Breath and Shadow [Closed]

[Hilana Chenzira]

25 Glade, Year 123

Hilana hadn’t expected an answer to her liking as Ævril had warned her, but had been pleasantly surprised that one came in a few days when she had had her next lesson with him. Passage would be arranged for her for this, but it was of utmost importance that she understood what she was getting into. This was life and death, and potentially far worse. If it went wrong… she might wish for death and never receive it. She might be lost, completely. She might never come back. These were forces greater, and perhaps more pure, than any she encountered before, and this was because she was going directly to the source.

The Shadow Plane.

Rest well. Leave her snakes behind, and hope that she would be returning to them. If she was successful, she would have another Element to work with, and an opportunity to practice with the voidspawn later on for when she continued. But for now, she needed to focus on the fact that she was leaving life as she knew it to risk it all. When she had asked about bringing dragonshards for casting, her paedagogus had shook his head. He hardly knew. It couldn’t hurt, but she needed to understand something. Sources of light might well attract attention. She needed to keep them sealed so that they did not attract that which they did not want. And if there was something she didn’t want, it was going to be the attention of such creatures.

As such, she had gotten a piece of lunicite and another of illumite and had Domina Clelia help her scriven the pouch to keep its light from emerging until the seal was broken. She had brought her Mask and her Volumen - she didn’t know if it would be useful or prove necessary, but it could not hurt. Restoratives with star thistle and magma blooms had been secured in her rucksack, along with her ever-present medical kit. There was food and water, though she couldn’t imagine that those would be needed… but they couldn’t hurt. This was not supposed to be a long trip. But if one failed to plan… they planned to fail.

She wore simple dark skirts, having been warned to avoid brighter colours and exposing too much skin. That she was hardly used to; but as a precaution she had her dark racing leggings and boots for once, and a shirt that actually covered her torso and arms, with a hood attached to it. She had a scarf near her neck that could come up to cover the lower half of her face. Her earrings had been removed, and the whole bowl of tokens and trinkets from her hair had been left at home. Gloves were in her belt pouch, and her teacher nodded to see her when she arrived in the lobby of the Praetorium.

Another had been selected to guide her, and Ævril’s task today was to bring her to the prepared location for the portal. “Do well.” He told her. “Remember your lessons. Your life and very soul will depend on it.” He knocked on the door, and would open it to see her in.

[Pharaoh]

► Show Spoiler

A figure stood waiting in full Sentinel blacks, veil drawn to cover a face that would have been shadowed to obscurity by the hood even without its added concealment. Silently the imposing creature loomed stock still as she approached, perhaps a glint of pallour from the eyes behind the veil but little more and nothing in the way of movement. By and by, a deep, but feminine voice spoke.

"You are no Sentinel, and yet you walk a Sentinel's path and don a Sentinel's ward." She gestured to the runeforged pendant that was obscuring her Aura and Symphony from arcane assessment. It had been gifted toward the end of Frost, when High Sentinel Cithæra decided that Hilana's work was too classified and her access too privileged for her to walk around unshielded from the arcane incursions of the covetous, the curious and the insidious.

"Intriguing." She intoned, "I am Sentinel Qævyx and I am to conduct you along the path of your choosing. And why, Vastiana, when shadows invade and abound in our world in dread profusion, do you seek to broach a plane where their might is greater?" A beat.

"Of all the planes that mortals might breach. Why this one? Why now?" With that question posed, she turned away and approached the rear wall of her office, whereupon she lifted her hand to scrawl a large symbol which would glow blue and expand into a portal into an open cavern that Hilana would not recognise from any of her travels in the Umbrium.

[Hilana Chenzira]

Sentinel Ævril gave his discipula one final nod as Hilana stepped into the office, and closed the door behind her. She would come back if she was successful. If she failed, she fell, and he’d lost enough to other ventures to know that that was the way the cookie crumbled. He would see her when she returned. Hilana refused to think about the fact that failure was an entirely valid outcome. She’d already considered that enough and she was not about to let it deter her now. She was not turning back. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. She needed this. Kinetics would take a lot longer for her to be able to use it properly, but she had a solid enough background in Elementalism to be able to utilize it, if she could attune to it. And she had been practicing.

She was quiet as Sentinel Qaevyx addressed her, looking up at the hooded, veiled figure before lowering her gaze respectfully. At the mention of the ward, she could all but feel the pendant where she wore it, and she refrained from bringing her hand up to touch it. It was beautiful, and Hilana did not take it off. While she had gotten started in her Semblance learnings, Mesmer was not a Rune that she had, and at the time she had two more to get before she could even -think- about that one, and when the time came, well, she knew three Masters that could easily get her started in it.

