The Shadow Realm

by James Galloway

  "I've never been all that religious."

  "Do you love the Goddess?" Tarrin asked bluntly.

  "Well, yes, of course," she replied after a moment. "She's proved she'll be there for me."

  "Then that's all it takes. Will it kill you to show it, Kerri? That's all it takes."

  "It seems so alien."

  "No, it's you not wanting to show any weakness, not even to the Goddess," Tarrin said flatly. "Love is not a weakness, Kerri. It's probably the greatest strength you could ever possess."

  "Where I come from, Tarrin, love is a liability," she said sharply. "Excuse me if I don't go all gushy on command."

  Tarrin put his paws on her shoulders. "I've told you what to do, sister," he said in a reasonable tone. "Actually, I can't teach you any more about this. It's something you have to do for yourself. It's up to you to find your own harmony. And until you learn how to weave without resistance, I won't teach you anything else."

  "That sounds like a threat," Keritanima said dangerously.

  "It's reality. I won't teach you anything else until you learn how to use Weavespinner magic the right way, because the spells Weavespinners use that regular Sorcerers don't are too demanding. You won't be able to use them unless you can weave without resistance. And I can't train you in joining the Weave because we have to stop before we can do that. So I hate to tell you this, sister, but you've only got one option in front of you."

  "I hate it when you're right," Keritanima growled at him, her eyes flashing. "Alright, I'll humiliate myself for the Goddess' benefit. What choice do I have?"

  "Love is not humiliation, Keritanima," Dolanna said gently. "To think it so dishonors the love you have for your brother and sister."

  "That's different," Keritanima said quickly. "They're my friends. They're here."

  "Is not the Goddess always with you?" Allia asked. "Does she not comfort you? Did she not bring you peace of mind when you were taken from us? It is dishonorable to the Goddess to think she would see your love as you humiliating yourself. She is not like that, and you know it. You are just too arrogant to allow yourself to place yourself below another."

  "That's cruel, sister," Keritanima said in a quavering tone.

  "You get nothing but the truth from me, sister," Allia said calmly. "I still love you despite the fact that you are arrogant. Just as I love Tarrin despite the fact that he is not the same man I knew when I branded him."

  Tarrin forgot sometimes just how observant and wise his sister was. She had seen right to the core of the matter. Allia knew Tarrin and Keritanima probably even better than they knew themselves. She was quiet and inobtrusive, but she proved again and again how she always knew exactly what to say when it mattered.

  "Well, now that I've been dressed down by my own sister in front of Dolanna and Dar, I guess I can get started," Keritanima said in a hurt tone.

  "Arrogance is not a bad trait in a monarch, Keritanima," Dolanna said calmly. "Actually, it is a job requirement. We do not think less of you for it."

  "I don't think you're arrogant, Kerri. I always thought of it as confidence," Dar assured her. "I've wished sometimes I could be more like you."

  "Well, someone appreciates me," Keritanima said with a toothy grin, though her eyes were still a little injured. "Alright, brother, exactly how do I do this?"

  Tarrin instructed Keritanima in how she would have to use the power, just as Spyder had instructed him. "Sorcery isn't magic, Kerri. It's art. You have to breathe life into your spells the same way an artist breathes life into a sculpture, or a painting. You have to devote yourself to it like an artist would, and that passion, that love, is what makes the Weave respond. Artists love their work. You have to love to use Sorcery, and love the Goddess that gives you that honor. When you learn to do it, it will be just like anything else in Sorcery. You do it once, and then you can do it again. But it's also like other parts of Sorcery. You may be able to do it again, but it takes practice to master it."

  "I, I think I'm starting to understand," Keritanima said. "I've always had a passion for Sorcery. All I have to do is show it. Sort of."

  "Partially. Remember, the love you have for the Goddess has to be there. Give that love to the Goddess, and the Weave will respond to it. The passion and love you have for Sorcery makes the Weave yours to command."

  "Now that makes more sense," Keritanima said confidently, closing her eyes.

  It took her a surprisingly short amount of time. She failed several times at first, and then the Weave suddenly opened up to her favorably, and flows pulled from the stands quickly and easily. She opened her eyes and gave him a startled look.

  "Was that so hard?" he asked in a gentle voice.

