The Dark Shadow of Spring

by G. L. Breedon

  “Sorry,” Alex said. “I should have come earlier. We’d heard there was something in the forest and I thought it might have to do with the Shadow Wraith.”

  “And so your first thought was to come racing after it?” Batami said as the white wolf padded over to her side.

  “In hindsight, it wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had,” Alex confessed, staring at the blade of the sword she still held in her right hand. She followed the line of his sight and grunted. The sword was not like others that Alex had seen. The blade was long and wide, but curved, and the steel of the blade was white and covered with an intricate pattern like deep black lace running along its contour.

  “True Damask steel,” Batami said. “A rune-spell of realm breaking will send a demon back to where it came from, but you have to be a strong enough mage to fight them over the threshold. As you discovered. The blade, however, is much easier.”

  Alex looked around at the Guild. They stood in dumbstruck silence, each holding their hands to the places where the demons had touched them. “These are my friends,” Alex said, not knowing what else to say.

  “And loyal friends they must be to follow you on such a foolhardy errand,” Batami said. “Loyal or stupid,” she added with a smile. “And this is my friend,” she continued, patting the wolf on the shoulder. “This is Sufina. She’s a Titan Wolf. Last of her kind. Much like me.” The wolf shook its head and Alex wasn’t entirely sure, but he thought it was some manner of greeting. “Further introductions can wait. The flesh where the demons touched you can rot off your bones if not tended to quickly. We can talk more back at my hut. This way. Quickly. I’m not entirely certain those were the only creatures to break into our realm last night.” Those words and Batami’s demeanor were enough to have everyone quickly pick up their bikes and follow her in a line as she led them into the woods along a path that looked like it was rarely used. The wolf walked beside her as they followed the ancient Spirit Mage into the whiteness of the trees. Alex wondered if the rest of the afternoon would go better than the first part had.

  Chapter 19: Lunch and Lessons

  Batami’s hut seemed tiny and cramped from the outside, but the inside was impossibly larger than it should have been. From outside, it appeared to be a little one-story cabin constructed of white logs, but from within, it more resembled a small, but ornate mansion. There was a wide foyer that led to a sitting room off from a large living area, next to a spacious dining room beside a fully stocked kitchen. A staircase near the entrance led to an impossible second floor.

  Even more strangely, from the outside, the tiny cabin seemed to have only three windows, but from inside, every wall had at least two large windows looking out on the small clearing in the middle of the White Forest where Batami made her home. Even in Runewood, Alex had never seen magic so intricate and complex. He tried to sense the way magic had been used to bend space around the house but, while he could discern what aspects of magic were used, he could not grasp how they had been applied.

  After administering a magical healing balm where the demons has touched them, Batami left Alex and the Guild seated in the dining room while she went to the kitchen to prepare them something to eat. She had been adamant about serving them lunch when Alex mentioned that they had skipped the midday meal in coming to the forest. Alex looked around the table at the others. No one had said a word since they made their brief introductions during the walk from the Ivory Glade. Alex suspected that they were in shock as much from being saved by Batami and Sufina as by nearly dying at the hands of demons from a dark realm.

  Batami and the wolf had been no less awe-inducing on the walk home. Alex had noticed that he was not the only one to find his eyes constantly falling on the sword sheath slung over Batami’s back. He had breathed a sigh of relief when Sufina, the white wolf, had trotted off into the forest after accompanying Batami to her home. Now, seated around a highly polished mahogany table, the Guild seemed subdued, but Alex knew them all well enough, even Victoria, to know that inside they were bursting with excitement just as much as he was.

  Finally, Nina could no longer contain herself. “How does she do it?” she whispered.

  “Do what?” Alex asked.

  “Make the house bigger on the inside,” Nina replied.

  “How would I know?” Alex said.

  “Hmmm, I think it’s a trick,” Clark said, sniffing the air. “The magic as we passed through the doorway was very strange. I think this is a different house. Someplace else. The foyer is the real cabin maybe, and then once you pass through that, you’re in a house someplace else.”

