Chapter 7
Expanding Ranks of Shadow
Thalia heard screams.
That wasn't normal now. Maybe it was at night, when werewolves, spirits, and zombies were a normal occurrence, but not at high noon. She tore her sword out of its sheath and ran out of the house. Screams during this time of day could only mean one thing, and it wasn't good.
Outside, people were running all over the place, with no structure whatsoever. To anyone who didn't understand the situation, it would have looked almost comical, for there didn't seem to be anything chasing them. It seemed as if the people were fleeing from nothing at all.
Thalia knew better. It was hard to see in the midday sun, but she could see them. Shadows, moving about with nothing casting them. They were in the outlines of humans from the waist up, but from the waist down, they had no form; they were simply clouds of dark energy chasing after the terrified citizens. The citizens ran as fast as their feet could carry them, but the shades were faster, for they had no corporeal limbs to control. They swooped across the ground, latched on to a person's shadow, and ripped it free. The person's shadow detached from their feet and morphed into a small ball, which the shade carried off. The shadowless person collapsed to the ground, never to rise again. They weren't dead, these people, but a piece of their soul was missing, so they could not function as sentient humans. They became comatose, until they died. Many were killed just to put them out of their misery.
Thalia's instinct was to help, but she knew she couldn't. Her blades and knives would do nothing against these ethereal shadows. She needed to hide before-
Too late. Even before she turned around, Thalia could tell that a shade had spotted her. She spun around and saw it. It was a bigger one than most; it was nearly six feet long on the ground, and when it rose up into the air, it was taller than her. Its white eyes blinked once, and if it had a mouth, Thalia knew that it would be grinning.
She ran back into her house, not even bothering to lock her door. It wouldn't prove a hinderance to shades. Instead she snatched a smoldering stick from the fire, ignoring the hotness of the flames. One by one, as fast as she could, she lit the twenty-four candles that sat in a ring in the middle of her empty hallway. She stood in the middle of them, and was relieved to see that the light flooded the entire hall, destroying any shadow. These candles had been created from Avacyn herself, and were designed specifically to ward off black creatures. Shades couldn't function as well when in light, which explained why it hadn't reached her yet. When she began lighting the candles, it had been slowly oozing through the cracks in the door. When the ring was complete, it had been almost upon her. It reared back against the invisible barrier of white mana, its eyes widening. It punched forward with a fist, but it swerved away as it entered the ring of candles. It couldn't get through.
It calmed Thalia somewhat to know that she was safe, but there was one problem: she couldn't get out. If she set one foot outside the ring of light, her shadow would become visible and therefore, able to be taken. She was trapped inside the ring of light until the shade decided to leave. And she didn't know when that would be.
She flinched as something foreign entered her mind. Even if it couldn't reach her, it could still influence her mind, albeit limited. Step out, it said, its voice deeper than any she had ever heard, Step out of the circle and all will be well.
Thalia shook her head, too frightened to speak. Lord Markov couldn't help her; his magic worked with flesh and blood, not ethereal beings. She was stuck.
"HELP ME!" she screamed, hoping that that man, Julna Buras, was close enough to hear. He was the one who could help her.
The shade laughed in her mind. There is no one who can help you, human. The Old One wishes for your shadow. And when the Old One wishes for your shadow, he-
Something tore a hole in the shade's body. It looked like a ball of dull gray energy. It rebounded back into the shade's head and embedded itself there. The shade cried out telepathically and dissolved.
Behind it was Julna. He was standing in the doorway with his hand raised. He looked the same, but there was something different about his shadow, where she knew he kept his chief shade. There was some sort of white haze around it, like there was something else.
He ran to her and pulled her out of the ring. "Are you all right?" he asked, concerned.
She nodded numbly. "That shade almost had me," she said, "If you hadn't gotten here…"
He smiled. "Well, let's be glad I did. Sorry about scaring you with that energy; I haven't fully learned to control it. Æther mana can be a finicky thing, I've noticed." A woman's scream rang from outside. Julna's face hardened. "Let's go," he said gravely.
They stood on the porch, looking for shades. Julna was just a little saddened to see that the things he felt about Thalia were gone now. They must have been a side effect of the white mana infused inside him.
