“Easy,” whispered the Nightmare Lady in Naomi’s voice, “but now it’s gone to a completely different level. I feel connected with the shadows. With the very darkness.”
And her black mist began to boil up from the ground, rapidly growing into thick banks of fog that obscured the landscape. Where before they had drifted, isolated and detached, they now flowed and merged with each other, so that soon Scorio was drowned in a world of swirling blackness. The fog whirled and roiled, occasionally parting so that he could see a brief stretch ahead of him, only to close and lock him once more in obscurity.
“And through this darkness I can now drift.” Naomi’s voice came from ahead of him, then a moment later from behind. “Before I could shadow step from one point to another, but always needing to emerge. Now? Now I can… linger.”
“Impressive,” said Scorio, fighting the urge to ignite, to turn in a circle.
A finger traced his cheek and he tensed. “But this isn’t my Dread Blaze power. This is just… a side effect.”
And in a moment the banks of rolling fog disappeared, burning away as if before a blazing sun to reveal the Nightmare Lady. She walked backward, retreating from Scorio, her tail dancing sinuously from side to side, her eyes burning, locked on him.
“Because now I can feel that darkness, and I can call it to me. I can drink it, Scorio. I can draw power from it.”
And the evening shadows that streamed from the rocks and boulders, Scorio’s own shadow, began to undulate and flicker like candle flames, and then as one they detached from their sources and flowed toward the Nightmare Lady, swirling up and into her palms, disappearing inside of her.
And the Nightmare Lady’s presence grew more oppressive, more overwhelming. It felt as if a fist were closing around his throat, as if wet wings of panic were opening in the back of his mouth.
His gaze remained locked on the Nightmare Lady, who’d grown taller and more gaunt, her tail longer, her eyes leaving smears of green light behind them.
“I can’t tell you how this feels, and this is only from sipping from these poor shadows. In the night? In true darkness? Oh Scorio. I can’t imagine.”
And with that she sprang high into the air, rising nearly a dozen yards before somersaulting and landing neatly on a distant boulder. Her tail whip cracked and struck at the rock, causing a third of it to calve off and crash to the ground.
“Impressive,” Scorio called.
“Yes,” agreed Xandera. “You make me want to kill you.”
Scorio glanced at her. “Don’t.”
The blazeborn queen smirked. “I was only partly joking.”
“Well I’m freaking out,” said Alain. “This is absolutely disturbing.”
Scorio leaped aside, igniting and surging up into his scaled form before realizing who stood there. “Damn it, Alain! I nearly killed you!”
“Hmm?” Alain suddenly flinched as he understood the danger he’d been in. “Why the hell would you do that? It’s me!”
“I know it’s - never mind.” Scorio sank back into his human form, the aftereffect of igniting so violently making him stagger. “How long have you been there?”
“He arrived with Naomi,” said Xandera, settling back down onto her rock.
“You saw me?”
“Of course,” said the blazeborn. “Were you trying to hide?”
“Oh.” Alain considered. “No. Not really.”
The Nightmare Lady leaped down and prowled forward. Alain flinched again and drew back, but faster than he could react she was upon him, taloned hand closing about his neck. “What do I have to do to convince you to not follow me, to not spy on me, to not use your powers on me?”
“I, argh, Scorio! Call your girlfriend off!”
“I’m not his hound,” whispered the Nightmare Lady, her tail coming around to point at Alain’s temple. “Insinuate as much again and I’ll remove the upper third of your skull.”
“Sorry, sorry.” His voice was a wheeze. “I misspoke. Don’t kill me.”
The Nightmare Lady tilted her head to one side, considering him, and Scorio was about to interject when she released him and stepped back, sinking into her human form.
“Oh, thank hell,” began Alain, and then Naomi stepped back in and drove her fist deep into his gut just below the sternum.
Alain’s eyes bulged as all the air in his lungs burst out. He staggered forward a few steps, cast a plaintive, wounded look at Naomi, then sank to his knees.
Xandera looked to Scorio. “Is this how your kind always behaves?”
“Yeah,” said Scorio. “Kind of, actually.”
“Fascinating.” Xandera sank back into her crouch and rested her cheek on her knee again. “So strange. Everything out here is so, so strange.”
“Well.” Naomi inhaled sharply, drew her hair back, and glanced at Scorio. “My demonstration was kind of ruined. But I don’t think I could show you the real change without fighting something.”
“You’ll get your chance.” He hesitated, then stepped in close and placed an arm around her shoulders. “But you were incredible. I mean, terrifying, but really impressive. That jump? And you actually cut that rock?”
“You mean it?” She searched his face. “I’m… I mean, I’m not completely at ease with my own powers, and she… I mean, I -”
“I mean it,” he said, squeezing her close and pressing his lips to her hair. He held her for a moment then beamed at her. “You’re amazing.”
Naomi flushed, glanced down, away, curled a lock of hair behind her ear then beamed back.
“I thought…” Alain’s wheeze was barely audible. “I thought… we were…”
“No, Alain.” Naomi glowered at him. “We’ll never be friends for as long as you behave this way.”
“Mis…understood.” Then his chest unlocked and he sucked in a great heave of air. For a moment he panted, then he stared at her reproachfully. “I followed to help out if you got into trouble.”
“Which precludes your telling me you were there how?”
“I…” With effort he stood. “I guess I’m used to people telling me to go away. Not Fyrona, though.” He beamed at Scorio, but his gaze was drawn to Xandera. “Nice to meet you, by the way. I spoke with your mother, some. She tolerated me. Some.”
Xandera waved. “Hello.”
“Good to see you finally hatched. What?”
“You knew about the egg?” Scorio pressed his hand to his eyes. “Of course you did.”
“Oh, come on, man!” Alain’s protest was exasperated. “You didn’t think anyone would notice you carrying that pack around with you everywhere? It was painfully obvious, painfully obvious. So of course I took a peek.” Alain shrugged. “I thought you’d have some of those naked portraits of the Charnel Dukes and Duchesses that Pilarro sketched a few years back, but no, it was a really weird egg. I almost asked you, but that would have been rude, so I figured it out myself.”
“Right,” said Scorio, then chuckled helplessly. “Right, that would have been rude.”
“See? Discretion. I didn’t tell anyone. Not even Moira. By the way, should I tell her about all this? She’s at LastRock.”
“Wait,” said Scorio. “First, what happened with the Imperators?”
“They finally showed up. Something’s happening in the Twilight Cradle that delayed them. Who knows? Also they detoured into the Bone Plains proper to bring some folks to life there. Then they came to us. Imperator Azeran of House Chimera, and Sarana of Kraken.” Alain considered. “Though, I don’t even know what that really means. It’s not as if they really care about the Houses, right? I think it’s more like -”
“Alain.”