Chapter Four
Their journey after the small house continued with renewed vigor. Raine buried her face into Linther's fur as he took off on all fours, smiling at the memories from earlier on in the night. He also seemed to lope with an extra bounce to his step, and she made excuses to hug him tighter around his mane or even kiss his fur. She enjoyed the opportunity for affection, and just really to hug something. It made a change from her lonely nights at the inn.
The inn that no longer existed.
Soon enough, though, Linther tired, and Raine needed to invoke her protections around their makeshift campsite once more. After completing the barriers, she tried to sleep with a dull headache poking at her skull. Vaguely, she watched Linther stride off, perhaps to hunt something for them to consume later. She missed having his warmth to curl up into, and huddled into a ball instead by the fire.
She finally drifted off, thinking upon her fate, and her position with Linther. She wondered if they would be allowed to stay together.
A terrible snarling wrought the air, in the swirling blackness, where the snows coated her clothes and her eyelashes. It jerked her awake, and she groped for her crossbow in the glow of the fire. Where was Linther? Her heart went out to him in worry, but she didn't have the time or place to stay focused on him. Not when she saw the ooze of Shadows forming just behind her barrier.
Silently, ghoulishly, they clustered, never displaying purpose beyond the mindless hunting of flesh, no matter how outnumbered they might be, or well protected said flesh was.
Raine grabbed a branch from the fire with the tip of it ablaze, and scoured the clearing, seeing around four, five Shadows. Groups were unusual. Shadows traditionally hunted alone, sometimes merging together by convenience. Groups, however, suggested intelligence. Organization.
Where was Linther? She got her answer in the form of a spitting werewolf, lunging past the encirclement to join Raine. His muzzle dripped with black blood, and the tip of his ear seemed missing. He morphed back.
“Went hunting. Deer. Not alone.”
Raine hugged him, stroking his hair hurriedly, before pulling apart to gauge the threat. She aimed her crossbow, swallowing her anxiety, remembering that her barrier would hold. That she had nothing to fear with such a powerful protector by her side. Plus, there was the fact she was a wastelands witch.
That had to count for something. Right?
The first Shadow collapsed with a hiss from her bolt, and she clicked the next round into place. The Shadows instantly recoiled, and sunk into the ground, becoming near insubstantial, making it hard for her to aim. However, their black patches still rimmed her protection, making it impossible to leave without stepping on one.
“That's not good.”
For good measure, she fired off a bolt into the black mass, but nothing happened.
“They can't hurt us in that form, either,” Linther pointed out. “So we can take comfort in that fact.” His nostrils flared as more Shadows seemed to form in the ground, joining their brethren, until the entire perimeter of Raine's spell was edged by blackness.
Her anxiety spiked. “Any chance you can just, you know, vault over all that?”
Linther wrinkled his nose, baring his teeth in a grimace. “We can try. I cannot jump as far and agilely with you stuck on my back, though. Know any good spells?”
“Like the lightning? Nah.” Raine scoured her repertoire of magic. She knew a repulsion spell, but that required skin contact with whoever she planned to repulse. Living barriers took all of her energy to form on just one person, and they didn't last for long.
A stray thought reached her. “Maybe I could try enchanting the snow into a weapon.”
Linther raised eyebrows in her in surprise. “You can do that?”
“I have no idea. Never tried with snow or water.”
Linther chuckled nervously, before morphing back into the werewolf form. He began to prowl around Raine. The black mass past her magical protection, and the charcoal line, seemed to be pressing themselves against it, like water sloshing behind a dam.
“I don't think I want to die here...” Raine took a deep breath, taking out her vial of black blood. She couldn't see the idea being effective past a small patch of snow, but she needed to do something. Even if it meant using up the last of the Shadow's essence.
“Don't you?” The voice hissed out of the gloom. Raine froze, inches from pouring the blood into the snow, and she saw it.
The Shadow that talked, wearing the corpse of her mother. It stepped into the light, enough for her to see the emaciated, near naked form, smiling with yellowed teeth and stretched, papery skin. “I have a connection to you, little child. As long as you use things with my blood, I'll always be able to find you.”
