A new day, a new me. Or they say so.

Steve woke up feeling refreshed, as if the air he was breathing came from the oldest forest untouched by humans, this feeling only lasted moments but was a pleasant experience, surely a product of his imagination that was the result of a good night of sleep. He moved on and went on with his morning activities, eating breakfast, drinking coffee, reading a book and making mischievous plans for the future, just like any other day, with the time going on and on until it was 14:20.

What is so important with this time? nothing in particular, it just that its 40 min before 15:00, and that's when the meeting in the starry void was scheduled to happen, so he waited until was 40 minutes early to prepare himself so he prepared himself both mentally and physically.

Just the day before yesterday he stablished who he was, but it would be inevitable for him to have at least 2 identities, those being "Steve Holmes" the special department's consultant and "Shadow" the mysterious entity that may or may not be a god with unknown goals, for now he only needs to think about these 2 and they are not much trouble to work with, but he probably will create more later and he chose to take each of them seriously from the very start no matter how silly or "out of character" they may seem, with each identity he had or will have being a shard of the bigger picture that is the "me".

So in preparation he started with the basic, constructing the base and working the way up. First, who is "Shadow"?

'Hmm, the first thing i need is the context for when and where to use this identity, and i already have it, the starry void and the interactions with people within said local, it obviously needs to be vague and mysterious so they wont uncover the farce, the outermost layer that works is that Shadow is some kind of powerful entity, what exactly, is one layer below, simply a god, to be more specific a very old god that for a reason or another was not around for most of history, and as a consequence is not known or heard of about by pretty much everyone, and that for a mysterious reason, maybe the same as the previous reason, seems to be weakened but recovering, the finer details i will let for them to imagine, and finally the innermost layer being me, not that they will ever know about this last layer'

'The second thing to consider are Shadow's goals, them being: primally "recover" his strength but not being that obvious about it, secondly understand history and secrets of grand varieties, and thirdly have these meeting for a unknown reason maybe one of the mentioned earlier or maybe others totally unrelated'

'Third, his love interest... haha, its healthy to joke sometimes... but who knows? I really don't know the future, maybe it will happen for "me" and not "Shadow", but i doubt it, given my peculiar circumstances and the fact that if they will be "the one" they will have to be in this for the real "me" not some identity i have, which only makes finding them even more challenging, but it's not like i am searching anyways. And of course in regards to Who Shadow is and the Goals i will not make all of these things be obvious but instead will leave a hint here and there'

'This is all the theorical part for now, but let's start with some real practice'

After coming up with who, what and why is Shadow, Steve started to come up with "what if's", mostly possible conversations or questions they may have or ask while in the meeting, and he tried to come up with answers and "counters" for these events that would be fitting for  the identity of "Shadow", he played role-playing games multiple times in his original world before so he was no strangers to acting from the most mundane characters to the most fantastical and legendary heroes, villains and monsters, the principal being one with dragons in the name, so it's no exaggeration to say that his simulation of the meeting went very smoothly in his head, with him saying a few prepared frases out loud to test how good they sound, but something to take note is that he decided to practice inside the starry void, so he wasn't speaking to himself back and forth in the middle of his living room while alone.

he was obviously keeping a close eye on the clock all this while and it was finally time. When it hit exactly 15:00 he brought them inside the mansion, he was sitting in the center front of the table as always, Professor to his left in the closest chair to him and Baroness to his right also in the closest chair to him

Taking a look at both of them and them looking at him he stated "(Greetings, and welcome to the first official meeting, to refresh your memory and inform of things essential for this meeting i am Shadow to my left we have the Professor and to my right we have the Baroness, we will be using 'masks' because of privacy reasons and it is favorable for you to try to maintain the secrecy of who you are, at the start at least.)"

Shadow gestured towards his left and right as he respectively introduced them before materializing two hourglasses one of 20 minutes and the other of 15 in front of him and turning the one of 20 minutes upside down for it to start counting .

("But before we start let me remind you that the rules are the same i told each of you when we met individually, but unfortunately we have a limited time for this meeting, we have 20 minutes for trading and 15 minutes for free time that as the name implies will be used to matters of no importance or value such as everyday activities and exchange of common knowledge, and fortunately the time available for the meeting will grow longer in the future, but for now that is all about rules, we can start now.)"

