Author's Note: Hey, Chapter 2. It's long, with humour and some well dark stuff, but you'll see.
Ok, this is my first fic that I'm actually planning to make dark and depressing and I'm trying to build it up to that and I'm not a hundred percent sure whether or not I'm going to do a good job at this, but I'm trying my best with this.
Chapter 2
Shadow
'When will the boy be here?'
"Three more weeks, My Lord."
The chamber was dark, except for the eerie green glow projected from a black glass mirror that lay upon a desk where a man in his late fifty's sat, staring into the mirror transfixed.
'Good, Good. I want the boy.' Hissed a voice from within the depths of the black mirror.
"He will serve you well. He is strong, both in body and mind, his magic is unchallenged."
'His magic is unchallenged because no one has challenged him.' The voice replied. 'But he will do'
"When the Cards become ours, no one will dare to challenge us." Said the man gleefully.
'Yes, Elder, but the Cards at this moment belong to the Card Mistress and for this moment they will continue to do so.'
"Yes, My Lord, but why, if I may be so bold to ask?" the Elder asked curious.
'Because I wish to see her at the top of her game. I want to be sure that I have chosen the right girl to be my Queen.'
"You want the Kinomoto girl to be your Queen, My Lord?" the Elder asked startled.
'For the moment, yes, I have my eye on her as does your young Chosen One.'
"Yes, we know." Growled the Elder, bad temperedly.
'I would have thought you Li's would have jumped at the chance to secure another power in mongst you. For your young heir to marry her and have a child with her, the Cards would be secured in your family forever.'
The Elder grunted. The voice within the mirror chuckled.
'Ah, I see, your family is still sore from having you most promising heir lose them to a nobody of a small town.' The voices chuckle grew louder, until it was thunderous.
'When this little nobody comes to your clan, I will see whether or not she was worthy to win the Cards instead of the boy.'
"Thank you, My Lord." My Elder muttered and got up slowly from his chair.
'We will speak again when the boy and the Card mistress have arrived.'
"Yes, My Lord." The eerie green glow faded then disappeared. The Elder gave an involuntary shudder.
"Soon, Soon." He whispered and left the hidden chamber. He was so deep in his thought as he crossed the Main Court yard of the Elder's Chambers that he payed no heed that his muttering might be caught by a unimportant member of his Clan.
"Soon the Shadow will come." Li Meilin whispered as she watched one of her least favourite uncles leave the Elder's Courtyard. She looked down at the ancient scrolls in her arms that she was taking back to the Scroll Master for another Elder, who happened to be her grandfather.
"Shadow, Shadow." She whispered as she walked into the Scroll Master's house.
"Thanks." She muttered as she handed the scrolls back to their Master who in return gave her a firm nod of acknowledgement before returning to his reading of a particularly old scroll.
Meilin stared at the title of it and frowned.
"'The Legend of Shadows'?" Meilin read upside down.
"Hmm, oh yes, an interesting legend this is. But a legend none the less." The old Scroll Master smiled.
"Just a legend? Then why is it from the achieve shelf?" Meilin asked nodding at the shelf with an empty space on the top shelf. The Scroll Master looked behind him at the shelf before laughing.
"Very observant, Young One. Yes this is from the achieve shelves, but not for the reason that you are thinking. 'The Legend of Shadows' is kept on these shelves as warning of darker times and times we must not repeat."
"Why?"
The old Scroll Master smiled at her.
"It is a long and complicated legend, one that I wouldn't mind telling you another day for I am rather busy at the present moment. Come back in three or so days and I will see if I can explain the legend for you."
"Um, thanks." Meilin replied unsure what she had just signed herself into.
"You're welcome Dear, see you again soon."
Meilin walked out of the main section of her Clan's estates, deep in thought.
She couldn't figure out why she cared about 'The Legend of Shadows'. Normally she wasn't interested in the legends or history about and surrounding her Clan. Since she wasn't considered an important member of her Clan and was told so often, she had all but given up on it, how she wished she could be in Japan with her cousin and friends.
But her uncle had be muttering something about shadows, that the Shadow was coming or something like that… or had she miss heard him, she hadn't really been listening, but… no she was sure she had him heard him mutter 'Soon the Shadow will come', but what did that mean?
