Shadow Warnings

Avea couldn't sleep a wink, alone in the chamber of her room. Twisting and turning in her sheets, unable to settle her thoughts or ease the tightness in her chest. She had sensed the stirrings of espionage from all the lunar realms, and had even been warned of it. Yet there was something else, something far more sinister. An undercurrent slithering too far beneath the surface for anyone to see clearly. Avea toyed with the codex in her hand, it was such delicate shard that she found it hard to believe that it had once been part of a mighty weapon. A sword that she now had to reconstruct in secret, she flipped it over in her palm feeling to coolness against her skin. Trying to find anything she missed, willing it to show her something.

The trail of the Umbratus moon began at first light. She had no inkling of what the trails of the shadow moon would bring, only Neomon's ominous warning and the promise of the codex shard nestled in her palm. Neither offering any semblance of comfort. Dolunay had been wrong the Nova Lunosis had not been a unitification ceremony, it had been a battleground. One that Avea had left defeated, her attempts to get Neomon to barter information had been disastrous, and now Lazarous had grown suspicious of her. There were so many eyes watching, biding their time before making their move. She needed to forge this codex, it was her only leverage to free her mother. She thought of the shackles forged around her mothers wrist, as the Viltarin guards escorted her away. Her mother's wild desperate eyes fixed on her as she was dragged away, clearly trying to tell Avea something. As long that the codex shards remained lost, they were both prisoners. These thoughts spun through her mind like a gathering storm, and with them came a rising sickness of dread.

How was she supposed to find the next codex shard without Neomon?

What did he know about Morpheus that frightened him?

There were many secrets. Too many.

Her fist clenched tightly around the codex, refusing it let it go as if it were the last piece of her heart. It was a promise she couldn't bear to break, I'm going to free us both, those were the last words she uttered before the exhaustion over took her and she drifted off into a deep slumber.

She woke abruptly, her perturbed mind startled from its slumber. The air carried a strange stillness, heavy and almost suffocating. Peeking through her curtain and was surprised to see that first light had not yet broken. She'd woken up early, that's certainly a first, Avea thought rather baffled. However, glancing around her chambers she could sense that something was off. The room felt subtly wrong, as if everything in front of her had been stretched and warped. Every color had been drained from her surroundings, leaving a pallid, lifeless haze. Once-vibrant curtains hung like ghosts, their patterns muted into shades of gray, and the sheets that had once blazed with vibrant blue now seemed to have faded into smoke. Even the familiar furniture appeared unreal, as if she were peering at it through fogged glass. The longer she stared, the more she felt the walls themselves recede, like the room was folding in on her.

"Maybe I am still asleep?" she murmured. However, as she glanced down the codex was glowing brightly against her chest. She could feel the cold air permeate her skin, chilling her to the bone. Curious she slipped out of her bed, hissing as her feet touched the cold crystal floors. The codex flared brightly like a guiding star, and that's when Avea heard the sound of a strangled wail come from the other side of the door. It was like an icy hand had plunged into her ribcage and clutched her heart. Maybe it's just the wind? she thought, as she stopped in front of the door, her hand pressed against its cold surface willing herself not to step through. Yet the codex called her towards the wailing. Avea slowly pulled the door open and stepped through the threshold, with only her nightgown separated her from the cold. Its pale fabric fluttering lightly around her legs as she shivered, while the delicate shard of the codex hung loosely around her neck, still glowing faintly.

The hallway stretched before her, its walls and floor made entirely of crystal, glinting faintly in the dim light. As she made her way through the linear hallway she noticed that each crystal had been meticulously cut into perfectly symmetrical prisms. Although there was not a flaw to be found in the crystals alignment, Avea couldn't help but find the uniformity slightly unsettling. Tiny flecks of light shimmered along the crystalline surfaces, but they offered no comfort, only casting long, fractured shadows that danced at the edge of Avea's vision. Every step swallowed by the eerie stillness that made the hairs on the back of her neck rise, it felt as if the hallway itself were watching her.

