Chapter 1435 (Patreon)

After making sure that Lia understood the theory behind shadow walking across long distances, I felt it was time to have her make the first attempt. A part of me wondered if we should use Maggie’s community as the target, but Lia knew the place well enough, to the point that I was fairly confident she’d be able to make the trek through the shadows without an anchor or anything like that. So, it would be a rather bad way to test her skill to target the anchors, if she could already get there without them. If we merely wanted to test that, just stepping through the shadows and going downstairs again would suffice. 

“Let me try something,” I told Lia, realising that losing her in the shadows was the biggest danger. One possible way to avoid that would be to have her take me along, but carrying someone through the shadows was significantly harder than walking them alone, making it unsuitable as a first attempt. So, instead of physically attaching myself to her, as that would require a lot of coordination, making it, again, harder, I decided to create a magical tether. The core of my construct was rather mundane; it was simply shadow, woven together so it would maintain its shape, the idea somewhat similar to the way I had created my cloak. Connecting the tether to Lia was similarly easy, though I wasn’t sure how well it would hold up within the shadows. 

“Lia, I want you to step through the shadows and emerge downstairs. I’ll follow along, but I want to see if the tether works,” I told her, and she simply nodded and started a countdown. Just before she reached zero, I stepped into the shadows ahead of her, focusing on the tether between us. For a moment, it stretched weirdly, but it was anchored to Lia’s shadow, and moments later, I felt her impression on the realm of shadows solidify significantly. 

A brief, somewhat idle thought flashed through my mind, making me wonder if I could interact with the impression someone’s shadow made on the realm of shadows, using that connection to influence their physical body. Or maybe their Mind or Soul; either would be a rather impressive and very useful trick. 

After making a mental note, I quickly banished the thought, returning my focus to the task at hand. Namely, to keep an eye on the tether, letting it guide me along as I moved through the shadows. Amusingly, this was a little more difficult than expected, as the shadows around me were so familiar. I didn’t need the tether here, and it would have been much easier to simply rely on the familiarity I had with the area and the magic that had leached into the shadows from my tower, but it wouldn’t work as a proof of concept. 

Still, Lia and I left the shadows in the shrine downstairs, the tether still attached, making me feel rather confident that I’d be able to follow my daughter as she travelled a greater distance. 

“Was there any issue?” I asked, making sure that the tether hadn’t hindered her. 

“A little, maybe,” she frowned, sounding uncertain. “But I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. Can I make an actual attempt?” 

“Have you decided where to go?” I asked, before realising something. “Wait, don’t tell me,” I stopped her. “Just let me follow along, using the tether, and we’ll see where you take us.” 

Leaving me ignorant of the destination was a small risk on my part. But by being ignorant, I wouldn’t be able to influence her navigation, nor could I accidentally change the shadows with my will. Given their chaotic and easily influenced nature, I wasn’t sure if that would happen, but preventing the issue from the start sounded like a good idea. No matter where we’d end up, I was confident that I would be able to take us back to one of my towers. 

After another countdown, Lia and I were off. Travelling through the shadows like this, merely following a tether, wasn’t exactly comfortable. The lack of control started to bother me the moment we left Jademoon Tower, making me shudder just a bit. Thankfully, our speed within the shadows was fast enough to let Lia exit the shadows before my discomfort became too severe. With her gone, I stepped forward, too, easily landing on a familiar anchor. 

“That wasn’t the closest anchor, was it?” I asked, rather amused at our location. 

“No, but I thought that you’d want to work with Luna anyway,” Lia replied, a grin on her face. “And here, I can check out those flying mini-dragons you told me about.”

Now, I really couldn’t keep myself from laughing. “Have it your way. It might be best if you wait for me to come get you, but I feel that you managed the trip here rather well, so it’s up to you. I’ll go back and have Luna try her way.”

After another nod, I stepped back into the shadows and went to Jademoon Tower. Luna was eagerly waiting for me, looking incredibly excited to get started. 

“For you, I’ll have to be a little creative,” I admitted. “Your way to teleport carries you through Lady Hecate’s realm, so I’ll go into a deep, meditative trance, similar to the one I’d use when knocking on the metaphorical door of her realm. That way, I’ll hopefully be able to keep track of you, and if anything goes wrong, I should be able to assist,” I told Luna, not completely comfortable with the plan. But I was even less comfortable with the idea of just letting her go off on her own, no matter how much I trusted Lady Hecate with her well-being. Luna was my daughter, and I would protect her, even if that meant getting a little creative.

“I want you to wait for me to reach the right state, then use Lady Hecate’s spell to transport yourself to the Shrine at Jademoon Tower,” I told her, noticing a brief frown at the short trip. After all, it would likely take longer to wait, then cast the spell than it would take for her to use the stairs.

“Okay,” Luna nodded after a moment. “How long should I wait for you?” 

“Give me a minute; that should be enough,” I replied as I sat down, my mind already reaching out to the shrine below. I didn’t need to be physically within the shrine, though it would make things a little easier. But ultimately, Jademoon Tower was my domain, even if I shared a small part of it with Lady Hecate. It was mine.

With my mind completely focused on sensing the world around me, especially the intersection between Lady Hecate’s realm and the physical world, it was rather easy to track Luna. My familiarity with our location and with the target helped even more, allowing me to sense her entering Lady Hecate’s realm, or rather, I sensed her skimming through a thin layer of her realm. She never fully entered it before she was back on her way, with my mind following along.

Grinning, I let myself drop from my trance and into the shadows, landing next to Luna moments later.

“Well done,” I complimented. “It looks like the spell works as well as Lady Hecate hoped. Now, the next step will be to travel a longer distance. Lia could simply let me follow along, but I’m afraid that won’t work for you. You’ll have to tell me where you are headed, or I might lose track of you.” I wasn’t happy with this, but I wasn’t confident I could keep track of her if she left Lady Hecate’s realm with a target outside of Jademoon Tower.

“Understood,” she agreed, before considering things for a moment. “Do you think we can go to the Shrine of the First Dragon? It’s on Lady Hecate’s list, so we should be good. Plus, it’s one of your places; that should help, too, right?” 

“Maybe,” I shrugged. “Not like we spent all that much time there. It’s not as saturated with my magic as Jademoon Tower, so I’m uncertain.” 

“Let’s do this,” Luna decided after a moment, looking at me expectantly. After taking a deep breath, I let myself drop into the same meditation as earlier, observing Lady Hecate’s realm, just to see Luna skim across the surface, so to speak, and bounce elsewhere. Keeping track of her became incredibly difficult at that point, and I got only a vague glimpse of a familiar statue. 

Moments later, I let myself drop into the shadows and sped off, following my daughter to the Temple. Luckily, she was there and perfectly healthy when I arrived moments later, immediately pulling her into a hug. 

“Well done,” I complimented. “Now, do you want to look around, maybe see how far the local wildlife has come, or do you want to head back?” 

“I’d rather not disturb the local creatures,” she admitted. “Why don’t we go see Lia? She mentioned something about small dragons?”