Casek covered little more ground that day. An abundant water source felt like too much of a stroke of good fortune to be too keen to move on from, so he had camped there overnight, forgoing shelter to keep the water close at hand.
However, a nagging thought in the back of his mind got him back on his feet at first light the following morning. Since the encounter with the archdemon, he had seen or heard nothing of the Shadow. No burbling laughter. No scratching of clawed, scythe-like limbs. Nothing. It occurred to him that, ironically, the archdemon’s attack was to thank for this.
The blast had vaporised a substantial chunk of the forest, and every single living being, Shadow or otherwise, likely witnessed it and made themselves scarce.
Which, of course, meant that Casek had an ever-narrowing window of opportunity to carve out the best possible opportunity to survive in this new world long enough to thrive. He’d been forced to utilise every scrap of bush-craft knowledge his last life had left him; every knot and join, every bark and reed weave—every sliver of information about any given plant's uses and function for survival.
He first made a boot knife from chipped flint, and he used that blade to gather resources as he traipsed through the fern carpeted forest floor, sidestepping marshy ground and briar patches with practiced ease.
Whoever Casek had been, he was a man at home in the forest.
Soon, he had a makeshift bag slung over his shoulders, made from woven reeds, which he then filled with picked and foraged fruits and nuts—as well as just about any useful item he could scavenge. He was particularly pleased to spot some small pink-flowered plants coating some parts of the forest floor. The name came to him quickly: Yarrow.
Soon after, lavender-flowered Sage joined it in his bag, alongside a handful of red-petaled Nasturtium. The Sage would help with pain relief in a bind, and all three plants were good for infections and sickness.
Eventually, he came to a wide open clearing in the forest, the vast, reaching arms of the ancient trees not entirely able to shelter the floor from the best of the sun’s rays. This left a patch of ground bursting with colour—violets and pinks and yellows, all catching the sunlight brilliantly and sparkling like a field of precious jewels.
Casek breathed deep, the scent of damp earth and grass being garnished sweetly by the tiny wildflower meadow that had bloomed in this place. He smiled, a warmth entirely new to him filling him.
“Time for a break,” he murmured, mostly to himself, but was gratified nonetheless when he felt a flush of approval from Tauph at the back of his mind.
He strolled into the centre of the meadow, embracing the tickling of plant stems and grass brushing against his legs and allowing the crooning of the cricket to fill his ears. Ahead of him, a wave of flying insects burst from their shelter with every forward step, fleeing madly from the approaching giant until he settled in a spot almost directly in the middle.
When the howls woke him, he swore under his breath as he scrambled to his feet; the sun having nearly completed its path across the sky.
“Fuck,” he hissed again, just for good measure. He hadn’t meant to sleep. How many hours of travel had he lost? How many hours of preparation for the days ahead had he squandered? Fuck.
“Tauph. What the hell was that?”
Shades. At least two. Squabbling, as far as I can tell. It’s not uncommon. Especially when there’s food involved.
“Food, in this case, meaning… people?”
Not necessarily.
“But possibly?”
If it is, they’re in stasis like you are. And that means they won’t die—those crystals keep the prisoner alive as a continuous source of sustenance. And if there is a stasis crystal there, there’s something more powerful than a shade there that created it. After what happened with the Drau, the farther we stay away from that, the better. At least, until you’re stronger.
But Casek had already stopped listening. The mere possibility of another person warranted an investigation, and if he confirmed that there was another human there, his mind was made up about what he would do.
He peered into the swiftly darkening forest in the direction the noise had come from, and dashed back beneath the canopy, boots trampling the flowers underfoot. Vine and branch whipped past his face, refusing to allow even the occasional cut to his cheek to slow him down.
Soon, the sounds of howling and grunting grew louder, and Casek slowed his pace down to a silent crawl towards the source of the noise until he laid eyes on them. It was, in fact, three shades, all wrestling and slashing at each other with fangs and talons, beneath the shade of a crystal construct that dwarfed the one that had covered him back in the research facility.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
The shadowy creatures were yet to see or sense him, far too focused on their prize and each other, and Casek was allowed time to circle around, scanning the surrounding area for even worse threats.
Just because you see nothing doesn’t mean there is nothing here.
“I know that,” Casek said, eyes locked on the shadowed human shape frozen deep within the crystal. “But I still need to try.”
He was moving before Tauph could say any more, his blade flickering to life in his hands, silent as a wraith. He carved the first shade before it had realised he was even there. The last two span towards him in mute shock, stumbling back and attempting to scramble away. One made it, too. The other, however, saw its own chest being cleaved in two by Casek’s blade, its final essence absorbed by the foci.
The third, incensed, desperate and by far the largest and most powerful of the three, threw itself at Casek, snarling. Casek swept his sword at the creature’s throat, only for it to twist and parry, its blade-like obsidian arm clashing with his own weapon as though it itself were steel.
