The sun began its descent towards the black hole corona, painting the sky in brilliant shades of purple and orange. Dave watched as the three Healer apprentices prepared to leave for the evening.
"Are you going to be fine?" Terri asked, lingering behind the others. Her green eyes flickered between Dave and Cedez, who was preoccupied with feeding mana crystals to Healy.
"Yes," Dave nodded firmly. "I've got a plan to separate Cedez off from the other shadows. A dimensional bag.”
"And if that doesn't work? What if she gets out and then the other shadows learn everything?" Terri pressed.
"Then we'll figure something else out," Dave shrugged. “Or fight them off. Together. I’m not going to abandon anyone. Is that understood?”
“Yes,” Terri said, lowering her eyes and shuddering ever so slightly. “Be safe, David.”
She gave him a quick hug and then rushed off to join Dumpich and Leon, heading down the hillside towards Healers Hall.
Dave walked back up to the balcony, following the sound of a familiar melody.
Cedez was sitting cross-legged on the sofa, humming "Waiting For Love” while Healy sat in her lap, twinkling along with almost music-like chimes.
The Kitlix's crystalline form was now much bigger and had distinct swirls of shadow dancing through it, making her look like a miniature galaxy.
His stomach chose that moment to growl loudly.
"Oh my, someone else is hungry!" Cedez's ears perked up. "Come on Remy, let's feed our dashing necromancer before he noms on our souls for sustenance!"
Before Dave could protest about the fact that he couldn't eat the soul of someone who was still alive, Cedez had grabbed Remicra's hand and dragged the dragoness downstairs. They returned about ten minutes later with plates of sizzling steaks.
"Did Bessie cook these?" Dave asked, accepting a plate.
"Nah, I did the spicing while Remy burned them on her forge," Cedez grinned. "See, she's quite good at burning things as a dragon, unlike me. You should keep her!”
"It's not burning, it's searing… using the Ignix," Remicra shot back, blushing slightly. “I can't personally manifest dragonfire or whatever.”
“I think that you need a magic hoard for that,” Cedez commented. “Best start hoarding stuff. I recommend making Dave into your first kobold.”
Remicra simply glared at her in response.
After dinner, Dave began to carefully examine his expanded bag, trying to recall exactly how Zolish used dimensional magic, figuring out the bag’s spatial mechanics through Healy's vision. The bag's interior appeared as a two-by-two meter sphere of extradimensional space, manifested and anchored to reality via a crystalline runework burned into a metal ring gate which framed the bag’s entry covered by a leather flap.
Using the knife Remicra made for him, Dave carefully cut up the expansion bag and broke the crystal ring up into smaller chunks, watching as the extradimensional space vanished from existence.
Then, he slowly fed each piece of the broken ring to Healy. Using the knowledge of Voidmancer Zolish and Sherlock's fine control over Healy's Voidmancy, he guided his Kitlix to absorb and organize the fragments, gradually incorporating them into her already complex internal matrix.
Through Healy's eyes, Dave stared into the Kitlix, observing distinctive crystalline fragments floating inside her.
"Why are you feeding your broken bag to your Kitlix?" Remicra asked, watching his work.
"I’m making Healy into a living dimensional gate," he replied.
"Is that even possible?" The dragoness asked.
"I think so. At least the ghostly memories of Zolish suggest that it's possible," Dave said. He focused on Healy, directing her to reshape herself into a large ring. The Kitlix complied, her crystalline form flowing like liquid mercury until she formed a perfect circle in his hands. The crystalline ring pieces snapped together inside her and with a crackle of static and a flash of released mana, the dimensional gate opened up once again.
"Damn! Dave just invented a living expansion bag!" Cedez clapped. "A Kitlix bag! A Baglix! No wait... a Katpack! A Purrrse!"
"Do you think you’re funny?" Remicra asked.
"A Pouchix!" Cedez continued undeterred. “Yes. I am and you love it. Hrm. Heals, which end of you do I pet now?”
A pair of crystalline ears emerged out of the top of the ring and a single, small eye opened between them.
