The Shadow People (Solo)

[Eridanus]

Day 46, Winter of 511 AV
Early Evening
The Streets BelowPermission from Fallacy to enter Alvadas Underground

The warming rays of sunlight had given way to darkness, and with Leth's ascent came the chiller breeze of winter that had been held back by the warmth. The leth-born walked the winding streets of the city, turning at junctions seemingly at random, but there was a firm goal in mind.

The Sunken Conundrum.

It was pointless to memorize directions and landmarks for no building remained in one place for long. What was important was the goal in mind, and most of the time the city would aid its residents in leading them to where they wanted to go.

It was only yesterday when he got embroiled in a strange adventure with his pycon friend, and one which he would attribute to being high on a dreamsmoke trip. However, he did not touch dreamsmoke in anyway and his faculties were pretty clear, thus the events had to be real.

Either that or Alvadas was messing with his mind again.

His thoughts were weighty, but he decided to let it go as one of the quirks of living in the city, albeit sometimes a dangerous quirk. His main purpose was to find out more about the strange dagger that he found a century ago in the Ruins of Nial. A tiny engraving at bottom of the hilt of the dagger had drawn his attention, and while meditating one night he suddenly remembered seeing that same symbol in one of the books in Alvadas' library.

It might be a shot in the dark and it was possible that he had seen wrongly, but there was nothing to lose in searching for it, except time. Time was one resource that he could afford to squander.

[Eridanus]

The ethaefal took a turn again, expecting to end up in front of the door of the library for that was usually how long it took for him to find the building. That corner brought him to an alley that seemed even darker than the night already was. He was unfazed though, for he more or less spent most of his time in Sunberth wandering around Stumble Alley, the seediest and possibly most dangerous part of the lawless city.

He continued walking, but there seemed to be no end to the alley, and when he turned around to see if he could try another turn, he was faced with a blank wall. He took a step forward and looked back again, finding the blank wall nearer to him by a step. Suspicious, he looked closely at the wall as he took a step again, but the wall did not change.

He blinked his eyes. The wall appeared closer again.

The city was playing tricks with him! He sighed, for that usually meant that his original purpose was going to be postponed. When the city began behaving like that it usually meant that it wanted to bring him somewhere, and one did not simply disagree with the city on such things.

Eridanus sighed again, and he decided to just walk forward, since the narrow alley allowed no other choice in that manner.

[Eridanus]

The lack of light and sound distorted his idea of time, and the ethaefal was unsure how much time had passed as he silently trudged on, the anticipation and dread in his heart equally increasing. There was something ominous about the whole scenario, and it felt like he was walking into a trap specially prepared for him. It might be just his paranoia acting up, but he could not shake off that sinister feeling.

The end of the alley finally appeared to him, the mouth of the exit increasing as he got closer. He could hear sounds of agitated voices, and it seemed that there was an argument of some sort in front of him. If the city brought him all the way here just to settle a verbal disagreement between two people he was going to the Temple and complain to the priest there.

Ah... who was he kidding anyway? The city could do what it damn well pleased and he had to go along anyway. The mere thought of stomping Ionu's divine rear appeased the ethaefal anyway, and he sighed, continuing on.

He came out of the alley, and looked around to see where he was. There was a night sky in the air, but there was something about this sky that made it different from the one he was used to. The crimson moon hanging in the sky caught his attention, and Eridanus gasped in horror when the first thought of something horrible happening to Leth came to him.

He continued to gaze at the bleeding crescent, but after a while the horror died down and he began to suspect the authenticity of the moon. He had always felt a certain connection with the sky due to his celestial body, and he could consciously feel the moonbeam on his skin like how mortals feel the warming rays of Syna when he focused his mind. There was no feel on his skin at all even as he concentrated on trying to establish a connection with Leth.

It felt like he was somehow still indoors, despite the vastness of the night sky above him. Something strange was happening.

[Eridanus]

The buildings and pathways seemed to look like that of Alvadas, but there was something about their appearance that made him feel gloomy just by looking at it. Perhaps it was the effect of the crimson moon, or the general twisted architecture of the surrounding buildings that made Eri feel like he stumbled into a bad dream. He pinched himself just to be sure he was awake.

He was.

