Shadowsong: Chapter 2- This World of Light

Chapter 2: This World of Light

After three hundred years of imprisonment in the darkness, I wasn't really accustomed even the slightest flicker of light, much less a cloudless day with sunshine raining down across the earth. It stung every time it touched my skin, hurting my eyes when I looked into it. Normally, I would have just summoned shadows around me, but with the shackles Lyrel had placed on me I couldn't. As a result, I mostly ducked my head and hid under the cloak's hood, allowing Gyer to do all the work.

Unlike Lyrel, the other human paladins were afraid of me. They tried to hide it, but to no avail- I saw everything. I could smell the fear when I was near them, and I fed off of it, as did Gyer. Pain, hatred, fear- that was what powered me, fed me, gave me strength. In the old days, when I had my magic, I used that to my advantage and pulled on my power to twist the hearts of humans into the qualities I hungered for.

That didn't get past Lyrel. He kept a close eye on me, ready to step in if I went out of line.

"Why watch me so, Lyrel? I'm being a good little sheep." I adjusted my cloak to shield Darkness.
"A wolf in sheep's clothing is more like it, Raven. I am no fool. If I weren't watching you, you would be terrorizing the men as best you could."

"A wolf would never condescend to roam among something so small and insignificant as sheep."

"A wolf would die if the sheep weren't there to feed it."

"The sheep would eat up all their food until it was gone if wolves weren't there to keep their population in line."
"Is that it? Is that why you kill?"

"I kill because that is what I am ordered to do. I don't question my orders- I carry them out."
"Then how do you consider yourself so superior to the humans that roam these lands if all you do is what you are told, an unthinking automaton?"
"I am much, much more than a mere automaton, Lyrel. I don't do what I do without thought. Rather, I do it because that is what I want to do. If I felt like it, I'm sure I could destroy my Master and become Arcdemon myself."
"Why do you wish to follow that vulture, then?"

"So long as I remain loyal, Cornix will give me what power I desire. I have no need to become Arcdemon to get it."

"If that is so, how come you were in that tower for three hundred years?"

"The passage of time is insignificant in the web of the worlds. When he needed me, he would retrieve me."
"You aren't needed, then?"

I chuckled. "Now, now, Lyrel. You hunt for beasts you may not find."
He shrugged. "It was worth a try."

"Perhaps." Fire.

I fell forward, clutching my saddle in a sudden affliction of torment.

The echoing cries of pain.

The world became nonexistent, tumbling into a jumble of universes and times.

The smell of burnt flesh, the cackle of demons as they pillaged and razed. The moon rose to block the sun, turning it first into a fiery ring, then into a sphere of nothingness. Howls of blood-thirsty wolves reverberated through the field of harvested wheat as a scythe sliced the last plant.

Agony shot through me, a lightning-blast of fiery torture.

I laughed, a sound alien to my lips. The startled men around me backed off in distant terror. I must have appeared mad- a silent demon that spoke only in riddles that nearly fell off her horse at the most random moment, then started cackling like a maniac.

The bracelet may have bound my magic, but it hadn't shackled my mind. I took advantage of that moment of weakness in the paladin next to me, and looked him straight in the face. Being human, he automatically met my eyes. That was all I needed to see into his soul. I reached into the darkest recesses of his heart and pulled every evil bit of him to the forefront.

The first step to twisting a human's mind to do your bidding is to corrupt them and turn them to your side. That is what I attempted to do. I didn't really have a plan- I was just opportunistic like my namesake.

Lyrel would have none of it. The minute the paladin's eyes met mine, he knocked me from my saddle, shattering the thrall I'd just created. I fought to retain it in the knowledge that if I lost it I wouldn't be able to regain it for a long while yet.

He attacked me with his own consciousness, getting in the way of my lock over the human. I struggled for a moment longer, then surrendered. I couldn't win.

"Don't play games, Shadewing," he hissed in Angelic, pinning me down. "I am not beyond doing whatever I must to make you cooperate. You haven't seen the surface of what I am willing to do to your kind, so I suggest you don't try me."

"Of course, Lyrel," I answered in the same accursed speech with a smirk.

"I mean it, Raven. You may have once been my ally, but you aren't the same girl I took in those centuries ago."

"Oh, but I am."

"Don't test that theory, demonkin."

"Would I ever?" I was sure he didn't miss the malicious glint in my eye as I spoke the words.

Shaking his head in disgust, Lyrel stood and let me up.

"We break camp here," he told his men shortly, and led his horse to the side of the road.

Gyer eyed me as I stood, obviously questioning my competency as his leader after I'd lost a battle with our greatest adversary.

"Don't even think about challenging me, Gyer," I murmured to him in Shadowtongue. "I will not stand for disobedience, and I don't need magic to punish an lower demon such as yourself."

He pawed the earth, then hesitantly followed me as I led him after Lyrel. I didn't have a tent. But, then again, I didn't really need sleep, either. So I just untacked Gyer and stood off to the side, waiting for night to come.

It didn't take long for the sun to fall over the horizon and give way to the moon, who's silver light was pure in the cloudless sky. I shed the cloak as it rose- I didn't need it under the stars. Gyer snorted- he, too, could feel its power. As the moon rose, however, the shackle around my wrist began to glow dimly. Perhaps it had been glowing already but the sun and outshone its light. I didn't know what it meant, but I knew I should keep it under wraps. I slipped my wrist under a wing, hoping Lyrel wouldn't notice.

The paladins were more skittish than usual that night, suddenly aware of my power, even in the light with my magic taken. After I tired of standing there eerily watching them for the sole reason of scaring them, I wandered to the edge of camp and read the stars. I dropped my glamour, too- no reason to keep it on at night.

