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Crag

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Things are going amazingly well. Multiple children have been born since Aquifer. Our newborn race is thrumming in collective excitement at having the chance to expand. Parents of the new shadlings have been taken off duty, for two reasons. One is that the child, like a human one, is completely helpless. The other is that both the parent and the child need to regenerate their bodies, which takes time. Our testing shows that being relaxed and rested makes the missing shadow replenish quicker. 

So far seven parents, four moms and three dads, have given birth to shadelings. Losing seven agents is a significant loss, but everyone agrees it’s worth it in the long term. Watching my… people, yes, my people, grow fills my inky body with a warm joy. Unfortunately… good things still can bring problems. 

The current one, where are we going to stay? Hypothetically we can live in shadows indefinitely, but slowly everyone is starting to want more. Thanks to the Fathershade we’re able to move items with us through the shadow, so a lot of our agents have started finding tools that are useful and keeping them with them. But where to keep people’s things when they can’t bring them on missions? Our people are starting to desire spaces of their own, physical ones. 

That’s why I’m manifesting inside of the lightless bunker again. This failure of a safe room has officially become our research department. Said department is much larger than before, having around ten shades scurrying around with papers and pens. I walk over to the two shades in charge.

Quarry and Creek are standing by a large table, scribbling on papers and arguing. The two remaining members of the child research group now run the laboratory, while Forest is taking care of her child. I plan on putting her above these two after she returns, they need a calm head monitoring them.

“Quuuuuarrrry,” Creek trills. “I know that it might be an eentsy bit unstable, but it probably won’t invert.” She’s brushing off something dangerous again, I can feel it.

“Creek, if it did invert then everything material would be put inside a single shadow. We’re not doing it.” Quarry’s voice is stern and uncompromising. I’m shocked, is this really the nervous wreck from before? “I’m almost certain that method wouldn’t work anyways, even if it didn’t invert.” 

Creek’s eyes flit over to me, and she breaks into a huge smile. “Hey, Quarry. Isn’t Crag kinda scary?” The girl winks at me, and I hold back a sigh.

Quarry pauses before speaking. “The eldest is very wise, but… they can be a bit… intimidating at times, yes.” He scribbles another note down. 

Creek’s eyes twinkle with mischief. “Oh! Crag, what do you think? Do you think you’re scary?” Her tone is cheery, but I feel the malicious joy at her partner’s expense underneath the surface. 

Quarry goes completely stiff and slowly turns to look at me. I flash him a smile, which makes him flinch. Geez.

 “E-e-eldest. W-why are y-you here?” Ah, there’s his signature stutter. Well, maybe not so signature, I’m starting to think he only has it around me. 

I clear my throat. “I came to see your progress, would you walk me through it?” My olive branch doesn’t go unnoticed by the scientist.

He nods much too hard. “Yes, of course, Eldest!” He grabs a bunch of papers off the desk and shuffles them like playing cards. “So, you’re talking about the habitation project, correct?” His tone becomes completely steady, his previous anxiety gone. I give him a slow nod.

“Well, we’re currently attempting several ways of giving us a physical space to live. The option of building near a human settlement in the open is an option, but is currently deemed unsafe and to go against the nature of our existence.” He coughs before continuing. Is he doing a serious voice, purposefully? “We have three current ideas being worked on, two in the design and testing phase, the third in the prototype phase.” He places three papers face up on the desk. I skim over them, but they’re nothing but newly created technical jargon. 

“Our first idea is to create a spell bound to each shade, one that allows them to create a pocket inside shadows that is persistent. They could keep their things there, and have a space for themselves. This premise is currently coming along well and seems promising.” He taps the second paper. “The second is the concept of making large spaces that are bound to a specific place in the material world. Such a space would be accessible to any shades in a certain radius around it, but not reachable past that point. They would be effectively secret cities that reside in a real city or town’s shadow. I believe this one is possible, but it is currently giving us the most trouble. Creating a self sustaining shadow pocket like that is proving difficult.” He frowns as he looks the second paper over. “I don’t think it will be useful in too many situations.”

I glance at the third sheet. “So what’s the one in the prototype phase?” Creek and Quarry glance at each other, the former smiling evilly. 

Quarry looks troubled as he speaks. “We are attempting to… create an artificial realm.” I raise an eyebrow. Quarry understands my confusion and explains further, “A realm is a concept that we found while reading through some literature inside the bunker. It’s, supposedly, a world attached to this one, but separate. This is where angels came from in the legends, and where demons are said to have fled to.” 

My eyes go wide. “You’re trying to make an entire world?” The two researchers nod at me, Quarry staring at the floor, Creek beaming at me directly.

“Yup, yup, Oldie! We’re tryin’ to create an entire world for us! It’s so simple, too, that’s why it's the furthest along.” Creek’s enthusiasm is infectious, but I resist.

“When I told you to make us a place to live, I meant buildings inside shadows or something, not an entire world.” My voice is exasperated, but also a bit excited. The two look at each other before shrugging.

“You didn’t clarify.” Their words come out perfectly synced. Gods damn these crazy fuckers. 

“Show me, then.” Despite my frustration, I am a little excited. If it works, we could have our own world, just for us! “Also how would we access it?” Creek leads the way excitedly while Quarry waits to walk next to me.

