Weave Among the Mists

I found Shadow sitting on the edge of the cliff on top of the plateau that overlooked the mountain tops piercing through the sea of mist, and the setting sun casting everything into an orange glow.

His legs were crossed beneath him, and his nine tails were swaying behind him gently. I walked over and sat next to him, joining him in admiring the view.

A lot has happened since I last spoke with him, a lot that I was struggling to come to terms with. I realized just how much I had come to rely on his advice. We found each other on Ish Vimza, saved one another, and he had accepted me into his family. Gave me a name, which meant the world to me.

The family that I was born into sold me to the cartel, and my sire… even with knowing the reasons why he acted as he had, he still stood by and watched them hang me. Shadow was the first person who had accepted me fully for me. Sometimes, I found it hard to identify with the person that was Marianna Rojas, the vampire cartel member. It was the other me, The Star That Dances In Blood Beneath the Light of the Broken Moon, that felt like the real me. In the moments when I danced amongst my enemies, while I drew blood and had it drawn from me, those were the moments when I felt myself the most.

The Star That Dances in Blood, it was an apt name that Shadow had given me. Only now did I realized just how true it was, he had seen through me, understood me better than I had ever understood myself.

I struggled to begin, his opinion, even that of his copy, meant a lot to me. I’d been stalling before, by clearing all the rooms before coming here.

Somehow, he could tell, so he broke the silence first.

“Tell me,” he just said simply and I sagged in relief.

I started with everything that had happened since I’d last visited. When I reached the point in my story about the meeting with my sire, I had to pause and try to marshal my thoughts. For a moment I almost slipped into my sire’s teachings, trying to suppress my emotions, but then I remembered.

I do not suppress my Emotion, I Embrace.

He taught me that, so that’s what I did.

My nostrils flared. “He stood by and let them hang me because he had a debt. Me, his Fledgling, as far as the vampire kind is concerned, his daughter.”

I clenched my fists, felt my nails bit deep into my palms, drawing blood. “A life debt he said, as if he didn’t have the same toward me. I didn’t ask to be sold, I didn’t ask to be turned, he made me who I am. His blood ran down my throat,” I ran the fingers of my left hand down my right. “Through my veins.”

I closed my eyes, the thirst had woken up, it whispered within me, reacting to my emotions. The voice was so faint, filled with gibberish that I couldn’t understand yet still knew the meaning of. It wanted me to feed, it believed that blood would solve all of my problems, that it would make me feel better.

“And in the end none of that meant enough for him to break his word. He was powerful enough that he could’ve interfered and he decided not to.”

I was growling by the end, my heart beat faster, blood surging through my body. I took a deep breath, grabbing hold of my anger with an effort of will.

It was okay to feel anger, but I wouldn’t let it control me.

“We all make mistakes, Little Star,” Shadow said softly. “My own life is filled with things that I regret greatly. I do not mean to make it seem that you must forgive and forget. I believe that I can offer some context, as someone who had lived a long life like your sire, though his age is… it is greater than even the oldest of those on Kirios. Regardless, when you live a life that is so long, change is difficult. Your word becomes much more important to you, as most other things become fleeting. He apologized to you, and that is an acknowledgment of his wrong. He spoke to you and offered the truth as recompense.”

“As if that is enough to make things right,” I whispered.

“If you had died it wouldn’t have been. Yet, reality is that you lived. I will not tell you how to feel toward him, or what your future relationship with him should be, that is your decision to make. I would only ask that you give consideration to the whole.”

I didn’t respond, I didn’t know what to say yet. Part of me was glad that it wasn’t about me, that he was remorseful, even if I was so confused that I didn’t even know how to feel anything other than anger. It was not lost on me that part of me that wanted to forgive was the part that had been so starved for any type of familial affection since I was a child. It was probably why I had bonded with Shadow so quickly.

At least I wasn’t in denial about that. Becoming a vampire put a lot of things in perspective, it cut through the bullshit that humans told themselves when they were trying to avoid things. A vampire’s brain worked differently, a predator didn’t have the need for defensive mechanisms.

I shook my head, those thoughts were for later. “Thank you for listening,” I said and stood up.

Shadow turned, the fox ears on top of his head twitched as he gazed up at me. “Of course.”

I glanced to the side where a set of stairs led to the trial that this entire room was here for in the first place.

“I want to try the trial,” I said.

