As the dimensional door closed a small ball of light flared one time, rose over five hundred kilometers away, then flew back toward the small city.
To you or I Lem would seem like an inhospitable place. There were four planets and where Shi had a single planet of life, water, and light, the four planets of Lem were fire, lava, sand, glass, and darkness.
Lem actually had two suns and one moon. The moon was black as night and while one of the suns seemed its twin and was as black as it was the other sun had a dull red core with the rest of it, yes, you guessed it, just as black as the other two celestial bodies of Lem.
The three were the perfect combination for such a place. Yana knew Lem. Even though her memory failed her shadow memory remembered Lem on a shadow level. There was a connection to her through shade. Shadow knew shadow and as shadows touched they told each other their secrets and fears. Only the powerful sentient shadows like Ka and Yana could resist this and not share these thing.
Lem had many underground cities. They were ancient structures carved into the lava rock below ground that would make you think of Egypt. There were great statues as dark as night with intricate design. There were arches and broad doorways that led into vast common rooms that then branched off into hallways, bedrooms, ritualistic rooms and the like.
Most of these underground cities were religious meccas to shadow entities. Many lived there but many more came to worship, be healed, and to understand what it was to be shadows.
The shadows above ground had very similar architecture when it came to their architecture on land. The main difference is they built with thick pieces of obsidian and shadow magic. The obsidian is sourced for the areas where lava had flowed and it was carved and secured with magic. So the shadows of Lem living above ground and on land had massive structures of black obsidian and even blacker shadow. There were dark spacious and airy buildings with obsidian walls covered in exquisite artistic etchings. Now those shadows living within the lava flows dwelled much differently than their land dwelling brethren? They lived aboard vast ships of shadow. These ships could have hundreds of levels and they were made of noting but dense inert shadow.
They sailed upon the lava flows as if they were flows of water and they were never affected by the heat of the lava. Lem had many volcanoes and many continuous lava flows crisscrossing all four if it's planets.
Yana stood on the bow of one if the great shadow ships. It was moving across one of the great lava flows on the planet Fis. She was looking for two things here, and she knew she would find both, a memory shade and an artifact for the Sparkling Light church.
She chose this location first because she would get two items at once and because she was in the mood for something dangerous right now. Starlight still had not followed them from Shi and, although she knew her starguide was okay, she did not like the fact that spitter was still being so illusive.
She decided to call her to Lem tomorrow whether she was successful or not.
The shadow ship gently crested the calm waves of the lava sea. She could feel that they were near and she began to ready herself. DD came to stand at her side. They all knew she wanted to go alone but they were not going to allow that to happen so DD was chosen to go with her.
All of her familiars go, in theory, but DD was always the best choice for such a mission.
"Shall we go?" she merely nodded and they both dove off of the shadow ship. Shadow senses were not like humans senses did not particularly register things such as pain so swimming in lava was actually the same as swimming in any body of water. DD was a demon and all demon dimensions were filled with lava so this was like an evening swim for him.
Yana could sense where the two items were but she did not know this area well enough to blindly move about. Lava and water were similar in that they tend to distort the position of things within them. She may have teleported down and found herself hundreds of kilometers away from the target.
They swam towards the spot indicated by her discernment. And it was clear that it was what she thought. A memory shade sat in the lava maybe a meter away and a strange crescent moon shaped object was a little ways behind it.
She called the memory to her and it sprang to her like it had been waiting for her call for a long time. The artifact came to her as well. She looked at it curiously. Why had it answered her so quickly?
She did not hesitate and took both. The shade memory entered her and then entered her soul. She caught the artifact in her hand. Yana paused. She was about to give it to starlight, to put in her void space, but she remembered, at the last moment, that Starlight was still in Shi. She calmed herself and she and DD took a look around the deepest area of the lava flow.
Back on the ship Yana was a bit relieved to see Starlight. Before she could say anything the star guide had already entered her soul. Starlight was extremely tired but she had completed her mission and Yana had spitter's shadow. She could not help but smile as she threw the crescent moon artifact into Starlight's void space.
