Two days went on, and besides widening the hole in the roof, nothing much had happened in the cell. Jones came and visited him a few times during those days. Andrej chained his legs to the floor and the campleader asked his questions, beat him, if Alex didn’t talk.

As the hole gave enough light for him to activate his Skills, Alex didn’t care. After every session, he sat underneath the light, activated [shadowcloak] to heal his wounds and meditated.

He thought about situations that could happen, how he would or could act, how his skills would help or hinder him and he trained as far as he was able in the tiny cell. On the third day, he finally was given food and his hunger abated. He hadn’t regained his full power and was still quite weak, but his mind was working again, and after his meditation practise, he had a few ideas how he could get out.

The roof was sadly to high up, and he may have widened the hole, balancing on the chair and reaching as high as possible, barely scratching the top with his dagger. But he saw no possibility to get through the roof. His mattress was wobbly and not tall enough, to span the last few centimetres to grab the roof. He tried to climb the wooden walls, but some skill or good work had left them seamless and smooth.

Finally Alex went to work on the door. He had an ear against it, so he heard if someone moved on the other side. The shadowblade mostly worked at night, when the movement in the other room had stopped and he could silent snoring. His senses stretched to the max, he called his dagger and tried to wriggle it into the lock. It was some iron, security lock. Alex had no idea where Jones had found it, but he assumed that Gatex had sold it.

Unfortunately the dagger was to big for the lock, so Alex tried to unscrew it from the door. Maybe he could dismantle it. He tried to modify his skill, so the tip was small enough to get a grip on the screws, but to no avail. The teenager used his fingernails, but while he could get them into the screwhead, turning them broke the nail instead of undoing the screw.

Alex silently cried out. That had hurt. But he didn’t gave up. He put the dagger into the gap between door and wall to pry it open, but the skill broke instead of the door and a sudden headache shot up. It was so strong, that the youth fell back, landed on the floor and lay there for at least half an hour.

After the headache subsided, Alex checked his plans. He had tried everything he could. There was nothing he could do, no chance to escape from this wretched cell and his torturer. The teenager grew desperate and buried his head in his hands. Still, he held back his tears. There was no time to wallow in misery.

He went back to the corner, sat underneath the light and recast [shadowdagger]. With every bit of his strength, he willed the Skill to modify, to become something else. The dagger wavered for a bit, but it could have also been the light. Alex wasn’t sure. With every further attempt, Alex Magicka drained, but he couldn’t change the skill, couldn’t get his idea to work.

The youth eventually gave up, and sank in his inner world. If he couldn’t change the Skill, maybe he could change his power? Get his shadow seed to support him. And if that didn’t work, maybe with a better understanding of his power he could taste success.

Deeper and deeper he went, first to his essence strands, which were bland and had no dark glow. Possibly because he had no unrefined essence. He followed the strands to his centre and watched the shadowy ball hovering there.

“He is just sitting there, not moving, not doing anything,” Thorsten told Jones. “Did you enter his cell? Alone? You idiot,” the chief slapped the younger boy. “Never do that again. Only for food and only when you have backup! Alex may be weak, but he is damn fast. He nearly got me with his first attack, and if I hadn’t had my armour Skill, I would possibly be dead.” Jones shooed Thorsten away.

He sighed. The manacles which would block Alexs skills were pretty expensive. He suspected foul play, but the Faun wouldn’t budge with his price, even if he send one of the other boys. But it would take just a few more days, until he had them, and then he had two years to get to Alexs essence and essence seed. He would find a way to take everything the boy had.

Alex had watched the ball for hours, at least he thought so. He had no sense of time here. His mind had flown around the ball, watched every minute movement and still had no idea what it was. He knew it was the centre of his power, probably his seed, but knowing and understanding were a huge difference. Carefully he got nearer and nearer. He nearly touched the ball and finally he could make out a tiny light in the middle.

After some deliberations, the shadowblade took a deep breath and plunged into his shadowy core. His mind tried to cope with the unfamiliar sensation and suddenly, Alex wasn’t a disembodied amalgamation of thought anymore, but a small figure, standing in front of a giant darkness.

He gathered all his courage and reached out his arm to touch the shadowy mass. It was cold and warm, smooth and uneven, wavering and still. Alex had no idea how he could touch it, even less how to describe what he was feeling. But it felt good. It’s core, the only source of light, was throwing pinpricks out into the darkness. He tried to turn, seeing this place in all its glory, but Alex couldn’t move.

The boy panicked. Was he trapped here? What happened? Where was he? He noticed, he was about to loose this sensation and with it, his only chance to get stronger in the camps prison. Suddenly a small arm of shadow stretched and touched him on his solar plexus. A weird warmth spread from the point and Alex felt all stress and fear and pent up emotion flow away.

On the edge of his perception he could hear and not hear something. A whisper during a windy night, a mumbling beside a small spring in the gloomy forest. ‘Concentrate’, the wind whispered, ‘be yourself’, the spring mumbled. ‘DON’T FEAR ME AND TAKE YOUR POWER’, the mass of shadow droned.

