Shadow Mage

by John Forrester

  “What did you do?” Talis gaped at the fibers moving and stretching out from his own stomach. Were they there inside him all along, waiting to come out?

  “I just removed the block in your mid-section, which prevented you from utilizing your own latent power.” Palarian nodded in satisfaction, studying the fibers. “Your hands and fingers were open to the flow of magic, but your stomach was blocked.”

  “Blocked by what?”

  “By birth and youth and foolishness.” The old man grinned. “Now pay attention. Close your eyes and feel the fibers of your stomach.”

  Talis felt something itch along his stomach, whip around in front of his body, stretching out from within himself. He could feel it! Then a sickening sensation tickled over whatever he was feeling, and he opened his eyes in alarm.

  “Good, you felt that.” Palarian held a thick shadow cord that whipped about in the space surrounding Talis’s mid-section. “Now close your eyes again and make your stomach fibers search out until you feel that same sensation…the shadow cords. When you feel it, grab it with your stomach and don’t let go, no matter what you feel.”

  Despite wanting to run away and never feel that diseased sensation again, Talis did what the sorcerer asked. He concentrated on stretching the fibers out from his stomach until he felt the wet blackness seep into him. He fought down the nausea and allowed himself to grasp the black cord through his stomach’s fibers. When he opened his eyes, Palarian nodded in approval.

  “Excellent! I’ve never seen an apprentice perform the task so smoothly and without interruption from…unpleasantries. You’ve had some experience with shadow energies, I can tell.”

  Talis thought back to the shadow trap he’d built in the meadow with Mistress Cavares.

  “Now let the shadow cord pull you along to your destination.”

  “But how do I summon a shadow cord?”

  The sorcerer laughed with his eyes. “There is no summoning involved, shadow cords are simply everywhere in the universe. You just reach out with your stomach and concentrate on staring at your destination and use your willpower to go. It’s quite simple.”

  A shadow flickered over the rocky hills to the right, distracting Talis for a moment. He completely forgot about his task and peered at the black spot, wondering if Rikar was there. The shadow cord snapped at his stomach, yanking him forward until the next second he was standing high atop the hills next to a cave’s gaping mouth.

  Palarian appeared next to him, flustered, a disapproving look in his eyes. “I said concentrate, that means not allowing yourself to get distracted.” He glanced around then aimed his gaze at Talis. “Well at least you succeeded in performing your first Shadow Blink. What did you see here anyways?”

  “A shadow…but it’s not here anymore.”

  “You glimpsed a demon, most likely. Many live here within the cave.”

  “Is this where Rikar is studying?” Talis felt a hot sensation creep into his feet when he stared into the blackness of the cave.

  “More like enduring, that’s a better word. He’s learning to withstand the corrupting influence of demonic powers, while slowly siphoning off their power.”

  Talis found his eyes widening. “Why would someone want to siphon off powers from a demon?”

  “Ah…I see you’ve never understood how Shadow Magic works. You think of magic in terms of elemental magic, which uses stored power within the body, or from the outside, like a fire, or draws from a crystal that channels power. But Shadow Magic doesn’t always require crystals or fire or heat from the body.”

  “What does it need?” Talis furrowed his brow, perplexed that he’d never wondered why the Jiserian sorcerers could travel so far away from their cities, and still be filled with power. He always assumed they carried crystals or some magical artifact with them.

  Palarian spread his hands out and pinched the air. Shadow bubbles appeared around his fingers. “There are lines of shadow energy everywhere in the universe, waiting for the skilled sorcerer to draw in the power.”

  Power everywhere you went? “Then why can’t Aurellia cast a world’s portal spell without a powerful enough crystal?”

  “There’s not enough power available in any one place to draw from the shadow cords. Hence the need for demons, who naturally can store shadow energy within specific organs in their body.”

  “And crystals?”

  “Yes, of course, the right crystal can channel vast amounts of magical energy.”

  “Channel?”

