Chapter 104 - Little Shadow

“What is this thing?”

Skyle stared at the melon-sized clump of darkness in fascination. It stared right back at him with two globes of red fire for eyes.

Scrambling back with a muffled curse, Skyle nearly fell over.

“That’s Little Shadow. He’ll be your instructor from now on. Give it all your best!”

The worried glance Skyle sent over his shoulder toward his uncle wasn’t without good reason. That tone had sounded a lot like the one used by his father whenever he had planned some devilry for his children to suffer through.

Tilting his head to the side, Skyle squinted as he tried to read the flows of essence in Little Shadow. It was simply a ball of murky darkness that drifted a couple feet off the ground. It had no distinguishing features other than those glowing red eyes. Still, they were very expressive just by themselves. Right now, they were huge and round as they stared back at Skyle with obvious interest.

“Is it alive?” Skyle felt tempted to reach out and poke it, but couldn’t quite bring himself to do so. The peculiar meld of weaves in Little Shadow was a complex affair that involved every element. There was no dominant element present. Instead, all four elements were so thickly stacked on top of one another that he could barely make out the individual patterns contained within. It was as though he were gazing upon a single patch of darkness that created a hole in the fabric of elemental essence.

No True Sight was needed to read the discontent in Little Shadow’s eyes as it glared at Skyle in indignation because of his question.

“Now now, remember your manners. Little Shadow’s been with us for far longer than you’d think. I don’t know about your father, but he’s actually the one who taught me how to skulk about- er,” Talon paused at the dangerously narrow line of Little Shadow’s eyes that had been directed at him because of his last words.

“I mean, dance with the shadows,” Talon quickly amended himself.

Little Shadow’s eyes immediately turned into twin crescent moons as they nodded in satisfaction. It’s plump shape seemed to swell just a little as well.

“Really? But it just looks so weird,” Skyle said, turning his head this way and that while watching with rapt attention.

The red-eyed glare was back in full force, and the black ball that was Little Shadow shook as it scowled at Skyle.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean that, Little Shadow.”

Skyle scratched his ear before dipping his head in Little Shadow’s direction in the way of an apology.

Little Shadow’s red eyes slowly curved inward as though it were deliberating for a moment. Then it nodded once in acknowledgement.

Staring in amazement at the intelligence of the spell construct, spirit, magical beast, or whatever it was, Skyle glanced sideways at Talon.

“What is it, exactly?”

“That’s no way to address your teacher. So be respectful and bow.”

Skyle turned to stare at Talon, but the man didn’t seem to be joking.

Helpless, Skyle bowed to Little Shadow. “Hello, Little Shadow. I look forward to your teachings.”

Little Shadow’s eyes narrowed into contented arches once more, bobbing its head in Skyle’s direction. A thin line of smoky grey suddenly sprouted under its eyes. It took the boy a while to realize it was supposed to be a wispy beard. Wasn’t this thing trying a little too hard now?

“Great, seems like you’re off to a good start. Now, this is the stealth course. You will begin every night with a fifteen minute run through it.”

As he spoke, Talon spread his hand with a flourish, indicating the maze-like structure that lay ahead. It was a series of slopes, walls, and other obstacles. Skyle could spot doors, windows, ropes, ladders and stairs spread all throughout. It was a compact affair that couldn’t have been more than a hundred fifty feet across. Still, the sheer complexity of the three story labyrinth gave the boy a headache just from looking at it.

“Where do I even start? And what am I supposed to do?”

Talon caught Skyle’s dubious look, and patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, from now on you’ll have your new teacher with you! Right, Little Shadow?

Little Shadow immediately gave its best sagely nod, puffing up even more. Its eyes burned with stoic determination as its dark silhouette grew indistinct. Mere moments later, it was gone.

Skyle turned this way and that, looking for the strange little teacher he had picked up. It was only when he felt a cold weight upon his shoulder that he glanced down and realized that Little Shadow had materialized right on top of his arm.

Shouting in surprise, Skyle began to wave his arm frantically back and forth.

“Get it off, get it off!”