“Here we go,” Cedez nodded. “Yes. Purrfect.” She petted the space between the ears and the eye slanted contentedly into a halfmoon at Cedez's pets, the crystalline ears wiggling.
"I'll be damned," Murdoc commented, watching Healy's ring form. "Never seen anything quite like this in all my years.”
“Don't old magic bags turn into Kitlix?” Dave asked.
“Old magic bags usually implode,” Murdoc said. “Gate mages have gate opening Portalix Kitlix. They aren't ring shaped. I've no idea how you even turned it into a ring.”
“Must be a Phantomancy thing,” Cedez commented.
“Can Healy maintain the extradimensional space when the gate is closed?" Remicra asked.
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"Only one way to find out," Dave replied. “I’m going to need something organic to test it on.”
Cedez grabbed one of the flowerpots from the balcony garden. At Murdoc’s whispered order to his Kitlix, a transparent tentacle emerged from a wall alcove and dropped a frozen fish onto Dave’s lap.
Dave accepted the flower and the fish and shoved both into Healy. Then he mentally ordered Healy to close the gate, while maintaining the extradimensional space. The gate vanished and then Healy’s form flowed back into a more typical Kitlix shape, though notably larger than before, a spark of dimensional magic burning in the center of her crystalline body.
"Did it work?" Cedez asked, leaning forward with interest.
“I think so,” Dave focused his control over the Void. A new eye of Healy’s opened, this one located inside the extradimensional space itself.
Dave stared at the fish and the plant floating inside the extradimensional bubble with his third eye.
“Yes!” He declared. “The bubble is still being maintained, and there’s no exit!”
"Urm, how much air is in there?" Remicra asked, peering at Healy. "Would it be enough for Cedez to survive the entire night?"
Dave tried to recall the formula for the volume of a sphere. "Let's see... V = 4/3 × π × r³... With a two meter radius that's about 16.8 cubic meters of air… I think?”
“Don’t worry your adorkable head about it,” Cedez commented. "Shadows don't actually need to breathe. When night comes or when I get disconnected from Shandria, my body stops being physical. It's more like... concentrated, angry darkness given form."
"Are you sure?" Dave asked. "I don't want to accidentally suffocate you."
“Pretty sure,” Cedez nodded with a small frown. “You heard your ghost pal, Saint Saria… I’m not actually alive. I’m Shadowmancy, emulating a person. Look, why don’t I go inside now for ten minutes? Just a quick test… before I have to spend the whole night there?”
“Okay,” Dave nodded, reopening the Healy-gate with a flash of magic.
"Wait," Remicra said suddenly. "What if something goes wrong? How will we know if she's okay in there?"
“Aww you’re worried about me,” Cedez cooed.
"I'm just being practical," Remicra huffed. "We need some way to communicate with you."
“Just admit it, you always wanted an awesome beastie like me,” Cedez grinned with foxy chompers.
"I can see inside the dimensional bubble through Healy's eyes," Dave assured the smith. "And Cedez can sense Healy and talk to her through the shared Shadow connection. Likewise, I should be able to sense and assess Cedez through Healy. I'll know if anything's wrong, don’t worry.”
The dragoness ignited with orange tones.
"It's okay, Remy. I won't tell anyone how much you care," Cedez teased, hugging Remicra. “Accept it. You're stuck with me forever now. We're going to be the best of friends and go on magical adventures with Dave and..."
"Like I believe that, you blabbermouth. Can we please focus on testing the storage bubble? Sunset is less than an hour away!" Remicra interrupted, though Dave noticed her tail had curled around Cedez protectively.
"Fine, fine," Cedez sighed dramatically, releasing the dragoness.
With a spring in her step, she ran inside the snail-shell apartment and emerged in another minute in a white robe and handed Dave her gemstone covered dark leather dress. "If I don't make it back, tell Remy I loved her grumpy face!"
"Just get in there already," Remicra grumbled, scales dancing with orange and violet.