Bringing his gaze up, he looked closely at these three people arguing. More precisely, it was actually a woman who was arguing with a man, with another man standing silently behind the woman.

The woman was a human, slightly taller than the average females due to her lanky frame. She wore silky-looking black leather - which Eridanus suspected to be Night Leather armor that Shai bought before they left for Alvadas - and there was a huge longbow strapped on her back. Even from far Eri could see that the longbow was completely covered with runic markings, recognizing some of them to be glyphs. Well, all of them were probably glyphs, but the ethaefal's limited knowledge only allowed him to recognize a few. All that engravings on the bow made the entire weapon pulse with some sort of life of its own, though that effect could easily be blamed as a trick on the eyes by the light. She had feisty looking eyes, and her actions were just as enthusiastic and animated.

The silent man behind her was more of a sombre-looking person, choosing to stand at a distance behind and watching her argue with the other man. He was clothed in black and gray robes, with the edges of the robes covered with yellow pulsating glyphs. It was too far to accurately tell what the glyphs were saying, but Eri could have sworn he saw the Nader-Canoch word for 'protection' on one of the sigils that adorned the edge of the robes. The hood was up as well, reminding Eri of how Coren and Eryss liked to dress, though he could see the man's sombre features because of the his angled position. The man's robes were huge and multi-layered, making him look like a black tree trunk due to his hands being hidden by the robes as well as the sheer bagginess of the cloth.

The third man was facing the woman and seemed to be arguing with her, though it more looked like she was bullying him. He was deathly pale, and he was clothed in a ragged tunic that looked like it had not been washed or stitched for years. Most probably a beggar, the man seemed to be answering the woman's questions. Even though he could not hear what they were saying, the body language of the woman showed that she was not satisfied.

[Eridanus]

There was something about the beggar that made Eri's blood chill. Perhaps it was a gut feeling, a paranoid behaviour, or the passive sensitivities that he gained from understanding the art of auristics and spiritism, but it made him want to delve into this matter deeper. He was not noticed yet, for the three people seemed pretty preoccupied with each other. It was strange that the entire street felt like a ghost town, for there seemed to be utterly no activity or sound whatsoever from the buildings or anywhere else, the only signs of activity coming from these three.

Diving down deep within his body, the ethaefal focused on the djed lines within him, looking around until he found the astral strings attached to the ones that linked to his eyes. He usually started the use of auristics by redirecting djed into his eyes like he was using flux, but recently he found a more efficient method which was to instead find the astral strings connected the djed streams in his eyes and the ones elsewhere in the body. By using his willpower to activate these djed streams he could 'power up' the magical sight in his eyes. He found this method far less taxing on his body for he did not have to redirect streams in his body which was a highly taxing method - flux was the prime example. The only downside was that it required more time to find the necessary streams in order to direct his will towards it.

Thus he did so, identifying the necessary streams in his upper arm, stomach and left knee, slowly feeding djed on it and feeling the astral streams traveling throughout his body. After a while, he could feel a slight strain coming from the back of his head to his eyes, and he focused his gaze on the beggar, the man's aura appearing in a misty haze to him. The rest of the world blurred, for the ethaefal was solely concentrating on that man, and as he studied the aura, trying to find out more, he found himself realizing that there was something off about it.

An aura of a sentient being, or more specifically the aura of a human tended to have a certain mass and energy for it represented the djed that lay within them. Naturally, wizards would have a a greater representation of the djed, either in the form of a highly dense cloud or a huge aura emanating from their bodies. The lazy mist that represented this man's aura barely protruded from his body, and even the mist itself barely consisted of a few swirls here and there. It was possible that due to being a beggar his quality of life was poor, but even the poorest street urchins in Sunberth had more djed in their bodies than this man.

Suspiciously, the ethaefal focused deeper on the low density mist, gazing through the swirling outer folds to find several pulsing threads that reminded him of the huge thick silk threads that tailors plug to their machines to unravel threads for use for stitching. Except that these threads were obsidian black with various textures of red streaking throughout.