When it seemed like the Sentinel was done, Hilana bowed to her. It was a fair assessment. Hilana had been dreaming of the Elemental Plane of Wood for quite some time, and if it hadn’t been for the attacks in the Ecithian Republic, she might have kept to those plans. As it was, she had to pivot. Shadow first, in order to deal with the damnable things more effectively. Or, at least, understand them better. The other four could wait a bit longer. “I am honoured to meet you, Sentinel Qaevyx, and I am grateful for your assistance,” she began once she straightened up. “I have a quest that I am pursuing, and its trail took me beyond the borders of Solunarium, where the world is cloaked in the shadows of the great darkness... the Eclipse. My companions were attacked and badly injured by the shadow creatures,” the Vastiana explained. “I couldn’t sense them, not like I can hear and listen to other elemental spirits, and I have been led to understand that attuning to the Elemental Plane of Shadow would have been useful in that regard at the time... so I might have been able to pinpoint their exact locations, and perhaps even done something to prevent their attack... but that is hypothetical until I have been able to try it.”

She looked on at the portal, her eyes wide and bright as she looked into the cavern where it led, and if the Sentinel stepped through it, the girl would follow. “And if it works... then the better to try to do something about the shadows before they overwhelm the protections that we have here.”

[Pharaoh]

To the words of greeting, Qævyx merely nodded acknowledgement. There was an aloof formality to the Sentinel that Hilana may have been coming to realise was customary of members of their order. As the Tertian-reared Vastiana got to know more and more mighty figures of the city, a frigid formality was not uncommon amongst any of the higher echelons of society- Particularly amongst the haughty Race of Re'ha.

"Intriguing." The Vigilia mused, "Some who seek to fight shadow pursue knowledge of the light, and others seek to combat darkness from within." She unfastened her veil, and drew it down to reveal the striking face of an aging, Platinum Elf. She looked like she must have been born well before the Bellum Successionis and, though her face was weathered, it bore a regal, timeless grace... Rather like one of those old statues from time immemorial that stood sentry in the grounds that lay before the Temple of Midnight's Mother.

She stepped through the portal and into the strange cavern that lay on the other side. They might have been in the mining district or they might have been in Auris for all Hilana could tell at first glance. The chamber was cool, not like the caverns close to the core of Sorokyn, and the floor was well trod. And it was a floor, indeed- Tiled and smooth, unlike the walls that seemed to be natural formations. Qævyx would lead Hilana through toward a narrow corridor, and globes of light along the walls sprung to life as the two approached, casting their light on the path ahead.

"The first thing you should ken is that the creatures who attacked your friends are not like to have been born in the Plane of Shadow, but of the Void. These are distinct realms, though there is overlap. The shadowrealms are not inherently evil nor chaotic... They are as neutral as nature. That being said, the same incursions from the Void that afflict the mortal realms of Ransera are also affecting the other planes. Shadow is susceptible to the Void, and so it is a more precarious journey now than it was this time last year."

[Hilana Chenzira]

Hilana was indeed getting used to it, and she was coming to understand that it was nothing personal, it was just how they were. It was proper as they were Re’ha and she was but a Vastiana, and further, they were Sentinels. She may have received a number of boons through her association and her quest, but she was not one of them, and likely never would be. Even though she had admired the work of the Medici in the infirmary; she had a great deal to learn in that regard, too, before her skills could even qualify her for such. She didn’t think she was cut out to be a Sentinel, though.

She smiled when the Vigilia commented that some that wanted to handle the shadows sought light, and some from the dark. That was true. But she had found that light attracted the voidspawn, and while she knew she needed to visit the Plane of Light one day, she would find a way to make Kalzasern Rose Milk Tea in order to bribe Daemon for permission to go there. She wasn’t quite certain considering how for millennia he was the cursed figure of her homeland that even the Sentinels would have access to his Elemental Plane, but perhaps they did. When she unfastened her veil, however, Hilana bowed low to see that she was a Platinum Elf. Founders forbid that she screw this up, especially if this foray led to harm to one of the Holy Race. The resemblance she had to those elegant statues of the Temple where she had had lunch with Khyan the season prior was striking. She was really going to have to visit the garden again later and try to Semble the statues. Then there was what Daemon had told her of the Warrens and the Desert of the Third Deep... The girl was no historical scholar; but perhaps she could ask the Sages that she had met about it.

