaz but from what he could recall, none of them granted a black core. Of course, there were other magical elements in the world, some still undiscovered and many unseen since the Second Age.

That brought him back to his original thought. How did this happen? Natural attunement had not occurred since the Second Era and the days of the Great Empire but was unable to find an alternate explanation. He did not drink a mysterious potion or undergo a dangerous ritual. He had not gone through years of strict guided meditation while eating strange herbs like the Golden Valley cultivators. He would need to consult with a trusted scholar who could keep this quiet and provide him with information on past users of this element, if the information existed. They might be able to figure out how he had awakened.

He put aside the “How” questions and decided to focus on his next steps. First, his focus went back to the mysterious black core. He sat down on the ground and intuitively activated the core, pulling in energy from his surroundings as if he was taking in a breath from another set of lungs. He felt the energy flowing into him, mostly from the darker parts of the cabin, strongest from under his bed. He continued until the core could take no more energy and hours had passed. He never grew bored during that time. The meditation left him energized and his misty core denser. This worked exactly as described in his pre-awakening class. The more he pulled in energy, the stronger his core would become. This part was easy. Nothing in his education had prepared him for the next step.

Al stepped outside to ensure that his cabin and possessions were safe and walked to a nearby clearing in the forest. He focused on his core and released the energy through his channels and towards his hands. The energy flowed like water until it exited the tips of his fingers, where it struggled to move. Was the sunlight a problem? That’s what his senses told him. His element was weaker in sunlight. Regardless, he had more to learn so he pushed until the energy coming out of his fingers appeared as thin black tendrils waving in the air. A moment later, the tendrils were gone. He had already emptied the core.

He retreated to his cabin for another round of mediation, not bothering to stop and eat. It was already mid-afternoon. His next experiment would come at night and he had a feeling it would be far more interesting than his first.

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As the sun set, he felt energy enter his body far faster than it had earlier. He also realized that he could see in the dark. Was it sight though? It felt like something different. It was as if he had developed a sixth sense dedicated to darkness. He could navigate the night as well with his eyes closed as he could with them open, though anything farther than a few strides away in any direction was indecipherable. His eyes were only necessary to perceive the small amount of light around him, which came from the twin moons and stars in the sky. He stepped outside again and drew out the power in his core. This time it was easy. Large pure black tendrils, the length of his arms, came out of his hands, much darker than the surrounding night that was still polluted by the lights from the sky. He manipulated the tendrils and found that he had rough control over them, enough to pick up a nearby rock the size of his head, though it fell as soon as he got it off the ground. Constant use of his power found his core empty again but it had lasted a full five minutes or so this time.

The empty core left Al wondering if there was an even faster method to replenish his energy. If darkness was the answer, he knew the perfect place. An hour’s walk from the cabin was a cave system that he had explored with his brother. The beginning was small, cramped, dark, and you had to crawl on your stomach through running water to get through sections. It led to a large cavern where there would be no light to interfere with his powers. Once the idea was in his head, Al did not hesitate to walk straight to the cave, picking up a large number of edible mushrooms on the way. His new abilities made this easy. He could find mushrooms on the other side of trees and logs with his senses.

What had once been a grand adventure with his brother Saris was now as easy as a stroll through a city park. The only inconvenience was the water and mud in sections that necessitated crawling. His mind wandered back to when Saris had first brought him here. He had been a scared kid crawling in the dark, doing his best to keep up with his brother who held the only lantern they had brought. Looking back, these little adventures with his encouraging brother had done wonders for his self-confidence. By the time he was ten years old, it was him who was dragging his fifteen-year-old brother around to explore caves, ravines, and unmapped portions of the forest. Saris was gone but he would always have these memories.

Once in the cavern, Al began pulling in energy from his surroundings. It only took ten minutes to reach his limit. His core was full and he started to send energy through his fingers. But, instead of tendrils flopping in the air, the darkness from his body seemed to merge with the darkness around him. He was able to sense the entire cavern around him instead of a small section. He was also able to mold the darkness into solid objects. He made a long, thin form and swung it like a sword at the nearby wall. It struck and left a shallow gouge in the rock.

Al continued for hours, cycling between absorbing power and finding out how his ability worked. He found out that he could move at a sprinter's pace in the darkness and was even able to slide around like an Isazi ice skater. It was more efficient to run but he could use the ability to slide around corners and get around objects. He also found that he was able to exhibit some control of the area surrounding his body, the size of a sphere with a radius around the same length as his height. He could create solid objects without touching them, though it was easier if he did.

After several rounds of energy gathering and training, he collapsed in exhaustion and slept. When he woke, he continued exploring his abilities. He stayed hydrated by drinking from the cave’s stream and somewhat nourished from eating the mushrooms he had collected. This continued for several days, though he was unsure of how long his stay in the cave was without the sun or a timekeeping device to inform him a day had passed. It was the lack of food that eventually drew him out of the cave.

His cave training had increased the speed at which he absorbed energy, honed his ability to sense objects in the dark, and improved his ability to control the energy around him. He could make an actual sword instead of a long pointy object. He could pick up a flat stone with a shadow tendril and skip it over water. Finally, he could easily stick to and scale the walls and ceiling of the cavern. Of course, this was all done in likely the darkest environment a person could access. The powers would be diminished outside, even on a moonless night. Still, he now had an idea of what he could do in optimal conditions. With training, he hoped he could replicate these feats outside of the cave.

Al emerged from the cave as the sun was rising and spent the rest of the day fishing, cooking, and eating trout before falling asleep on a bed that was much more comfortable than cave rock. It took him a few days of sleeping and eating before Al felt completely recovered from the ordeal. It was as he suspected, his abilities were still weak outside the cave. Yet, he could feel the clear difference from when he had first attuned to the element. He could create small spikes around him and in his hands at night. He could move rapidly through the forest with his acute senses and ability to move faster in darkness. The darker the area he stepped into, the faster the movement and the better his ability to slide on the ground.

After giving himself a few days to experiment with his abilities outside the cave, Al decided it was finally time for him to go back to his other pressing task. Focusing on his new abilities had given him an outlet that he had lacked in the previous weeks. His mind was feeling more clear and he was in a much better state to consider the facts of what had happened to his family and any potential clues he could uncover. He already had an idea for how to use his interesting new abilities.