Shadow stood and stepped next to me. He looked at the path leading to the trial and then after a few seconds of contemplation, spoke.

“I don’t pretend to understand your kind, your strengths and weaknesses. If what you say is true, and I have no reason to doubt it. Perhaps you are strong enough now to attempt it. Your strength is certainly high enough, a B rank at second Investment is a testament to your kind’s power.”

“I want to try it anyway,” I steeled myself, making a decision. The challenge had just under two weeks left, and I wanted to win. “I need power.”

My fight with the Suul had showed me clearly that even with all of my advantages, I could die, I could be overwhelmed. If my sire hadn’t arrived and saved me, I would be dead.

“You know that I will be gone if you complete it,” Shadow said slowly.

I blinked, I had forgotten. “I…”

He grinned at me. “Don’t worry, I’m not afraid of dying, I’m not real in the first place. I’m part memories, part imprint of the real Shadow, and part the Grand Spell. I won’t really be gone. But you will lose access to my advice, my presence.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

My face fell, but then I closed my eyes and straightened. “I can’t keep relying on you. And besides, in less than five months the portals will open, then after that the protection around our continent will be lifted. You, the other you, will be able to come over then.”

Shadow didn’t comment on that, he just kept grinning at me. “Very well then, you should attempt the trial on your own,” he looked pointedly at Saia. “I know that she is part of you, considered so by the Grand Spell, but… I would ask that you honor the customs of my ancestors anyway.”

I inclined my head, and Saia flowed from my body to retake her drone form.

“You don’t need to stay here anymore,” I told her. “No need to split your attention.”

Like Shadow, this physical drone of Saia wasn’t real, perhaps nothing here was. Her connection to me allowed her to manifest inside of here, but it meant taking away the processes that were even now watching over our camp in the real world.

“Statement: Acknowledged.”

With that, she faded out of sight and out of my soul space. I turned to Shadow, but hesitated, he had already told me that he wouldn’t share anything about the test, the Weave Among the Mists Trial. All that he had told me was that there were three parts to it.

I inclined my head to him then started walking. The stairs led away from the ledge and into a narrow chasm with stairs carved through it, leading deeper into the mountain.

It didn’t take long for me to reach what I could only imagine was the start of the trial. A giant stone arch stood before me, contrasted against the open sky above me and flanked by the mountain on either side. The entrance was decorated with images. A figure with wings folded on its back stood in the center of a round arena, with wiggly lines drawn all around it. This would be a Tengu-gi, Shadow’s father’s kind, also confirmed by an elongated nose that was even longer than Shadow’s.

There were six more images, all depicting the same arena, only the figure changed. It was apparent to me that the images were depicting a movement set of some kind. It was like a dance, with whirls and gestures of the arms in some strange flowing movement. The last image had the figure standing with arms wide as the lines moved around it.

I frowned at it, then walked forward. I knew little about the trial. Only that Shadow used it to gain a skill, and that it was something used by his father’s people to gain mastery of their Way of the Mind, a state that was in some ways dangerous.

I expected danger, Shadow had said that I could die. He had believed it likely even. His people didn’t allow anyone below the Third Investment to even attempt it. But I was a vampire, physically, I was stronger than probably any Tengu-gi without their Mask.

A set of stairs was beyond the entrance, leading down into the arena, which was filled with thick mist. There was little sound, except the soft groaning of stone around me that probably no one else but a vampire would be able to hear.

I stepped down, entering the mist until it was a thick fog and I was submerged in it. It was so thick that I couldn’t see past my face, the world became dark gray and I focused on my other senses to guide me. It didn’t take me long to realize that it was so thick that it had a weight to it that made it hard to breathe in. Thankfully, I didn’t need to breathe often.

I walked straight forward until I reached the end and a stone wall. I reached out and touched it, but felt no give or any clues to indicate where the exit was. As I walked along the wall, I detected holes at set intervals, every few meters. Finally, I made my way around the entire arena and realized that there was no exit.

I started walking every step of the arena, looking for any clues. I found nothing. Finally, around ten minutes later, I went back to the exit and stepped out of the mist. I took a single deep breath, then let it out slowly, before taking in another. A vampire needed oxygen a lot less than humans did, our blood was slower, thicker and conserved oxygen a lot better. We still breathed of course, we couldn’t talk without air in our lungs.

I could see why Shadow was worried. Anyone attempting this trial would need to be able to hold their breath for a long time. If I had attempted it before I reached the Elder stage I might’ve had some issues. I felt a lot stronger now. And I still didn’t know what I had to do to pass it.