The only response he received was Talon’s amused chuckle. Only after a while did Skyle slow down, feeling as though his guts were churning and his head was spinning. Lifting his right arm gingerly, Skyle glared at Little Shadow.

The twin balls of red that represented its eyes were still rolling haphazardly around its body, as though it couldn’t get its bearings yet. Skyle himself was overcome by a deep queasiness, and an urge to throw up nearly overwhelmed him. He had to stretch out a shaky arm toward Talon in order to stay on his feet.

“It’s you! What are you doing to me?”

For a moment, Skyle stared in horror at Little Shadow, but then he began to feel resentful and rather annoyed at this whole situation. Why, this must be the rudest student that he had ever graced with his teachings.

Frozen in his tracks, Skyle gazed open-mouthed at Little Shadow before turning his desperate eyes upon Talon.

“Uh, Uncle Talon, what the hell is going on?”

Moaning with his hands held around his head, Skyle’s eyes sought out Talon, demanding an answer.

“That’s one of Little Shadow’s gifts. It can create a symbiotic relationship with its host, directly sharing what he feels and thinks at any given moment. It’s what makes it one of the most effective teachers you will ever have.”

Feeling woozy, Skyle still couldn’t manage an answer. Silently vowing never to make Little Shadow dizzy again, Skyle tried to swallow back the bile rising up his throat.

After a moment of intense struggle, he finally managed to open his eyes again and glare at Little Shadow. It had the audacity to glare right back, and the feeling of indignation grew even stronger.

“It’s not my fault you jumped on me without any warning!”

Skyle could almost hear the scoff inside his head as Little Shadow’s eyes pointedly looked away. A deep feeling of scorn washed across him, until he felt like a sniveling little brat who could do nothing but complain when a heavenly gift had been presented to him.

“Stop putting thoughts inside my head, you bastard!”

Immediately, a feeling of remorse hit him like a sack of bricks. It smashed his ego down until he was nearly reduced to tears. How could he be so ungrateful when his noble teacher was granting him the chance of a lifetime?

It was only when the first tears began to slide down his cheeks that Skyle realized just how scary Little Shadow was. A profound sense of awe arose within his chest at the sheer majesty of this incredible being. Just thinking about being able to learn at its feet, shivers of anticipation began to run down his back.

These turned to shudders of abject horror as Skyle realized there was no controlling this thing. Mustering what little sanity he still had left, Skyle frantically studied Little Shadow under the True Sight.

Shockingly, he saw tendrils of murky black essence extending from Little Shadow and trickling down into his shoulder. It was the very first time he had seen this type of essence! It was not identical to his own shadow essence, but he could feel they shared some similarities. What surprised him even more was that these tendrils did not belong to any of the four elements. Was it a new element?

He instinctively reached out toward his shadow essence. It answered by sending forth a thin layer of shadow that blanketed over him. When Little Shadow’s tendrils met this layer, they began to push against each other, as though locked in a struggle. After a moment of going back and forth, his layer of shadow essence pushed off Little Shadow’s tendrils.

Immediately, relief washed over Skyle. Unburdened by the alien feelings, Skyle flashed a smug grin at Little Shadow. What he did not expect was for its twin red eyes to start burning furiously after that. It glared up at Skyle as though he had received a deadly insult. Even its entire body began to shake uncontrollably.

Skyle began to grow nervous when he saw Little Shadow’s little tentacles begin to darken. Under the True Sight, its entire body began to flare with elemental essence. As it burned all four elements, the tendrils it stretched forth thickened until their shade changed to closely resemble the shadow essence.

Finally, the tendrils of darkness seemed to reach a point where even Skyle couldn’t tell them apart from his own essence. At this point, Little Shadow’s tentacles brushed aside his shadow essence and drove deep into Skyle’s body in domineering fashion. Almost immediately, Skyle had to struggle with his shame at having tried to upstage a true master and having failed miserably. He should never try to engage in such disgraceful actions again.

“Get out of my head!” Skyle moaned in his mind.

Another scoff could be heard in his head, along with an oily thick feeling that could only be described as a mile-deep layer of smug satisfaction.

“Why you..”