  Palarian nodded his head. “Crystals don’t store power, they channel it, and the most powerful crystals can draw in so much power it covers the distance of an entire world. Enough power to summon a world’s portal spell, used to travel an immense distance across the stars.”

  “And those crystals are extremely rare.”

  “Precisely.” The sorcerer gestured towards the cave. “So now we enter.”

  “Wait, if what you need can be only found through the Surineda Map, why don’t you just have me find a crystal and your done?”

  “Without having the ability to sense and draw in shadow energy, you’ll most likely be unable to find such a crystal, even with the Surineda Map.” Palarian strode towards the gaping mouth of the cave. “And demons always hide such a powerful crystal, so you must first conquer a demon stronger than the one used to destroy your Order’s source of power.”

  23. DEMON'S LAIR

  Talis could feel the wickedness slowly seep into his mind, the thoughts and cravings of the twisted minds of demons. Hunger for flesh, the taste of warm blood, the fear and loathing and suspicion. They hid here away from the world, away from the brightness, clinging to pain, suffering in silence. And it festered and grew until rancid with hatred for life.

  So this was where Rikar was being tortured? Talis wondered, trying not to imagine the pain he must have suffered in the demon’s nest. Enduring, indeed. He opened his mouth to speak but Palarian placed a finger over his lips and shook his head. To endure must also mean to remain silent.

  Down a webbed tunnel, past hideously large black spiders with brilliant red underbellies, they found a soft silver glow illuminating a room just around a bend. Talis and Palarian crept along slowly, mindful of luminescent worms that dropped from the ceiling in search of prey, their hungry mouths lined with needle-like teeth.

  Then they found a room filled with silky-wet eggs, their black sheen reflecting the eerie silver light from pus-filled sacs clinging to the ceiling. Something terrible stirred from within the sacs. Silver iridescent bodies that radiated maliciousness, black wings that twitched when you thought they were at rest, and eyes, sensuous green eyes craving life, craving the whole world. They were beauty and horror at the same time.

  Talis wanted to scream and run from the cave, hands blazing fire to burn this hell into ash, but the sorcerer fixed his hands to the sides of Talis’s head and forced him to stare at a demon spawn.

  “The creature wills itself to you,” Palarian whispered into Talis’s ear. “You are fortunate to be chosen so quickly by one as powerful as she.”

  Fortunate was not what Talis was feeling, cursed, doomed, beyond salvation, that was what he felt. But the longer he gazed into the demon’s eyes the more he felt a kinship, an understand oozing from her snake-eyes. She spoke to him, inside his mind, words slippery as silk, words every man desires to hear. You are powerful and wise, the world is open to your grasp, men will fall and kneel before your greatness, nothing is outside the realm of your control.

  Images burned in Talis’s mind, of him defeating the Jiserians and the undead hordes, and the feeling of power from the black crystal surging through his body until he truly felt he could do anything. There are men and there are gods. You are a god. Feel immortality and infinity flow through you. Talis wanted to shout that it was a lie, to resist the seductive urgings of the demon’s tongue, but he couldn’t refute what she said. What Aurellia had said at the Temple of the Goddess Nacrea, after its destruction, before th
e old sorcerer leapt into the world’s portal: We are the gods, we who possess the power of the twin forces.

  The creature writhed and resisted her cocoon, as if longing to break free.

  “See, she stirs…she desires you.” Palarian’s voice was unnaturally shrill and high-pitched. Talis glanced at the sorcerer’s face and was horrified to find he had no mouth. Talis instinctively put a hand to his own lips and felt only smooth skin across the place where his mouth had once been. Instead of reacting in terror, curiosity filled his mind. Was this all an elaborate illusion?

  When he looked down again, he realized his hands had shriveled and grown claws, and he’d sprouted wings, black wings the sheen of glass, scaled and sharp. He was changing. Only then did he understand that he was inside one of those eggs on the ground, and that the world appeared dark and smoky because he was gazing out through the egg’s membrane.

  From those fibers attached to his stomach he felt dark, sickening nutrients entering his body, bringing sustenance needed by the dark creature he was changing into. There are worlds of light and worlds of darkness, the demon purred. Darkness fills the universe.

