In the middle of the cliche war room was the cliche circular table with a map of the surrounding area. OK maybe they didn't call it the war room, technically the table was rectangular, and the map was just rolled out on it. I was a little testy with having been sent to the principals office and then made to wait while they dealt with something else first. Granted that was reorganizing the defense of the town for the clearly approaching wave of rift spawn. That only slightly alleviated my consternation. I'd rather not be the reason that a hoard of monsters slipped past any defensive position that was overlooked. That didn't mean I was fine sitting in the corner like a misbehaving child while the adults talked. I didn't really have any input into the current conversation though, and they had asked me here to discuss ways to better assist not to reprimand me.

You'd think a group that had to defend themselves on a weekly or sometimes even more regular basis, and who'd had to do so for generations would have this down pat. This discussion had corrected and edified me on just how mistaken that was. Different types of hoards required different responses. Specific attack patterns, types of enemies, quantities of enemies, and numerous other things were taken into account. Other things like the chances of related rift spawn types showing up, variants, or just a completely different hoard than expected were discussed. Things like reports of what types of spawns had been received, at what quantities and in which direction were all taken into account to give a good estimate of all of these. Apparently the types of hounds we'd seen were ones they'd seen several times before. Pulling out a set of books and going through them they confirmed that on at least three other occasions these hounds had been accompanied by Kobolds in the latter stages. I needed to borrow that set of books. Wish someone had mentioned those before. Although it was entirely possible they had. I wasn't exactly known for paying much attention to things I'm not interested in. Fighting definitely wasn't, at least currently, one of those things. What with my shadows being popped with a rather hard scratch, and myself being little better than I was upon arrival.

I looked about the room again. Avery and Edward were already out getting whatever it was they'd been sent to do done. Samuel though was here. He'd been in the guard group that stayed back at the town most days, but even he'd found enough experience to grow into something that earth, the old one, might have actually classed as a weapon of mass destruction. Only a little exaggeration there. He was some mage variant specializing in fire. I couldn't even scoff at the generic choice because the damage capabilities were nothing to... well scoff at, but also because I'd made the most banal choice for "true power" I wasn't really one who could judge.

Speaking of I realized I should be close to... yep shadow #14 here we come. The other shadows gathered around behind me. We'd decided earlier to use the 'extra-dimensional sight' ability from every angle while I spawned the next shadow. It was strange having a conversation with yourself. Even weirder with 12 other versions of you. With all the time passing divergence was definitely becoming a thing. Not that we were no longer the same person but that different trains of thought were running in each of these heads. Meaning even though every one of these heads had access to the same pool of knowledge, they were all using and accessing it from different points of view giving a much better grasp of any topic. Still at least some of that conversation was lamenting holding off using the sight for so long.

We'd had a chance to look at my physical body while waiting. Just as with the other Earthlings, and the Vauthians I had some of the runic formations sprouting on me. Focused entirely on the back of my head. At least in the one wavelength that seemed to show an ectoplasmic duplicate of my body. Most of the Shadows were looking in this wavelength while a couple were looking in others. One was using the spherical 'soul' view. Another the view that showed a single line of 'amplitude' vibrating constantly. With the shadows arrayed behind and to the sides of me, with one even standing on a chair to look from above, I triggered the creation of a new shadow spawn. Another version of me, this one like the others made of shadow and mist, appeared behind me.

Of course just after this is when the attack group Captain, who's name I'd recently learned was Riedel, called me over "We're ready for you Elliot". It's not like I could parse through all the memories of what just happened right now anyway. As I walked over the shadows behind me quickly started conversing with one another. Not bothering to wait like I had decided to. Apparently whatever they'd seen was surprising, interesting, and mind blowing as some of them described it. Approaching the table I said "Yes, captain?"

The captain wasn't the only one at the table. Kendrick, the other counselors, the other captains of the other groups, and a few key individuals from earth were present as well as some members of both the attack and guard groups. Not wasting any time Riedel began as soon as he had my attention. "We have come up with what we feel would be a good addition to the current defense plans utilizing your skill set. However, it would be unwise to implement without first confirming what those are." He didn't pause for my input simply started firing away questions as to their observations of my abilities.