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted when he detected activity within his veins. A shudder ran through his body as he felt the taint stirring once again, reaching its hateful claws towards the newfound energy. Skyle didn’t know whether to gloat if Little Shadow panicked and fled from the taint, or to panic in case it was swallowed by the taint and became yet another seed for the Shadowblight.

In the blink of an eye, Skyle felt the light, bantering atmosphere vanish. In its wake, a confusing tangle of emotions flowed through the bond. Foremost was surprise. Alertness and disgust quickly followed. In the end, however, the emotion that drowned out all else was a startlingly intense flare of red hot rage.

Skyle was stunned by the vehemence of it. He could feel Little Shadow glaring at the taint within his veins as though at its nemesis. Little Shadow’s entire body began to flare with even more shocking fluctuations of elemental power as it condensed more dark essence, which it then promptly channeled into Skyle’s body.

Even Talon seemed taken aback by Little Shadow’s reaction. Though he stretched out a hand toward Skyle, he clenched his jaw and lowered his hand with a confused, albeit relatively calm expression.

Skyle could see Little Shadow drawing incredible amounts of elemental essence from the air around it. Its core was like a scorching forge that melted all the essence and spat out black essence. This new essence was injected into Skyle’s body in wave after wave of energy.

The infusion of essence was like the torrent of a mighty river as it washed over Skyle’s veins with unstoppable power. It shattered the thin layer of shadow essence Skyle had carefully constructed to contain the taint as though brushing away mere kindling. Suddenly free of its constraints, the taint arose like a malevolent tide, ready to devour everything in its path.

Just as the taint reached its peak, the tide of dark essence washed over it like the waves of an unstoppable storm. They crashed in quick succession, brutal in their power and unrelenting in their vengeance. The first wave brought the advance of the taint to a shuddering halt. The next wave followed in the blink of an eye, hammering the taint until it began to crumble. Each successive hit made the taint tremble and shrink back, as though it had finally met its bane.

Skyle would have stared in open-mouthed astonishment, but it was all he could do to grit his teeth and clench his fists. Pain tore at his body like hot knives lancing his flesh. He tasted blood on his lips and could feel bile scorching the back of his throat. It was a wonder that he could maintain the True Sight at all, but even under the relentless wave of agony that nearly drowned out every other thought, desperate hope alighted.

“Can Little Shadow truly banish the taint?”

In the end, it seemed too good to be true, and it was. The little clump of darkness that was Little Shadow could not sustain the mind-boggling amounts of elemental power needed to sustain its assault against the taint. Eventually, the waves of black essence flooding his veins began to falter, then died down altogether.

By the time the fog of pain muddling his mind was finally lifted, Skyle could see that Little Shadow’s tendrils had receded back toward his shoulder, and away from his chest. Even so, he was overjoyed to find that the taint had also drawn back. Though it still lurked in the corners of his elemental veins, its presence was more diluted. He could tell it had been visibly weakened by Little Shadow’s assault.

As for Little Shadow, it lay flat upon Skyle’s shoulder, trembling softly as though a single nudge would be all that was needed for it to slide clean off and fall to the floor. The fire in its red eyes had died down until it was a mere shade of its former intensity. Still, Skyle was relieved to realize that though weakened, it seemed otherwise fine. Gratitude also sprang within his heart, and Skyle knew this emotion was solely his.

A familiar smugness filled his mind, along with a pretentious snort.

Skyle’s eyebrows climb on his forehead as he shook his head in Little Shadow’s direction. Fine, he would let it show off this time. In truth, the amount of power Little Shadow had just displayed had been shocking. There was also the fact that it could produce such thick shadow essence. Did it know what it was?

Skyle was filled with a hundred questions, but he could only feel a deep weariness from Little Shadow.

“Skyle, are you alright?”

He looked up to find Talon gazing at him with naked concern. Even Ash had approached from the corner where he had been napping, scratching at Skyle’s leg to draw his attention.

Skyle managed a wan smile as he nodded.

“I’ll be fine. Better than fine. Little Shadow just drove a portion of the taint away from my veins. It was incredible. It was almost as though it could produce the same shadow essence I have at will by combining different elements and firing them up.”

Skyle trailed off, at a loss of words to describe the exact process.