Her hands were on her rucksack’s straps as they stepped into the cavern, following along while looking about. But as Sentinel Qaevyx spoke to give her some food for thought, Hilana chewed on it while they walked and digested it. Those were good points, and there was another warning there. She hadn’t been sure if the voidspawn, for that was what they were, voidspawn, not necessarily creatures of the shadowlands, were affecting the other Planes, but considering they were as per the Platinum Elf with her, that presented another problem. But if they were going to refrain from light as much as possible, and not draw attention to themselves... then with luck, her Mask’s ability to hide her and her guide would be helpful. Walk in shadow, Domina Varvara had said.

“That makes sense,” Hilana nodded. They were some sort of dark being, but it was true that shadow itself was not inherently dark in nature. It just was. Just like light wasn’t necessarily ‘good’, shadows were not inherently ‘bad’. It was their perception of them that altered their perspective. “The void creatures were able to use the shadows of my friends to get close to them to attack them,” the girl offered. “They were attracted to a source of light that one of them used to enable the aetheric abilities of the Sembler. It was like they used traversion, or some ability of theirs like it, to go from quite a distance away to us in order to assault them from their very shadows.” Perhaps she was barking up the wrong tree by pursuing attunement to this plane now, but if it could help in some way with the darkness... where the shadows were strong indeed, provided she was able to cast. “The void creatures are in the other Planes, too?” Try as she did, she was unable to keep the surprise, and an undercurrent that was concern, from her voice. This was a really big problem, then, because if it was able to afflict those realms... If they were not stopped... would those realms be destroyed? “Have you been there recently, Vigilia?” she was curious.

[Pharaoh]

"That is... unfortunate." Qævyx replied, considering the implications of the ability Hilana described. "And suggests that, perhaps, the incursion of the Void into the Shadowlands goes deeper than we realised." But she left it at that, for the moment, deciding to focus more imminently on the task at hand and the role she currently occupied. And in that role of pædagoga, she answered Hilana's questions promptly, both in the affirmative, before beginning to address the common misconceptions.

"The most beneficial thing you can do for your mindset before we pass into this plane is to distinguish the concept of 'shadow' from the concept of 'darkness'. All shadow bears darkness, but not all darkness is shadow. A shadow does not exist without the light whose obstruction births it to life. An eclipse in the traditional sense would be a shadow, but the one haunting Ransera at the moment is... Something altogether different and far more insidious."

Qævyx led them into a torchlit chamber and, perhaps notably, these were actual mundane torches rather than arcane light sources. They were lit with oil and fire. If there was anyone else around keeping the torches lit, they had yet to cross another soul since passing from Qævyx' chambers into this cavernous area. This chamber was more built up than the corridor that led them there. The architecture looked akin to that of the Temple of Midnight's Mother- reverent but simple, with a strange monolith sprouting up in the centre of the tile floor, engraved with patterns. At first they would be unrecognisable, but if inspected with a Sembler's eye they would prove more ancient than Solunarium itself.

Qævyx stood in front of the monolith and gestured for Hilana to do the same, her eyes fixed on the wall across the room. Lifting her hands to either side, she dimmed the firelight ahead of them and set the torches behind them to burning more brightly. As the light shifted the shadow of the monolith, which obscured those of Hilana and Qævyx, was stark against the wall. It was odd how it seemed to move, or rather things seemed to move within it. Ere long Hilana would realise that the shadow cast by the monolith was an ingress. The movement she noted was on the other side, where the gentle glow of a twilit marsh winked back at them. It was not the place of grim abject darkness that many expected. There was no dearth of light, it was just that it was dim and outnumbered by the shadows that gave the plane its name and purpose:

"The Shadowlands."

[Hilana Chenzira]

That the Void had made inroads than her new paedagoga had found before into the Plane of Shadows was even more concerning for Hilana, because she had found so far in her dealings with the Sentinels that they generally knew far more than she did, and if they were asking her something it was because they already knew the answer and they were seeing what she would confirm or not confirm about it. Her grip on her straps of her rucksack tightened, and she squeezed the well-worn straps. But that they hadn’t known such a thing was possible was at least some comfort to Hilana, who, while she had tasked herself with hunting what shadows she could find in the sands from Hayima’el’s back under the safety of her mask to get alchemical reagents, hadn’t encountered that ability before either. Even when they had attacked her and Daemon, when she had not been under the safety of her mask...