A shade appeared, obviously trying to take Thalia. Two shades attacking the same person? From what Julna had seen in the past week since he returned from Ravnica with Niredlaf, he hadn't seen anything like that. The shades tried to take a person's shadow, and if they stayed out of reach, they simply moved on.
Why does the Old One want Thalia? Julna thought.
May I stop it, Master? Niredlaf whispered in Julna's mind. Niredlaf was itching to fight a real shade. Julna wanted him to have a little more experience; he had noticed that Niredlaf didn't have the mental proficiency to grapple with the Old One's shades. Then again, Niredlaf had never fought a shade before.
Try, but if he's too much for you, I'm using the Æther mana, Julna responded. He spoke the five words needed to detach Niredlaf. The spirit-shade rose up from Julna's feet and shot forward, placing two whispy hands on the shade's head. Julna watched carefully; if there was any slip-up or the shade gaining an advantage, he was going to conjure Æther mana. Neither Niredlaf nor the shade moved as they fought in their minds. Niredlaf started out ahead with his power, but Julna felt something come from the nearby forest. The Old One was watching this battle.
When Niredlaf shuddered slightly, Julna knew that the spirit was losing. He conjured a ball of Æther mana from far away Duskmantle and shot it at the shade. At the last second, it dodged, and the ball sank into one of Thalia's fence posts. Niredlaf lunged forward and pushed the shade down. It fell on to the fence.
Julna was unprepared for what happened next. The shade screamed in silence and disappeared.
What? Julna thought in astonishment, How did Niredlaf- but then he realized that Niredlaf hadn't done that. The shade had landed on the very fencepost that the Æther mana ball had been absorbed into. So that's what happens when Æther mana hits something solid. Julna wondered if he could find a way to use that. Æther mana sources took some time to start generating the energy again…
Niredlaf turned to Julna. "How was that?" he asked.
Julna sighed. "You still need some work, Niredlaf."
Some work!? Falderin said in Julna's mind, He's a bumbling idiot!
Calm down, Falderin, Julna whispered, I'm sure you weren't that good when I first created you.
Thalia was looking at Niredlaf. "Two of them?" she said, "How-"
"It doesn't matter," Julna said, "But yes, I have two of them and I finally found a way to kill the shades. But I only have a limited supply, so I need to rip away as many shadows as possible." He walked to the side of her house and touched the ground, curling his fingers as he did so. He pulled his hands back, and a fresh shadow billowed into the air. Instead of making a shade, Julna just let it dissipate. He repeated this process with every object around Thalia's house.
He then walked over to her and took her arm. "Let's get you to the cathedral. Avacyn will protect you there."
Sorin was talking with Avacyn when they entered the vault. They both turned to the door as Thalia and Julna walked in. Sorin's eyebrows raised and he said, "Well, I hope your trip was successful." Julna ignored him. "Thalia was attacked by shades just now," he told Avacyn, "The Old One seems to have a special interest in her."
Avacyn took her and held a hand to Thalia's temples, whispering softly. Thalia collapsed. "She's in shock," Avacyn said, laying her next to the dais, "But her mind and soul are alright. How did she survive?"
"Yes, Julna," Sorin said, hardly concealing his frustration, "I think we'd all like to know how you dispensed with the shades, when you were so inept at it last time."
Julna held out a hand, reaching out with his mind for the sources of Æther mana he had made back at Thalia's home. The now-familiar crackling noise filled the air, and a ball of Æther mana coalesced in Julna's hand.
Sorin's eyes widened and he stepped forward, reaching a hand forward in curiosity. "I wouldn't," Julna warned him, and he froze, "I don't know what happens when Æther mana touches flesh."
Sorin stared at it. "What is it? What is this, this… Æther mana?"
"I'm not entirely sure," Julna replied, "The gods of Theros told me of its existence and how I can use it. It is created when you rip a shadow from something, trickling out from the gap where the shadow used to be. Only umbreomancers can access it, and it will kill any ethereal being that comes in contact with it. I just discovered that when it touches an inanimate object, that object absorbs it and will transfer the energy to the next thing that it touches. I hit a fence post with a ball of Æther mana, and when a shade fell on it, the shade absorbed it and died."
"How do you control it?" Sorin asked, curious.
"I simply will it with my mind. It feels more natural if I gesture as I do so, but it's not necessary.