  "It was, was beautiful!" she said in wonder.

  "It is, isn't it?" he agreed. "Every time you use your power, you tell the Goddess how much you love her. And she replies by showing the love she has for you. You can't ignore that, no matter what you're doing. It never stops feeling good."

  "I never thought it would feel like that," she said, a tear forming in her eye. "I loved the Goddess, but it never felt so, intimate as it just did."

  "I know," he told her. "Now, do it again. And again, and again, and again. It takes practice to master, and I'll have to show you some techniques to make you weave spells faster and more efficiently. Your speed is abysmal, and you have about as much control as a newborn kitten."

  "Well excuse me," she said, then she laughed.

  Tarrin watched over her as she practiced, as rain started pattering against her windows and the ship began to rock in the storm. She managed to get a firm grip on the concept of give and take, removing the resistance the Weave had to her. She listened intently as Tarrin taught her the things Spyder taught him, about how to weave spells with blinding speed, about how to maximize control and efficiency for the best results. "My big problem was always pulling out too much power," he admitted. "I still do it sometimes when I'm excited, but when you overcharge a weave, it can make it less effective. No more, no less. That's how I was taught, and that's what you have to learn."

  "Taught? Taught by who?" Keritanima demanded.

  Tarrin blinked. He didn't realize he'd said that. "Well, I guess there'd be no harm in telling you now," he said to himself. "She only said not to tell you while we were learning, and to protect you. You've crossed over, so it can't hurt."

  "Who, Tarrin? Who would know how to teach you anything?"

  Dolanna suddenly went pale. "Spyder!" she gasped. "She still lives?"

  "She's still around, Dolanna," Tarrin nodded. "She came to me and Jenna when we were at the Tower and trained us, or at least partially. She gave us some instruction, said she'd be back, and never did come back. I still wonder what happened to her."

  "Who is this Spyder?" Keritanima asked.

  "She's the Guardian," Dolanna replied. "She defends the last open gateway between our world and the other dimensions. That gateway is across the great bay on Sharadar's southern side, in an inaccessible place between two impassible mountain ranges and defended on the sea by an impassible reef. A place we have always called Haven."

  "Sounds like a serious duty," Keritanima said.

  "It is. She is the oldest of the katzh-dashi, but she has not been seen in five thousand years."

  "They wouldn't miss her, that's for sure," Tarrin chuckled. "She's Urzani, the ancestors of the Sha'Kar. She actually looks alot like Allia," Tarrin remembered. "She could be your great-great-great-great aunt, sister."

  "I would not find being related to someone like that a bad thing, brother," Allia said mildly.

  "She made me swear not to tell anyone what she was doing, because she was afraid Kerri may try to do some of it and get herself killed," Tarrin told them. "Now that Kerri's not in any danger anymore, I guess it's alright."

  "You were trained by an Ancient," Dolanna said reverently, in Sharadi. "The old ways aren't dead after all!"

  "They're not dead," he assured her in Sulasian. "Spyder taught Jenna alot
of history, and Jenna's been writing it down. Jenna's going to teach the katzh-dashi what they've forgotten. That's why she's still in Suld. It's what the Goddess wants of her."

  "She is blessed."

  "I know," Tarrin agreed.

  There was a strange scratching at the door. Dar got up and went over and opened it, and Sapphire ambled into the room. She flapped her wings and got into the air, then flew up and landed on Tarrin's shoulder. "I wondered where you got off to," Tarrin told her, reaching up and petting her on the head. "You're dry, so you found some place to hide from the rain," he noted.

  "She's probably hiding from Phandebrass," Camara Tal grunted. "I've noticed him trying to sneak up on her on deck while you've been with Kerri. She doesn't seem to like him. I guess that means she's smarter than she looks."

  "He can try. He won't like what happens to him, but he can try," Tarrin shrugged. "He should ask Torm how it feels to end up on Sapphire's bad side."

  "I've never seen an animal with magical powers before," Dar noted. "Only sentient beings."

  "Is it magical?" Camara Tal asked. "There are some fish in the waters off our islands that can shock you. I'm sure they're not magical, because they're stupid as stumps."