She rubbed her face frustrated.
She would call Syaoran and Sakura, see if they knew anything, or maybe she was just over-reacting and she would just have everyone laughing at her, not that Syaoran and Sakura would do that but if Arisa was there… she would never hear the end of it.
But still, she hadn't talked to Syaoran in awhile, so maybe she could… she would just call him when she found out more about the legend, it was probably nothing, but if it was nothing then why was the hair at the back of her neck on ends and why did she now have butterflies in her stomach.
"Meilin, did you return the scrolls to Master Jin?" Meilin nodded to her mother as she entered her house.
"Meilin?" her mother looked at her in concern.
"Mei, were your cousins being cruel to you again?" her mother asked her gently.
"No, no, I've just… I've just got a headache." Meilin smiled weakly at her mother be trudging pass her and upstairs of their house to her room.
She flopped heavily on to her bed and curled up there. She was over-reacting, she had no reason to be over-reacting, so her least favourite uncle had muttered something weird, these were weird and dangerous times and so her Grandfather's best friend just so happen to be looking at a scroll that was about a legend on Shadows, whatever they were.
She placed an arm over her eyes, it was silly, all of it, if she had heard any of her other uncles mutter something like that she wouldn't have thought a thing of it.
It was all silly, all of it and if anyone in her clan found out what she was thinking…
It was stupid, but so many weird things had been happening in the Clan lately.
Her mobile on her bedside table suddenly vibrated.
"Hello?" she answered blankly.
'Hey Meilin.'
She sat up bolt right.
"Syaoran!"
'Hey, why are you so surprised?'
"I just am. It is so good to hear from you."
'O-K… what's up?'
"I was just about to ask you the same thing."
'Fine, I was just calling to see if anything was going on in the Clan.'
"A lots been going on in the Clan. Something is always going on in this family, you know that." She laughed weakly.
'Mei, what's up? You sound nervous…'
"I don't know, just things are getting so weird here, I guess I'm on the edge. Actually everyone is on the edge, come to think of it."
'With the uproar with the other families?'
"Yeah. Everyone is really uptight and edgy about the whole thing. People are just acting weird and you know, how our family gets when we feel threaten."
'Yeah,' he agreed sounding thoughtful, 'Whose been acting weird?'
"Just everybody." She said quickly, trying to stop her tongue from running away with her.
'Such as?'
"Uncle Tu." Meilin whispered. She heard Syaoran sigh heavily on the other end of the line.
'What's he doing this time?'
"I'm not sure, but he's been acting the weirdest of all the Clan Elders." Meilin sighed.
'Of course he has been, he is the weirdest out of all the Elders.'
"Syaoran!" Meilin shrieked down the phone line at him. Despite her horror at Syaoran blunted disrespect towards an Elder of their clan she couldn't help but giggle.
'Made you laugh I'm off the hook.' Her giggles grew louder and for a few moments she was unsure whether or not she would be able to stop. Syaoran was so different theses days, happier with a light teasing manner about him that had been rarely seen when they had all be younger.
Sakura really is good for him, Meilin thought almost sadly, calming her giggles down, so that she was now barely aware that she been laughing except for the slight aches in her sides.
'Don't worry too much, Mei. I'll be there soon, as will the others.' Syaoran told her gently. Meilin felt her heart leapt and she could feel the first true smile that she had smiled in months grace her lips.
"I can't wait to see all of you." She admitted sincerely.
'Yeah, Yeah, I miss you too. Sakura, Tomoyo and Arisa have all been bugging me to know when they'll get to see you again.'
Meilin laughed at the image that came to mind as he spoke, she could just see them, especially the Kinomoto Twins bugging Syaoran for information.
"They haven't driven you insane yet?" she teased him.
'No, but their getting there, with Sakura being accident prone and a danger magnet and Tomoyo-chan sticking a camera in our faces every other second and Arisa…' he trailed off grumbling.
"Honestly the way you two fight," Meilin sighed, "your both to blame, you do realise right."
'Yeah, yeah, I know.'
"Why do you two fight so much now? You two weren't this bad in elementary school, granted Risie was in a different class when we first came in grade four, but apart from that you two didn't fight nearly 0as bad as this. What happen?"