There's only one problem with the Æther mana. It takes more time for the Æther mana sources to regenerate than normal mana sources. I have to use it sparingly and create as many sources as possible. So if, in the future, you see me ripping shadows out, that's why I'm doing it: to make more Æther mana sources."
Sorin frowned. "Is there no other way to make it last longer?"
Julna thought for a few moments. "Maybe…" he said, "Maybe if I create a sword that can carry Æther mana, it could cut through a shade. I wouldn't need a whole ball to kill one; I could just infuse the blade with it. But it would still run out eventually…" He lapsed into muttering.
How would one have an inexhaustible supply of Æther mana? The metal for the sword would have to have powerful magical properties, and the amount of normal mana needed would be staggering. Normal steel wouldn't-
OF COURSE, Julna thought. Why didn't he think of it before?
"I need to go to Esper," he said to Sorin, "I need more etherium to make a shade-killing sword. Who is the best blacksmith on Innistrad?"
Sorin looked at Thalia. Julna understood what he meant. "She's a woman of many talents, isn't she?" he said in awe, "When did she learn to make weapons?"
"You don't think she trusts someone else to make her swords, do you? She makes everything herself," Avacyn told Julna, "She was a very capable ally in opening the Helvault."
Julna shrugged. "I haven't visited Innistrad before in a very long time. Keep her safe, Avacyn. The Old One wants her." He raised his cloak, chanted, and left for Alara.
It was just his luck that he landed in the cesspool wastes. They were a hellish expanse of bubbling, muddy pools full of sulfur. It was said that there was a monstrous etherium vein somewhere in this region, but Julna had never found it.
What is going on with my cloak? He thought. This had never happened when he was a lithomancer. Coughing, he raised it again and recited the incantation to lead him to Sharruum's palace.
He reappeared on the top step of the staircase leading up to the palace itself. The guards jumped in surprise, raising their spears. Julna rolled his eyes; they were obviously new recruits who weren't accustomed to Julna stopping by. Either that, or they didn't recognize him. He was in a new body, after all.
Falderin, Niredlaf, take care of this, he whispered to them telepathically. Both shades sprang up and latched on to the guards, giving them explicit commands to allow Julna in, as he was a known friend of the Hegemon. They nodded, too frightened to speak, and commanded that the doors be opened. "D-d-do you have your riddle at hand?" one guard managed to stammer out.
"Of course I do, idiot," Julna said, "I understand what is required to gain her audience." He walked in without another word.
Sharruum the Hegemon was spread out at the end of the long entry hall, laying on a giant cushion made especially to fit her size. Her face remained neutral; she made it a rule to never show emotion in the presence of others.
"Come forth," she said in a mellifluous voice, "And present your riddle. I warn you, it will not go well if I have heard it before."
Julna, instead of walking all that way, decided to indicate his identity by using his cloak to transport himself right in front of her.
Her face was still neutral.
Julna cleared his throat and recited, "I rise and I fall, I sometimes seem blue, but when you look closer, I am always see-through. The moon seems to know, or command, my mood, and sometimes, with me, your people share food."
Sharruum's eyebrows furrowed in thought. She thought for a full minute, which was a good sign; it usually took her only a few seconds to figure out Julna's riddle. He had heard this from a Simic agent on Ravnica, and he had heard it nowhere else. He knew that it was a trick question; the answer was not, as had originally thought, the tide, but something else.
Sharruum laughed, some emotion finally playing across her face. "You have a talent for this, Buras. You almost lured me in to answering as 'the tide', but I see that it is not. What is it? Music."
Julna bowed, which was the proper response when the Hegemon accepted your riddle. Sharruum commanded her servants to leave.
"Now," she said, once they were alone, "What do you want from me, lithomancer?"
Julna bowed again. "Forgive me, Sharruum, but I cannot allow you to call me by that title any longer. I have been changed into an umbreomancer."
She looked shocked. "Your magic changed? How is this possible?"
Julna shrugged. "I have some hypotheses, but not the time to test them. My body is a homunculus made of etherium and a sangromancer's blood, and when I transferred my consciousness into it, something infused it with black mana. Perhaps that caused the change. Later, I was infused with white mana, so I am now fully aligned with the magic of your home."