  "It's magical. I can sense it," Tarrin replied. "This kind of drake has some kind of innate magical ability, something so much a part of them that their instincts have adapted to using the magic. I can feel it when the power builds up in her. When she shocks someone, she has to recharge that power."

  "I didn't know that. So, you can drain her?" Keritanima asked.

  "She recharges very fast if she completely drains herself," he told her. "She can shock again in a matter of minutes, but it's not very strong. When she's fully charged, she can shock someone with some pretty impressive power, enough to paralyze them for a few minutes at the very least. Maybe even kill, if she hits someone in the right place."

  "How do you know that?" Dar asked.

  "Experimentation," he said with a short smile. "I had her shock me when she was fully charged. It was a pretty unpleasant experience."

  "Why in the twenty seas did you do that?" Keritanima demanded.

  "To see what she could do," he replied. "She can't really hurt me, sister. My body resisted most of the magic, but it was still enough to make my fur all stand on end."

  "Is she charged now?" Keritanima asked.

  "You should know that, Kerri," he chided. "Can't you feel it?"

  "Uh, no."

  "Then you're not paying attention," he told her. "Close your eyes and just feel. You should be able to sense it, even from over there. Her power is magical, so you should be able to feel it, the same as you can sense the Weave."

  Keritanima was quiet a long moment, then she opened her eyes. "I think I can feel it, but you're interfering," she told him. "All I can really sense is you."

  "You do interfere with the Weave, Tarrin," Dolanna agreed. "You are probably throwing off Keritanima's attempts."

  "Fine then," he said, picking Sapphire up from his shoulder and setting her on the desk. "Stay right there, Sapphire," he told her, holding his paw out palm up towards her. She understood both the spoken and the gestured command--he'd taught her commands by paw gesture, in case he wanted her to obey him quietly--and sat down sedately on the desk and waited. Keritanima closed her eyes again, and smiled. "I can feel her now," she announced. "I don't know what her limits are, but she's really charged. That's a lot of magic, brother."

  "She's fully charged," he nodded in agreement. "Surprising that something without any kind of training can have so much magical potential." He waved to the drake, and she jumped into the air and landed in his paws. He cradled her to his stomach, scratching her between the horns delicately with a claw.

  "Tarrin, I wanted to ask you something."

  "What?"

  "Has the Weave been getting...well, thinner?" she asked. "I can see the strands all the time now, just like you said I would, and there seem to be fewer and fewer of them. Like the Weave is thinning out."

  Tarrin glanced at her, then nodded. "As we move away from Suld, it becomes thinner," he confirmed. "That means it takes longer for us to use magic. Didn't you notice that when you were at home?"

  "Of course I did, but I guess I never thought about the reason for it," she replied. "I had alot on my mind, you know."

  "I've noticed that," Dar said. "That it takes longer to weave spells. It's like the magic's sluggish."

  "It is the fact that it takes longer for you to draw the same amount of power," Dolanna told him. "These thin areas in the Weave are not uncommon. They exist in the areas far removed from large Conduits. That is why the katzh-dashi built the Towers in Suld and Abrodar, young one. To be in the area where our powers are at their strongest."

  "Are there any holes in the Weave?" Dar asked. "Places where you can't use Sorcery at all?"

  "I have never found one, but some of the Lorefinders speculate that such a place may exist," she replied. "If there are any, however, they would be very, very small areas. Even halfway across the world from the Heart, there are strands. Very few of them, but they do exist."

  There was a brightness at the windows. Tarrin looked, and saw shafts of sunlight penetrating the breaking storm. He noticed that the ship wasn't rocking as severely as before, either. "Looks like the storm is over," Tarrin noticed.

  The ship then seemed to list to the side, and the view from the window began to change. The five ships behind theirs were sliding off to the left. "We're turning," Keritanima said, which explained to Tarrin what that meant. "We must be within--"

  "Land ho!" a thin voice managed to reach them in the cabin, shouted from the decks above. "Thalin's Point off the port bow!"

  Keritanima's eyes brightened, and she stood up quickly. "Well, everyone, why don't we go up on deck and let you get your first look at my homeland?" she offered.

  "We'll be in Wikuna in three days, if the wind holds," Miranda realized. "I didn't realize we were so far north."