The young Vastiana listened attentively, and she found herself nodding along, her head tilted up towards the Platinum Vigilia. All living things were but breath and shadow. All shadows were darkness, but not all darkness was shadow. That had severe implications for the Eclipse, and now she was wondering if that darkness that was affecting the world was Void-spawned in its entirety. This had to be fixed, because otherwise, it had to be harming the ecologies beyond her home. Solunarium was having a hard time with the water and the perpetual sunlight; she could see that plain as day as a botanist and as someone who was well-familiar with the natural world around her. Someone who studied the ecology of the land could see it. Still, learning to work with the shadows might be of help, and the girl puffed her cheeks. “There would not be any other Element that could work better against the Void, is there?” She inquired. “Beyond fire, or perhaps light. But light seems to attract them even more.” She knew she would need both light and shadow, but working from within with the safety that her Mask granted her was the safest option to Hilana right now. She remembered how the blonde-haired lady who had appeared to help Finn commandeered shadows to help impale the creatures that attacked them, and that had struck Hilana as a very viable possibility.

She did risk Sembling the monument, peering at it when they got close enough. She focused on it, and her eyes became something of a kaleidoscope. The colours of the elements reflected in it, from her usual brown of earth to the grey of air, blue for water, and orange for fire. For the moment in which she studied the ancient monument, she tried to grasp its history and what it was for until she decided that enough was enough and stopped. Her eyes returned to their usual brown, and she stepped up beside Sentinel Qaevyx when her formidable guide gestured for her to do so. She retrieved her mask from her bag and shifted her rucksack back into position, holding it in her hands and not wanting to miss a moment of what came next. And the Vastiana was not disappointed. Her breath caught as she watched, and she let out a low sound of awe.

“The Shadowlands,” she echoed. “Oh, Founders... It is beautiful,” Hilana remarked, her eyes wide and bright before she held her Mask of Midnight’s Mother up to her face and willed it to disappear. She knew that her first glance and impression wasn’t going to be the way that it stayed, not with the warnings that Sentinel Qaevyx had given her. The Void was here, too, and while she had made the mistake of getting overconfident with her Mask before, she wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice. She would just need to be careful. “Occultatio,” she instructed her mask before looking up at the Platinum Elf with her. “Integumentum obscurum!” She brought Qaevyx under the mask’s protections, and used the practice she had had with it to make sure that both of them could find and sense the other. Well, as much as they could, at least, with the wards and protections that each of them had. But if this was the Shadowlands... she could only imagine what the Plane of Wood would look like. She wasn’t going to allow herself to focus on that, not right now, as she needed to focus on the Realm in front of her. She drew a breath, her knuckles tight on the straps, and nodded. She was ready, and when her guide was, Hilana would step on through, careful and mindful of where she put her feet while looking around.

One day, she would come back just to visit, if the Void was ever stopped. One day.

[Pharaoh]

"Light stands counter to the Void. That is why the Sceptre of Aværys was raised in defence of the realm." Qævyx noted, "But from what our Præventores report, light also attracts these creatures and their resistance to its effects is not what we would expect... At least until recently. Toward the beginning of the season something shifted. Likely not perceivable to the naked eye, but..." She regarded Hilana curiously, "Well, you're a Sembler so perhaps you took note of the starlight returning beyond the Sceptre's grace. Whatever caused that has rendered the voidspawn more vulnerable to arcane magic."

Sembling the monolith would reveal that it was tens of thousands of years old. It hadn't been carved nor engraved by mundane means. No chisels or other tools were utilised in the construction of the stone slab. It was made by magic and infused with obtenebrum.

Once they'd passed through the portal, Qævyx paused to assess their immediate surroundings as Hilana employed the mask. She blinked in an expression of mild surprise, but didn't comment on what had just transpired.

"Explore as you will and glean what information you seek to. I will keep close and survey our surroundings for dangers while you focus on getting what you wish of this plane." This was Hilana's exploit as far as the Vigilia was concerned. She was there to offer support, security and to answer questions as they were posed, but Qævyx was no pædagoga. She wasn't fond of giving lectures, and she really had no agenda of her own for this little excursion, beyond getting them safely back when the Vastiana completed whatever tasks she set out to execute in these realms.

As Hilana trudged forward, Qævyx would remain slightly to her rear, using all of her senses and her Sembling to assess the area around them.

