We got back to our current campsite after a bit of walking, but none of us felt tired enough to sleep, despite the sojourn into the centaur-camp. After a moment, to make sure that Sigmir knew everything was alright, I took Rai aside under the guise of a lecture. I was curious what he had to say about the shadow-magic skill he had used to hide us earlier. I was relatively sure that it was a different path to such magical abilities as the Shadow Teleport I had used when attacking Sigmir’s tribe that now eluded me. Unless my guess about the mechanics of that skill were wrong, it used a connection between different, maybe all, shadows to transport the user, which would hint at some sort of shadow-realm. It was enough of a hypothesis to make me wonder and ask Rai how he had tapped into it.

We walked a few steps into the dark forest, both of us silent, as I contemplated how to ask. Ultimately, I decided to simply ask straight out, not trying to posture as his Master or anything along those lines.

“Earlier, when you hid us, I didn’t teach you that. While I think I know what you did, I would like you to explain it to me.” I asked, my voice deliberately calm while I felt Lenore’s eagerness, mirroring my own.

“Yes, Master.” he instantly replied, before taking a second, maybe to organise his thoughts. “When you taught me the Cloak of Shadows, I trained with it, it’s a great spell and I love to use it. But it has its limits, so I started to try out if I could push those limits, without breaking the concealment. For example, finding a way to attack while cloaked, without losing the weight and sharpness of the attack, that would be great. Or a way to use it in the light.” he explained and I felt myself nodding along. The Cloak of Shadows was useful, but I had focused my magical experimentation and deliberation on other aspects. But, while I had tried to train Rai in a few different applications, other than the weakness-curse, he had little talent for the magic I commanded.

“While I was unable to make progress in that direction, I did manage to increase the strength of the concealment, quite literally merging with the shadow I’m hiding in. I wanted to show it to you, once I got something more impressive than that, so that you would be proud, Master.” he finished, his tone making me blush a little. He was desperately looking for approval from an authority-figure, which was I, as his master.

“You did well.” I told him, letting the pride I felt for my disciple shine through. He had taken something I had taught him and pushed it to new heights, pushing the boundaries to improve himself.

“At the same time, I want you to tell me when you are experimenting with something new, magical experimentation is dangerous, of that I am the best example. Remember how often I pushed the boundaries and ended up injured or almost killed for my trouble?” I asked, letting the question stand for a moment, so that he would be able to think of the many incidents during which I had pushed things too far.

“There are two major differences between us, or three, depending on the way you count. The first is that I am able to heal myself, something you are unable to. Unless I injure myself in a non-physical way, I can repair the damage.” again, I paused for a moment before continuing.

“The second major difference is Lenore. Whenever I experiment, she’s with me, looking through my eyes and watching my thoughts, making sure that I don’t forget something important and helping me to keep the magic I’m experimenting with under control. Sadly, you don’t have that advantage.” Right on clue, Lenore left her Hallow, landing on my shoulder and letting out a soft caw.

“And finally, I’m a Traveller. Unless I do something incredibly self-destructive, I won’t die permanently in this realm, I just can’t. Dying, to me, is an inconvenience, albeit a major one. Unless you have some major trick up your sleeves, dying is the end for you.” I finished, stopping my steps to look him over.

“So please, don’t experiment on your own. I’m your master, your teacher. It would sadden me, if you died under my tutelage. And, in addition to that, you are my friend, so let me look out for you.” I asked and noticed that his eyes looked a little moist when I finished.

“Yes, Master, I will. And thank you, Morgana.” he said, bowing in respect.

We continued walking, now silence reigning, before I decided to break it and the somber mood along with it.

“Now, show me what you did earlier, but this time I’ll be looking on from the outside.” I ordered, eagerness to learn something new colouring my voice. I noticed that his body-language reminded me of the wolves when their tails had been wagging a mile a minute, only that he had no visible tail to wag. I hid my amusement about that particular observation, not sure how he would take it.

“Yes, Master.” with that, he stepped back and the shadows coalesced around him, turning his shape irregular and almost impossible to see in the darkness of the nightly forest, even with my low-light vision. That was the normal Cloak of Shadows, as I had taught it to him, maybe a little more polished, due to his repeated use. But then, that vague shape that I only saw because I knew it was there seemed to fade away and I was unable to make him out at all.

“Impressive.” Lenore stated, causing me to look through her eyes. Even with her magic vision, I only saw that there was some darkness-magic in the shadows, nothing more. I was relatively sure that such a perception could come from most applications of darkness-magic, be it scrying or creating the shadows, making the concealment incredibly powerful.

Not to be outdone, I took a deep breath, thinking that maybe I would be able to sniff out more, with my differently working magic perception. But no matter how I tasted the air, trying to get more than vague hints, I was unable to get anything concrete.

After a minute or so, the irregular shape of Rai returned and a moment later, his Cloak of Shadows vanished, allowing me to see him again. He looked quite proud of himself, having watched me for a minute trying to break his concealment, knowing where he was hiding, and failing at doing it.

“Truly impressive. If someone doesn’t know where you are, I doubt that they could get at you. But don’t think that you are invulnerable in there, I’m pretty sure that if someone knows where you are, they will be able to hurt you.” I cautioned him. His concealment was good, great even, but it was no invulnerability.

“What do you mean, Master? I don’t think I have a physical form when hiding in the shadows.” he asked, curious.

“Let me show you. Go back into the shadows.” I ordered, waiting the short time he needed to hide again.

This time, I first decided to go with the simple way, taking out my staff and, joined with Lenore, create a swirling cloud of freezing wind around us, mixing Liquid Moonlight into the magic. As I did, I started feeling out with my Mind Magic, quickly finding the only strong mind other than Lenore and me, the hiding Rai. His focus was somewhere else so slipping into his defense wasn’t too hard and I quickly felt that, while the effect of my ice-magic was dampened, it still reached him, even in the shadows.

“This is another way to reach you.” I told him, speaking directly into his mind, feeling the surprise as I did.

“And this is another one.” I continued before retreating from his mind and dropping my Ice-Magic, instead creating a spell of Darkness-Magic on my own, a slightly advanced version of my anti-magic spell, combining the runes for Devouring, Magic and Shadow. Once it was done, I unleashed it into the shadow he was hiding it, not directly at him, aiming at the point farthest from him, where Lenore could see magic.

It only took a split-second for Rai to reappear, shivering from the cold and looking seriously spooked.

“I see what you mean, I could feel that last spell try to devour the shadow, including me.” he said, looking over his shoulder, as if there was a many-toothed monster about to jump at him from behind. I doubted that it would happen, but made sure that the spell was fully dismissed and every trace of my magic gone from the shadow, before speaking again.

“Good, now, take me with you once again, I want to make sure I understood what you did.” I asked him. He nodded, even if he looked a little fearful at the shadow he had just vacated but it was something he needed to get over, instantly.

We were the monsters in the Darkness, we didn’t fear them.