This thing can break barriers. Oh, curses! She scrabbled to Linther, whispering into his ear that they would need to make a risky sprint for it. He growled agreement, and she clutched at his fur.
“There are more of us, you know,” the creature said in a musing voice, carelessly trailing a finger above the magical protection. Her blackened feet had Shadows squirming around. “And we just want what is rightfully ours.”
Smoke seemed to fizzle around the Shadow's finger, which she ignored, smirking as the smoke intensified. In spite, Raine aimed at the Shadow and let loose with the crossbolt. It grabbed the bolt disdainfully in mid-flight, hissed slightly at the wisps of smoke that emanated from the hand that stopped the attack, before discarding it.
The barrier vanished. Raine let out a scream and scrambled onto Linther's back, and he sprinted off, snarling viciously as the Shadows inked across the ground. He took a huge bound, soaring above them, but abruptly jerked in mid-air. Raine saw in time the Shadow that talked raising her hand, aiming towards the werewolf – and the action caused Raine to fly off into the snow, skidding along it with a gasp. Linther jerked horribly in the air, his huge, powerful form reduced to helplessness as the Shadow grinned with her mother's mouth.
It had access to her mother's magic.
The thought electrified Raine. Free of its bonds, it held Linther prisoner, as he flailed and snapped in mid-air. She saw the Shadows forming, shambling towards her. Terror pierced every nerve – with trembling hands, she poured the whole black vial into the snowbank around her, and let the magic slip out of her throat. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and the magic fizzled out of her, igniting the headache which accumulated in strength.
The black blood enchantment seeped across the snow bank, turning the mound she was buried in ashen gray. A brief notion caused her heart to stutter further – what if the Shadows could just merge with it? It was made of their blood, after all.
The first by her bank twitched, and crumbled into nothing. The others reacted instinctively, dissolving into their ground forms again, pressing against the barrier, only to also evaporate.
Linther howled as he flailed, snapping in a frenzy at his invisible bonds. The Shadow that talked appeared less than impressed at his attempts to escape. Pure evil emanated from her form, something ancient and cold and dark. A scope of evil Raine hadn't anticipated, as the Shadow had been neatly sealed behind Raine’s bindings.
So many things she should have done. Could have. Should have. Didn't.
Linther howled with fear, rage and desperation when the Shadows clawed at his hind legs, and the claws there kicked back. He looked so savage, so beautiful, even as he wriggled and scratched and snapped for his life, twisting and writhing, trying to get a good hold upon them. He stiffened when the Shadow that talked tightened her hold.
Moon curse it! Raine squeezed her eyes shut, plumbing the depths of her soul for the magic, the headache vibrating against her skull. Without the knowledge behind the magic, it was like wrestling with a storm.
Shouts entered the clearing, and her eyes snapped open. Rescue? Did the werewolves heed Linther's howl?
She blinked as she saw someone, encased in full black armor, clang through the clearing and hack at the Shadows beneath Linther's dangling body. Two werewolves emerged from the darkness behind the armored man, and they looked nothing like any werewolves Raine had seen. Their forms were warped, distorted, the skin pinched over their bones, and their eyes glowing an ominous yellow, leaving trails behind them.
The knight in black seemed to damage the Shadows just with the armor touching – the sword appeared as a happy addition. The emaciated werewolves tore into the other, squirming Shadows, with a mindless ferocity that sent ripples of fear through Raine.
The Shadow that talked smiled widely at the knight, though there was also barely concealed rage.
“Oh dear. It appears there must be a change of plan. Hup!” The Shadow held up her arms, and black tendrils of energy spewed out of her. The magic slapped against the knight's armor, its path diverting from the others.
The Shadow that talked hissed. A little slice of alarm went into her dead eyes, before she dissolved, barely avoiding the snap of one of the corpse-like werewolves, disappearing into the night.
Raine watched the whole event unfold, uncomprehending of what had just happened. Linther padded over to her, stepping in front of her as if to shield her from the newcomers. Raine glared at the knight in black.
“Wait,” she said, suddenly realizing. “Is your armor made of Shadow blood?”