"Firstly your shadows appear to be fully autonomous, yet you can also communicate between yourselves with non vocal means?" I nodded and he continued "We've already established your shadows are, although not entirely invulnerable to physical attack, at least able to recover from it quickly." This time no question per se but I still found myself nodding "Your shadows also seem capable of merging with a shadow to hide. We do not know, and we're not sure if you do either, if this makes you fully undetectable or invulnerable in this state, are you open to testing this?" Knowing what little I did about Riedel I already knew he wasn't one to care for exactly why I did or did not want something so I simply nodded rather than giving more. "Perfect, Please have them hide and you six try your best to locate them" He said indicating the group around the table that wasn't in a leadership role. Hmm I thought, I guess they'd been here the whole time just for this test.

Turning around I found that the group of shadows was still chittering between themselves. I was a bit surprised, I guess whatever they saw was really quite interesting. Although being reduced to a checklist of capabilities we'd already discovered and utilized ages ago wasn't really much to contend with. A mental ping of a throat clear pinged to each of them caused them to look up and then past me to the others stepping forward. The shadows then did another surprising thing. They unanimously looked slightly up and to the left as if thinking of something then immediately merged with the nearby shadows of chairs. Apparently I wasn't the only one who could peruse the memories of the shadows. I had known they could do it as they always seemed to be aware of what I was, but it was interesting I hadn't seen them do that specific motion before, even in a memory. Maybe it was an instinctual response now that we'd been practicing communicating mentally so much. Of course there was the fact that thy usually didn't need to pull a prompt from me as either they already knew or had been paying attention. Either way, another question for later time.

The group of six trackers, diviners, and one that I wasn't sure what they were stopped and began to do .... nothing? At least not that I could see. A quick set of checks and pings got the few shadows who hadn't already to start using the sight on the group. It was time to stop letting opportunities to learn slip me by. The trackers seemed to have a few different runic structures involved in what they were doing, or at least that seemed active. Surrounding, and inside of their eyes were some mildly glowing and flickering structures that were likely enhancing their vision. Further into their heads came a faint glow, it was difficult to make out what it was as seeing past the 'skin' wasn't easy, luckily it wasn't fully opaque. The consensus was that it was likely a further enhancement of interpretation of the already empowered sight. We'd need to check the shadow's 'sight' and see what it looked like when they could see each other.

The diviner's abilities seemed to be focused on their hands. Structures pulled in ambient energies which guided them this way and that feeling where to go rather than seeing. The last had seemingly no directly involved structures whatsoever. Whatever he used must be internal. He did have runic structures on the surface, as they all did, but none that appeared to be doing anything related to this. There were some that were doing things but in what seemed a passive state. All of this was second hand information that was being sent by my shadows as they gained insight, but just the second hand information was quite enthralling. No wonder they'd been distracted earlier. I was definitely going to need to speak to the Master Blacksmith again. maybe watch him make some pieces. His runes were significantly less complex than these, but that might actually be a good stepping stone. As it was I couldn't, and neither could my shadows, discern what exactly was happening or how. Yeah we were getting some Ideas, but it was one thing to have an idea of how something worked, and another entirely to actually know, then a third world spanning leap to actually be able to make the thing yourself. I needed to make strides here or I'd be left in the dust.

The diviners distracted me from my internal train of thought which'd been derailed onto a tangential track. They had turned back to the captain shaking their heads. The Trackers were already standing back at the table. Apparently having almost immediately turned back realizing they could barely even see the steps the shadows made let alone follow them into the shadows. The diviners reported that they actually could detect the shadows, but couldn't get a location or even a specific direction for them. The last tester still stood unmoving, eyes closed. After another moment they turned to the captain reporting that they likewise could detect the shadows but were also unable to directly find or interact with them. I was going to need to talk to this one eventually their abilities may be related to the sight the shadows had. In the meantime Riedel turned to me and continued as if we hadn't just tested for a few minutes.

"These six are our best trackers diviners and soul searchers" I noted that for later "That they couldn't locate you is a good sign, and it is unlikely any rift spawn we'll be facing will have any kind of shadow capabilities that might prove them wrong, but that doesn't mean you should let your guard down. We'd like your shadows to head in the direction we'd been searching today. Hopefully finding the hoard and leading them back this way. Preferably without destroying any of your small legion in the process. This will of course mean we have a battle ahead of us, but we feel it would be better to address it head on, rather than waiting for what could be several more days for them to find us on their own. All the while on high alert" I nodded but didn't yet speak, captain Riedel's tone indicating he had more to say "If this goes as we hope we will also be discussing a change to the searches each day, capitalizing on your capabilities for that front as well" I nodded again, although inside of 14 different heads I was not liking the way I was becoming a central point of attention to everything.