The man starts to explain, “Ideally shades would be able to go there from any shadow, but while it’s being worked on we’ll have to create a physical portal there. We’re worried that the realm’s outer membrane wouldn’t stand more than one entrance until it’s fully developed.” We stop in front of a random wall. 

“We’re heeeeeere!” Creek spins as she sings her words. Just before she touches a rune carved into the wall, I notice a large ring of tiny carvings. Those carvings are all… glowing? Not really glowing, more the opposite. The room has no light of any kind in it, and yet the runes are darker than that. Slowly the darkness on the wall thickens, starting at the center of the circle. The darker dark grows outwards until it hits the barrier of the unglowing runes. Shadows swirl inside the circle menacingly.

Without hesitation Creek jumps through. 

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I stare at the slightly pulsing portal that the young shade just leapt through. Before I manage to come back to my senses Quarry steps through the murky circle as well. I stand there, unsure what to do for a minute. Fuck it, I guess. With a shrug I step through the entryway as well.

For a brief instant it feels like the entire universe is pushing in on me from every angle. The incredible pressure is not quite pain, but is very close to it. Then the pressure vanishes. 

The space I suddenly find myself in is large, but not as large as I expected an entire world would be. In the near distance the two researchers are standing together next to an oddly shaped object. I walk over to the two, looking at the visible horizon. Where the sky touches the ground is not far away, a shorter distance than from one side of Wornsbirth to the other. 

Shades have different vision from my understanding of a human’s. Humans require light to be able to see things, but shades do not. When there’s no light available, shades can see as if there was, except all colors wash out significantly. Instead of something being blue or red they become red-hued grey, or blue-hued grey. Inside this realm is different. It’s like there is light, but there really isn’t. The colors of my faux clothes are fully apparent, as are the two researchers’. I wonder if a human would be able to see here.

The object the two scientists are messing with is an orb about as large as Quarry, which is pulsing like a heart. Creek is bickering with her college, something about how the object is their shared child. Quarry is denying it but I catch the slight blush on the back of his neck.

“It’s smaller than I imagined.” My voice comes out a bit more dismissive than intended. Creek whirls on me, glare at the ready.

Her tone is still as cheery as ever, but now it’s hollow and forced. “I’d like to see how big your child is a few hours after it’s born, Oldest.” My eyes widen, at both the tone and content of her words. 

“This place was made today?” Shock colors my voice, which makes Creek’s chest swell in pride.

She smirks at me. “Of course, we created Blackheart together earlier this morning.” She pats the orb behind her affectionately. The shadowy surface seems to cling to her hand. “It’s expanding much faster than we anticipated, actually. Apparently no one in our world is harnessing a significant part of the latent power of shadows, other than Father.” 

Quarry nods in agreement. “We expected growth of a few meters a day, but this expansion completely dwarfs that figure. Our expectation was that some powers other than Father were using a noticeable amount of shadow magic, but apparently not.” I smirk at his use of the units the otherworlder Amy had described, apparently most of the shades have taken to using it. “If this rate continues, the shadow realm will be completely stable without assistance in a little over a week.” 

I rub my face. A week to create an entire world? Last week our people barely existed, only the few Father had made. Two weeks after that we’re going to be one of three races with their own realm? The implications frighten me a bit. 

Creek speaks up from her position of hugging the large sphere. “Once the realm is stable, we should tell Blackheart here to build as much defensive power around themselves as they can.” I raise my eyebrow at her. “If Blackheart is destroyed, the entire realm will collapse in on itself. They and the realm are essentially one in the same. That’s why they should build up as much protection as they feel they need, just in case a bad actor somehow gets access to here.” I nod in agreement, after the explanation, I have to agree with her reasoning.

“Is Blackheart… alive?” I look between the two. Their gazes flicker to one another. 

Quarry ends up speaking first. “Well… yes, but we aren’t sure if they’re aware or not. They are a living thing, though. The process Creek and I used was the same as how Forest created her child, except we merged the product together, with a different intention. That's how Blackheart came into existence.” He looks at the sphere, a small smile creeping over his face. “They sunk into the runic circle we made almost instantly after they formed, and now that circle is the birthplace of our realm!” Excitement leaks out his voice.

Creek decides to pipe up. “And since no one is using shadow energy, we can control where it goes once the realm finishes. We can make it so that only Father and the shades can use it under normal circumstances.” Her eyes glint wickedly.

“Yes, I doubt doing that would stop people like Lord Zenith from being able to use shadow magic. His blessing would be able to pierce any restrictions we impose on it,” Quarry clarifies. “But other than that, we would have a monopoly on the shadows.” Shockingly his eyes mirror Creek’s, with a malicious glint. 

The orb behind them suddenly starts spinning while pulsing faster and faster. After a few seconds of that, the orb freezes as a pulse of darkness fires out from it. The pulse sweeps over the three of us and flies out towards the edges of the massive space. When the edge and the wave make contact the entire horizon cracks as the pulse forces it outwards. The city sized world expands past my view in a few seconds, a huge dark sphere mimicking the sun swirling into existence in the sky.

I look at the two scientists, who are both grinning with great satisfaction. Creek whirls around and gives the pulsing orb a hug. 

“Good job, Blackheart, you’re doing such a great job!” Her tone is downright motherly as she praises the ball. Apparently the sphere understands on some level, because a happy burbling sound comes from every direction. I look over at Quarry, who has a proud smile on his face.

I hope most of our race is a bit more stable than these two.