The knight in black tucked his sword into his belt, and took off his helm for the first time. Blue southerner eyes stared at her. A mop of lank, dirty blonde hair grew past his ears. There was something gaunt and soulless in the way he examined her. The emaciated werewolves stood on either side of him, silent as ghosts.
“How do you know?” His voice came out surprisingly soft, with a melodic air to it.
Raine clung to Linther's neck scruff, and kissed him there. “Let's just say I might have had access to Shadow blood for a while. I can see the lick of magic on your armor. On the wolves.” She narrowed her eyes at the black, skeletal werewolves.
“I see. I'm glad to know I've not been the only one working on a solution.” He strapped his helmet to his belt as well, clanking closer to them. Linther growled warningly.
“Relax, werewolf. Are you two heading towards Lunehill? That's where I'm going for as well. My sense of direction is not quite so good.”
“Why not ask the wolves?” Raine said, indicating the silent guardians.
“Because they are not living. They are vessels of magic, after their bodies have expired. Shadow magic,” the man said, even as Linther's growling intensified, and his fur stiffened on end.
“Who are you?” Raine shook her head. “And you're a man. This is your magic? Men don't have magic.”
The man smiled coldly. “I'll explain later. And my name is Erlandur. I have news for Lunehill. News that is a long time in the waiting.”
Erlandur... why did that name sound so familiar? Raine scrunched her face, trying to remember where she had heard the name before.
Now Linther morphed, and his handsome face bulged in utter shock. “Erlander,” he said hoarsely. His throat sounded as if his windpipe had been suffocated thoroughly. “By the moon, you're actually alive.”
Erlandur nodded.
“I know why your name's familiar!” Raine barked suddenly. “You have a sister. Alyssa Malgrave. She dropped at my inn a while back.” Raine's face fell. “She was trying to find you at the Fractured City. I don't know of course if she made it.”
“I know,” Linther said, which instantly grabbed both Raine and Erlandur's attention. “She's in Lunehill now, actually. She wants to be part of the expedition that will scour the Fractured City.”
Erlandur heaved a sigh of relief. “I knew it. Not that she'd end up on Lunehill, but that she'd cursing well go after me at some point.”
Raine smiled. Linther's hand slipped into hers, reassuring her with his warmth.
“Guess we're going to have a lot to talk about, when we reach Lunehill, then.”
“Definitely.”
Madness, this whole thing. Absolute madness. Raine continued holding Linther’s hand for a moment, before they gathered up the pieces of their camp. No one would be sleeping again tonight. Erlandur nodded and slotted the helmet back on, before mounting on one of the undead wolves.
Raine bit her lip. Her new future lay in Lunehill, now. With the wolves. Fighting the Shadows by whatever means they could. Including the secret she had kept for years, now worn upon a man’s body.
“I’ll protect you,” Linther said. “Whatever happens, I’ll protect you.”
Raine kissed him upon the lips, before he transformed. She then mounted onto his back, and he loped off into the night, follow by Erlandur, as they headed towards their future.
The End
Nox’s Rescue
Guardians of Lunar Wasteland
Chapter One
Echo cowered in the rundown building. The market place, which resembled a ghost town at the best of times, shivered itself into non-existence as the Shadow parade filtered through the street. No one wanted to be picked, or to suffer the wrath of the upper class, or those finicky Supremes who meted out punishment as they saw fit. Didn’t matter if you were a model citizen or slave to them – sometimes the madness took over their souls and they’d lash out for no reason. Five mindless Shadows shuffled in front of a Supreme, who wore the face of an entitled bitch. Echo doubted the Supreme would pay any attention to her, but she didn’t want to conjure up any sort of suspicions her way. She was, after all, in the nature of doing illicit errands.
Living in the Fractured City wasn’t a life for the faint hearted. The Supreme herself appeared mildly disappointed that everyone had skittered off. They acted hurt, sometimes. Hurt that no one wanted to be around them, when they were known for their manic behaviour. Echo knew for a fact that a Supreme couldn’t feel. They mimicked emotions, sure. But basic human empathy? That lay beyond their skills.
