52: Dance Of The Shadow Demon (Patreon)

NOTE: Shorter chapter today, since I edited some stuff out of this one into a subsequent chapter. So that one will be extra long :-P

Vir took a seat on the rocky ground of the cave. Close enough to the entrance that some light trickled through, but not enough that it affected his Prana Vision. Dark places had better prana contrast.

He sent blood to his eyes, activating the ability. Thanks to his daily efforts at improving it, his sight now flared just as brightly as when Ekanai had used it all those months ago in the Godshollow.

Vir turned his eyes inward and focused on the memory he’d had when Shardul had used Dance of the Shadow Demon. No, that wasn’t quite correct. It wasn’t the true form of the Dance. He lacked the tattoo that Shardul had.

Was that why he said I couldn’t steal it? Because I need the tattoo? The tattoo had glowed in the memory when he’d used the ability.

That said, Vir had used it, under his guidance, all without a tattoo. He recalled he only moved about twenty paces, while Shardul had gone much much farther in the memory.

Maybe the tattoo only amplified the ability? Or maybe it makes it easier to use?

As far as Vir could tell, Dance of the Shadow Demon allowed him to sink into shadows and reappear in another shadow. If that were really the case, it would be an unbelievably powerful ability, even without the extended range. He just had to figure out how to activate it.

Attempting to imitate Shardul yielded no results. It hadn’t worked when he’d tried to escape from his pursuers, and it didn’t work now. And Vir felt he understood why.

There was a common thread that ran through all of his memory fragments—the powers shown to him in those visions were all performed by those who had mastered the ability. As Vir was learning, the amount of thought a master of an art put forth was incomparable to a beginner. Masters performed their feats with far less effort.

In the memory fragments, both Ekanai and Shardul wielded their abilities as naturally as they walked. For a baby, walking was a monumentally arduous task. But adults barely ever think about it, not unless they were traversing hazardous terrain or attempting acrobatics.

It was the same for Dance of the Shadow Demon. Vir couldn’t replicate Shardul’s moves, because Shardul himself wasn’t thinking of the steps required to activate the ability. It had long ago become ingrained in his muscle memory.

That’s a problem, Vir reflected. If there wasn’t enough information to go on, he really was at a dead end.

So Vir did the next best thing—he looked to his own understanding of prana, and analyzed the sequence of events during Shardul’s memory. Over the past months, he’d developed some knowledge on his own. Knowledge he might use here to help reverse engineer this ability.

Thankfully, Shardul had also possessed Prana Vision, which gave him some insights.

In the memory, Shardul had gone up against a horde of enemy warriors. He’d been on a battlefield filled with corpses of his slain enemies.

Hours had passed since he’d experienced the memory and the details had already grown hazy. He’d feared as much, but had little choice back in the Godshollow.

An image of two beautiful chakrams popped into his head, but Vir tried not to let that distract him. He focused on the moment when Shardul had sunk into the earth.

Lurking within the ground, he saw Ash prana in far higher concentrations than what he’d grown accustomed to. But more astonishingly, Ash prana filled the air as well! Not in any significant density, but it was undeniably present.

Could that be why it’s not  working? But no. Again, Vir had used the ability with the prana that existed in the godshollow. Which only made him wonder why it was completely missing now. How long ago had this memory taken place?

And where, exactly? He’d wondered this before, but in the memory, the ground was tinged a deep sunset crimson, as was the sky. This was consistent with every memory he’d had so far. Were different regions of the world populated with different prana affinities?

Or… Or was he looking at memories from another age, or perhaps another realm?

The thought sent shivers down his spine. No one really knew what realms existed, apart from the Known World and the Ashen Realm. Vir doubted he was seeing glimpses of the Ashen Realm, however. Everyone said the prana density was incredibly high there, and the prana in his memory fragments—while not low—wasn’t incredibly high either. Just that Ash prana was present in greater quantities.

If one of the memories had shown Shardul or Ekanai fighting in the Ashen Realm, Vir would have a lot more reason to believe that he could survive in that place.

He focused his attention back to the prana, hoping to glean a hint how the ability functioned.

Shardul took his time and sank slowly into the shadow like a specter—another point of interest, since Vir felt like he’d almost instantly disappeared into it when avoiding the wind blade. Shardul’s penchant for theatrics may have been a weakness on the battlefield, but it made it easy for Vir to analyze.

What he saw gave him hope. Ash prana clearly evacuated from Shardul’s legs as he sank into the ground.

Which was weird. Very weird. For a few reasons. Ekanai and Shardul were the only other beings Vir had encountered who had Ash prana flowing within them. Until now, he’d never seen anyone use magic with them, but Shardul had powered his green tattoo with prana.

And that made Vir wonder: What if Ash prana requires tattoos to power spells?

It would explain why there were no orbs for this affinity. It might just require a different mechanism to express that power. But of course, Vir had never once heard of tattoos conducting magical power. Even if it was true, he was no better off knowing about it.

Vir returned his thoughts to Dance of the Shadow Demon. The biggest piece of this puzzle was how Shardul triggered the ability. As far as Vir could tell, Shardul did exactly what he’d always done—suck prana out of his legs.

It didn’t truly make sense. But then, Leap and High Jump had never really made much sense either when he really dug into it. They both activated the same way. The only difference was Vir’s intent. How ‘intent’ played a role in the activation of abilities, he did not know. There were mysteries about prana he would likely never understand.

Vir got up to give it a go, but of course, nothing happened. The prana just rushed up into his legs, and stayed there, saturating his bloodstream. No amount of willing himself to sink into shadows made it happened.

Vir tried several variations over the next hour. He modulated how much prana he used. He tried sucking it in slower, then quicker. He meditated on the different aspects of shadows—how they were an absence of light, rather than anything physical.

He even tried begging Shardul to give him some hint, but the demon was quiet. That got him thinking about whether they really could take over his mind whenever they wanted. So far, they only had when he was in life-threatening situations. It might have been the very reason Ekanai hadn’t simply commandeered Vir’s body, leaving him helpless.

In the end, Vir’s efforts were for naught. As Shardul had said, Vir was unable to replicate this ability. He was missing something crucial here. He just didn’t know what.

And with the sky painting hues of orange and red, he was out of time. Further experimentation would have to wait.

Vir exited the cavern to find a bored looking Bumpy rubbing his snout against the cave entrance.

“Let’s go home, Bumpy,” he said, sadly patting his trusty steed. This was the first time he’d failed to grasp a new ability, and it irked him like worms under his skin. It left his stomach queasy, and he knew he’d lie awake at night, thinking about the ability.

Vir made haste on the way back. They’d been gone too long, and Riyan would no doubt worry. As much as he wanted to put Tanya in hot water, delaying any longer might draw the Ghost of Godshollow’s ire. That was never good news for anyone.

The ride home took a mere ten minutes, but when he arrived, the stable was empty. That meant Tanya was out for sure, and either Riyan or Maiya as well. He only hoped they weren’t searching for him.

Vir opened the main door and stepped inside. “Maiya? I’m back.”

A door slammed open, followed by the furious steps of bare feet upon clay floor.

“Vir? Vir! Oh, gods!” Maiya said, running up to him and grabbing his hand.

“What’s wrong, Maiya?”

“Vir, it’s terrible! You’re being hunted!” She said, her face plastered with fear.

“Uh,” Vir replied, “Tell me something I don’t know…”