After looking at Professor and being a bit hesitant Baroness asked Shadow and Professor, mainly directed to Professor, a simple question:

"Mr. Professor, do you a way to get more powerful, preferably in a shorter amount of time, but if it is rather slow, it is fine the same way"

To the mild surprise of her and Professor Shadow was the one to give a response, garnering the attention of both of them:

"(I can say that there are at least 3 ways to power or paths to take, first one is to become the blessed for a specific entity or power, the second is to become a mage which is a scholar that uses magic, and lastly turn yourself into a mythical creature through elixirs. Each choice has pros and cons, the first is rather fast but you will live at the whims of you patron, the second is slow and stable but it depends on intellect and talent, the last requires these special elixirs that are not that much common and is rather unstable path. This information is readily available if you do a small amount of searching so i wont be charging anything. Before you ask, unfortunately because of my current circumstances i am unable to help you in becoming a mage, blessed and neither i currently have these elixirs)"

When hearing the last part she was quite dispirited, but she looked with hope in her eyes towards Professor, which did not go unnoticed by him, and as if answering the question that was her hopeful gaze he told her:

"I currently have the formula for 3 elixirs of rank 1, the Mechayne path elixir, intellectuals good with machines and artefacts, the Sun path elixir, they are good against ghosts and holy things, and the Shadow path elixir, they are good with shadows and stealthy, i only require the equivalent of 200 iron coins"

"I think the most suitable would be the shadow one, but how do we will realize the exchange?" Baroness said trying to not sold like the happiest person alive with a bit of worry at the later part.

Shadow said to them after manifesting a paper sheet in front of Professor:

"(While holding the paper concentrate on the formula in your mind and it will appear on it, and think of giving it to her)"

Professor went it and did as instructed and it went as he was told it would, who could have guessed? Shadow did, and something only him knew was the fact that the contents of the formula also appeared into his mind, but for now it was useless to him but as time went on they would accumulate and turn valuable later.

Professor said as the paper teleported in front of Baroness:

"In regards to payment you can leave it with the reception in the hotel on the Carter street, just say that the package is for James"

Shadow was watching the meeting unfold happily despite other exchanges or trades after the first one, but he noticed that the that the 20 minutes hourglass just finished flowing so he warned them that the free time was starting now as he turned the hourglass upside down, making the first one disappear and he warned that if no exchanges or trades were left to make then they also could start the free time early or if necessary end the meeting earlier.

Shadow summoned three cups for each of them, one with tea and the other with coffee and one with mango juice, along a plate of sugar cubes and a glass bottle of milk, only saying "(refreshments)".

If a outsider saw this meeting they would think that Professor was trying to ignore Shadow for some reason, while still being respectful, so in the free time instead of trying to make conversation with said entity he went for the only other option, Baroness, while maintaining secret who he was, he opened conversation with: 

"Ms. Baroness, have you heard or knows about artefacts, more specifically ancient relics?"

She responded with:

"Actually, not only i know about them, but i also have a few in my collection"

They happily talked the subject until the end of the meeting because by how they talked, they appear to like said subject a bunch, as a matter of fact, they were so immersed into the conversation that they did not see the time flying by, because the 15 minutes of free time were finished 17 minutes ago, so Shadow got their attention to end the meeting.

"Ms. Baroness and Mr. Professor, i know that you are having a interesting conversation but unfortunately, the time scheduled to end the meeting was 17 minutes ago, and we will have to end it now, you can continue at a later time"

Both were a little embarrassed but they both replied: ""Thank you for this meeting"". With a final "(Goodbye)" from Shadow he returned them back and exited the starry void after "cleaning" the dining room of the mansion.

He was less tired because of the training he did, the one that improved his reserves a bit, but don't be mistaken, he was still dead tired, so after the silly meeting he found himself making some food and something to drink and after finishing of eating he went to rest on the sofa still tired. Steve spent the rest of the day thinking about this meeting and his actions and the "act" he performed, and soon came the night along with came sleep and that was it for the day.

'the first meeting, the first of many more, i wonder if they will become something or the direction it will take, but that is for the me of tomorrow, the me of the present still has a good night of sleep ahead of himself to worry about' Was his thoughts before falling asleep.

...