'I started dating Sakura.' He replied simply.
"What's that got to do with anything?" Meilin asked genially confused. Syaoran sighed heavily.
'No sibling of Sakura likes me for dating her.'
"Really!"
'You never notice how hostile Sakura's brother is to me?'
"I just thought he was hostile to everyone, except Yukito-san."
'Yeah, well, he's particularly unpleasant to me.' Syaoran grumbled. She could hear him muttering something incoherent on his end of the phone but she guessed that they were rude, so she didn't ask him to repeat them.
"Might have had something do with how you introduced yourself to Sakura-chan." Meilin teased cheekily.
'Am I never going to be able to live that down?' Syaoran demanded.
"Nope."
'Girls are evil!'
"And you should know; you always seem to be surrounded by them, no matter where you go." She laughed.
'Argh, don't remind me. Anyway, don't worry; we'll all be there soon and we'll try and help sort things out. I mean, the other families won't be too willing to go up against the half the recantation of Clow Reed and the CardMistress if it comes down to a fight. Plus as soon as they see Tomoyo and her dreaded camera and find out that they are staring in her newest film, they'll be running for the hills.'
Meilin laughed again, feeling amusement and hope from his words.
It was true what he had said. Who in their right minds, even if they were powerful families, be mad enough to go up against such strong and powerful forces as Sakura and Eriol, not that those two would actually use their magic to fight, no, they would reason with the families and all would be right in the world again. The magical one at least, the rest of the world… well it had bad enough stuff going on in it without the help of magic.
"I can't wait to see you." she sighed, before she started informing him about all the other happenings in the clan and he told her about how life was going in Japan with the gang.
Both blissfully unaware of the murder that was taking place in their clan's estate at that very moment.
Master Li Jin had been the Master of the Scrolls for almost thirty-two years and was still honoured by his position as he had been the day he had been entitled to it.
He loved filling young minds up with questions about history, in particular their history, the magnificent history of the Li Clan and to then help them find the answers to all the questions that their bright, young minds sorted.
He grinned happily, as he placed 'The Legend of Shadows' back in its respective place on the top shelf above his desk.
He was eager to get it back down again, happy that another young one had shown interest in the history of The Li Clan.
Though he was admittedly a truffled baffled as to why Li Meilin, one he knew had never been particularly fond of history; her family history in particular and was now interested in one of the Li Clan's oldest legends, so old that it was considered now nothing more than an old wives tale to scare small children. But even this tale wasn't even used for that, no, it wasn't even told anymore.
Looking up at the scroll, thoughtful, Master Jin wondered if that were actually wise, to keep one the families oldest legends hidden and forbidden to be told to the generations. And why was that, he suddenly wondered.
He reached up and took down the old scroll again and opened it once more.
The legend was terrible, much death and sadness and no happy ending to it, only that the power had run out in the end and all of that particular part of the family had died.
He stroked the old words that were so filled with sadness that it made it even harder to believe that the legend wasn't real. At least parts of it had to be, to get this much strong and powerful emotion into such words.
The candle on his desk flicked when a sudden gush of wind blew threw his open window. He closed the window quietly and which on a light switch before returning to his desk, staring at the scroll for something hidden. A hidden reason as to why the legend was almost formally forbidden to be told.
"When one with great power, they will strike and then the darkness will come, with death following swiftly." He read out. These words were the last on the scroll, they were written with anger more than sadness. The brush strokes had been harsh and forceful, as of the hand holding the brush was trying to hold back their almost un-containable rage.
"How odd!" He mumbled. He was surprised and a little disappointed with himself for not notices these little details. He called himself the Master of Scrolls but he had missed this little detail! For shame of him.
"But what does it mean, 'When one with great power, they will strike and then the darkness will come, with death following swiftly'." He grumbled to himself.
"This is just a silly legend, but with so much power and emotion in it." He rubbed his old and weary eyes, his old but still clever mind turning over the information in his head.
He reread the legend once more, filling more unnerved by it, as his mind finally started to click several similarities between what had happen in the legend and what was happening in his family and other powerful, magical families around the globe.
His poor heart pounded against his chest.