Those poor, wretched souls though, the ones that ambled in front of the Supreme now – Echo wondered what slight they had committed. Now the Supreme would unleash them into the Wastes, so they could wander aimlessly, trying to devour any souls they came across.
Echo scratched at her black veined arms, watching the Supreme disappear from the quiet street with their batch of former citizens.
Within a moment, the stalls and shops declared themselves open again, and hooded figures emerged from their respective buildings or rubble to sell their wares. Chewing upon a strand of white hair, Echo ventured over to the market stall responsible for selling medical supplies. “Ho,” she said, striking a confident pose, so she looked less like a street rat without money, and more like a shady underground dealer, which of course, most of them were. Out of hours, anyway.
“Ho,” the man responded, narrowing his eyes, before scratching at his armpit.
She looked into his dark brown eyes and smiled warmly. “I’m looking to buy the flesh pills that I know you have tucked in a hole in the floor somewhere.”
The man bristled, his gray beard almost crackling with suspicion. “Why would I be selling something like that, even if I did have it, to a street urchin like you?”
In response, Echo slapped down a vial of Shadow blood on his stall table. The trader’s eyes boggled at the sight. “Is that what I think it is?”
“It is. So, now you know I have something illegal as well, I’m also supposed to tell you that I’ve been sent by Helena herself.”
At the name drop, the man’s face paled. The slight hesitation told Echo everything she needed to know. “Right. Right. Well, if you wait here a second, I’ll just go in and grab the… pills.”
He turned and went inside the dilapidated building. Throwing caution to the wind, Echo vaulted over the stall and followed the trader inside. He glanced back nervously. “Why are you following me inside?”
“Because I don’t trust you.” Echo concentrated, and the headache formed in her skull. Magic coursed through her blackened veins, and she delved into herself, into the darkness that was a part of her and tore it out.
The darkness coalesced into a monstrous, shadowy form, growling ominously. The trader made an odd squeaking noise.
“If you try to contact any of the authorities, you traitor, I’ll set my friend on you. It’s not too picky about flesh, bones and clothing. Echo felt momentary relief upon separating the evil, in giving it a form, rather than letting it nestle inside her. Just a shame she couldn’t control it for long.
The trader began to sweat profusely, knowing he’d been caught. “They have my wife. They said if I didn’t cooperate, they’d turn her into a Shadow. What choice do I have?”
“Easy. Give me the pills. You can take this vial. Don’t breathe a word about this to anyone. And I’ll tell Helena you’re compromised.”
The trader shivered, but did as she asked, goaded by the threat of what Echo had dubbed as Monster. Monster crept after the trader as he hastily dug up the flagstone of his stone floor, and pulled out a bag of pills. He flung them her way, refusing to go near her.
Echo wondered if he’d try to follow her after they departed, since she knew the desperation he must be feeling, missing the love of his life. She had no time for that, though. If need be, she’d kill the trader to cut out the complications in her life. The last thing Helena needed was a Supreme and upper class raid upon their hide outs. Not before they had secured everything in order.
The underbelly, the heart of the resistance, had scooped up Echo as a baby. No one knew the parents of the body she possessed, but the resistance relished the chance to train an upper child. Given a normal life, Echo would have grown up in the dense spires of the Fractured City, learning the ways of the Shadows, spouting the ideology that humans had taken everything from them.
Helena changed that.
My soul came from the origin land. I am a Shadow in a human body. A body that has emotions, conflicting with a Shadow that does not.
With the bag of pills, she left the trader’s ruined house, letting Monster dissolve. The headache throbbed, but she kept a calm, almost sedate pace, as if nothing scared her, and she didn’t feel the desperate urge to get as far away from the outskirts as possible.
She glanced back a few times along the snow-flecked street, but saw no peep of the trader. Just as well. He would have been moon-cursing foolish to do so.
Soon, she left the main trading slums of the outskirts, heading for the ruins to the south-west, where the caves and the villages accumulated, next to the great chasm that split the land.
I get tired of living on scraps. Of always fearing a Shadow’s whim, of letting them see the humanity in me. If there’s one thing they hate more than a human, it’s a traitor.
