[center][img]https://txt-dynamic.static.1001fonts.net/txt/dHRmLjYwLjFmMjNjNy5WRzl5Y21WdWRBLCwuMAAA/roadtest.regular.png[/img][/center] [hr] Torrent took her time to breath after the odd occurrence that had just happened, wondering what she had done wrong. She'd had plenty of failed attempts at new skills, but never something like this. She looked at where the shadow had seemed to extend as she considered how to proceed. It was near time to sleep, and she was worried that she had done something that could prove fatal to mess up in the wrong way. With a shake of her head she decided to put it off for the night. The last thing she needed was to die trying to design something new on a whim. Instead she took a moment to think, watching Oberon and using Magic Analysis on his abilities he was showing off. A thought came to her. She was getting tired, but what was a little more before she went to sleep? She spread her sense through the ground around her with her Tremor Sense and activated Soil Manipulation, working to move parts of the ground around her into condensed rod like shapes. Carefully she then tried to shape them into points like stakes from the movie posters she saw from her alleys back Before. When she felt she had the best shape she could get, she added more mana into the shapes and the surrounding earth before she tried to [i]push[/i] as hard as she could, willing the objects to fly out of the ground and towards the treeline. Regardless of the outcome she'd use Magic Analysis on it, and she would shortly thereafter go to sleep. [hr] [hider='Dream'] Torrent looked up into the shadows in awe. Everything around her was so.... Different from before. And her own body? It felt familiar somehow, like something she had forgotten. And then they spoke. She pondered for a moment before she replied, her words slow but filled with an excited fervor. [Color=3648a0]"Because my entire life has been in the shadows. The shadows of the light, the shadows of others, something to be forgotten or dismissed. But that's not right! It's not true. We're more than just the results of something else. We're [I]more[/I]."[/color] As Torrent spoke, the dream world around her grew darker. All colors became saturated and gray, the stone floors and walls blended together, and light disappeared. [color=blueviolet]"You say We, but you are not Shadow. Beings wish to be more than they are. Beings wish not to be forgotten or dismissed. The Shadow simply Was, and Is, and one day Will Not Be Again."[/color] In inky blackness, Torrent could not see herself. She knew where her body was, where her limbs sat, but everything save darkness had been struck from existence. There was only darkness...there was nothing but darkness... No. None of that was the right way to say it. None of that expressed what this was. There was Nothing. And then Something Outside Nothing brought Light into Being. In an instant an infinity expanded. Waves of color let out a thousand echoing roars and plasma coalesced across time and space. Stars were born, hurtling across chasms defined by their beginning and end. Worlds were filled and then burst, the wombs giving birth within a fiery forge. It was too bright, and Torrent would have to fight to look away and immerse herself once more in the darkness, to find a place where the Light Was Not. And in this darkness, too, there was light. Forked lightning, flashing for only an instant, left behind a spark. Figures crowded around the spark, took it into their hands, and breathed life into it. A primitive, holding fire, brought a new light into the darkness of the cavern. Time passed, the Sun rose. Torrent could only find the places where Light Was Not scattered around the world, behind and below the primitives and the stones and the trees while the Sun was overhead. The moon rose. The night fell. The ocean, the wind, the mountains, the earth...they were constant, always there. The star's light might fade, but would always return--and whether from Sun or Moon or Star, the Shadows Were where They Were Not. All of these things and many more existed long before the primitive came out of its cave. What were they? What dangers did they bring? What wonders? [color=blueviolet]"The Shadow Was Not in a time before All Things Were. But Beings have given the Shadow many names and many meanings. For many Beings, understanding agency, creating reason, forever seeking, and always asking were the methods of their survival. Did the Wind rustle the brush, or the Lion? The Being who assumed Wind did not always survive. If No Man threw the stone, did the Unseen Unknown Being cause the stone to fall? Why is it Unseen and Unknown? The Man who did not seek to understand did not always survive.”[/color] Torrent saw the primitives again, now wearing clothes made from plants and sitting around a fire. Their shadows stretched out far behind them. Their children sat around them as the elders told them what they needed for survival--the tales of sun, and moon, and earth, and ocean, and Shadow. How they were dangerous and wonderful, but Darkness and Shadow were dangerous. How to understand them, and how to make the Light to keep away the Shadow. The children did not always understand tales of Sun and Earth and Water. But they knew, instinctively, to fear Shadow, for it blinded them. So the elders changed the tales, made Them “like” other things that the children understood--fathers, mothers, warriors, healers, chieftains. And Earth and Sun and all the Others were not praised--they Were. They always Were. And they were needed to survive. It was necessary that the children understand them. And it was necessary that the children Fear the Shadow. As Torrent watched, the children of the children’s children appeared. They were many and they were different. Some of these children were now Men, but they still feared Shadow. Fires were made with sticks. Lanterns were made with oil. Candles were made with wax. All to keep Shadow at bay. Yet, was it truly Shadow they feared? Or the things within the Shadow, other Beings that hunted Men? Other places where Men could not go? Torrent saw the children of Men throughout the generations, and saw that some of these children were Not Men. One of them, their great king, made fire and water appear from his hands and moved earth with his words. They wanted him to hold the sun and make day longer, but knowing the limits of his power he instead told them he would grant them each a small piece of the sun. He taught them to make fire without smoke and place it in their homes. Not Men and Men alike began to think and do and be different than they were before as the world turned. The Sun and Moon and Others stayed as they Always Were. The Shadow could only Be where they Were Not. The Shadow was "like" a hunting predator. It was dangerous, and unpredictable. If you could not see within Shadow, you could not know the Truth of anything. Therefore Shadow was deceitful. Shadow did not give anything, like Sun, or Ocean, or Earth, or Wind. Shadow only took things away. Shadow had Nothing. [color=blueviolet]"Torrent. You wish to be more than you are. You wish to be something that cannot be ignored, something that cannot be discarded. But the Shadow does not Want. The Shadow does not truly exist. The Shadow is only an Absence. The Shadow cannot make you more. The Shadow cannot take notice of you. But Beings have forced their Fears upon the Shadow, to Become What Others Are Not. What was without Form, Beings gave Meaning. To have your Meaning defined by Other Wills...is that your Will, Torrent?"