Curious, he traced to see where the black-and-red threads come from, and slowly traced it downwards. He gasped unconsciously when he realized that there was a huge emanation of djed from the ground next to the beggar, which was where the threads ended up. The black-and-red threads connected to the presence's aura on the floor which was made up entirely of these huge silky-looking threads interwoven with each other, and the pulsing intensity of that aura made the lazily swirling mist above it exceedingly weak.

[Eridanus]

Suddenly, there was an unearthly howl that was both screeching yet moaning at the same time, both frequencies of high and low resounding together in a spooky mix. There was a strong reflex to want to look at the source of the gaze, and Eridanus quickly disabled the activation of djed within his body to prevent overgiving from taking in too many auras at once. Now that his magical sense was gone the sight in front of him no longer look as intriguing as before. He looked at the same point where the mysterious aura had been, and there was nothing, except maybe blackness that emanated from the man that was the shadow formed by the crimson moon's light.

Except that the shadow was in a completely wrong direction, and the other two people's shadows were proof of that. Their shadows were lain out behind them, and the beggar's shadow should be in front of him in the same direction as the other two, except that it was at a complete right-angle instead. There was something so fundamentally wrong with this that it sent shivers down the ethaefal's spine.

He looked up just in time to see the woman strike the beggar's face in anger. Or she would have, if he did not raise a frail arm in a feeble attempt to protect himself. The frail arm completely blocked the strike, and even Eri was not sure if he was more surprised or the woman was more surprised. She withdrew her arm, but the beggar closed his fingers around her arm in a weak manner, and she tugged her arm but to no avail.

Everything about the scene was wrong. The beggar's hands and fingers were bone-thin and his actions were done in a lazy and feeble manner, yet the woman was unable to match up to it, first having her punch blocked and now being unable to tug her hand away.

The hooded man looked like he want to speak, but the woman dismissed him with her other hand, instead returning her gaze to the beggar and slamming his face with her other arm in a powerful hook. The beggar released her hand and took the blow in the head, his neck snapping to the side in an unnatural angle and he lay on the floor, twitching for a while before all movements ceased.

The hooded man began to object, but the woman waved him off, instead approaching the dead beggar bending down with a frown, looking like she was going to riffle through his possessions.

Did the city bring him here for this? To resolve an armed murder and robbery? Eridanus was pretty sure that Alvadas has its own enforcement for these kind of things, but he began to approach them anyway, his hands ready to draw his blades should these criminals prove nasty.

[Eridanus]

There was another howl, the unholy mixture of sounds that he heard earlier that chilled his spine, and just as the woman bent down the corpse twitched and jerked, flipping up and slapping the woman as it did so. It looked like a light tap on the cheek, but the woman flew several feet off the ground, landing a good distance away, and the hooded man jumped with surprise. The beggar stood up, dusting his legs, and he stood upright again, though this time his head lolled to one side as a result of his broken neck.

The beggar approached the hooded man, but suddenly it looked like something slammed into the beggar's body, for it was as if there was an invisible force dealing blows on the beggar, staggering him and pushing him away from the hooded man who stood there calmly, unmoving.

Eridanus felt a tingle, though in the rush of the situation he could not detect the reason behind it, though the only two reasons he would feel that tingle was when there was magic in the air, or ghosts.

Suddenly, there was a crackling in the air and an arrow slammed into the beggar's chest, the projectile sizzling with raw djed. There were several sparks that spread throughout the beggar's body, and then suddenly it exploded, bursting his torso open in a messy display of gore and cleanly separating his head and four limbs in five different directions.

Eri turned his head to follow where the arrow came from and he found the woman who had apparently recovered from that blow, her bow in her hand and already another arrow ready in it as she looked around warily.

[Eridanus]

The hooded man turned to look at his companion, when she waved in return. Eri was not focusing on the two, for he was looking in bewilderment at the remains of the beggar.

When his body exploded and his parts flung about, the shadow in the shape of his original figure did not budge. By right it should follow suit, each piece of gore and limbs having their own shadow, but somehow acting against logic these bits of flesh did not have any shadow at all, even with the crimson moon shining down on them. Instead, the shadow of a man was still there, unmoving from its original position.

There was a low inhuman moan, and a mass of complete darkness began to rise from the shadow. It was not a mass per se, more like a complete absence of color and texture, and looking into that thing reminded Eri of how the void looked like through a portal.