  He remembered the words of Master Viridian, Light is illumination on our journey. Did Talis battle against the darkness? Did he care? The Goddess Nacrea’s glorious face glowed in his mind’s eyes, her voice soft and pure, With light and love, darkness gives shape to the universe. The Goddess of the Sun, her last words to him, praising darkness? And she gave him a black crystal, channeling vast amounts of power. But it was destroyed now, Talis thought.

  What was the thing that Rikar had to endure? Was this torture? It felt as natural as running full-speed across a wind-swept plain, heart thumping in his chest. He could feel the power, a deep well, surging through him, dark lines spread across the universe, connecting him to the source. But where was the source? He reached out and tried to grasp it, and only found himself floating in a shadow mist.

  His eyes snapped open, a hard and reptilian movement. The egg felt entirely too cramped and he desired to break free. His neck jerked forward and his hard-boned nose smashed through the egg’s wet membrane. He staggered through, waddling uneasily, legs feeling stiff and awkward. His wings arched out, ripping through what was left of the egg, flapping thick silver liquid across the cave’s dark walls.

  Palarian stepped back quickly, eyes flared in terror, mouth open, gaping at the creature Talis had become. When Talis realized the fear was aimed at him, something snapped inside and he changed back to his human form. He looked down at his arms, they were no longer claws, and his wings had vanished.

  “What happened to me?” Talis said, staring into Palarian’s eyes.

  The sorcerer glanced around the room, and leaned in conspiratorially. “You took on dragon form…the first human I’ve ever seen able to do such a thing.”

  “Dragon form? But how?” The loudness of Talis’s voice startled himself, and he locked eyes with the demon twitching inside her sac on the ceiling.

  “This is the Chamber of Transformation, the place of sorrows and regrets. Where you resist the seductions of the demons and find your true self in the process. So strange…you didn’t even bother to resist.” Palarian flashed an odd smile. “I’ve never seen anything like it, you just gave into everything and went along with it.”

  “But why did I become a dragon?”

  “Everyone changes into something…the egg was waiting for you to come…as was the demon. You chose each other. The dragon form was within you waiting to come out.”

  That sounded ridiculous. A dragon form waiting inside? And yet he’d felt and seen the transformation for himself. There wasn’t a doubt about it, he’d become a black dragon. Unless this was all some kind of a nightmare.

  “You don’t believe me, you’re suspicious of what you just experienced?” Palarian sighed, a wry expression crossing his face. “Well, you’ll believe the next step in your training…learning how to transform back into dragon form.”

  “What? Why would I want to do that? It felt horrible being a dragon, like I wasn’t even myself.”

  “You’ll still retain your thoughts and bodily control, but the dragon’s mind and instincts definitely will affect you. You know little about dragons so naturally it feels foreign to you. That will come later, once you possess first-hand the knowledge of dragons.”

  “But there are no dragons on our world, they only exist in ancient mythology.”

  “Oh, there are dragons there, hiding away far to the north, on the Isles of Tarasen. And there are many dragons on my home world, too. But there are none here on this bleak planet.”

  Palarian aimed his hands at Talis. “Now, let’s continue your training…learning the shadow spell of transformation. You’ve learned shadow spells using Rune Magic, and I’ve taught you how to perform Shadow Blink…Shadow Transformation is somewhat similar.

  “Close your eyes and feel those same energy cords extending out from your stomach. Good, that’s good, but stretch them out farther…no, feel an imaginary hand yanking them out even farther… Yes, that’s right!”

  Talis could hear crackles of electricity burst out in front of him. Was it him or Palarian? He resisted the urge to open his eyes to see.

  “Keep concentrating, don’t let your mind wander with thoughts and questions… Breathe deeply and focus on extending your cords of energy out a hundred feet.”

  A flurry of pops and crackling rang out near his stomach, so loud it hurt his ears. He felt the sharp, needle-like sensation of electricity striking his mid-section.