  They all left Keritanima's cabin and went up on deck. The deck was still wet, and the water was cold on Tarrin's pads as he stepped into it. Tarrin wasn't the only one to take special precautions because of the rain; Miranda's tail was so long and bushy that the end of it occasionally hit the ground when she walked, so she made a special point of keeping it up high enough to keep it dry. They moved to the port rail, not far from the sterncastle, and Tarrin looked to the west, to Wikuna. He couldn't see much, just a strip of green past the four ships protecting their port flank, but the importance of it wasn't lost to him. There it was, a new continent. The land of Wikuna. He'd heard Keritanima describe it many times, but he found himself actually looking forward to seeing their cities and finding out what it was like there. Few outlanders had ever seen Wikuna, because the Wikuni were usually very careful about keeping others out of their ports. It was a well known policy of the Wikuni that they would attack any ship that approached their coastline, because of their very long war with the Zakkites. Zakkites would sometimes capture non-Zakkite ships and try to sail them to Wikuna, so the Wikuni solved the problem by simply attacking anything that wasn't a clipper or raker. Tarrin had heard much about life on Wikuna, and now he was curious to see how much of it was Keritanima's boasting.

  "That's Thalin's Point," Keritanima announced. "It's a hook of land that extends out from the coast. The land on the other side of it is used mainly for farming."

  "Wikuni farm?" Dar chuckled. "I thought that doing anything on land was too tedious for your people."

  Keritanima ignored that. "We're about three days from Wikuna," she told them, "if the wind holds. I need to talk to Jervis. They're supposed to have that prototype in the harbor and ready for us to go as soon as we get there."

  "We're not staying long?" Dar asked.

  "We don't have much time," Keritanima replied. "We have to be off Vendaka at the summer solstice. I'm not sure how fast that new ship is going to go, so I want as much time as possible."

  "Ho
w long would it take a clipper to sail from Wikuna to Vendaka?" Dolanna asked.

  "About seven or eight days," she replied. "I'm guessing that this new ship will take twice as long, probably two weeks. The solstice is three weeks away, so we should be in position when we need to be there, as long as we don't dilly-dally around."

  "I was hoping to look around for a day or two," Dar sighed.

  "We'll be in port for at least a day, Dar," Keritanima told him. "I'll have to go over some things with sashka and talk to Jervis about some things in person, and I would like to sleep at least one night in a bed that doesn't sway."

  "Too bad. I guess you'll have to go after Rallix when you come home," Miranda teased.

  Keritanima shot a nasty look at her friend, then cleared her throat. "I think I'd like to go back to my lessons now," she said primly. "Since you're not a Sorcerer, why don't you go somewhere else?"

  "Well, tou-chy," Miranda said with a cheeky grin. "Tarrin, could I bother you for a little magicking?"

  "What do you need, Miranda?" Tarrin asked.

  "Yarn. A new knitting needle too, I broke one of my good ones."

  "I thought you were moving on to crochet."

  "I need the yard for crochet, but I broke my knitting needle and I'd like a new one, just in case I have a relapse," she said.

  Without much effort or thought, Tarrin Conjured a very large ball of yarn and a new knitting needle, exactly like the ones he'd seen her use, and then handed them to her. "Why thank you," she said. "I'll see all of you later," she said, then sauntered off.

  "I think I will go to the galley," Allia said. "I find myself hungry."

  "You just had to mention food, didn't you?" Dar complained. "I'll go with you. Don't you two do anything major until we get back," he told Tarrin, then the pair of dark-skinned beings hurried towards the stairwell below decks.

  "May as well stay up here," Keritanima told Tarrin. "I'll dry us off a place."

  Tarrin worked with Keritanima over the rest of the day as Dolanna, Dar, and Allia observed, refining her technique and giving her plenty of time to practice. She proved to be a very quick student, and her speed and efficiency increased almost every time she wove a spell. What was probably more important, with her experience came the ability to see what Tarrin was doing when he wove spells, something that she had not been able to do very effectively beforehand. She got used to the speed at which Tarrin wove spells after she started working at the same speed, and that allowed her to begin to see what he was doing. That meant that he could start teaching her some of the weaves that only Weavespinners could use, spells that required more power than most Sorcerers could safely manipulate.