Cedez blew them both a kiss and stepped through the gate. Dave immediately focused on Healy's inner eye, watching as the foxgirl sat on the pitch black floor of the bubble in a lotus pose.
“I’m ready! Send me into the abyss!” Cedez gave Dave a thumbs up.
Dave deactivated the gate, separating the extradimensional bubble off from the rest of Arx. Guided by Dave, Healy formed a single ear above the inner-space eye.
"Houston," Cedez joked at the Kitlix ear, floating up as gravity within the space vanished. "The artificial gravity seems to be malfunctioning. Also, I left my space helmet at home."
“How is she?” Murdoc asked, pale, wrinkly fingers kneading his Kitlix nervously.
“Fine so far,” Dave said.
At first, the foxgirl seemed merely amused by the weightlessness, slowly twirling in the air. But then her ears flattened against her head, and her playful expression morphed into one of rising panic.
A bone-chilling howl erupted from her throat as shadows began to pour from her body, writhing and twisting around her like living smoke. Her back split open with a sickening crack as blade-like wings burst through the white robe, followed by more wings, and more sharp edges, until she resembled a nightmarish angel-moth.
The transformation didn't stop there. Her body elongated, segments sprouting from her torso like a centipede made of pure darkness. Her face stretched into a draconic muzzle filled with saw-like teeth, while new eyes multiplied across her form like burning blue stars.
The shadow creature that had been Cedez spiraled frantically around the confined space, searching desperately for an exit, her segmented body coiling like a trapped serpent. Multiple wings beat against the air, twisting her in increasingly erratic patterns.
Then she spotted Healy's eye watching her.
The creature froze, all of its blazing eyes fixing on that single point of observation. The way she stared at Healy's eye was unnervingly intense, like a predator that had just spotted potential prey... or perhaps a desperate prisoner who had just found a possible means of escape.
"Dave," Remicra said nervously, noticing his tense expression. "What's happening in there?"
“She changed into a shadow,” Dave said.
“And?” Murdoc asked.
“She’s staring right at Healy’s eye,” Dave replied, swallowing nervously. “Hopefully there’s enough Shadow in Healy for Cedez not to outright attack her.”
The shadow creature's eyes remained fixed on Healy's crystalline eye. Dave felt a sudden wave of wild emotions wash over him through the Shadow connection.
[Trapped. Angry. Confused. Need to return to the flock.] Emotion-thoughts-visuals pounded against the eye.
"She's... communicating!" Dave said.
“How? Shadows don’t talk,” Murdoc asked.
“It’s… not words, more like… uhh… visual feelings,” Dave replied.
[Hive! Must return to hive! Where exit?] Shadow-Cedez demanded. Her wings beat frantically, creating ripples of darkness that spread through the round space. Her segmented body coiled tighter, like a spring ready to release. Long, dark feelers probed the edges of the dimensional space, searching for escape.
[Calm. Safety. Stay.] Dave replied, trying to replicate the pattern of image-feelings flowing from the Shadowbeast.
[NOT SAFE! WRONG! ALONE! WHERE FLOCK?!]
[Flock is here. Relax.] Dave sent back.
[Where Flock?! Only one of you here, weaker than me! Panic! Concern! Where Mother?! Where exit?! WHERE HIVE?! Don’t understand!]
[Relax! You are safe, promise!] Dave pushed against the waves of fear, irritation and confusion.
The intensity of her emotions almost overwhelmed him, making him dizzy. But beneath the panic and desperate need to return to Shandria, he sensed something else - perhaps a tiny spark of recognition, of Cedez's consciousness still present within the writhing mass of shadow.
[This is a place for you to rest. Rest! Relax.] He insisted. [Flock is here. Nearby. Watching. Listening. This is temporary.]
The shadow creature's frantic movements slowed slightly. Several of her eyes blinked in sequence, creating an almost hypnotic pattern.
[Rest?! Relax?! Why?! Don’t understand! Must protect the hive. Must fly. Must seek, tear, consume enemies! WHERE ENEMIES?! YOU LOOK WRONG. Maybe… Enemy pretending to be one of our flock?]