Casek was a step ahead. Without breaking stride, he moved from the first attack and into the second as smooth as butter. The black blade flashed, and the creature turned to dust, leaving Casek alone with the crystal and its prisoner.
The foci on his wrist vibrated gently against his skin, drawing his attention away from the person in stasis. He allowed the sword to dematerialise and glanced down at the golden band. The lit jewel shone brightly with the absorbed power of the shades he’d slain, and now a second of the gemstones shimmered faintly.
“Huh, that’s never happened before.”
Each shade you kill has its essence absorbed by the foci, and it adds a fraction of its power to yours. Before, you were using them to keep your existing reserves topped up, so you didn’t notice the difference. Now you’ve killed enough to see, clearly, that you’ve grown in strength.
“I thought I needed to bind one of the Shadow for that—that’s why we took the risk of fighting the Drau?”
Not exactly. I won’t beat around the bush, Casek—you are weak. One foci, and barely enough magical reserves to be noticeable to most of the threats in the forest. Shades are little more than insects in the ranks of the Shadow. They are simply not worth the risk of binding.
Casek frowned. “What risk?”
Binding a demon to you is the start of the process of you absorbing its strength to take as your own—known as ‘cycling’. Once you have fully absorbed, say, a Drau, it ceases to exist, and your power will have grown exponentially. But this takes time. And during that time, the entity you have bound will be continuously vying for freedom. For control.
“Let me guess: I lose, I die.”
Worse. The Shadow are entities of possession. The demon will do to you exactly what you were trying to do to it. Claim your body and power for its own. It is a slow death, where you are forced to watch, helpless, as it parades around wearing your skin.
“Why even bother, then? Especially when I can just kill shades and achieve the same results.”
Because you can’t. Like I said, Shades are weak. There will come a time where even killing thousands will make little difference to your strength. If you have any plans for survival, binding and cycling more and more powerful Shadow entities will be the only way to ensure you are strong enough to live.
For now, though, we’ve got bigger issues.
Casek glanced back towards the crystal and concentrated on the humanoid shadow imprisoned within. He still could not make out any clear features, or even confirm for certain whether what was inside was actually human, or merely in a similar shape.
“What are the chances that’s one of the Shadow trapped in there?”
Cannibalization is not unheard of, particularly when sustenance is scarce—but I sense nothing of the Other in that prison. You should be careful anyway, Casek. If it is a person, there is no telling how long they’ve been inside, and what their mental state is. It could have been a week and they’re totally sane. It could have been a century and they’re, well, not.
It was true, of course. Casek had at least been allowed to sleep through his millennia of imprisonment. He couldn’t imagine having had to be awake for that long, kept alive only to serve as sustenance for the Shadow. This person could be incredibly volatile. Violent, even.
That didn’t mean he had a choice.
Even if it wasn’t plainly the right thing to do, the tightness in his throat—the rapid pounding of his heart—would have moved his hand up against the stasis crystal regardless of the danger. He’d had enough of being alone. Of silences filled only by himself and the voice in his head.
Casek didn’t need a place to belong, not really. He needed people to belong with. This person might not be that for him, but he couldn’t walk away from the chance that they could, no matter how infinitely small that chance was.
He let out a long, steadying breath as the coolness of the stasis crystal seeped into his hand and up his arm. Casek closed his eyes and sought that dark well of power he’d found before, and repeated the process again. Combining it with his own magic and pushing it against the crystal.
Shards of lilac fled back from his touch, shattering to dust in a wave of tiny explosions until the entire shell of crystal had pulled back and been cast to the wind. The figure inside slumped to the floor, no longer held upright by their prison.
It was, thankfully, most definitely human. She wore a long travel dress the colour of sapphires, well worn and often repaired. Its sleeves came down to her wrists, tucked beneath dark leather arm guards. All were more than a little grubby, showing that, whoever this was, they had been in the wilds for a time before they had been captured.
Even so, Casek was suddenly acutely aware he was clad in rags as he knelt down beside her. Well travelled they may be, but her clothes were of a high quality. And the quality of the pouches tied to her waist with leather chord—likely holding survival equipment—spoke to a person serving in a well-equipped military or mercenary outfit.
“Are you okay?” Casek said, as he reached out towards her shoulder, looking to turn her over and check that she was still alive and healthy, when the woman’s hand darted out faster than he could track and grab hold of his wrist in a grip so tight it made him grunt with pain.
The woman turned to face him, and Casek was met with a pair of dark, furious eyes. He swallowed, and a light caught his attention adorning the arm that held his own.
She wore her own foci, and inlaid upon its surface were seven gleaming crystals, shining brighter than any of his own ever had.
Thank you all so much for reading this far! If you've enjoyed what you've read, please consider checking out one of my other stories below - just click on the pictures to go to their pages!