Sharruum frowned. "This is a strange turn of events, Buras. You look different, I only recognized you by your cloak, and you are now a three-color mage? And what is that, hiding in your shadow?"
Julna said two words in the Divine language, and Falderin and Niredlaf sprang up. They could do that on their own, but only if they wanted to; they definitely didn't want to show themselves in front of the ruler of Esper. Niredlaf cringed just a little bit as she looked at him, her expression once again unreadable.
"What are these?" she asked, "I perceive that they are a part of you. How is this possible?"
"These are both shades that I created," Julna replied, "But yes, they are a part of me. This one," he gestured to Falderin, "Is created from my own shadow. The other one is a half-spirit half-shade, created by my umbreomancy from the spirit of my original body. It came as quite a shock when I found it still existing."
Sharruum nodded, lost in thought. "Why have you come here, Buras?" she said at last.
"I need the valuable that I entrusted to you many years ago."
She frowned. "The scroll? You told me that you never wanted to look at it again."
"That was when I was naïve and believed that just the divine language could accomplish everything. I need a certain spell in there, Hegemon: the spell to create the gods' weapons. I need to know how they created such items of power."
Sharruum nodded. "Then you shall have it." She stood up, her massive sphinx body almost hitting the ceiling, and pulled back her cushion. A large trapdoor was underneath. With a flick of a single etherium finger, she flung open the door.
"Follow me," she said, going through the doorway, which magically expanded to accommodate her size. Julna followed, nearly jumping down each step of the enormous flight of stairs designed for someone of Sharruum's size.
At the bottom, the already large stairway opened up to an even bigger cavern, with so many little shelves carved into the rock that Julna couldn't count them.
"How am I supposed to find the scroll in here?" He asked, awed at the size of the cavern hidden under the palace.
"You don't need to," Sharruum replied, "My homunculi servants will do it for me." She knocked on the wall, right above a small door. A homunculus, only two feet tall, scuttled out. "Julna's scroll," she said, obviously commanding it to find the scroll. It nodded and ran off. In a few minutes, it was back, holding a scroll case covered in gold and the runes of the god's language. Julna took it, nodding in thanks, and the homunculus went back through its door.
"Is that all you needed?" Sharruum asked.
Julna nodded, opening the case to look at the beautiful calligraphy of Thassa's scroll. "This is all I need; thank you, Lady Hegemon. I shall leave you now." He raised his cloak and began to chant.
*************************************************************
He reappeared in the sulphur wastes. This time, it was where he wanted to go; it was the most reliable way to get etherium. Other citizens of Esper had mined most of it, but that was fine. If he could find the monstrous vein that he had heard about, he would have more than enough. Julna just had to start searching.
Can either of you sense etherium? He asked Niredlaf and Falderin in his mind.
I'm not sure, Falderin replied, It has magical properties, yes? It's possible… Let's try first.
What's etherium? Niredlaf asked.
Julna rolled his eyes. It's the metal that my bones are made of, He told Niredlaf.
Ah. I think I can find it. He and Falderin detached themselves and flew off, looking for etherium.
Julna walked around, trying to look for the telltale signs of etherium. The color of the ground would be a little more vibrant, and you could usually find fragments around the bubbling sulfur cenotes. He found a few small pieces, getting slightly frustrated. There should be more here! He thought.
A minute later, he realized that something wasn't right here. It was too quiet, and he started feeling an irrational fear.
Fear…
Not again, he thought.
He spun around and saw what he was expecting, but not wanting, to see. The planeswalker Ashiok was walking toward him, his nightmare vapors trailing in all directions. A tendril of it had been snaking dangerously close to Julna. FALDERIN! NIREDLAF! COME BACK! He shouted in his mind.
"What do you want, Ashiok?" Julna asked, trying to stay confident. The man's fear aura was more powerful than ever.
The planeswalker laughed. "You, of course. Lord Xenagos has been asking for all planeswalkers on or from Theros to be returned to him. They will be made his servants."
Julna barked a laugh. "Xenagos the satyr cannot control me. The only ones who can summon me to Theros are the gods."
Ashiok smiled. "Ah, but Xenagos is a god now."
WHAT!? Julna thought.
