my shadow tilts its head at me,
spirits in the dark are waiting.
He doesn’t know how many there are like him, but like Rhynn, he’s always searching for them. There is something comforting in it, in surrounding himself with others that live in the shadows as he does. At first, the power had been overwhelming, teleporting him whenever he stumbled into a shadow, covering his skin but in wispy streaks.
Until he found Rhynn, and she showed him how to harness those powers. He learned to ask for what he wanted, found that accepting the darkness in his heart gave the shadows reason to acquiesce. He asks, and they do his bidding willingly.
The shadow wolf finds him easily enough, but of course, Rhynn knows to look for him. He sees another wolf in the Valley, and he assumes that one will find Ana. So he pulls the shadows together in front of him, popping from the Valley to Rhynn’s place in the Forest easily.
He gives Rhynn a nod, before adding, “Are you looking for others?” He can’t know for sure, of course, but he’s confident in his guess. After all, he’d do the same. He can only imagine what they could all do together. Cast Beqanna into shadows. Create a world made of shadow creatures and portals. The idea is a little thrilling, of course.
But that doesn’t mean they would. Doesn’t mean any of the other shadow manipulators would even want to. Perhaps they all live beneath the sun, pretending to be something other than what they are. He doesn’t know how you can control the darkness without letting it control your heart, but perhaps you can. Perhaps, if you are not him, it’s easy. For those that haven’t watched the world burn, haven’t watched their friends die, have voted away others to be tortured.
He’d been so young then, and had already done so many horrible things. His heart was black before the demon gave him power over the shadows. His prize was simply fitting of what he already was. Cold, callous. He cared, in some deep recess of his mind, but caring in the end had been too hard. So he did his best to shove it aside, along with all the imagines of Noah and the screaming Gero.
He had to move forward, and so he had. And today, moving forward brings him here. And he still can’t help but hope just slightly that there are others, and that they might be like him.
rhonan.