Before Eridanus could warn the hooded man who had his back turned to this thing, the shadow sped towards the man like a huge tidal wave crashing down on an unsuspecting beach-goer. There was a brief flash of light as the shadow smashed against what seemed to be an invisible wall that formed a sphere around the hooded man, and the glyphs in his robes flashed orange-red.

By then the ethaefal was close enough to hear what they were saying more coherently.

"Hostile on your six!" The woman yelled, and the man quickly leaped away, the invisible wall disappearing and the shadow came crashing down on the man's previous location now that it was not being impeded by the shield.

Another arrow appeared in the midst of the shadow and exploded, filling the writhing darkness with light and color.

There was an unnerving shriek that could not possibly have been made by a living being, and the shadow reformed again, enclosing itself over the sparks and explosions that reminded Eri of how the void claimed objects that were passed into a portal.

It surged towards the hooded man again, but this time there was a huge invisible force that hammered the shadow, slamming it down from its towering figure and holding it in place. Another arrow appeared in the middle of the black swirling puddle, and it sizzled briefly before exploding again. This time, the invisible force seemed to be holding it down for it was unable to reform itself again, and a sound similar to that of a mournful bass horn resounded from the thing, and it disappeared.

[Eridanus]

It was then that the two of them realized Eri's presence, and the ethaefal froze, his hands thrown high in the air in surrender when he realized that the woman had her bow drawn and pointing at him. Given the display of her marksmanship abilities earlier, he had no doubt that she could place that arrow in him if she wanted.

"Hey relax!" Eridanus shouted out.

The ethaefal felt a tingling in his body again, and he found the hooded man scrutinizing him critically. After a short while, the tingling disappeared and the man called out a single word "Civilian!" to the archer, and she lowered the bow, though keeping the arrow loosely in the bow.

The hooded man approached Eridanus calmly, his strides confident and measured. There was movement out of the corner of Eri's eyes, and he shifted his gaze to find two children walking out of the door of the misshapen house behind the archer.

They were twins, one female and one male, and the female one had a soft toy bear in her right hand, while her left hand held the boy's right. Unlike normal children though, they walked with the same slow and feeble manner as the beggar, and instantly alarm bells began to ring in Eri's mind.

The hooded man observed the the way Eri's eyes widened in alarm, and he spun around quickly in the direction of the ethaefal's gaze, quickly shouting out a word of warning. He was too late, for two huge shadows emerged from the children's shadows, crashing down on the unsuspecting archer, engulfing her like how a heavy storm consume a little boat in stormy waters.

The man cried out desperately, but he did not take another step towards the shadows, instead choosing to simply face them and stare.

A short moment later, the shadow flinched back as if struck by some form of invisible force, and the Eri felt the tingling feeling return. A wizard can always recognize a wizard, and he realized that this man was a projectionist. The evidence added up, and it also explained why he comfortably kept his hands within his robes, something which Eri would never do for it made him feel insecure to do so.

[Eridanus]

The children staggered stiffly towards them, their faces blank of expression but their eyes full of life, dancing with joy, with activity, with bumbling enthusiasm. It was a horrifying juxtaposition of contrary concepts that did not make sense, and it further added to the thought that Eri had stumbled into a bad dream. Everything felt strangely disconnected, like he was merely an observer watching something, as all dreams tended to be.

The shadows hovered nearer too, for as the children approached their shadows followed and the black writhing beings that sprouted from these unnatural shadows came closer. Like a snake, both shadows struck forward so quickly that Eri might have missed it in a blink of an eye.

However, both shadows crashed into the air again, and the man's body began shivering uncontrollably, cold sweat rolling down his temples as he let out a low growl. The children simply stood there. The girl began playing with her teddy bear while the boy stepped behind her to neaten her hair. The two of them seemed oblivious to the world, and their stiff actions and blank expressions made Eri think of animated corpses, yet the life in their eyes contradicted all of these.

The man suddenly dropped to a knee, and one of the shadows suddenly surged forward again, smashing into the man. Eri gasped in surprise, but the man was not consumed like the archer was earlier. Instead, there was a minor smell of burnt cloth as the glyphs in the corner of the man's robes glowed bright red, and the shadow was flung far away.