The Bane of Light

Ambush

"The other day, lying in bed, I felt my heart beating for the first time in a long while. I realized how little I live in my body, how much in my mind"
Rodger Kamenetz, Terra Infirma

∞

The second I stepped into the bedroom, time stilled. I could nearly see the molecules floating in the air as my heart drummed in my ears, my eyes darting across the room. My smile dropped off my face. Something was wrong. I could feel the wrongness deep within my bones, the warning signal screaming throughout my body.

"Back", my shadows hissed, and before I knew what I was doing, my body complied, jerking backwards. Three milliseconds after I swerved, a dagger whizzed by, just barely brushing against the tip of my ear. The pain did not process till my eyes caught on the figure looming in front of me, dressed head to toe in white, with the flaming, golden symbol of the Magistrates Legion insignia on his breast plate. I was under attack. Understanding dawned on me, my body sparking up with magic. I clenched my fist, as they burned with black shadow.

"Left", they hissed again, and I swerved back as another dagger was flung out from my side, the assailant invisible to my eyes. I did not how many there were, but there were definitely multiple hiding in my room. I could feel their weight interrupting the consistency of my shadows. My shadows pulled my shoulders, spinning me around and narrowly avoiding another blade. They were trying to kill me.

The force of my shadows brought me back to awareness, and I jumped into darkness, something primal overcoming me. I barely had time to unsheathe my daggers before I jumped back out into the mortal world, limbs flying through the air, refusing to remain in the shadow realm with the demons. The Legion soldiers were a lesser foe.

Landing soundlessly behind one of the Legion soldiers, I brought my knife to the sliver of skin visible under his golden barbuda helmet. The helmets ensured protection from magical attacks, with wards inscribed into the gold of armor, but they were not expecting someone to be able to get this close to them unnoticed.

Moving fast, I gripped the bottom of the helm and lifted it, revealing the tender flesh of his neck and dismantling a level of his wards. The actions came naturally to me, an art I had been practicing my entire waking life. The soldier had no time to scream before I slit his throat. One.

Before his body could hit the floor, I stepped back into my shadows, slipping between time and space unnoticed, before coming up behind the next soldier and doing the same with him. Only this time, I left his helm on, and instead brought my arm to the front of his head and stabbing him upwards in his throat. His body fell with a wet thud as I pulled my knife back out. Two.

I jumped back into the shadows. I could hear the Legions shouts of panic now, echoing through the shadows of the room. They could not find me. They did not know I could move between shadows, in such a manner. They had the room warded to prevent me from escaping with the help of my magic, but they did not account for what could and could not be performed inside the room. The protective magic of Light Mages was pathetically predictable.

Three bodies fell, then four. With each kill, dozens more appeared into the room, revealing themselves from their hiding spots. With the masses surging in, I began utilizing my magic, knowing my odds were slim in hand to hand combat against all of them. My unpredictability had been my best weapon, but it would not be enough to defeat all of them.

"Go" I hissed to my shadows, and watched as they draped the room in pitch black, as I had done at the solstice party. That's when the screaming really began, as divine night blinded the soldiers, and they finally learned who they were up against. Some of them had the good sense to light their flaming staffs, breaking the pitch-darkness with the slivers of light, but it was useless in warding off the unnatural black that filled the room. My shadows clung to the staffs, muting the light, in attempts to maintain the darkness.