The knot in her stomach twisted so tight, pulling her forward toward the tormented screams."No… it’s not time… leave me alone!" The voice tore through the air, ragged and desperate, echoing off the walls like it belonged to something not entirely human. Avea froze, she should retreat back to her room, but the codex flared brightly, it was persistent clearly wanting her to see whatever was at the end of the hallway. Her ears strained, catching the ragged sobs, as she crept around the corner. At the sight she forced her hand over her mouth, muffling the gasp that clawed its way up her throat.

Lunging behind a nearby crystal, her heart hammered violently as if trying to shatter her rib cage. The ragged cries were coming from Morpheus, galad of the Umbratus moon. His elongated body was hunched, cowered in a pitiful heap on the glistening crystal floor. She could only see the back of the galad, but recognised his twisted black horns spiraling upward like dark spires, "your eminence...please have mercy...I beg of you, spare me" he grovelled to his own shadows that writhed along the narrow dead-end hallway. He's talking to his own shadow? Avea thought, unable to look away as his dignity slowly eroded in front of her. The commanding presence he had worn at the Nova Lunosis, the hauteur that dared anyone to challenge him was gone. Now she watched as he trembled at his own shadows, twitching and whispering frantic, desperate words.

"I will make this right, the claimed must do it. They will serve as the offering, the necessary sacrifice."

Avea's eyes widened, "sacrifice?" she mouthed. Horror struck her, what kind of sacrifice? She couldn't see the entity that Morpheus was cowering to, but as she glanced around the corner there was no one there except Morpheus's own shadows. It clung to him like a living thing, it spindly tendrils slithering around his hunched form as if trying to smother him in its dark embrace. Every movement he made sent it tightening its hold on him, a warped reflection that seemed almost hungry, like a predator picking with its food before they devoured it. That ...isn't a normal shadow, was all Avea could think as she tried to peek again at Morpheus's tormentor.

She knew that the Umbratus realm was the shadow moon, the first in the lumos cycle. It's inhabitants drew strength from the shadows, possessing the gift to summon and wield them to their will. Morpheus was their galad, a true master of shadow wielding, or so Dolunay had told her. Yet, in an ironic twist of fate it seemed that shadows that Morpheus had commanded had somehow betrayed him.

Avea saw no great master, all she could see was Morpheus on his hands and knees whimpering, "I promise I won't fail ... I promise" he began to weep in heaving sobs of terror. I need to know who he's speaking to, she thought. The first rule in the outlands, there was always a chain of command and the rule of survival was knowing who actually held the strings. She gathered the nerve, until she heard a chilling voice echo out. "We are not alone." The voice did not belong to Morpheus, it was whispered and sibilant. The sound of it crawled under Avea's skin and made her pulse quicken. She pressed herself against the wall, feeling the crystals edges grazing against her spine. Clamping down on her lip until she tasted blood. "Come out and let me see you" Morpheus's shadow swallowed all the light, whispering out to her.

A cold sweat broke across her skin, as she began inching away from the encroaching shadow. Her eyes snapped down to her feet, her breath hitched as darkness began spilling out beside her feet like blood. Shadows don't move like that, she thought slowly backing away. The codex around Avea's neck flared brightly, warning her to flee. The writhing shadow stilled, its wispy spindles hovering still, like a predator that had just caught a scent. "You have something of mine" the shadow hissed, smothering the entire corridor in its black abyss. Crawling over the crystals, devouring their light, leaving her with nowhere to run.

As she turned to run from the hallway, Morpheus was suddenly standing in the middle of the hallway in front of her. "Wha...how?" Avea stuttered, turning back to see where he had been grovelling only moments before. She turned back to meet his stare, only this wasn't Morpheus but a twisted shadow puppet that had risen from the ceaseless depths of the void itself. Morpheus pinched prideful face had grotesquely shriveled away, leaving it hollowed until it looked sunken and shriveled, like a skull wrapped in tattered skin. Where his eyes should have been there were only two deep empty pits where the light never seemed to reach. She was staring at a living corpse made from shadow, skin and decay. The shadow puppet, however, was staring at the shard around her throat and despite not having eyes, Avea could sense the desperate longing clawing over its face as it beheld its light. Drinking in the sight of it, as though it were the sweetest of wines. "Give it to us ...or we shall take it" Morpheus suddenly screamed, but the ragged primal voice that tore from his throat belonged to someone else.