Echo smiled darkly to herself. Abomination. I belong to nothing.
She kept up her jaunt, taking around three hours to approach her destination. The snows whirled bitterly around, and she tucked her hands into her fur robe pockets, and buried her chin into the lump of fur by her collarbone. She stared resolutely ahead, that same empty feeling inside – the conflict of the Shadow which did not feel emotion the same way a human did, and the human body which served to override the hollow.
Still, if she didn’t cast Monster often enough, her emotions slanted over to empty. They made her do atrocious things at times and feel no remorse.
A memory flashed. A child, pointing at the chasm, laughing. Teasing Echo with his friends. Echo the loner, with her quiet, diminutive nature.
She still remembered the precise pitch of his scream, the hint of despair it embodied, as she shoved him over the abyss, then listened curiously to hear if his body would make a crunching noise as it hit the ground.
About a day after that, Helena discovered her.
Abomination. That’s all I am. I belong nowhere. I don’t fit in.
Still, even an abomination could be useful. So that was something. Out of a secret thrill, Echo edged herself close to the chasm’s vast drop, so she could peer down, and look at the jagged rocks, or the murk that obscured the bottom with the lack of light below. Nothing penetrated the deepest cracks, and sometimes, when Echo had nothing better to do, she explored them with Monster.
Shadows, for the most part, left her alone, sensing her as one of them.
She wasn’t, though.
She stopped. Something seemed out of place in the gloom. In the spidery embrace of the chasm, with the jutting crevices that punched into the sides like wide yawns, she saw something. A body? A skeleton? She continued walking, dismissing it as another unfortunate accident, when she saw it stir.
Oh. Hello. She crouched by the gap, noting the feeble movements of the person she’d mistaken for a corpse. Whoever they were, they looked seriously messed up. From what sort of height had they fallen from, as well? This whole area surrounded the basin of one of the mountain range that soared about eight thousand meters each. She bit her lip for a moment, contemplating. With her recent use of Monster, she felt more empathetic than usual, though the headache rang in the back of her skull.
I won’t be able to reach them from here or from down there. Reluctantly, she let the Shadow magic trickle through her veins again, and Monster formed beside her.
Fetch the one who has fallen. They would likely be too weak to try and lash out at her abomination. Monster’s form undulated down, its blue eyes glowing with that icy chill which unnerved so many people. Monster bobbled through the walls in places, until it reached the body. Monster grasped the body in tendril-like arms, then slithered up the cliff face again, shivering from the snow that hit it. Shadows did not like the cold, Echo included.
Let me see this one’s injuries. Monster set the body down, and Echo observed the male form, the thick robes, the snow caked all over him. He’d most certainly come tumbling off the mountain. She moved one of his eyelids, then cursed and snapped it back.
Yellow eyes. Werewolf. Of course. Only a werewolf or witch with their robust constitutions could survive such a sheer drop. But blasted skies and broken teeth, she didn’t want to be responsible for a werewolf. Even if there were still missing members of Erlandur’s scouting party floating about.
Curses! The headache grew. She ordered Monster to carry the werewolf, and clambered onto the creature herself, mentally directing it to chasm surf, so she could stay out of sight from any prying eyes upon the surface.
Again, the darkness unburdened from her mind, Echo drank in the crisp cold air, and appreciated the view she endured, even if the horrors it contained would give anyone second thoughts about living in such an area.
They arrived in sight of the town a short while later, with Echo mildly irritated by her headache. She examined her werewolf as he groaned, checking out his iron gray hair, his pale, wintery skin, his strong, muscular body. A fine specimen in human form. Probably a fearsome presence in werewolf form. Echo examined the taut muscles, the high cheekbones, the rapier curve of his face to a noble chin. She wondered if she’d need to knock him out. She highly doubted the werewolf would enjoy being held by a Shadow aberrant.
Thankfully, he stayed unconscious. Her headache pounded insistently at her skull, trying to tempt her to drop Monster – but no way was she carrying that great lump of flesh by herself. Just a little further. Then I’ll be with aunty Helena.