  “That’s better, any more and you’ll create a thunderstorm.” Palarian chuckled. “A different shadow spell… For now, picture those cords of energy wrapping up and back and all around you, enveloping you in a warm cocoon, like how you felt inside the egg. Your inner sight will turn mottled, like staring through the egg’s membrane.

  “No! That’s too far, you’ll choke yourself to death. Relax, let yourself drift a bit. Settle in to the feeling of nesting, encased in the warm membrane…that’s better.”

  Talis did feel like he was back inside the egg, nestled in the warm, silver liquid, even though he knew he was standing next to Palarian. Or was he?

  “Stop thinking… I can hear your thoughts echo off these cave walls. Everything is amplified in here. If you’re not careful, you’ll turn your demon against you. The mind is a powerful amplifier, either it works for you or against you. Control your thoughts! That’s better… Now your energy cords are your own membrane, wrapped together they make your own egg. Feel the heat bake yourself and the transformation will naturally come.”

  Then a wave of dry heat washed over Talis, like being on sand in the height of a hot desert day. Something snapped inside himself, and he experienced the same sensation of transformation as before: wings sprouted, hands and arms shriveling to claws, face expanding to a hard snout.

  “It’s happening,” Talis said, but his voice had changed to a low, growl that echoed across the chamber.

  “Yes, bravo, you’ve succeeded in transforming…and on the first try!” Palarian stared in amazement at the beast that Talis had become. “It’s almost too easy for you…dangerous, I wonder. Like your body craves the dragon form.”

  The once vast chamber felt suddenly cramped, and Talis realized he’d grown by a substantial amount. Maybe three or four times his original size? He cast a hungry gaze at Palarian, feeling an unnatural urge to feast.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” the sorcerer said, chuckling. “I’m not dinner. One of the things you’ll have to deal with is handling your dragon-instinct urges. But now is not the time. Hurry up and change back into your human form.”

  But Talis didn’t feel like changing back. A massive desire to stretch his wings and take flight washed over him. He tried to control it but found himself powerless. After all, he’d always wanted to fly by himself. He resented the fact that the wizards of the Order refused to teach him the spell of flight. So why should he resist now?

&n
bsp; Palarian shook his head vigorously in disagreement. “No, no, you mustn’t, not here in the Netherworld. There’s far too much risk… Please, change back, just picture yourself as a human.”

  Talis ignored the sorcerer’s words and flapped his wings, relishing in the wind currents he was creating inside the chamber. Despite Palarian waving his arms, trying to contain Talis, it was useless. Talis pulled in his wings, aimed his snout towards the tunnel leading outside, and scurried up towards the light.

  “Come back!” Palarian shouted after him. Talis could hear the sorcerer’s footfalls recede into the distance. Soon the tunnel opened up to the stark bone sky of the Netherworld and the strange, haggard trees, their weird leaves blowing listlessly in the wind.

  Suppressing reason and ignoring caution, Talis arched out his wings full and stretched them wide, taking in the feeling of the wind racing up the rocks. He shook his head in delight and opened his jaw wide, feasting in the sensation of the air churning around inside.

  Flight.

  That was all he could think about. With one confident step he leapt off the rock ledge, flapped his wings, and fixed his eyes on the distant horizon.

  24. FLIGHT

  Talis felt his stomach sink to his knees as he swooped down the rocky hillside, catching speed as he dove towards the banded-tree forest. His dragon instinct pushed him faster, flapping his great black, glassy wings in a mad rush, his snout snuffling against the gushing wind currents. He was free. Nothing about the alien landscape of the Netherworld seemed to bother him; there was wind, there was flight, he was free.

  His dragon mind took over: to fly, to feast, to build a hoard. Some thoughts far in the distant recesses of his mind fought to be heard, but at the moment, those thoughts sounded like the tiny squeaks of a raving lunatic. The forest rushed past underneath, a wash of green and blood-red. Then he dove towards a field of golden grass, giant boulders littered amongst the expanse, nearing a long, snaking sea of emerald-green.