"Looks like you're getting the hang of it now," Silo smiles before throwing another snowball in an arc, this time a little faster.
"Good," Silo says. "Now I want you to be able to draw on this under fire, physically and emotionally. Again, and this time try to sense the emotional current that drives your power. Explore what feeds it. You'll need to find your way back to this state no matter what happens if you want to control your power."
Silo throws a snowball directly at Alaina.
Coming to her feet, "Do powers like this have limits?"
"Often they do," Silo muses. "Range, as we've observed, and also quantity. I'd guess you need to re-establish your connection with the source of your power. In your case, a good night's rest should do the trick. We can try again tomorrow."
Silo turns to head back to the military building, pauses, then comments, "Your father has a similar power."
Curling around its master, the massive snake grins. "You know you were meant for war, and still are. I don't understand why you play this facsimile of the good doctor when you could be out conquering and making a name for yourself. By the unknowable abyss, you are a better warrior now than before."
Suddenly, the half elf's arms blur upwards, grabbing the giant snake tightly by the hood, before the pseudofetchling supluxs the otherworldly serpent face first into the dirt to the sound of busted teeth.Surprisingly calm, Xizoh removes his valuables before hefting his fists like he watched his brother and father do. "I hardly condone violence, but you are more than just some entity I picked up by chance. You are the concepts foreign to me that hold me back from growing, and I must grow."
Smirking, he adds, "Plus you deserve it for being a smug snake.
Laurett slides the gold toward herself across the bar. "I hope you'll come back and see us sometime. Smitty'll be broken hearted you've left."
She pats Henri's hand fondly. "Safe travels, dearie."
Blaine raises a skeptical eyebrow. "You've been marked by a bounty hunter and your first instinct was to hide out at the biggest military facility for a hundred miles?" He considers this for a moment. "Smart."
He swings the door open wide and gestures an invitation for Henri to enter. Behind him she can see a moderate-sized windowless room with a plush bed, a chest, a wooden chair, and desk with two lanterns and a stack of letters on it. In the corner is a table with a bulky piece of canvas thrown hastily over it.
"You can stay in here if you like. I can get a cot for you." Blaine watches Henri's reaction to this offer. From his tone and suggested solution, Henri gathers that Blaine doesn't consider this bounty hunter to be much of a threat here.
He asks cautiously, "What were you marked for?"
Oranis watches impassively.
The next night, Dara has a vivid dream. She is floating above herself, looking down on the barracks. She can see herself, breathing deeply. Dulae lies next to her, with one foot and one arm sticking haphazardly out from underneath her blanket. A dwarven occupant two bunks over has put her fur coat over her bunk as though she was cold.
Dara sees herself frown and start to stir. The dream fades away, and Dara blinks her eyes open to see the ceiling of the barracks. If she looks around the room, she sees every detail just as it appeared in the dream.
At the mention of Marcus, "Figures."
At Blaine's question, Henri paused. If he was allowing her to stay here, she owed him an answer - but she wasn't sure how much she wanted to reveal about her past. "It's a bit of a... family matter." The elf adjusted her hat anxiously. "I ran away from home, basically. And I guess they figured out where I was?" She let out an awkward laugh. "You could say my mom's a classic over-reactor."
Henri doesn't notice anyone obviously following her between the Wolf and Bear and the military building, but she hears the shrill shriek of a hawk somewhere overhead.
Blaine smirks like he's about to deliver a barbed quip, then frowns in hesitation. "You're worried." He watches Henri looking around at the room's security. "I'm guessing you know this bounty hunter?"
The next night, Dara has a vivid dream. She sees a raven fly over a full moon, a brief glimpse of a room of gold, and blood flowing over a stone floor.
Suddenly she catches a clear glimpse of a man in a dark cloak and hood measuring a vile-looking green liquid for what looks like alchemy. She floats further away and sees he is working underground in a dim cave lit only with lanterns on his makeshift workbench. The dull light is reflected in a perfectly round artificial pool of water that's at least thirty feet across. She sees the number 3 etched into the wall of the cavern in several places.
She hears a whispered “Thora,” from right behind her and snaps awake. She has the unsettling thought that the dream reminds her of a recurring dream she has a few times a year ever since Korgan’s death.
As Alaina’s training continues over the next four days, she and Silo begin each morning reviewing her dream from the night before. With each night comes a more surreal and detailed vision of the planes than the night prior. She feels her connection to and control over her powers grow stronger.
Over the course of the next few days Cel thinks he spots a hawk that flies from the southern pass leading to Abbhen at dawn, circles Southtown during the day, and flies back to the pass at night. It reminds him of Ezikiel’s hawk.
Blaine sighs. ”With resources enough to hire a bounty hunter, no doubt your family has some kind of connection to the government or the military as well.”
He stares at Henri intently as though he’s trying to gauge something. “Well,” he says finally. “I think Silo will know how to steer unwanted questions, and the Captain can hardly object to my entertaining a visiting trainee she doesn’t know about.”