Aunty Helena. Helena wasn’t related to her in any shape or form, but the Supreme rescue baby Echo all those years ago.
“I called you that name because you would repeat anything I said, but you’d get quieter with each iteration. It was such a weird characteristic. Well, it was either that, or Surprise Baby.”
Echo felt glad that Helena did not call her Surprise Baby.
Finally, within the town, she saw a few figures in the distance, who clearly recognized Monster, and came scampering to her.
Broth and Vallug of the underbelly greeted her, two traders of the resistance with a main focus on food supplies for the town.
“Ah! This must be one of Erlandur’s scouts,” Vallug said, helping to take the unconscious werewolf with Broth off Monster. Echo released her darkness with a sigh of relief. Monster dissolved into nothing, returning to that corner of her mind where it would slowly build up over time, overwhelming her ability to empathize.
The two black veined traders, those of the few who had managed to resist the Shadow corruption, smiled at her and draped the werewolf over their shoulders.
“Did you get the supplies, then?”
Echo nodded in response to Broth. “Yes, but we can’t use our former contact anymore. He’s been compromised. I had to spook him so he wouldn’t grass on us.”
“Blast.” Broth’s needle thin face screwed up in disgust. “Always knew Carlok was craven at heart. Probably trying to sell you out for a bite of coin.”
“He claimed the Shadows had his wife.”
“Nonsense,” Broth said, though Vallug immediately sympathized.
“Not a good day to be a citizen of the Fractured City,” he said.
“When is it ever?” Echo scoffed. She loved her home in some ways, though. Parts of the Fractured City had gone through revitalization projects, recreating flower-choked meadows in green biomes, though the energy it took to heat them up drained itself off the tax payers of the central city. The slums, the ruined and abandoned parts of the city due to neglect and the creeping fingers of the Lunar Wastes, mostly got ignored.
Sometimes, Shadows would organize little hunting parties to try and track “scum,” but for the most part, they left the bedraggled survivors of the wastelands alone.
She liked the massive underground network they had created over the years, hiding in plain sight, locked beneath the body of a rundown town. The black veined people who made their lives above ground provided a perfect buffer to avoid detection of the activity below.
Only so long they could keep it up, though, until people started opening up on their position. The upper echelons of the Fractured City sensed something on the wind, but as of yet, felt unthreatened by anything humans and werewolves could throw at them. Part of believing yourself as superior and other species as inferior tended to cultivate gross underestimation.
Which worked in the human’s favor.
Echo sighed relief as she dipped through the trapdoor concealed inside a broken building, and ended up in a warm, heated corridor, carved out by the local miners and stone masons, heated by pipelines that ran under the town.
She dropped off her fresh batch of pills to the med bay, and briefly greeted the witch known as Faith.
“How’s the hole in your stomach faring?”
“Better,” Faith responded, her dark eyes hooded. Her fingers drummed on the side of the bed, agitated and bored. “There’s a lot here to wrap my head around. I never thought the Fractured City would be so blasting huge.”
“Or that there’s an actual society in it, corrupt and messed up as it is, right?”
Faith smiled. “Well, it’s not like anyone ever returns when they come over here.”
“True. They get converted or they assimilate. And werewolves on this side of the mountain are very noticeable. If the Shadows get wind of them, they’ll eradicate them as soon as possible. They consider werewolves as a threat.”
Faith scrunched her brow, processing the info. The unconscious werewolf was placed in a bed nearby, and Faith’s attention turned to him instead. “Ah! That’s Nox. He’s the son of the Spine chieftain.”
“Son of a chieftain, eh?” Echo examined Nox in renewed interest. “Pretty risky to send him on a scouting mission.”
“He wanted to come. He’s the only one found so far…” Faith’s voice trailed off. “I’m fairly sure one of our scouts is dead. He fell unconscious in the death zone.”
Echo chewed the inside of her cheek as she regarded the round featured Faith, her plump lips. “I can offer to you and Erlandur later to look around and see if we can find anyone else. It’s not been that long. They might still be alive.”