  “Like the magical closets Daddy creates in our house that lead from one floor to another,” Victoria said.

  “Windows,” Ben said. “How do you explain the windows?”

  “Well, I don’t know,” Clark said scratching his head.

  “They could be enchanted to link to something on the outside of the little cabin,” Alex offered.

  “I remember seeing small plaques of glass and wood on the side of the cabin,” Victoria said.

  “Hermes’ hairballs, that’s tricky,” Daphne said.

  “A clever lot of friends you have around you, young Alex,” Batami said as she stepped into the room baring a large silver tray piled high with sandwiches and fruit.

  “Hmm, lunch,” Clark said as Batami sat the tray in the middle of the table.

  “You with the wicked mouth,” Batami said, pointing to Daphne, whose eyes went wide with a mixture of embarrassment and fear. “There’s a stack of plates in that hutch behind you. Make yourself useful and hand them out. Alex, why don’t you grab yourself a sandwich and join me in the sitting room?”

  Batami drifted out of the room as Daphne leapt to her feet and opened the dark wooden doors of the hutch and took out a stack of plates. Alex snagged a plate from her and slid a few sandwiches onto it before following Batami to the sitting room. He glanced back over his shoulder and offered his most reassuring look to his friends. The looks on their faces did nothing to reassure him. It seemed they were wondering if he might become Batami’s lunch.

  Alex found Batami sitting in a large wooden, but well-padded rocking chair by one of the windows. She held a steaming cup of tea in her hands, although Alex could not remember her carrying one with her. He sat on a small love seat opposite the rocking chair and balanced the plate of sandwiches on his knees.

  “There are some things we must discuss that are better heard by your ears alone,” Batami began.

  “Okay,” Alex said, staring at the plate of sandwiches and realizing that he wasn’t remotely hungry.

  “There is much for you to learn,” Batami said, “and it would seem, very little time for you to acquire the knowledge you require.” She paused then and sighed, the deep lines of her face appearing to grow deeper still with worry and fatigue. Alex wondered momentarily just how old she really was. “The first thing you must know,” Batami continued, “is that, while you are special, you are not unique. In each age, when the Shadow Wraith struggles to escape its bondage, as in the age when it was first created, there arises a hero or heroine to defeat it. Or, to be more accurate, the hero returns to face the eternal adversary.”

  Alex remembered then the words of the dragon Gall’Adon and the destiny that he had spoken to him in the cave. It seemed like months ago, but was really only days past. “You mean I’m not really me,” Alex said. “I’m some hero reborn?”

  “Yes and no,” Batami said, her face gentle. “You are very much you, Alex Ravenstar, and no one else. But the eternal essence of your being, your very subtle nature, is the same as that of the heroes, men and women, who have faced the Shadow Wraith in the past. Normally the returning hero is born at the first inklings of the Shadow Wraith’s struggles against its prison and comes to maturity at nearly the same time as the Shadow Wraith gains the height of its power.”

  “I don’t understand,” Alex said. “I thought Shan’Kal had been imprisoned thousands of years ago. No one even se
ems to know about the cave in the Black Bone Mountains.”

  “Firstly,” Batami said, her eyes narrowing for emphasis, “you must be careful when using the Shadow Wraith’s true name. The greater its power in the world becomes, the more power its name has. There was a time, during the War of the Shadow that first defeated it, when the mere whisper of its name was enough to bring its dark minions down upon you. Secondly, the reason that no one knows that the Shadow Wraith’s prison is in the Black Bones Mountains is because that is not entirely true. A part of its prison lies in those mountains, but only a part. There is not enough magical energy in the Rune Valley to maintain the seal that holds it from this world. Therefore, its prison is spread among all twelve of the secret places of this world where magic still flows through the land. Think of it as a prison cell with many doors.”

  “So this is the first time the Shadow Wraith has tried to escape through this prison door, in this valley,” Alex said.

  “Exactly,” Batami replied.