"Yes," Ashiok went on, "It's true. He has become the god of revels, and is causing all planeswalkers to serve him. All except that meddling soldier woman, Elspeth. She deserved her fate."
Elspeth? She went to Theros? The last Julna had heard of the reclusive white planeswalker, she had gone to protect Mirrodin from Phyrexia. She failed, of course.
"I will never answer to a false god," Julna said, "Besides, he happens to be the exact two mana colors that I am NOT. I follow Heliod, Erebos, and Thassa. Come to think of it, how could YOU follow him? Don't worry, I still detest you, but how could you follow someone of such primal, wild magic?"
"It doesn't matter what my colors are," Ashiok replied, "He is a god, and when a god wishes for something, he gets it. He wished for planeswalker servants, so he received them. It's as simple as that. Now, you must come with me."
Julna laughed again. "Not a chance."
Ashiok frowned, which seemed freakish when he had no upper face. Julna didn't even understand how he had sight. "Very well then." He spoke a few words, and the nightmare vapors around him expanded, becoming a haze around him. They morphed into various monsters, all of which were feared by Julna at one time. There was the kraken he had killed, various faeries from his travels on Shadowmoor, and…
It can't be, Julna thought.
A monstrous shape as tall as a mountain was rising up from Ashiok. Its shape was of no recognizable animal, but Julna knew what it was. There was only one thing that big that he feared.
Emrakul, the Æons torn. The most powerful Eldrazi Titan. As a nightmare of Ashiok.
Ashiok smiled as he saw Julna's fear. "Submit, Buras, and it shall be gone. Submit, and the fear will be gone."
Falderin and Niredlaf finally returned, but they would be useless to a nightmare of Emrakul.
Thankfully, I have Æther mana now, Julna thought, reaching out for an available source. He conjured two balls of the energy in his hand and threw them both at the Emrakul nightmare. They stopped just short of the titan and sank into the ground.
Ashiok made a tsk tsk noise. "Foolish planeswalker. You think I don't know your newfound power? Even Erebos has fears, and he fears how you will use this Æther mana, as you call it."
Julna was truly terrified now. He started to surrender by saying, "Enou-"
MASTER, Niredlaf said in his mind, more forceful than ever, Allow me to help you! His consciousness rammed into Julna's, and for a few seconds, they were one being. And Julna felt something return to him.
Of COURSE, he thought, Niredlaf is the spirit of my old body. The spirit of my LITHOMANCY.
He called up five spheres of Æther mana and, instead of throwing them at the nightmare, pressed them into the fragments of etherium he held. The etherium absorbed the energy, and Julna threw THAT at the nightmare.
This time, he scored a hit. The shards of infused metal shot right past the barrier Ashiok had thrown up against the Æther mana and tore into the Emrakul nightmare. The gigantic thing dissolved. Julna called the shards back to him, infused them again, and shot them at all the other nightmares. One of the shards even scratched Ashiok himself.
All of the nightmares disappeared. Ashiok, on the other hand seemed unfazed. He said more words, calling more nightmares.
Or, at least, that's what Julna guessed he was trying to do. Nothing happened.
"What in the Multiverse is…" Ashiok mumbled, "My powers aren't working! I can feel the mana, but something has blocked them!"
Interesting, Julna thought, So THAT'S what Æther mana does to a living thing. "Then I think you'd better leave," Julna said out loud, "While you still breathe."
Ashiok, the fear-mage, had terror in his eyes as he faded into the Blind Eternities.
Julna sighed in relief. "How did you know that would happen, Niredlaf?" he asked the spirit.
"I don't know," Niredlaf said, confused, "It was just a feeling. But I have some good news; we found a large vein of etherium. But first, inspect those shards. I have a feeling that there's something different about them."
Julna looked at them. They were faintly pulsing, as if they still had energy in them…
OF COURSE, Julna thought again, Etherium gains the properties of anything its been infused or imbibed with. That's why it's so good as human limbs or homunculi, and that's why it will NEVER run out of energy! The metal itself is like frozen Æther mana! If he mixed the infused metal with the god spells in Thassa's scroll, just how powerful would the weapon be?
Only one way to find out, he thought.
"Show me where the vein is," he told the shades.
They led him off, and he was hopeful that this would be yet another breakthrough in the fight against the Old One.
