Fall of Winter, Week 4, Day 8

  Noir, Shade, and Haze circled Nora. Around the four of them, the light of midday was dimmed by the other spirits creating a dome of impassable darkness. Nora had done a simple braid that day, without her usual jewels, in preparation for Cthari’s appearance.

  The Queen of the Abyss had pushed Nora to the brink of mana exhaustion many times—before finally teaching her how to refill and withdraw mana from the myriad of mana pearls that Nora carries with her. It had felt like ages before the Spirit Queen taught her, but Nora knew, in the grand scheme of things, a few months was nothing. And practicing her Skills to exhaustion helped Nora to understand just how far she could force herself.

  “Are you ready?” Noir called, his tone light as he bounced on his feet. He’d been taking the shape of a bunny for so long that it was almost a shock to see his natural form—with its overly long limbs, hunched back, and wide maw. Nora grinned and raised her hand, pointing her elongated nails at the eldritch horror she treasured with all her heart.

  “Am I ever. Haze, Shade, positions!” The other two horrors, iridescent and green, respectively, pulled back, flanking their contractor.

  Haze’s shining claws and Shade’s spiraling tail were the only things that separated their shapes from Noir.

  Nora dropped the Lesser Mana Pearl held gently in her palm. Before it fell, a shard of shadow shot from her finger—a needle, thin and barely able to be seen if not for the girl being able to account for every blemish of darkness within two kilometers. It pierced the center of the pearl, and [Mana Sense] showed the vortex of magic forming.

  Sliding her foot back, Nora lowered herself down to one knee. She held her palms up and lowered her head. Before her, a being appeared dripping in black miasma. The Nightwalker. The Queen of the Abyss. Cthari, Spirit of the Dark.

  “Ah, youngling,” her ethereal voice called, layered with the sound of silence only the darkest night could produce. “Is it that time again?”

  To Cthari’s left kneeled Shade, to her right bowed Haze, and behind her, Noir prostrated himself before the Spirit Queen. As Cthari surveyed the four of them, Nora kept her head lowered—only able to tell what Cthari was doing thanks to [Shadow Manipulation] giving her shadow sight.

  “Oh, Queen of the Abyss,” Nora said gravely, “I beseech thee. Teach us your ways and allow us to bask in the glory of Night.”

  Nora stayed still, tightening her muscles as she waited for the spirit to respond. Finally, an undignified snort erupted across the clearing.

  “You truly have allowed our Noir to corrupt you,” Cthari said through peals of laughter. “All right, all of you. Stand.”

  Jumping up, Nora kept a forced frown on her face. “My Liege, please. Is that an acceptance of our earnest plight?”

  As Noir, Haze, and Shade giggled, Nora did not allow her act to falter—instead doubling down, pounding her fist against her heart, and digging her heels into the brilliant blue shoots of grass that were breaking through the earth. The Thaw had come and Spring was approaching.

  With a heavy breath, Cthari stood tall and waved her open palm. The pitch black of her eyes meeting Nora’s blue.

  “I hear your cry for help, youngling, and as always, my heart crumbles at the thought of your pain. I accept your earnest plight, Eunora Killian Dawn, Daughter of Darkness.” Turning in a circle, as her gaze met the three other spirits, she called out to them. “Noir, Birthed of Entertainer. Haze, Birthed of Adventurer. Shade, Birthed of Defender. I accept your humble plea.”

  As one, all four of them cheered, and Nora had a bright smile across her face, finally breaking her act.

  “Do you like the shadows we made for you?” The girl asked, snickering. “It was Senka’s idea. It gives us more room than at the manor.”

  Cthari surveyed the dome of darkness. It was made up of over a dozen spirts reaching across a clearing nearly as wide as the training hall at the Academy. Nora was immensely proud of the spirits for both coming up witht he idea and enacting it so flawlessly.

  “I do. You will recreate it.” Cthari said simply. “And once it is finished, I will permit you to inscribe it into your grimoire.”

  Nora didn’t even blink, she simply pulled out a handful of previously drained Lesser Mana Pearls, placed them between her fingers, and got to work.

  [Shadow Conjuration] limited the volume of how much shadow Nora could pull into existence, but with a Divinity of 140, Nora’s abilities far outclassed what any usual eight year old could have done with such a Skill. [Shadow Manipulation] was similiar. In theory, Nora could summon more shadows than she could control—if she hadn’t been leveling the Skills in tandem. Prior to Cthari’s instructions, that choice had been coincidence. Afterward? It was rule the Spirit Queen had insisted upon. The Skills were two halves of the same power, after all.

  Once, when Nora had asked why they were separate, then, Cthari had tsk’d and said, “When Nocturne and Troya designed the System, they knew naught what the thing would become. In order for me to allow it tap into the Darkness, the System limited what I could give and how it could be delivered.”

  “Skills out loud, or internal?” Nora asked.

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  “Out loud, it will help you as you imitate the natural capabilities of your spirits.”

  Nodding, Nora took a breath and dismissed her nails, her bangles, and the myriad of shadows she had hidden on her person. Nora knew, to an undiscerning eye, it would be difficult to tell just how many weapons she carried on her person. But the knowledge that her power was constantly on display soothed her.

  In the past months, Theo had given her grief about it. His [Mana Sense] Skill had surpassed its first bottleneck because of the sheer amount of mana he saw when Nora was in Twilight. He said it was foolish, to put that much skill on display. That it would get back to their mother.