  “And each time it tries to escape, I’m reborn to fight it?” Alex asked, trying to get his mind around that idea.

  “Not exactly you, not with your memories and personality,” Batami said. “The essence of you. Your soul-essence.”

  “What about everyone else?” Alex asked, thinking back to the Sunday sermons of Pastor Spiritos and trying to remember what he had said about life after death.

  “Different paths for different people,” Batami said. “And different paths again for the non-magical folk outside the valley. But Spirit Mages, whether destined to fight the Shadow Wraith or not, are always reborn. My husband was a Spirit Mage. I have been waiting many years for his return.” Batami took a long sip of her tea.

  “It doesn’t make sense,” Alex said, still struggling with the thought.

  “Sometimes it is easier to accept things as they are than to try and make sense of them,” Batami said.

  “That’s why I remember things,” Alex said, “like runes and spells and astral travel. Because I’ve done it before.”

  “The Spirit Magic, yes,” Batami said. “The rest you remember like any mage, pulling it from the collective eternal mind of the spirit realm. You will remember more of the Spirit Magic as time passes, but that will not be sufficient to defeat the Shadow Wraith. You will also need to learn how to wield the magic. And you will need to grow stronger in it.”

  “How?” Alex asked in exasperation. Looking down, he realized that he had entirely forgotten about the sandwiches. It was just as well, since his hunger had continued to dissipate as his despair developed. “The Shadow Wraith is breaking free now. There’s no time for me to learn anything. I’ve seen its cave. In my astral body. It’s gathering people. Soon it could have the whole town.”

  “The times are dark,” Batami agreed in a solemn tone, “but not as dark as all that. I, too, have been to the Shadow Wraith’s lair in astral form and you are right, it is building an army, but there is still time to thwart its efforts. It is not as strong as you suspect it to be. Its powers are limited, thanks to the limitations of its creators.”

  “Creators!” Alex said with a gasp. “You mean someone made the Shadow Wraith?”

  “Oh yes,” Batami said with a sigh of weariness. “The Shadow Wraith was the end result of an effort by a faction of misguided mages intent upon acquiring unlimited power and glory. Fortunately, the first victims of the Shadow Wraith’s war on humanity were those selfsame mages. But it is not all powerful, as its defeat thousands of years ago proves. A swift attack now should be enough to seal it back in its prison.”

  “What am I supposed to attack it with?” Alex asked, his voice plaintive.

  “Not you alone,” Batami said. “It will take many mages to seal it properly. Possibly much of the town.”

  “You’ll help,” Alex said, trying to make it sound more like a statement of fact than a question.

  “What little I can, yes,” Batami said, “but I am, as I told you, confined to this forest. I can only leave its borders in my astral form and my powers are greatly weakened in that state.”

  “Why?” Alex asked. “What happened to you?”

  “I made a bargain many years ago,” Batami said as a wistful look crossed her face. “I was young and it seemed like the only course of action. In return for an extended life, my life itself became tied to this forest. You might say that the forest and I are no longer two separate things. I draw my power and my life from it, and in return, it has eyes and ears and a mind. But if I were to step beyond the boundary of its trees, my physical form would waste away to the dust that it should already be.”

  “Oh,” was all that Alex could think to say, realizing that Batami, for all her power and knowledge, was in some ways just as imprisoned as the Shadow Wraith.

  “But I will help you all I can,” Batami said, leaning forward to emphasize her words. “I will teach you and help you become the mage you must be. To that end, I have three things for you. The first is a book.” Reaching within the folds of her long robe-like dress, she removed a small book. Her gnarled and bony hands grasped it tightly as she handed it to Alex. It was a small leather volume of only a hundred pages or so. He took it silently and let it sit in his open palms as he read the title. It was one he knew well. Radiant Spirit: Ka’Neff Magic Uncovered.

  “How did you get this?” Alex asked. “It was missing from the library. My father was looking for it.”