Panic closed in around Avea and she made to run, but then stopped. Although the shadow was menacing it didn't make any moves towards her, curious she stepped forward and the halo of light emanating from the codex that surrounded her moved with her towards the shadow. Morpheus shadow hissed at the edge of the light singed them, retreating back on all fours like a feral stray. "You can't touch the light ... can you?" Avea spoke, her words sounding slightly distorted, almost slurred. Morpheus's shadow simply hissed, "do not taunt" the shadow's voice seemed to be speak from everywhere.Whatever light was trapped in this delicate shard, it was protecting her. She held up the shard, making sure to stay within its halo of light. "Who are you?!" Avea asked, suddenly feeling a surge of unbridled curiosity. Morpheus's shadow didn't respond, so she stepped closer. "WHO ARE YOU?" Avea asked again, ignoring the cold beads of sweat that prickled across her skin. "You do not know what it is you hold" the shadow spoke, "nothing more than an ignorant child."

The shadow snarl turned into a slow smile, and in answer to her question the shadows around syphoned all the light leaving her in pitch darkness with only the halo of the codex to protect her. "We shall meet again very soon ... Avea Maxwell," the darkness sneered, and the shadow dissolved into its shroud. Avea clutched the codex and a flash of luminous light erupted from the shard. Morpheus's shadow puppet screeched like it had been burned. Avea woke up and found herself back in her room. Her skin slick with sweat and unable catch her breath, as though she'd awoken from a nightmare. Perhaps she had, as she glanced around her room it was as she remembered, with the cool tones of blue returned to the sheets and curtains, everything clear and lucid, and the codex had dimmed in her locket.

Through the curtains the first light streaked through the room, and now the trails were upon her. Composing herself, Avea slinked out of bed weary from her restless night. Her head was swarming with everything she'd dreamed, but the details were blurred. It was as if her thoughts were a sieve, letting the clarity of her visions sift through. She tried to hold onto the memory of Morpheus snivelling against the ground, afraid of his own shadow. The way he'd morphed into that nightmarish creature, it had spoken to her but she couldn't remember what it had said? Or why it hadn't attacked her?

She kept racking through her mind trying to grasp onto the memory, but the more she tried to hold onto it the more elusive it became. The servants appeared like phantoms not acknowledging her as they laid out her wardrobe for the first day of the trails. She inspected the garments that were laid out, they were loose breezy fabrics. Lifting them up Avea began closely inspecting each layer of the garment, as though there were clues hidden in the seams of thread or engraved in the cuffs of jewellery. She was slow and methodical as she dressed herself, inspecting herself in the mirror.

Her garments were woven from deep blues and muted silver threads, the fabric patterned into intricate seams with silver embellishments. The cloth was light and breathable indicating a warmer climate, as it wrapped tightly around Avea's bodice extending out into billowing sleeves and pants. There was a shawl draped over her torso, a cerulean blue as deep as the celestial night. She had a protective shell of armour hidden within the flowing textiles. Adorning her arms and torso were silver jewelled cuffs, their intricate designs disguised as mere extravagance, but Avea noticed that they had been deliberately placed, each one pinpointing the most vulnerable parts of her body, her wrists, shoulders and chest exposing the very areas she needed guarded the most. Among the many variety of garments that Avea had been presented with, there was also an assortment of weapons at her disposal. Her greedy eyes widened as she took in the many daggers and blades that came in a diverse array. "Only take what you need," she'd murmured slightly mesmerized by the craftsmanship. Strategically she opted to take only the smaller lightweight daggers, nestling them into the hidden concealed pockets of her outfit. She drew her hair back into a tight knot, secured with a sharp, slender hairpin of polished silver that gleamed like a slim rays of the moon.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror, lingering for moment, as she readied herself for the battle ahead.