  Nora had responded, “If someone feels the need to inform Mallorica, what would happen? She won’t call me back to Adeline, that much is sure—or she would have done that after my Affirmation. Potential means nothing to her. She cares about results. And to her, my exile has given her exactly that.”

  “[Shadow Conjuration+Shadow Manipulation]”

  The dim light was overcome with pitch blackness. In the wake of Nora’s Skill, shadows flooded the clearing in a wild frenzy.

  “Focus, child. Dispel your Skills, then re-summon the Dark with your intent already in tact.” Cthari commanded.

  Immediately, the overwhelming darkness abated as the shadows became mundane and fell into their proper place in the world.

  Nora straightened her back, took a deep breath, and focused her mind.

  As she did so, a familiar voice filled her head.

  >Your Will is powerful, Nora,< Eunora added, >but it is not Indominable. Not yet. Lead with the thought of shooting out and up. You can do it.<

  “[Shadow Conjuration+Shadow Manipulation]”

  Ice filled Nora’s veins, flooding out of her pores and permeated the air around her. She could feel the chill of the deep winter, and it soothed her nerves.

  Shadow shot out from around her feet in determined tendrils. Nora sent them as far out as she could go—it wasn’t as far as the spirits, but it hit about halfway in every direction.

  “Now build.”

  Nora nodded sharply, and as she did so the tendrils of darkness shot up away from the ground and began reaching in arcs through the air. Sweat bloomed on Nora’s forehead as she maintained the massive volume of shadow, and she could fill her mana veins draining. She would run out of power before she could snap her magic into place.

  That was exactly what the refilled Lesser Mana Pearls were for. What once had been blue or purple or yellow marbles were now a deep emerald green, filled to the brim with Nora’s mana and ready for her consumption.

  >Do not eat the Mana Pearl.<

  Nora tutted, but otherwise didn’t respond. Instead, she focused her mana Skills on taking her power back. On refilling her veins with ice. One of the emerald marbles between her fingers dulled, and Nora felt the mana flood her. She had to split her mind, half on maintaining control over her shadows and half on reintegrating the mana pearls power into herself.

  Every mote of mana needed to be captured, just as Cthari taught her, or Nora knew she was in for another month of cycling. Ugh, I can’t spend any more time refilling mana pearls with that demon, she groaned internally. I can still feel the ache in my veins.

  Slowly, the dome took shape—mana entering Nora’s veins and then immediately being expunged and shifted to power the building of the shadow construct.

  Cthari was staring at Nora from within the shadows, but not saying anything. Somehow, that was worse than if she’d been criticizing her. The Spirit Queen was a good teacher, truly, and she knew all the tricks to Nora’s Skills—because Cthari had designed them.

  It was no surprise that after a mere five months both [Shadow Conjuration] and [Shadow Manipulation] were blowing through bottlenecks.

  “If this does not get you to Level 23, I will be surprised,” Cthari chimed in, as if she were reading Nora’s thoughts. Nora had grown used to the woman’s timely comments though, and though it brought back poor memories of the Divines, she knew the Spirit Queen was not reading her mind.

  No.

  The Spirit Queen was reading her shadows. Cthari had said that such a thing was only possible due to her status as the Queen of the Abyss—though, she did mention Nora could, potentially, learn it due to her natural affinity for the Dark. Cthari had also admitted that the Skills she granted were living things, impacted by how they were used and the desire of the user.

  “I can feel the toll on my will as I’m building the dome,” Nora said, and another drop of sweat beaded and fell down her face. “You promise you’ll let me inscribe it into my grimoire?”

  “If you are able to cast it once, with the help of your pearls, it should be possible. It’s the time and intent that consumes your power, not the act itself. I am willing to allow you to use one of your slots for this. It both impedes enemies and empowers you, and as you utilize the spells more often, the grimoire will level and grow as well.”

  With a final push of her mind, the shadows under Nora’s control snapped the final piece into place—a dome within a dome, shadows upon shadows.

  “Thin out the density, as is, it’s great for blocking vision but you’ll want it to be more of a haze. And lower the apex point to a more reasonable level. If it can be seen from the horizon it is useless as it can be avoided.” Cthari crossed her arms as she waited for her instructions to reach Nora.

  Another layer of intent formed, and the shadows that had been pitch black lessened to a deep gray and Nora could see rather than inuit where things were. As [Shadow Manipulation] had leveled, so had her sphere of perception. It was odd, and Nora decided it must be a similar Skill to how Ridan used to ‘see’ before Frill had descended.

  A single twitch of her will brought down the top of the dome, lowering it by several meters and flattening it a bit. It was still rounded, but more of a gradual half-oval rather than a semi-circle.

  “Good. Now, dispel it and call upon your grimoire to see if it can be added.”

  As the dome dispersed into the aether, Nora wiped her brow and muttered another Skill. It consumed more mana than simply grabbing it from her bag—but her bag was too far away for Nora to be willing to get it herself.

  “[Shadow Grimoire]”

  The embossed book appeared in a burst of dark motes, landing comfortably in Nora’s palm. Flipping the book open, Nora sped past the three spells she’d already inscribed, only pausing once she’d landed on a blank spread of pages.

  “What has the System deemed to call it?”

  Nora snorted. “The usual dramatics. It wants to call it [Hazy Dominion].”

  IF YOU HAVEN'T RATED OR REVIEWED THE STORY YET PLEASE DO SO NOW I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER!!!!!

  ?discord?!!