  “I have my ways,” Batami said with a quiet laugh. “And since it was originally mine, it is not exactly stealing. Besides, only a Spirit Mage can really make sense of it. To a normal mage, even if they can read its runes, it will sound like gibberish.”

  Alex opened the book at random and read the first phrase that his eyes fell upon. “There is no realm not touched by this realm, but there is too, no true realm at all, and yet all realms are but a single manifestation of the ultimate realm and all realms are but a shadow of it in their manifestation.” Alex could see what Batami meant. Gibberish. It didn’t instill him with a sense of confidence to know that the book’s words were so obtuse to him when he felt such a great need of their knowledge.

  “I would start at the beginning, instead,” Batami said. “And expect to read it many times before you begin to glean even the slightest hint of its true power and meaning.”

  “I was hoping for something that might be more useful in the short term,” Alex said, trying not to sound ungrateful.

  “That is what this is for,” Batami said, reaching to her neck and pulling a long leather necklace over her head. At a knot in the middle of the leather thong was a small white-gold rune that glinted in the sunlight from the window. Alex leaned forward as Batami stretched her arms toward him and placed the necklace over his head. He could feel the weight of the metal rune as it fell against his chest and he could smell a slight fragrance of lavender as Batami sat back.

  Alex looked down at the rune-amulet on his chest. It looked like an endless knot of sharp angles layered over one another again and again. He had never seen it before, but it stirred memories in him of something that he could not quite place. He felt a wave of assurance and confidence flood through him. Whatever it was, it was powerful and it felt right to have it close to him.

  “That rune-amulet was my husband’s,” Batami said, her eyes suddenly sad. “The meaning of that rune will come to you in time. It is a rune from the Rune Tree itself.”

  “The Rune Tree?” Alex asked.

  “A magical tree which contains and creates all possible runes,” Batami said. “Some say that it resides in this very valley. It is ancient beyond measure. The rune that originally imprisoned the Shadow Wraith came from the Rune Tree.”

  “I could try to find it,” Alex said, imagining the quest for the Rune Tree in his mind.

  “Many before you have tried,” Batami said, “but it is elusive, to say the least.”

  “I can use all the help I can get,” Alex said.

  “Then let me give you a small bit of advice,�
�� Batami said. “It is a simple piece of wisdom, but possibly more important than any other thing I can give you.” Alex leaned forward, listening intently. “Spirit Magic is not like other magic. The power of other mages depends upon how much magical energy they can draw from the land. But a Spirit Mage can draw magical energy from realms beyond this one. However, access to those realms depends upon the purity of a Spirit Mage’s heart.”

  “You mean like being a good person?” Alex said, wondering if his constant thwarting of authority would count against him in terms of acquiring magical power.

  “More than that,” Batami said. “Being a good person is about the actions we take. Being pure of heart is about the state of mind, the motivation in our heart, when we take those actions. While a dark Spirit Mage can become powerful, they will only ever be strong in a handful of spells that will be warped and distorted. To become a truly powerful Spirit Mage, one needs to truly pure heart. A heart free of hatred and anger and malice and jealously.”

  “Oh,” Alex said. It was going to be harder to be a Spirit Mage than he had expected.

  “And you of all Spirit Mages will need an especially pure heart,” Batami continued.

  “Wonderful,” Alex said, leaning back into the love seat with a sigh.

  “Oh, it won’t be as bad as all that,” Batami said with a small laugh. “You already have a good start. And you have many past lives of being pure of heart to rely upon. They have left an imprint upon you that will ease your journey. But be forewarned. As the Shadow Wraith gains strength, it also acquires the power to influence human minds and souls. Now that it knows you, it will seek to tempt you with promises that stir your darker nature. It desires to embolden the little Shadow Wraith within us all. And it feeds off of the anger and hatred of humans, so the more people are swayed by it, the stronger it becomes. Even if they arrive in that dark place by themselves, it gains strength. I believe the reason it has gathered so much power now, before you have come to your maturity, is because of the wars the ordinary humans have been waging beyond the confines of this valley. Their violence gives it strength.”