They were staying in an underground home on the third planet in Lem called Zom. It was actually Yana's. She had homes in every shadow dimension of Pa. She may not have remembered but her familiars and pets did. The first place they took her to was their home and from there they began to plan.
Yana sat on a quiet, deep shadow in her room. She did not have furniture in her room she had shadows. They were mostly inert and she had imbued them with the aspect she needed. She now sat in a meditation shadow. It was deep, dark, quiet, and it magnified the calm tranquility of meditation.
In this room she had two shadows that could help her heal, two that helped her replenish her magic, and one that helped her focus and learn techniques. She had other minor ones like the one that helped her recuperate as she were human and had slept.
Now she was meditating on the memory shade she has found. From it she learned some techniques for (shadow create) and (illusion). She smiled. She was getting closer even if it was a small step it was closer.
That night she found two more artifacts and two more memory shades. The artifacts went into Starlight's void space and she went to meditate on the memory shades.
Through her memory shades she gained more information on (shadow create) and as she meditated she re-entered her shadow dune domain. There she began using (shadow create). Tall broad shadows rose from the dunes. There were six and they all bowed to her. They spoke to her, ans she understood them but she did not understand how they were doing it.
She frowned. She was close and so far away. She ordered them into her shadow soul void. This is how she could keep shadows with her. Especially those shadows that helped her. Her sentient shadows were very powerful and it was easier to have them in this void space as compared to calling them to her.
She stayed in her domain for four days. Out in Lem it was only four hours. She continued creating and training powerful shadows until she made her hundredth and the system began alerting.
Shadow create has increased
Shadow create has increased
Shadow create has increased
Illusion has increased
Illusion has increased
Illusion has increased
She called up the system
Soul System
Name: Yana Pallindrone
Rank: Shadow Novice
Age: ???
Soul Depth: Seer Soul
Location: Shi Dimension
Abilities:
Dimensional Step: Adept
Shadow Walk: Adept
Shadow Step: Adept
Shadow Call: Adept + 5
Shadow Control: Adept
Shadow Dispersal: Adept
Discernment: Adept
Seer: Adept
Magics:
Spell weave: level 2
Shadow create: level 3
Shadow Manipulate: level 2
Fate: level 2.5
Illusion: level 2.5
Dimensional doors: level 2.5
Pets: 2
Star Guide
Name: Starlight
Abilities:
Star Walk
Star Void Magic
Level: Advanced
Dimensional Wraith
Name: Jasmine
Abilities:
Dimensional Walk
Shadow Embrace
Level: Advanced
Familiars: 4
Shadow Cat
Name: Amber
Abilities:
Shadow Step
Shadow weave
Level: Adept
Dark Fae
Name: Tasha
Abilities:
Shadow Dimensional Walk
Void Step
Level: Advanced
Marked Demon
Name: Demon Dust
Abilities:
Shadow Kill
Void Rip
Level: Intermediate
Shadow Doll
Name: Alisha
Abilities:
Shape-shift
Shadow Weave
Level: Intermediate
Hidden mission accepted
3 Memory Shades found
11 Memory Shades remain
Mission timer:
10 days 15 hours
Secret Mission
0 Bounty Hunters Killed
0 Hearts shipped
Simms lives
Mission has no timer
Yana couldn't help but smile. She didn't understand why illusion increased as well but she was happy to accept it.
Yana joined the others in the main room of the home. Everything was carved from the volcanic rock and Yana never thought to buy other furnishings for the home. She still didn't think of it.
"I don't sense anymore of the church's artifacts. Do you sense anymore of your memory shades?"
Yana nodded and looked to Alisha. I actually sense two more but on Tilla."
They all nodded.
They could travel to Tilla directly from the house because Tilla was a planet with no surface land. Most shadows there lived underground with a few sailing the planet's never ending lava flows.
"How about we rest one more…"
An alarm began going off. It wad not a sound but the entire room went red and began pulsating like a heart. The all looked up toward the surface.
They had intruders. Yana smiled.
"Bounty hunters. Go rest. I will take care of this and we will leave for Tilla early in the morning."
She stood, DD following her, her scythe materialized in her hand and she and DD disappeared from the room. The others stayed where they were just in case they were needed.