[/color] The images around Torrent faded into dark, blurry images that once more danced along the walls of the cavern. She heard their whispers echoing... "A person who cannot see cannot hunt for themselves, and has great difficulty detecting danger and finding resources. They are sure to die. No one can see within Shadow...If Shadow blinds all, Shadow means death to all. Shadow must be Certain Death!" What was without form took shape. Stretching from one side of her body, Torrent saw her shadow take on the shape of many skulls and half-rotted limbs marked by every kind of wound or disease. "When something is covered in Shadow, you cannot see what it is. You can only use your sense of touch to detect what is within shadow--the feeling from your body. But it can be fooled as well. A plant that is poison, and a plant that is medicine--your fingers may not be able to tell the difference. If Shadow deceives, and tricks the feelings of the body...Shadow is a Liar to the Flesh!" What was undefined was given definition by someone else's words. From the other side of her body, Torrent's shadow upon the wall became shapely and feminine, hiding behind a curtain of hair and draping robes. "Only fools fear the unknown. If we Men had never gone into new places, braving the depths of dark caves or taking torches out into the Night, how many things would we never find? Things that are hidden exist to be found! Knowledge that is unknown must be discovered! One must understand risk and respect danger...but the Shadow represents Hidden Potential!" Ahead of her, Torrent's shadow opened up like a book, a great tome held in the hand of one who was wrapped in even more drapery than the feminine appearance from before. A single eye glowed in the depths of a sagging hood. The pages of the book were many, covered in runes. There were many other voices, and other Figures, but Torrent suddenly felt as if she were falling, as if her heart was dropping out of her chest. The Figures watched her as she struggled to breath, patiently waiting...or perhaps listening? Waiting for her to call out... Torrent listened and watched silently, she played her part as she drank in everything shown and told, and when she felt the feeling of falling she rebelled. She was not ready to leave, and she had faced danger and death before. [color=3684a0]"I may not be the Shadow but I will be as Shadow,"[/color] she forced out as she struggled to breath and fight the falling feeling with all her willpower. [color=3648a0]"Defined by others matters not. My Will is set."[/color] [color=blueviolet]"And if you will be as Shadow, then how does your Will define the Shadow, Torrent? What Shadow will you be?"[/color] The whispers were growing fainter, just like her own breaths. But still she could hear them, picking out only a few among the many... "The Shadow is the domain of creatures that stalk in the night. They can see in the dark, they hunt us and kill us. But what kind of creatures are they? They are many. Catlike, wolflike, snakelike, they are without end. There are so many things to be wary of within the Shadows...the Shadows are Many Beasts..." Between the feminine and the deathly Figures, a new shadow began to dance. Its form was even less coherent than the others--the head of a panther emerged, then was swallowed by a great snake, while the legs of a spider twitched and thrashed, and one scaly wing unfolded alongside one of feathers. More heads, more claws, and many eyes took shape within a mass of darkness that dripped like slime. "The only Men who willingly go into the Shadow are those who must hide like cowards...Criminals who break the law and flee. Killers and Thieves who wait until Night falls to do their evil deeds. The Shadow accepts them where the light does not...The Shadow is an accomplice of injustice!" Behind Torrent, looming over her, a new Figure took form. It looked the most human out of any of them thus far, yet it had no face. In each hand it held a long knife, but dangling from its neck were many keys. Though they jangled and shook, they made no sound... Torrent's heart raced and yet it felt as if the organ was being pulled out of her, as if it were a hundred miles away from her body. The feeling of falling accelerated--if she really were falling, if she needed to wake up from this dream before she hit the ground, she knew she was going fast enough to splatter all over the rocks... [color=3648a0]"I will be the Shadow that strikes back, the Shadow that deceives,"[/color] Torrent gasped out, as she struggled to hold herself together before she finally felt that she couldn't hold on anymore and she instead moved to go back to her body and reality. The Lesserwurm fled out of the Figures' sight, back to her body. The last one that watched, looming larger as if following her, was the feminine figure draped in robes, with its face hidden by long waves of pitch black hair. A soft sound like laughter followed the lizard as the shelter, and the shadows, all began to fade away. [color=darkslateblue]"The Shadow that deceives is a Shadow of craft and wit, not simply dishonesty. If you would become such a shadow, show your wit..."[/color] And Torrent jerked awake, painfully, the kind of jarring seizure that leaves someone wondering if they really did just die in a dream. But as her rapid breathing and cold sweat died down, she found herself back with the others, sitting in the shelter as the first rays of sunlight chased the shadows away... [/hider] Torrent got up slowly, staring at the shadows as they moved with the rising sun, and felt a new sense driving her. She would prove herself. Tentatively she reach out to the darkness that lingered in the corners of their shelter, hidden away from the reaching gaze of the light. She tried to [i]feel[/i] the shadows like she had with the air when she was developing her air breath attack, putting mana into her surroundings, the shadows specifically. She couldn't stop thinking about what she had seen during the night, and when she had put a good portion of her mana into the shadows she [i]pulled[/i] at the mana, bringing it back like it were a cloud under her control. She used Magic Analysis as she did so, her gaze burning fiercely as she tried to take in every detail.