“Good idea,” someone interrupted behind them, and Echo spun to face Helena, in all her terrifying glory. Faith narrowed her eyes distrustfully at the Supreme, with her black aura flickering about her form. “We’re going to need all the help we can get.”
Echo wondered if Faith could feel the darkness that resided inside. Not everyone identified Echo as a human Shadow, but then again, not many human Shadows had survived the process of initiation.
“You got the medicine? Ah. Excellent. We’ll need that for Faith and her wolfy friends when we find them all. Including this one.” Helena wrinkled her nose at Nox. “When he starts coming to, you and Erlandur will need to break the news to him directly. Otherwise he may not react kindly to any of our presences here.”
“Noted,” Faith said dryly. “Who are you?”
“Echo.”
“Are you a witch?”
“In a manner of speaking,” Echo replied. “I have an… ability.”
Helena smiled grimly, but said nothing. She knew Echo’s secret. Not even the black veined humans knew who Echo was, really. They just assumed she was contaminated, like them. They didn’t feel the constant, encroaching darkness like she did, where her thoughts and feelings gradually drowned out in a tide of hate and death.
When Helena and Echo stepped out of the room, Helena said, “Vallug mentioned that we were betrayed. I’d like you to brief us on this.”
“Sure.” Echo told her about the trader, and picking up the werewolf. The Supreme, one of eight that worked in the underbelly, nodded thoughtfully.
“Our numbers grow every day. But still, twelve thousand of us versus over a hundred thousand Shadows is heinous numbers. We’ll have to act soon, though. There’s only so much longer we can keep this up. We’ll need to visit the Island with Erlandur as the final stage in the operation.” Helena paused then, her eyes infinitely sad. “If my people were more peaceful… we could have worked this out.”
“Why do we hate humans so much, actually?” Echo had thought about it before, but never fully understood why Shadows held such seething disdain for other races. She just knew they hated, and they blamed humans for the destruction of the origin planet. But how?
Helena twirled one strand of her white hair absently in her fingers. She had the same hair color as Echo, but there, the resemblance to a Supreme ended. Supremes pulsed a dark, noxious aura about them, had chilling, empty eyes, an ashen tint to their skin, and a pervasive feeling of death.
“The story goes with our kind is that the humans wanted to utilize powerful magic. The witches found a source in the origin world. They tapped into our world, fought their little wars, not realizing that they were killing off our entire planet and bringing our people to mass extinction.” Helena walked around a corner of the underground, lit by softly glowing braziers, adding a smoky infusion into the air, which got filtered out through patches in the walls.
“So, the humans started it?”
“Yes. I believe they were ignorant, but they destroyed the origin world, so only scattered fragments of that place remain. Our method was to fight back using our magic. We staged a huge takeover, and enslaved all the humans in the Fractured City – then the biggest human civilization on this planet.”
Echo imagined the conflict now. She saw Shadows pouring out of a rift in the sky, flooding down to a busy, shining city, full of humans minding their own business, perhaps unaware of the darkness the witches manipulated. She pictured the screams, the terror, and the savage vengeance of the Shadows, as they possessed, then converted other humans around them into mindless, making them tormented slaves.
She shivered.
“We wanted to take over the world as vengeance for the damage brought upon ours. But we couldn’t spawn anywhere else but at the Fractured City. And… well. When we invaded, we decimated cities, towns and people in the northlands. Right until the thousand and one witches obliterated themselves to create the Lunar Wastes, trapping us in a blanket of cold, and mountains of ice. Crippling our movement when we stepped into the cursed wasteland.”
Helena hesitated outside her sleeping quarters. “Ever since then, the Shadows worked on forming a proper society here, subjugating the remaining humans, and seeking a way to bypass the Lunar Wastes, to complete their objective of taking everything over.”
One thing occurred to Echo, as she listened to the Supreme’s words. “How do you know all this? You sound like you were there. When… the Wastes happened. But that was a long time ago. Wasn’t it?”
Helena’s smile then turned dark and pained. “It was,” she agreed, before promptly closing the door on Echo’s face.
Rude.
Sighing, Echo went to her room, to reflect on the day’s events, on the werewolf, and on Helena’s words.