Talon nodded slowly, his eyes deep in thought. He did not look too surprised, however, which Skyle hadn’t expected. Just what was Little Shadow?

Talon must have seen the question in Skyle’s eyes. He shook his head and spread his hands as he spoke.

“I don’t know, Skyle. I’m not sure anyone knows. Little Shadow comes and goes, more of a legend than anything else. He’s not a part of Shadow or the Empire, but he seems to have at least some kind of understanding with your father. It trained me when I first began studying under your father, then vanished for a long time after that. It must have been over fifteen years. It was only yesterday that I saw the little fellow once again.”

Skyle cringed as he felt deeply insulted by Talon’s words. Again, Talon must have read such emotion upon his face.

“My apologies. I meant to say, the venerable teacher.”

Deep satisfaction instantly flooded Skyle’s heart, even as he felt himself blushing at how easy it was to humor the little fellow.

Outrage flared, quickly followed by impatience.

“Sorry, Little Shadow,” Skyle mumbled, feeling helpless. Then again, he really did owe the little.. Ah, the great teacher.

Feeling sick with the cloying weight of the immense satisfaction burning in his chest, Skyle couldn’t help but poke his new teacher with his finger - gently.

“Let’s keep it down a little, um, please?”

Little Shadow seemed to consider his request, then deigned to nod its acquiescence.

Talon caught the whole exchange, and a commiserating look could be seen on his face. Old memories, some of them not very pleasant, could be seen flitting past his mind in that expression.

With a quick shake of his head, Talon returned to the matter at hand. “Little Shadow, can you cleanse the taint in Skyle?”

Little Shadow’s eyes seemed to sag just a little, and it glumly shook from side to side.

Skyle couldn’t suppress a sigh at what he felt from Little Shadow.

“Uncle Talon, I think it can help me suppress the taint, but it cannot eliminate it completely. Just what it did tonight in driving it back took a tremendous amount of effort from it.”

Talon nodded slowly, and though his expression didn’t change, Skyle thought he could see the same disappointment he felt reflected in his uncle’s eyes. Fierce determination quickly replaced it as Talon’s hand tightened over the boy’s shoulder.

“That's great, Skyle. We’ve found another way to repress the taint. We’re already making progress!”

Skyle nodded at that, and though he could see that Talon’s aura was still sad, his expression was already brimming with energy. The little boy decided to humor him, and flashed his bravest grin.

“That’s more like it!” Talon praised, then added in a darker tone, “You’ll need it for what’s coming next.”

“Huh?” Skyle turned to face the stealth course.

“15 minutes, just follow Little Shadow’s instructions. Now go!”

Skyle stared at Talon’s expectant grin, dumbfounded. That was until he felt an overwhelming urge to approach a ramp that rose up to his left. He had a feeling it would be the proper way to start. He also knew that he only had 14 minutes, 55 seconds left.

“Huh, I guess that works, too.”

Just when he had intended to run forward, he felt scorching indignation flaring up within his chest. Wincing, Skyle carefully lifted one foot, then swayed unsteadily for a moment while he tried to narrow down exactly where to place it. Each time Skyle thought about taking that first step, a deep sense of disapproval flared brightly in his head. When he finally found the proper spot, and brought his foot down with elaborate care, the whole process had taken 16 seconds.

“It’s going to take me forever at this pace!”

Seemingly deaf to Skyle’s complaints, Little Shadow patiently began to guide his next step.

“I know how to sneak around, you know?”

Disdain dripped heavily in Skyle’s mind in response. Sweat rolled down Skyle’s forehead as he finally took his second step. It wasn’t only the placement, but each movement of his body had be to coordinated with impeccable finesse and timing. Little Shadow would instantly flare with unbearable vehemence if Skyle so much as shifted a single muscle at the incorrect time.

Feeling like a puppet trapped in his own head, Skyle’s entire body had already begun to drip with sweat and ache from the strain of it all. He simply couldn’t imagine what he was supposed to learn from all this, let alone what the strange little.. Er, what the great teacher wanted from him.

Little Shadow ignored his new pupil’s constant complaints, and instead patiently continued to guide him, step by step.