An uproar had started among the Great Magical Families around the world, but no one knew how or even why it had really begun, but it grew to a full out war in almost no time at all.
As he read the final clue jumped out at him and he felt his heart would stop.
"When one with great power, they will strike and then the darkness will come, with death following swiftly" he gasped with understanding, terror filling his being.
"I must, I must." He gasped, moving for the door.
'You Must DIE!' a deep quiet voice replied softly, a shadowy figure stood in the door way, but the voice had not come from him but from the dark glass mirror he was holding.
"You… How could you?" Master Jin whispered.
"I do what must be done." The figure replied calmly. Master Jin shook his head.
"It will destroy us all." Master Jin pleaded.
"No, he won't." Master Jin frowned.
"He?" then his eyes grew wider with realization and horror.
"It will kill him." Master Jin yelled in horror.
"He is strong; he will last long enough until another stronger heir is born." The figure shrugged.
"Please don't do this." Master Jin begged.
"Sorry, Jin, but we will lose if we don't do this."
"I'd rather lose then to succumb to the control of that thing." Jin snapped.
"I thought you might feel that way." The man held up the mirror higher in front of him and things inside the Records Chamber began to burn.
"No." Jin cried out in horror and despair. He swung around to confront the man, who he once counted as a dear friend and the evil, manipulative mirror, but found both gone and the only door out of the chamber barred. The windows were to small for a child fit threw, let alone a full grown man.
Sighing deeply, trying to control his horror and fear, trying to accept his fated death in the room he loved more than his own life itself, he set about doing what he had be taught to do if some terrible deed like this was committed.
Though the room was completely filled with scrolls and wood, the fire did not spread quickly, the charms around the room slowing it down, which for Master Jin this was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing for it gave him time to seal the Clan's most important scrolls in a hiding place in the hopes that someone may find them before it was all too late. And a curse, for he was about to die a very slow and excruciating death.
"I've have done my duty, I accept my death proudly."
It wasn't much late, that members of his clan were running to his house, yelling to each and to him, fighting the fire with hoses and with water and fire wards. But the fire was too hot and by the time it was under control and being put out, the old scroll house was in ruins and all that was left of Master Jin was a burnt corpse.
"Oh my god." Meilin whispered the next morning as she stared at the ruin. She was sick to her gut. How could this happen? How did this happen?
"It was caused by magic." A member of the crowd gathered around the ruin suddenly yelled.
"One of the other families must have done this." Another voice agreed.
"Yeah." Yelled another voice in agreement to the first two. Meilin frown, she didn't recognize those young men's voices.
"But why?" Li Yelan called calmly from the far side of the courtyard. Meilin let out a deep sigh of relief. If Yelan, Syaoran's mother, was here everything would be alright.
"Yes why." Other member's of the clan yelled.
"Because they want our power." The first voice argued obviously irritated but Lady Yelan appearances.
"So they burn down our Scroll House?" Yelan asked sceptically.
She was quite sad and disturbed about the scroll house and its Master's demised, but she would not allow their deaths be the caused of the already threatening to explode, war.
"So we can not finds way to defeat them, they destroyed our history."
"We have no proof that it was actually one of the families." Yelan argued.
"Then who else would have done this? Are you accusing one of your own of doing such a terrible crime, of committing murder, Lady Yelan?" the first voice jeered at Yelan.
Meilin bit her lip hard as she looked at her aunt, hoping, hoping that she'd find something to fight back with.
Yelan sighed heavily.
"I do not belief one of us could be capable of causing Master Jin's death and the burning of the Scroll House, but I do wish for you not to jump so quickly to such conclusions before we have more proof that it was one of the families. Also which one could have or would have committed this crime? We do not know!"
People in the crowd her, nodded their heads, agreeing with her aunts words much to Meilin's great relief, but she could also see that many did not agree with Yelan's calm words, frowning and muttering among themselves, before quietly leaving the crowd.
Once the crowd had calm down somewhat, Meilin went over to her aunt's side. Her aunt smiled at her tiredly.
"These are hard times, Meilin." Yelan sighed heavily as they walked slowly in the direction of her house.
"Yes, but why are so many of us jumping the gun to create a war? Who wants to fight in a magical war anyway?" Meilin shuddered as stories of long ago wars that were built on magic came to her mind.