The Viltarin guards appeared to collect her, deceptively knocking and entering through the front door. She clearly hadn't had enough time to gather herself, as she was lead into a secret alcove of a room. Hidden within the crystal walls, the eyes shifted to her as she stepped past the threshold where the rest of the claimed were waiting, wearing similar attire. The garments shimmered with intricate palette that mirrored every phase of the moon. They captured the soft, pale ivory glow, the delicate silver sheen, the deep indigo hush and the depthless obsidian unbroken by stars. Each of the claimed fabric seemed to hold a different celestial secret, weaving together a tapestry of spectacular lunar beauty.

The tension in the room could have been cut with a knife, or with one of the many blades that the claimed no doubt had hidden in their layers. However, Avea eyes fell to Morpheus Vera who was standing in the center of the cyclicar room, draped in his silver jewels and moonlit adornments. He was modestly dressed, seemingly wearing more layers. Wrapped tightly in glossy black obsidian fabric that held had a reflective sheen, hiding his flesh from sight. You shall have your sacrifice, those words echoed in her mind. His eyes landed on Avea, there his eyes flared slightly as she caught him staring back. There was something rattled beneath his gaze, a flare of panic that vanished like a snuffed flame. Until he was staring at her with cold guarded eyes, unlike the panicked and pleading eyes that she had gazed into last night. "Pleasure for you to join us Cyntherial claimed" Morpheus said, reverently as though he were some prophet delivering holy rhetoric. "Just Avea" she responded, a scoff sounded from the over side of the cramped room. "Unable to acknowledge her own moon" she heard Yume's hiss. "Only a fraud would disrespect their moon" she heard the Aurelian claimed, Kamari speak. "How could she be a fraud the ancients claimed her themselves" Lazarus spoke, his voice held no whisper or reservation. Yume pinched her lips together with indignation, but the mistrust still lay within those twilight eyes. Avea's eyes drifted over to the shroud of shadow in the darkest crevice of the room, where Neomon hid silently watching them all bicker. Did he know about the sacrifice? It was strange seeing the Umbratus galad standing before them like a king amongst his subjects, so far removed from the snivelling pathetic creature that she'd seen last night.

Yet he seemed so unperturbed, beholding her with something akin to boredom. Avea tried to remember the creature, but the more that she thought about it the more the memory seemed to slip away from her. She couldn't have dreamt it, it had felt too real for it have only been a nightmare. Morpheus face was devoid of any amusement or fondness for the claimed. Clearing his elongated throat, "this is a sanctum and there will be no petulance on the Umbratus moon." Instantly the bickering hushed, any shred of petulance purged from the tiny alcove room, "no doubt many of you harbour a curiosity regarding the concealed splendor of the Umbratus moon. I assume you, it is the preeminent sovereign of the lunar realms." Although no one of the claimed dared, Avea could sense the unseen eyerolls at Morpheus's grandstanding. "You shall witness our nocturnal firmament at our celebrations tonight" he continued, utterly unaware of the unrestrained vexation. Although his words exuded charisma, his eyes remained dead and soulless as he surveyed them, turning the words into more of a threat.

She wouldn't go into this naive. That was the danger of playing in the dark, you often miss what's right in front of you. The claimed stood in their circular positions, as they had in the unification ceremony. The conformity of the whole proceeding practically made Avea itch, as Morpheus wielded his shadows one by one towards the claimed, causing them to vanish in an violent haze. Until Avea was the only one left standing, Morpheus turned to her with that bony disjointed hand flexed upwards in a regal manner. "Are you ready to meet your fate Avea Maxwell?"

"Are you?" she replied. Anger flashed over Morpheus's face, as he hurled one of his shadows at her. She could only stand there, allowing herself to swallowed by the distorted haze, whisking her away.

To the umbratus moon.