The crow, pair of ravens, wolf, vulture, and dog were all gone from the sky. Times of danger and change rapidly approached. I supposed the constellations were needed down on our world, instead of their celestial homeland. Or perhaps they just wanted adventure.

"What was that?" The voice was female from somewhere across camp.

We will fly and listen, Darkness told me, and jumped into the air. I closed my eyes and melted into her body, seeing through her eyes, flying on her wings.

"I told all of you not to look her in the eye, Mikréla." Lyrel sounded unaffected by his seconds' concern.

"You didn't tell us she could do that even with the bracelet!" The paladin was obviously spooked by our earlier display of power.

"She is powerful. You knew that."

"The men are scared, Lyrel. They thought she was under control."

"I warned you before you got into this. She will try to twist your minds to her desires. Don't look her in the eye, don't lie, don't show fear- even though she can feel it- and don't engage in interactions with her." He was completely unfazed.

"Don't lie?!"

"She doesn't like liars."

"She serves one!"

"She's complicated, beyond your comprehension or understanding."

"Beyond my understanding?! I may not be an angel, but I can understand things fine! I am no child."

"Perhaps not, but you are still young. I have lived many years, Mikréla. Trust me. Let me deal with the dæmon." Dæmon, a demon of one of the three highest power levels or a high-borne one. I was one of the former; to my surprise, they recognized me as so.

"What if something happens to you?"

"Then say your prayers and hope for a swift death."

"I won't accept that. There has to be something we can do. Otherwise, why have we come?"

"You've come so that you learn a valuable lesson about your limits and just how powerful a demon can get."

"But you have her under control," Mikréla pointed out. "It isn't as though she can do much even with twisting minds."

There was some dry amusement in Lyrel's voice. "Don't test that theory. I know you excel at what you do. Maybe someday you will prove yourself worthy enough to ascend, like me. But for now, you are human, and though skilled, have none of the raw power you need to counter the likes of Raven. Even other angels cannot face her. It is not because you are weak or young. Rather, it is because I understand her and have the innate magic I need to counter her.

"All I can say is try not to let her get to you and what I've told you before: don't lie, don't show fear, don't look her in the eye, and don't engage in interaction with her. Follow those rules, and you should be alright."

"Yes, sir." She was resigned.

"Is that all?"
"Yes, sir."
"Dismissed."

I leapt into the air, soaring on the currents of wind under my feathers as I flew back to myself.

"Play with fire, and you just might get burned," I murmured, and turned my eyes back to the stars.

Lyrel came up behind me and sat down on the rock I leaned against. "What do you see?" he asked.

"Transformation."

There was a pause for several seconds. Finally, "Why?" He didn't have to clarify what it was he referred to- why had I betrayed the Lightwings? A part of me didn't even know. I'd asked myself that question time and time again. I answered, though, despite my ignorance.

"I saw the truth."

"And what was that?"

"We are darkness."

"Darkness isn't necessarily evil."
"Go rest with your men, Lyrel, and stop bothering me about philosophy." Even I was surprised at my unusual clarity.

"You're evading."

"What do you wish me to say?"

"I wish you would just talk to me."

"That time is…" Most would say gone, but due to the circular nature of time, I couldn't. I trailed off for lack of a word.

Despite my unusual manner of speech, Lyrel didn't have a problem following me. "What happened then affects what happens now: you said so yourself. Therefore, that time is never…gone."

"Gone is a relative term due to the circular nature of time."

"Do you have a better word?"

I didn't have an answer for that one.

"I don't know what happened, Raven, but I know it isn't what they tell me. You might do that now, but you wouldn't have then."

"If I was perceived as capable of it, I was therefore capable, was I not? For what are you if not a reflection in the eyes of others? By seeing it did they make it true? Or perhaps it was all an illusion, a lie. Maybe it still is."

"You're the one who sees the heart of things, not I. You tell me."
"I do not know. My power was still growing: that was already powerful."

"What was?"

"I do not know. I've tried to see- I cannot."

"It isn't too late. I can still help you."

I smiled ruefully. "I am far beyond saving, Lyrel. I've been to Hell- and there is no returning from that. Not truly."

"You pulled yourself out of the Underworld?" He sounded surprised.

"Thrice. Two other times on…business."

"How?"

I shrugged. I just did it- I hadn't really over thought it.

We sat in silence for several seconds before he broke the silence once more.

"Show me your wrist."

Evidently hiding the glowing thing hadn't gotten past him. I hesitated.

"Raven."

Reluctantly, I showed him the luminescent bracelet.

"What are you doing?" he asked me.

"Nothing."

"Don't lie to me, Raven. I can see you're using minor magic. And it isn't for your glamour." Lyrel gestured to my wings.

"I haven't been able to cast anything for over three hundred years," I pointed out- and it was true, excepting the glamour.

"Then something is taking effect that you cast before. Don't play games."

I knew exactly what it was. He wasn't supposed to know, though. The question was, which was worse: disobeying Cornix or disobeying Lyrel?

Disobeying Cornix was worse, I decided, even if it wasn't in the immediate future.

"Don't make me do this."

I almost told him. I really did. But the prospect of what Cornix would do scared me much, much more than the prospect of what Lyrel would.

I looked away.

"One last chance, Raven."

"You don't scare me half as much as my Master does, Lyrel. That won't change no matter what you do. I know you won't mangle my soul and eat it alive- I can't say the same about Cornix."

"Raven…"

I stood. "You know well as I that when it gets down to this there is no way in the Realms that I'm going to tell you anything. Try if you wish. I've suffered worse." I left, disappearing into the shadows. Lyrel didn't follow- he knew I was right.