NEW GODS: The Awakening

The Shadow Master

She was scared. She was terrified. She could hardly breathe. She fell to her knees. Tears flooded her eyes.

The shadow laughed softly and kneeled down. Nabi kept her eyes pinned on the ground, unable to look at the shadow once second more.

“Is there a problem, kid?” a deep voice spoke up. It sounded almost playful.

Nabi hesitantly glanced up. The shadow-the being that had even her bones shaking- was gone. In its place, a man stood. A tall man with unmarred pale skin, wearing a black leather jacket. His hair fell down his face in waves. Violet eyes- unnatural for a human yet not predatory- looked at her patiently. He looked unusual, unlike anyone she had seen before, like he did not fit in the plush green of the forest.

Yet he was no monster.

“I… the monster will attack me,” she mumbled out.

“Which monster?” he asked.

“The shadow!” she yelled “It was right there! Where you are standing! I swear!”

“Oh. Do you mean this shadow?” the man raised his hand less than a few centimeters and a gigantic shadow rose out of the ground, even larger than the one from before.

Her eyes widened and she thoughtlessly dragged herself away from both the man and the shadow. The man watched her reaction and then with a wave of his hand made the shadow move further away, giving her some more space.

“It is no monster,” he explained calmly “It is magic.”

“No, it is not. I have seen magic and that looks nothing like it,” she declined the notion, her mind stuck on images of Damian’s flames and the peculiar colored tea leaves Ebel grew in his garden.

“Have you ever seen Dark Magic?”

Nabi’s fear shattered away in that moment and she took a hesitant step forward. As the overwhelming terror faded away, she found herself looking at the shadow in a very different way than she had before. She took in the details. How it looked like it had truly been weaved from darkness like her grandma used to tell her Sol weaved the future in his golden tapestry. When she looked at it like that, there was something almost ethereal about it.

“But won’t it attack?” Nabi’s voice was still a little shaky.

“Have you ever been attacked by shadows before in your life?”

“I mean, no. But this one is magic,” she turned his words against him.

“Exactly. And beings created by magic are incapable of high intellect. Agasis is the only one that ever found a way to instill conscience and emotions into us. If you ask me, it was wrong call,” he said.

She was unsure whether he was joking or not.

“I don’t get it,” warmth crept up in her cheeks as she gritted the words out.

“The shadows don’t have wants. So they don’t want to hurt you. They possess instincts. Which means they only attack when attacked or when ordered to,”

“How can you order a shadow?”

“Like this,” the man replied with a small smile and then spoke in a foreign harsh language she could not understand.

The shadow slowly approached her. She backpedaled, ready to run off. Had he ordered it to attack her?

It stretched its hand out to her like it was offering a handshake. With a raised eyebrow, she offered her hand.

They shook hands. It was not cold to the touch nor warm. As if she was touching mist, something that could disappear any second. The image of a gigantic entity of darkness greeting her like a kind elderly gentleman made her giggle.