[Hilana Chenzira]

Whatever the return of starlight meant, Hilana hoped it might mean the monsters of the void would have less of a hold on the Elemental Planes beyond the world of Ransera. She was glad of it, though: if there was something she missed, it was the cooling darkness of night when she could lay in the sands and look at the stars. To tell the stories and to remember those that had been told to her long ago. To use them to navigate, to and see the signs and constellations that there were in the sky. There was a comfort in their return, and in the twinkling of the sky... there was hope. Inasmuch as she loved the sun, there was a beauty to the night, with the moons and stars, that was unmatched.

She filed away in the back of her mind what she had learned of the monolith from Scrivening. That was a good start, and that was as much as she intended to do with it. There was no need to go further: Obtenebrum was shadowstone, she knew from her Alchemy lessons with Domina Clelia. But it was ancient. Beyond ancient. She wondered if maybe there were similar monoliths down here that they might explore some other time, and if they might also be infused with similar Dragonshards that were representative of their respective Elemental Planes. Hilana resolved to ask later when they returned, or to let it lie until she was ready for the next Plane. But for now, she would focus on what was in front of her.

She inclined her head at the Platinum Vigilia's words. "Gratias, Vigilia," she smiled at her, and surveyed their surroundings before getting out her Volumen Errantis. Inasmuch as she wanted to take her time and explore, that might not have been wise, not right now. There were too many dangers, and while they now had some protection from those dangers, and she had no doubt whatsoever as to Sentinel Qaevyx's abilities, Hilana didn't want to risk trouble for any longer than necessary. She focused on the Rune of Semblance that had been painted on her scalp in the last season, hidden though it was beneath her ebon hair, and activated the enhanced vision once again, her now-kaleidoscopic eyes wide and unblinking as she looked around, searching for anything that might be powerful...or problematic. She knew from her lessons with Sentinel Ævril, and from the personal experience that had come with them, that Attunement tended to be easiest when the Element she wanted to attune to had a strong presence.

She supposed it could be argued that the Elemental Planes were the strong presence for each of their elements, but she unfurled the plain-looking, weathered vellum map that didn't seem to be more than a map of Solunarium... which was of no help to them now. "Urbis," the Vastiana instructed her map, wanting to see if there were any larger aetheric expenditures around them which might be clues on something to go nearer to... or perhaps they might be something to avoid. Either which way, she was going to have to find herself a comfortable spot to sit and meditate, and focus on the lessons, traits, and characteristics of the Shadows.

► Show Spoiler

Local: (4 Charges) - When the word ‘Urbis’ is said with intention, the map will change from its dormant state into a map showing the regional points of interest from ‘Zone’, but within only a 50-mile radius of the owner. This now includes old battlegrounds and areas where large amounts of aether were expended before, along with the approximate distance of where the owner is in relation to those points of interest, appearing as a coloured, labeled dot. The map will remain active for approximately 4 hours before going dormant again. Movement in this time will move the marker that indicates where the owner is.

[Pharaoh]

The immediate surroundings were marshlands. They didn’t take many strides before the charcoal grey grass gave way to shiny black mud. It might have been mistaken for tar, if it weren’t so slippery underfoot. Soon they would be trudging through black, reflective water that shone with the glimmer of indigenous plants and mercurial spirits flitting past and ignoring the interlopers. Even the ripples caused by their steps weren’t enough to draw their interest, with Varvara’s power dissuading them.

“Hold.” Qævyx whispered, placing a halting hand on Hilana’s shoulder. Right in front of her, the broad head of a large salamander emerged from the water to peep the surroundings at the surface. It’s tail splashed a bit, revealing that the creature looked to be between three and four feet long from snout to tail.

After a few moments, satisfied that there was nothing of interest to see, the slick black salamander submerged and swam off to the telltale rustle of grey grass.

The Sentinel paused with Hilana as she regarded her map. The depiction seemed to be speckled with glitter, but so did the reality surrounding them. Upon inspection- The swamplands would end about a mile ahead, where a tree line was visible. Beyond that lay an open meadow which might have appeared tranquil if not for the massive crater that pocked its centre. There was a strange cloud depicted upon the map which seemed to churn on the page with motion. She would not recognise this precisely, but it did look like a faded version of the way a powerful æther signature might be reflected upon the Volumen. Behind them the swamplands seemed to stretch endlessly, and there were pockets of greater æther signatures peppered throughout. There were no marked signs of significant battles or settlements to be found.