Alex shook. The shadow was right, he did fear its power. It was dark and ominous, but the spring was right too, he had to be himself and accept what he was given, what he had become. Alex concentrated and moved slowly to the blinding core of light. The surrounding shadow caressed his figure and instead of being cold, the teenager felt warm and protected, loved even.

Finally he arrived in front of the ball of light. Alex carefully reached out. The ball was hot, like a summers day, when you stood out on the asphalt barefooted. But the surrounding shadow cooled him down and Alex remembered wind still winterdays, when it was cold outside but the sun above shone enough that you only needed a thin jacket.

Time went on and the teenager stood rapt in front of his power. Finally he understood. Shadow was not only darkness, shadow was darkness within the light. He was not evil, but the necessary evil. He killed, but only when he had to. He fought, but only if the circumstance needed it.

Alex turned, one hand touching his core of light, the other extended to the billowing shadow. He felt, he could combine darkness and light to create something new. He knew his power, he knew it wanted to be used and it wanted to be useful. This power was he himself.

Eventually he concentrated, like the whispering wind advised and pulled more and more shadow into himself. Time passed and the teenager got colder and colder, until he remembered, that shadow was nothing without light and he pulled from his other hand and the light poured into him, balancing the shadows coolness.

He got fuller and fuller, one half darkness, one half light, shining out of his minds body. Finally Alex felt that even an iota more of this power and he would burst. But while he opened his eyes, he saw and felt a small bit left of the light and an exactly same amount of shadow. With an utmost effort, he pulled shadow and light into his left and right hand, collecting and forming both into a small ball.

Hours or days could have passed, but the teenager didn’t stop until he had every last bit of his power in his hands. Filled with darkness and light, controlling both in his hands, he pushed them together.

The nearer they got, the more they struggled. Like two magnets with their polar side. Alex flexed his will. This was his power, his body, his soul and they would comply.

He shivered in strain, but still continued. He wanted them to merge, to create something new, something that would help him get out of his prison. He wanted his power to evolve. Finally after what felt like weeks of pushing them together, concentrating every bit of himself into those two small balls, they stood together, only separated by a hair.

Alex roared, his muscles at a point of tearing, blood flowing out of his orifices, but he continued. Half a millimetre...a quarter...Finally they touched and every bit of effort worthwhile, as they didn’t repulse themselves anymore, but in a flash of light, darkness and power, combined.

He had the pulsing mass of shadows in both hands, but there was still more. The teenager had extracted his powers, recombined them, but he hadn’t gained anything yet. Alex sank in his mind again. He pushed on both sides of the ball. With his muscles and mind he concentrated the mass of power. Smaller and smaller it went, but the power condensed. Alex knew he was on the correct way, something he was doing felt right.

With a last outcry of power, he had compressed the ball from the size of an orange to that smaller than a pea. Suddenly the shadowblade was thrown out of his core and woke with a pounding headache. A plethora of notifications, he ignored for the moment, came up. Alex waved them to the side and checked the time.

He felt like he had spend at least a week inside his core, but no new plates of food lay in the cell and as he walked to the hole in the roof to take a look outside, night had fallen.

Reassured, he retrieved his notifications and quickly checked them.

Congratulations, you have evolved your essence Seed to #Error.

Can’t evolve Mystic seed anymore.

Calculating…

Calculating…

Congratulations, you have added another seed: Gravitation (L)

Select two new Attack and Utility skills:

#Error, primary essence detected.

#Error, secondary essence detected.

Select one new Attack and Utility skill:

Alex went to the door to listen for movement. Hopefully nobody had heard or felt anything. He heard some slight breathing, luckily the candle was still burning and he could check with his [shadoweyes]. Reinier sat at the table, head on his arms and was sleeping. A blanket around his shoulders. Alex hoped it was cozy enough, so the teenager wouldn’t suddenly wake and check on him.

Alex thought about reading through the whole list of skills, but he guesstimated, there were a few hundred skills. So he willed the list to condense, to show him only the most useful skills for his class and previous skillset.

Four skills flashed, and Alex made a new list with those four.

Attack:

Gravitydomain:

Can detect changes in gravity/movement in a domain around user. On higher tiers, can change gravity for user and enemies.

Gravitybolt:

Single target gravity changes to damage a foe. On higher tiers, can multitarget wells of gravity to damage and hinder.

Utility:

Condense:

Concentrates the users molecules to make him more robust and dense. On higher tiers, can summon gravity wells around user to attract or repel.

Reverse:

Reverses gravity slightly around user, makes them lighter. On higher tiers, can target enemies and even be used for flight.

Alex bickered with himself. Those skills were damn tasty, but two of them were probably for a pure caster build and he had already decided against being a mage. The other two skills were more useful for a melee or speedster. The teenager made a short list of pros and cons and finally decided on two. He checked them in and laughed at last. His time had come, tonight he would flee.