Shadow's gaze jumps over to the shop's door. "We could go out of town for a bit, fewer people and more opportunities for magical distractions."

I smile. This was the sort of answer I was hoping for. "That sounds like the start of an excellent plan. At the very least, it would be the perfect opportunity for me to test the capacity of these new rings you've given me. What sort of magical distractions did you have in mind?"

"Well, I suppose a magical variety of a board game is a good start. Does your world have chess?"

"I've played a fair number of chess games in my own world."

Shadow starts walking towards the door and signals me to follow. "Great, haven't had a proper opponent in a while. Fire's no fun to play against, his thousands of years of strategic experience were bound to carry over to chess."

"Now, that's a problem I can relate to! Although, my specific situation was actually the opposite."

I follow behind Shadow as she opens the door out into the village and walks out onto the streets, as I reminisce about the past.

"When I was at my best, most of my friends were no match for me. They eventually got tired of me winning, and eventually I got tired of playing while drunk. Even then, I couldn't exactly boast several thousand years of applicable experience. But it's been a while and I'm pretty rusty, and the years haven't been kind to my memory recall."

If I'm being honest with myself, they haven't been kind to my body either. Using magic for recreational purposes seems rather irresponsible, but I really do need the practice given the circumstances. Using my magic for something other than killing might also give me the will to hold on just a little longer.

It's cloudy. There's a slight breeze but not the chilling kind. The weather hasn't changed much since my discussion with Warnado and Shadow this morning. A few villagers struggle to carry a large crate as they walk past us. As we walk toward the edge of town, the breeze becomes stronger. A few kids are talking and leaning against the wall of a small house, but most people don't linger and are eager to get back to wherever they need to be.

As the clouds drag themselves sluggishly in the sky above us, the sun flickers and hides behind one, and the light of the village dims from the cloud's shade. There is something off about the light, although I can't quite place it. I glance toward Shadow and notice she's cast some sort of flight spell, enough to suspend herself about a hand's length above the ground.

She says: "I am just falling in love with this world. There is enough ambient energy here to sustain this spell indefinitely."

As I focus my attention on the slight change in energy induced by Shadow's unique ability to absorb magic, I realize the aberration in lighting is from Shadow's shadow. It is darker than everyone else's and seems almost as if it detached itself from her slightly when she jumped or took a long step, as if it is stuck to the ground.

"Does your shadow normally do that when you cast that spell?" I ask.

Then, the shadow suddenly waves at me.

Shadow replies: "Oh, her. She's her own thing, she showed up after I ascended. I called her Wodahs, while not very creative it does stop people from saying 'Shadow's shadow', which gets old quickly. She usually sticks with me but when there aren't many people around she likes to go off on her own."

I raise a brow as I contemplate what sort of mischief that light deficit projection gets away with when no-one is looking. "Is it corporeal? I mean… is it capable of interacting with the world?"

Shadow nods. "She can't directly touch things but if they cast shadows she can interact with those, which reflects on the things themselves. She can't do much in total darkness or against someone invisible, weather like we have it now just hinders her a bit. I've also seen her cut shadows off things and carry them around, interestingly the separation causes no harm but interacting with the shadow still reflects onto what cast it."

I find myself alarmed, and questions start buzzing in my head about the nature of this creature and what other capabilities it has. Why didn't Shadow mention it earlier? Could it be responsible for Amanda's dream? What else is Shadow hiding? Calm yourself down, Astro. You still don't understand Shadow's motives, and in the meantime there's no need to make your suspicions well-known. Besides, there's also the chance that Shadow really does mean well. In either case, this little diversion lets you get a better sense of her abilities, so you might as well make the best use of this opportunity.

"Can it talk?" I ask, figuring that to be a friendly question.

"Sure can, doesn't do it often though. Usually the most you'll get out of her is a giggle. She is fluent in normal words as well as Demon, strangely enough."

So it can speak Demon? That certainly doesn't alleviate any worries. Then again, considering the other members of our group, Warnado included, that's probably the least of my concerns.

We step off of the village's cobbled stone paths and onto open fields, where we travel for a ways until we reach the boundary of a forest. We then travel a little further into the trees until we reach an uninhabited meadow, not too far away from the village, but just far enough to avoid unwanted attention.

I turn to face Shadow. "This seems as good of a place as any. Shall we begin?"

"Gladly." She says.

Accompanied by subtle flashing of various runes Shadow summons an ethereal chess board of enormous dimensions, complete with pieces of equally amazing proportions.

She explains: "You should be able to control your pieces with your thoughts, I'll let you pick a side."

"I'll pick that one, then," I say as I point to no particular side, and walk toward it. "Ladies first?"

"Yes, because you happened to pick black." Shadow smiles and moves a pawn two squares forward.

I respond in turn and will the first pawn of my own two squares forward. I'll admit, playing with a giant-sized chess board fueled by magic definitely makes it more fun.

We play through our first game slowly, adding a bit of flourish to the movements of our pieces. Then, before I know it, Shadow has already cornered my king, and in the next game I get a bit more serious. The second match, I manage to capture quite a few of Shadow's pieces, but I mess up my chance to capture her king and I quickly find myself in an unfavorable position.

"I think Fire's strategic prowess may have rubbed off on you," I point out, shaking my head in frustration at my predicament.

Shadow replies: "If it's of any solace to you, he said that while I have good strategies I don't have that many, which I also realize. Nothing like him in that regard, you can't get a read on him at all from one game to the next."

"He certainly sounds like a bit of an enigma." Good to get a bead on Fire, in case his sister is responsible and he takes her side. "Even to his sister it seems," I remark. I think for a moment about my position. It seems two of my pieces will inevitably be lost in the next few moves. There's one way I can avoid having one of my pieces taken, but Shadow will probably predict it if I attempt it.