"Like with the other great wars, people want to go for the glory that war is so told to bring and also the desire to protect ones family and country." Yelan explained gently.
"I don't like it." Meilin mumbled.
"Neither do I and I fear that this is just the beginning. You heard the out cry in the courtyard? Those voices are the pebbles that create the landslide."
"Who were they?' Meilin asked. Yelan frowned unhappily.
"I do not know and that troubles me. Meilin," Yelan suddenly stopped and placed a smooth white hand upon Meilin's thin, but strong shoulder, "promise me, you will keep yourself safe, do not do anything to anger any of the elders, keep quiet and out of sight for me please."
Meilin frown.
"But why, I'm sick of being the weakest link, I want to help." She cried.
"You did not allow me to finish, I want you to keep quiet and out of the way," she lowed her head to Meilin's ear, "I want you to watch. I know I have no right to ask you of this, it could be dangerous, as I believe it will be for all of us, but I need you be out of the way and watch things around you and if you see or hear anything interesting you will come and tell me immediately. I do you understand what I am asking of you?"
Meilin nodded, somewhat stunned. Never had any large amount responsibility been put on her shoulders, oh her father had been an out of circle elder but since she had no magical ability at all she had been more or less classed as a waste of space.
"Ok." Meilin said, sticking her chin out proudly as she had been taught to do.
Yelan closed her eyes for just a moment and sighed.
"I can not believe I am asking you to be a spy for me, but that is exactly what I need. You are the best for the job because of your training and funnily enough because of your lack of ability you will unlikely to be sensed and will be able to enter places that magical members of our family, such as myself or Syaoran."
"So my not having powers is actually a good thing now?"
Yelan smiled gently down at her.
"Your not having powers was never a bad thing, it just meant that you were destined for different things."
"Ok, well, since I'm now useful. I did hear something about Shadows, Master Jin was actually reading a scroll about them when I last saw him… come to think of it, I must have been the last person to have seen him." Yelan squeezed her shoulder gently.
"Shadows, yeah and Master Tu was muttering about them, 'Soon the Shadow will come' is what he said. I don't suppose that means anything, though." Yelan had gone very still her face dark, her eyes looking far off into the distances.
"Aunt?"
"I'm not sure if it means anything, but it is an interesting thing for Master Tu to have said. Anything else?"
As soon as they reached Yelan's house and were seated in her lounge room Meilin had told her all that she had seen and heard yesterday.
"Interesting, all very interesting, but it doesn't help us with the bigger picture as of yet. Have you told anyone else?"
"Only told Syaoran, last night, that Uncle Tu was acting weirder than normal."
"And his response?"
"He laughed but he seemed uptight, Sakura-chan has been having her prophetic dreams again."
Yelan just nodded. Meilin was never actually sure how her aunt actually felt about Syaoran's and Sakura relationship. She hadn't disagreed against but neither had she been very happy about them being a couple.
"But everything will be ok, because Syaoran's coming home soon, with Sakura and the rest. Everything will sort out with them around."
"One can only hope." Yelan mumbled softly and sipped her tea, glancing sideways at Wei who was standing by where she sat.
"Thank you, Meilin. Please be save about what you are doing, don't breath a word about this to anyone."
"I won't. But," she frowned questioningly at her aunt, "not even to Syaoran?"
Yelan glanced once again at Wei.
"Let us just keep this between ourselves for the present moment."
Meilin nodded, but continue to frown. Why couldn't she tell Syaoran that she had finally received a purpose within their Clan? Ok it wasn't exactly as respectable as it could be, spying among her own family and extended, but it was a purposes.
"I won't tell anyone, not even Syaoran." Meilin sighed. Yelan nodded and breathed a sigh of relief.
Author's Note: Haha, I added a new Character than I killed him off in the same chapter. I actually quite liked Master Jin, I was actually a bit upset that I had him killed (and in such a way, I'd hate to be burn to death), even though I threw him in just as introduction of 'the Legend Of Shadows' and to have him figure out something, yeah don't kill me.
I also I sort of introduced the main villian in this. I promise things will make more sense soon, with more chapters.
I hope you guys enjoyed this and please review.