He grins like he is very proud of his solution, and guides her down to the lower level. Between them they carry a thin mattress and bedding to the training room to the playful teasing of the guards at the door.
After they set up her makeshift bed, Blaine warns her she won’t be able to re-enter without him if she leaves, shows her where to relieve herself, arranges when to bring her food and water, and promises they will resume their training the next day.
“But you’re welcome back up in my room if you get lonely,” Blaine winks as he leaves her alone with her new spellbook, her new gun, the soft glow of the magical wards, and the reassuringly heavy clunk of the warded, guarded door shutting behind him.
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As Anathema attempted to flee from his bulging, almost comical right arm as it casually cracked scales, chains erupted from some of the crooked stitches and waxy scars adorning Xizoh. Hanging in the form of loose hair or perhaps a twisted mockery of a veil, they also sprouted from other places, giving him an unnatural grip on the wall as he chased his serpent companion.
Oranis nods sagely. She approaches Xizoh and touches the mark on his hand gently with her nose.
Xizoh finds himself in a world of shadows. He sees the same features of the mountain cave around him, but in greyscale. Xizoh feels Oranis's nose on his hand and hears her voice in his head but does not see her.
His own shadow stands out starkly on the cave floor in front of him. It seems familiar somehow; both part of him, and distinct.
This is the true nature of your bonded, the anathema. Born in darkness, it is shadow. Your shadow, healer.
Blaine looks back at Henri before closing the door. “I will,” he says. Henri gets the strong impression he already has something in mind.
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It was the way the cave suddenly changed to his eyes that alerted him to fact something was different. Everything seemed sharper, as if all the colors had grow sharp as a razor blade, and his flesh, calmed as it was, began to tingle. Xizoh could feel his body tense and relax at the flow of magic, even as his hand bled orbs that seemed to swallow what little light remained.
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Drifting slowly downwards through rock and stone, the massive serpent phased behind him. "After all, what good is a shadow that isn't present?" Flashing rows and rows of teeth, Anathema causally coiled around the young doctor before slithering into towards his feet, coalescing into a traditional shadow. Well, traditional aside from it's slightly darker hue and the unnatural presence that now hung about Xizoh like a cloak.
Xizoh feels a gentle tug on the back of his hand. The shadows around him swirl until he sees the cave again as he remembers entering it, and Oranis in front of him. The blue of the lights dancing along the cave walls now seems dazzlingly brilliant by contrast.
"You found it," Oranis tilts her head approvingly, looking at Xizoh's shadow. He can feel its presence even in the material world; a coil of dark energy ready to spring.
She nods her head toward a bed of soft moss Xizoh doesn't think was there before. "Come. Sit with me," he hears her soothing voice in his head. "There is much to think on."
Four and a half days later, Xizoh has gained confidence in the new form of his bond through practice and meditation.
Oranis is sitting in the cave in the form of a small dog, looking at him affectionately. "You are ready," he hears in his mind.
“You are strength and love, healer.” She says proudly. “Darkness it a part of you, but it does not define you.”
She approaches him and tilts her head to indicate she'd prefer to be pet. “Be careful, young one. There are many who will see your shadow as evil. Some of them light-bringers.” She touches him fondly on the back of his hand with her nose. “Out there I will not be able to protect you.”
When she pulls back her nose, the mark on the back of his hand quickly fades away. He no longer hears her voice in his head, but she barks a short message he is sure means farewell.
Oranis watches Xizoh journey down the mountain for what may be the last time, wagging her tail. Just before he is out of sight, she transforms into an enormous wolf and bounds uphill, full of life and energy.
Xizoh thinks he spots a soft curl of blue light follow him down the mountain, making sure he finds his way.
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Throughout the next days, Xizoh familiarized himself with his body's new capabilities and those of Anathema's. Being cut off from magic was an odd sensation, though hardly as panic inducing as watching his ever present shadow, And wasn't that an ironic choice of words, he thought to himself, slither through solid material with ease. Other things, like the shadowy veil the massive serpent possessed that seemed to diffuse force, and his own crown of chains, took quite a bit of contemplation to accept, but between Oranis's encouragement and Anathema's snark, he managed..
By the time his self actualization was done, the young doctor had grow fond of Oranis. Accepting her praise, he gave a sad smile. "That's hardly anything new. Ma always said the dark can offer respite just as well as hide monsters, just as the light can blind or warm." His smile growing more genuine and happy, Xizoh adds while petting the spirit, "With your aid, I've came to terms with that. That's enough, as long as I can make the world a better place."
As he braved the elements outside the cave, Xizoh turned to wave goodbye. His shadow distorted to allow his soul bound companion a view of something greater than either of them. Blinking, the half elf rubbed away a tear, before setting down the mountain. Out of the corner of his eye, a small blue light occasionally bobbed, and with that his heart warmed. "Time to quit sulking and get back to fixing people. I wonder what the other's have been doing?"