What Should Not Be #3
I guessed I should start reading—I was in no rush to go back to the Arcanum house with Sevrin, but I definitely wanted to learn to control my shadows first and foremost.
So I sat up on my bed and opened Nox Incineram, feeling uneasy.
It seemed like the book emitted faint shadows, darkening the room around me slightly.
I flipped through the brittle, yellowed pages, pausing occasionally to look at pictures depicting gruesome shadow beings or fae in clear, extreme pain.
Gods, this was bad. It felt like having shadow magic was a curse.
So I took a deep breath, steadied my nerves, and flipped back to page one.
“This book was written to document the dark and mysterious magic that originates from shadows. It should not be leveraged by anyone who does not possess the Umbrathren shadow magic. We will explore the source and origins of the magic, the methods for controlling it, and the consequences of misuse. My studies are limited on the subject, as shadow magic is so rare and so few survive its awakening. Even fewer have been able to control their shadows, bringing me to only a handful of cases to study. If the reader holding this book at present possesses this power, may the gods be with you.”
If I was uneasy before, I was completely freaking out now. It sounded like most people with this power didn’t live long.
On the plus side, I had survived its awakening…
But was that only because someone had been there to clamp a magic-blocking cuff around my wrist both times? Had the power even been allowed to awaken fully? Could I have died without the cuffs?
Sweat beaded on my forehead, the beast beginning to stir, increasing my rising panic.
“No. Stay down. You’re not needed when I’m reading a book,” I said to it, having no idea if it was even communicable. Sevrin had said to befriend this thing, but what the hell did that mean? Give it a fluffy name and sing it to sleep at night?
The thought made me smile, beginning to settle my racing heart and thoughts.
I would be okay. I had to be.
Caedryn. Varyn. Round and Dumb. Cassius. Aemilia. Purple-eyed blacksmith. Naci.
They were why, if nothing else, I had to survive and learn to control myself. To exact my revenge before I’d see Nella again in the Vale.
But a small part of me thought this place, what they fought for in the rebellion, was worth fighting for too.
So on I plowed through the gruesome book, determined to solve this puzzle.
I learned that shadow magic originated from one source many, many years ago in the gods’ realm.
It was created by accident during an altercation, cast out of their realm in fear, and ended up in the mortal realm, where it latched onto a few unfortunate souls every century or so. Definitely a curse.
I learned that nearly every single documented shadow wielder was also a Veythryn, vey forms ranging from black-winged beasts to dragons darker than night.
Some had vey more aligned with their elemental abilities, but even those were animals rarely seen in the wild, like griffins and mermaids (I was shocked to learn the latter actually existed at all).
This meant Malvina had been wrong about one thing: although shadow magic sounded rare, it seemed all shadow Umbrathren were also Veythryn. She had seemed to think I was one of a kind. Unless she knew something else about me I didn’t—there seemed to be a lot of that going around.
I absorbed as much as I could from the book as my eyelids grew heavier and heavier, my head dropping once or twice. The last thing I remembered reading before fitful sleep took me away was haunting, though…
“It has been believed by those who were interviewed with this power that whether the shadows are or are not controllable is determined solely by the sentient being that lies within and has little to do with the determination and will of the fae.
The elements paired with this Umbrathren magic may also be a determining factor in the level of control that is achievable.
Documented cases have revealed that the most common elements possessed by shadow wielders were earth and ice.
Several light elementals were studied and appeared to have the best control over shadows, with the light potentially helping to balance the dark magic.
Nearly every lightning elemental perished when their power awakened, wrapped in webs of black lightning that incinerated the fae from within.
“But the most detrimental combination of shadow and element, having only one catastrophic case in recorded history, was the power of fire and shadows. Studies on this duo have not been possible, as the sole possessor was Commander Thraxxus the Cinderborn of Azael. History credits him with the complete destruction of the continent of Azael, including both armies, thereby ending the war between Azael and Vydran. Thraxxus was never seen again, assumed to have perished in the eruption. The land burned for over a decade before the last embers died out and the Everdark Sea swallowed the ashes.”
The full gravity of how fucked I was did not hit me until the next morning.