Fast forward a few moves, and we find ourselves in a stalemate, with neither side able to advance without the other side able to move out of the way.

Even though this is just a chess game at its heart, I don't think I have had this much fun in a long time. But one of my new rings is hardly drained, and I do want to at least make it seem to myself that I'm doing something productive.

"Shadow, this chess game is more fun than I'm willing to admit. But could we switch to something more… active? Measuring the effectiveness of these rings is a bit difficult on ethereal constructs."

"What did you have in mind?"

I search my brain for some sort of magical activity. Ideally nothing remotely life-threatening, but enough to strain myself a little. I could come up with some other magically-enhanced leisure activity, but Shadow's ethereal chess game sets a high bar. I suppose it doesn't need to be so well thought out, just something that lets me cast a few spells. If my goal really is to measure the energy in these rings as effectively as possible, physical exertion is the best way to do that. I just need to be mindful of my body's limits.

"Play any sports?" I ask.

She replies: "I definitely have played some on the world I came to Nexus from. In the other one… not so much since I was more or less trapped in my own mind for most of my life there but nevermind that. I like ball sports, throwing and kicking, either is fine with me."

"A ball seems like a simple enough requirement." I think aloud. "The hard part is finding a sport that works best with two people. Perhaps we could play a simple game of catch? With a few additions?"

"Sounds good. I'll begin." She says and summons up a glowing white ball of magical energy in her palm, then tosses it in my direction without much force.

I hold my hands out, walk a few steps back, and prepare a bit of magical cushioning as the glowing ball descends toward me. The ball decelerates just enough that its energetic corona briefly touches my palms, giving a fuzzy sensation. I hold the ball suspended in my hands for a moment, as I focus on how far to throw it.

"Shadow, are you able to magically enhance your speed and strength?" I ask.

"By necessity, my muscles run on magic. Ascended, remember?"

"Oh... In that case, expect a few magically enhanced throws from me. But not this time." I throw the ball back into the air, with a little bit of effort to it, and the ball flies about twice as fast as Shadow's initial throw.

Shadow quickly walks backwards with more sureness than I expected since long robes usually tend to get in the way of that kind of movement. As the energy ball passes over her, she leaps up and slams it back in my direction, and I don't have time to think before the ball is directly above me.

I realize I might have gotten more than I bargained for. I turn around and sprint, the muscles in my legs assisted with the push and pull of magic, and catch the ball with both hands above my head. Unfortunately my hands end up submerged inside the energy ball, since I forgot to add cushioning, and before I am able to correct this mistake, my hands are scorched from the concentrated magical energy. I wince, push my hands out of the ball while trying to keep the ball in place, and purge the excess heat from my hands and heal their burns. I certainly can't let that unannounced increase in power go unanswered! I look in Shadow's direction and plot my throw, mentally preparing myself to enhance my movements again when Shadow reciprocates. I then throw my strongest throw and then some, with a little help from magic.

My throw goes further and higher than any previous one, too much for any ordinary human to have any chance of reaching or much less catching. "Alright!" Shadow shouts and zips diagonally upwards, leaving a trail of distortions in her path. Now things are starting to get interesting. As Shadow intercepts my throw, she stops the ball in front of her with both hands, and with an electric crackle the ball doubles in brightness. Instead of throwing it back at me instantly, Shadow pulls the ball apart into two identical copies, throwing one directly at me and the other one upwards, giving me just enough time to catch both if I plan my movements correctly. As soon as both balls are in flight, Shadow returns to where she originally stood.

I take a few rapid steps forward and cup my hand around the first ball, with protection this time, then accelerate backward past the white ball approaching fast from above. I hold up the ball in my hand and let the two orbs of energy combine into one, and as I hold my hand above me, I notice that the energy in one of my new rings has drained a bit. Then, I plot my next move. I inject the ball with a bit of unstable energy, and throw it hard.

As the ball flies into the air, the unstable energy leaks out of it in small bursts, causing the ball to zigzag. The ball is now only a short distance in front of Shadow, she opens her arms, I see some of her runes flash. The ball slows its movement as if it's being sucked in front of Shadow, where she catches it. However when she stops her spell the ball immediately teleports away again, she seems surprised by this, which gives me a bit of satisfaction. With a gesture of her hand she shoots a bolt of energy at the ball, causing it to promptly overload and explode into a flurry of lightning.

"Nice one," she says "we'll need a new ball now though, that one is too unpredictable."

I oblige and use the palms of my hands to concentrate energy into a new glowing ball, which takes a significant chunk of magic from my active ring in the process. I should avoid tampering with the ball this time so I can conserve my magic. Besides, I wouldn't want this game to end too early.

I throw the ball up in the air toward Shadow. This one isn't my strongest throw, but is still magically enhanced. Shadow just runs over to where the ball is going and catches it normally. Perhaps I should have made my throw a bit more challenging.

Instead of immediately returning my throw Shadow… disappears? I hear an electric crackle from my right and suddenly the ball is almost in my face, caught off guard I only barely catch it, this time remembering to properly protect my hands first.

I then return her throw, the first of many more, and by the time the sun is near the top of the sky, my first new ring is drained of energy, and my second ring nearly so. I almost forgot that I was supposed to measure their energy capacity. My physical body is also showing signs of exertion, and while the rings have shouldered most of the burden, my body has been weakened by use of magic as well. I wipe a bit of sweat from my brow as I inspect the glowing ball I just caught. It is slightly smaller than it was originally. Its size has fluctuated as energy has been lost and added back into it. I consider throwing the ball one last time, but hesitate.