Beneath that small fissure, barely wide enough to allow my body entry, was so much more. After a few meters of that narrow crag, it widened into a proper cave, possibly created by some ancient glacier. I could almost feel the remains of Ice in the Darkness, even if my body wasn’t physically there, I thought I could taste the delicious taste of the stillness of Ice in the air. Once I reached that point, I pulled myself together, reducing the area I was perceiving, along with the amount of Astral Power I was using. Instead, I let myself fill up that cave, enjoying the perfect darkness, where no light would ever dare to shine.

When I realised that I couldn’t fill up the cave, that my Astral Power would run out before I could manage, I felt a little intoxicated. It was a place of Darkness, carved by Ice. What better place for me to be? Maybe, if I were to conduct a few rituals there, filling the cave up with the delicious scents of Blood and Death, it would be even better? Was there a way to lure one of the Manticores into that space? If so, I might be able to do something… interesting.

Snapping out of my slightly delirious trance, I let my construct dissipate and retracted my steps through the Astral River, back to the cave where we were hiding for the day.

“I found our destination for the night.” I told the others, once my eyes were open.

“I found a good spot, too. Let’s see who has a better hide-out?” Lenore asked, using our mental connection. Giving her a nod, I let her experience my memory of the last few minutes, the sensations of stretching and letting Darkness caress the world. There was something about it that gave me a feeling of intimate wrongness, as if I was doing something I shouldn’t do, but felt wonderful, despite that knowledge.

In contrast to my most curious find, that I truly wanted to explore more, what Lenore had spotted was another cave, similar to the ones we had been using the last couple of days. Sure, it would work and was technically in a better location than the location I had stumbled across but that didn’t matter in the slightest to me. And given the emotions I could feel over the bond with Lenore, neither did it matter to her, she was just as intrigued, even if she wasn’t too fond of caves or the dark.

“That’s an interesting way to scry.” Lenore admitted, after she fully experienced the memory I had sent her.

“Do you think you could use similar magical constructs outside of that? As a method of observation or study, maybe?” she suggested, making me consider for a moment. If I could feel tactile sensations through my shadows, there had to be a certain push-back, at least that was my understanding of physics and magic.

A smile blossomed on my lips, when I began to consider some of the potential implications, not only for practical purposes but also for certain other purposes that most definitely benefited from the cover of darkness. Was there a way to imbue my mind into a shadow and wrap it around Sigmir, feeling and touching her everywhere at once? Now, that was an idea I certainly wanted to try out at some point, if we had enough space to separate from the others.

And in addition, there were the more boring purposes, using it to gain a high-resolution image of an object, if I could do so. It depended a little on my conceptualisation of Darkness in contrast to matter. So far, I had simply acted on instinct and used that tactile sensation in a fashion similar to the way I would touch something solid with my hands, but I doubted that was necessary, after all, Darkness was everywhere, making me wonder if there was a way to influence liquids or even gas that way. If I could, it would be a major addition to my magical abilities,maybe less useful for battle, though there were implications, but just for general utility.

I would have to seriously study that particular idea and the connected concept.

It was then that I realised I had gained two full points in my Darkness-Magic during my scrying-session, making my eyes widen in surprise. So far, gaining two points in one of my advanced magical abilities had been reserved for insane stunts like trespassing into a Divine Domain or fighting a deadly battle against a powerful foe, not for magically gallivanting across the countryside.

“So, where are we going?” Adra asked, forcing me to focus on the present instead of smiling like a loon as I considered fascinating uses of magic.

“There’s a cave nearby, I think it’s rather large. Large enough that we might be able to consider being more proactive with the Manticores, instead of scurrying around and hiding in the dark.” I responded, a little amused at the fact that we’d be still hiding in the dark and scurrying around underground, but it would be by my choice, driven by my curiosity and desire to find out more about those caves, not because the Manticores forced me to hide.

“That doesn’t sound too bad.” Adra agreed, though I could see that the lack of sunlight was slowly getting to her. She was a creature of the forests and while she could easily withstand the winter, even the winter in the freezing north, travelling the mountains, especially above the tree-line, was not for her.

“Don’t worry, if that cavern is what I think it is, we should be able to take a day or two to explore it, before we start to use it, and possibly additional exits, to take the skies back from the Manticores. Once we accomplish that, we can return to the ancient road and quickly travel the rest of the way to Narristo.” I explained, trying to soothe her, promising that we’d soon return to the trees she loved.

The rest of the day passed quite quickly, with me playing around with my latest idea to imbue my will into shadow-constructs and experimenting with their utility. It quickly became evident that there theoretically was infinite utility there, possibly allowing for things like barriers that used the emptiness within an atom as a concept, but sadly, that utility was far out of reach. I managed to create a tactile sensation, one that Lenore could feel through her feathers, but the sensation held about as much strength as a feather. I might be able to lift tiny amounts of dust or dirt, maybe even produce a vague approximation of wind-magic by using the shadows to push a bit of air, but it had such an insanely bad efficiency that it truly wasn’t worth it. While telekinesis via shadows sounded like an interesting idea, I either was on a wrong path, or that path needed a lot more work to make it viable. Thus, it went onto my pile of ideas to work on later, once I had more time.

After night fell, we headed out again. By now, we had the drill down quite well, I was riding on Ylva’s back, allowing me to focus on maintaining my spell while guiding her using our connection, with the other three following behind. Sigmir wasn’t too fond of the arrangement, given that she had to hide in her Hallow, but she accepted that it was for the best and allowed her to keep watch during the day.

Luckily, the location I had found wasn’t too far out and soon, we were climbing up the slope I had explored before. It was interesting just how well my mind had conceptualised the information I had gained earlier, forming the tactile sensation I had experienced into an almost scan that let Ylva understand the lay of the land at incredible resolution. Not only where small stones and crags where, but also which stones might move and which were solidly embedded into the ground. While it wasn’t easily usable, there was utility there. Maybe for some sort of short-range radar or something like that, I would have to think about it.

As we were crossing the last distance, I heard wings beating in the quiet night and looking up, I saw one of the Manticores just casually flying across the ridge above us. My magic concealed us, of that I was quite certain, but the way it was flying made me wonder, did it really?

“Adra, can you take that shot?” I asked, speaking softly enough to not be overheard. I wanted them to feel fear, just as we feared them. Shooting down and wounding a flying Manticore might just do it.

“Are you sure?” she asked, just as quietly, to which I nodded.

When she drew her bow, not quite sure of my plan but going along anyway, I reached out, letting a bit of Ice form on the arrow-head, just a tiny trace that formed a triangle of runes, and carefully kept my mental link with them.

Moments later, just as the Manticore was turning, she took the shot, the arrow filled with her magic crossing the distance in mere moments, leaving a trail of azure light and perfectly hitting the Manticore into the wing-joint. A smile bloomed on my lips, as I activated overflow and pumped Astral Power into the runes I had placed moments before, letting them explode into frozen shards, fully destroying the wing. Gravity was a harsh mistress, and seconds later,we heard the sounds of it crashing into the ground and going down-hill and got the notification that another young Manticore had died.

“Let’s get underground.” I told the others, and we swiftly moved to the crag. It was a tight squeeze, one that Sigmir wouldn’t have been able to make, and I had to help out quite a bit with a thin layer of diamond dust to lubricate while using my Eisblumen as ropes to pull the others in, but it somehow worked.

We were in complete and utter darkness, certainly hidden from the Manticores and in a world that made me almost giddy, thanks to the purity of Darkness and the traces of ancient Ice that still lingered in the air. Now, if I could only find some Blood to spill, adding some Death in the process and it would be pure perfection.