I turned to the images at the entrance, assuming that they were a clue of some kind.

The lines inside of the arena were obviously the depictions of the fog. The figure was dancing, and at the last image the fog was moving around him. Now I noticed small notches all around the arena, and realized that the mist was moving around the figure and into those holes.

I crossed my arms and tapped my fingers against my elbow. If I was to take the images literally, the figure danced and then the mist moved. That… actually reminded me of something that Shadow had explained to me long ago. About the Esoteric attribute, the one that he had called the perfection in all things. It was supposed to be closely linked to the school of being, it was the truth between the person and the Way itself.

Shadow had shown me a skill like that once, one that he hadn’t gained from his Mask, but through perfection of an act. I remembered how I felt when he used it, the way that it had echoed in my mind and impacted the world itself.

Something about the figure on the images movements reminded me of that act.

Was that the test? Being able to perfectly execute these movements in such a way that the world would respond, that the mist would flow around me? Shadow had implied that eventually, once my school of being, my Heart of Azure and Scarlet, reached a point where my dedication to it and my sacrifice was recognized by the Way itself.

If the Source was the fuel for magic, the physical manifestation of that energy, the Weave was the patterns or the skills and spells that commanded it. The Way was then the reality put together, and according to Shadow it was the combination of immutable rules and laws that made it up.

I looked at the images and rolled my shoulders, I didn’t have anything to lose by trying it. I settled into the first position, following the instructions on the wall. There were no movements depicted in between positions, so I had to fill those in myself. I opted for the shortest and most logical movements in between the two positions.

I practiced it for a few minutes, but I got it quickly enough. I was a vampire, control over my own body came easily to me.

I walked down into the arena again, then settled in its center. I assumed the first position then started to move, following the dance that I had seen on the walls. I whirled through the thick mist, my hands spread wide and my footing certain. Every move was perfect, with barely any sound made, my steps were soft and my passage through the mist cutting. Only the sound of my clothes rustling against me could be heard.

When I came to a stop in the final position, my hands thrown out wide and my head tilted to the sky, nothing happened. I rolled my shoulders and walked back to the center. I should’ve known that it wouldn’t be that easy.

I grimaced, then started again. Three more times I danced, and three more times nothing happened, I felt nothing.

After my fifth attempt I walked out of the mist and took a deep breath. I studied the images again, looking to see if there was anything that I missed, then I went back inside.

This time, I tried to empty my mind completely and focus only on the movements. A step to the side and a whirl, my right arm coming up above my head while left went low. I crouched then stood as I stepped out and threw my arms out at the mist.

Nothing.

Again, and again I tried and nothing happened each time.

Finally, I was interrupted, Saia manifested inside the mist.

“Statement: It is time for watch change,” she told me.

I sighed and walked out of the mist. I had hoped that this would be an easy way to get power, I should’ve known better.

I walked down the stairs back to Shadow.

“What is the point of that thing?” I asked, knowing that he wouldn’t answer.

He looked at me, his tails swaying gently behind him.

“It is a right of passage for all Tengu-gi that want to descend below the sea of mist,” he said, and I knew that I would get nothing more from him.

I already knew that the trial was something that Tengu-gi underwent when they wanted to master themselves, and that only those who passed it were allowed to come down their mountains.

I shook my head, then paused. Perhaps there was a hint in that too. The YoKai-Ni continent was covered in mists all the time. The trial seemed to be about controlling the mist in some way, it made sense to have the Tengu-gi equipped with the power to be able to do that if they wanted to venture down their mountains.

Still, I didn’t have the time to think about that nor attempt the trial again. I waved at Shadow and turned to leave, then when I reached the doors I paused and glanced back.

His glowing orange eyes stared right back at me.

“Hey,” I started. “Do you think that I’d be able to beat the mature ferrorn.”

Shadow laughed.

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I left my soul space without attempting to fight the beast. The mature ferrorn was a beast that Shadow had killed when he saved me on Ish Vimza, the one whose young I had killed when I arrived in the jungle. According to Shadow, it was in the Fourth Investment, perhaps even close to fifth. It was a dangerous beast, a hunter. My physical strength at this point should be enough to match it, at least Shadow thought so.

But I didn’t have the time for it, I would have to do it next time I entered my soul space. For now, I had exploring to do, and trials of the Grand Spell to find.