Shade

”~Who am I? I’m not the devil~ Let me take you to my level~!”

The latest hit from the minstrel group Incredibly Charismatic Pearlcatchers, or as I liked to call them, ICP, played through the square contraption sitting on the end table. A new prototype from an extremely talented Lightning dragon, the box used Arcane magic and a pendulum to allow dragons from thousands of miles away to listen to live performances. Only a handful of dragons had the prototypes now, good friends and family of the creators mostly, but I was entrusted with one because of my skill with hearing distortions. I would be able to tell them if the device was having issues receiving, or if the spell on the pendulum near the musicians needed to be altered for a clearer sound capture. For the moment, however, I was unable to focus on the sounds coming through the box, too preoccupied with my own thoughts.

Who am I?

Clicking the device off, I paced around the room a bit, trying to get my thoughts to settle. Well, in order to know who I was, I had to know where I came from, right? Maybe not. Honestly, I didn’t know much about myself, and from what I could tell, no one else did either. Mercy, the clan’s healer, found me tucked amid an oddly dark section of the Sundial Terrace, an area that is miles away from the Tangled Wood border. Yet there I was, a hatchling, alone, born of shadow by my eyes, encased in shadow where she found me, and carrying the spores of the glowing shrooms that marked Shadow territory. She said it was as if a piece of the Shadowland had been given life, stood up and decided to be a guardian. She was the one who named me Shade, which was amusing in its own right. Mercy took me home, gave me warmth and shelter, but she was not a mother. At best, she was a good friend and a kind heart, but we both knew I was not her hatchling. Even at that age I knew I was not a child of the light.

I’m not the devil

Shade, comparative darkness caused by shelter from direct sunlight. This was the most obvious meaning behind why she gave me this name, I think. I was Shade compared to the light that came from her soul. I was the darkness. Yet I felt that I also was A Shade, a ghost, or at least one that traversed between the living and the dead. With darkness to hide me and the companions of the lost souls that hovered around me to guide me, I could find those that had suffered during their last breaths. I never knew what they were, never found them around a body, just accumulated the spirits. Each one was unique, different, like a tinge or echo of their former life was still coloring their existence, remnants of personalities, dreams, and wishes. They never stayed long. I would collect a few and bring them back, and the work that Mercy did helping others, the work that Niko did, the brightness from Kailon’s teachings, all would ease their spirits, ease their pain. It would normally only take a few days before one or more were floating away, heading to their next destination. No matter how hard I tried, I always had at least three souls hanging around, for when one would move on, I would see another. It was almost like they were seeking me out.

Let me take you to my level

At first I tried to deny their existence. After all, when you tell somedragon “I see dead people” the most you can hope for is a funny look at best, or someone desperately calling for a shrink at worst, right? But ignoring them didn’t stop them from coming, or hanging out, or staying close to my shrooms. No, ignoring them seemed to make them stay for longer, like they couldn’t figure out why they were there or what they should be paying attention to. So I stopped doing that. My second attempt to understand or at least accept my unique…talent was when I decided to sneak into Afrit’s library. To be fair, sneak probably isn’t the best word. Afrit is an amicable enough Skydancer so long as you do not damage his books and you stay quiet. For a lumbering Guardian, I was as quiet as I could be, and it was satisfactory enough. I searched and searched for more knowledge, information, lore, myths even about what this power was, but to no avail. Even among the many books in Afrit’s care, there just didn’t seem to be mention of anything like what had been my existence my entire life.

Above the rocks,

Of course, the option was always there to just leave the clan and go to the Tangled Wood, find a dragon with more knowledge in Shadow magic and lore than anyone in the Merciful. But for some reason, that idea never appealed to me. Shadow had brought me to the Light, so in the Light would I find my answer. I doubt I was left in such a conspicuous way and place for no reason. I had a purpose here, even if I did not know it.

Above the earth

It was Afrit who finally helped me get answers. I was so worried about making sure to return the library’s resources to their proper place that I forgot Afrit’s mind was a resource in and of itself. After a particularly frustrating round of cross-referencing books until my eyes were cross, Afrit came over to ask me if there was anything in particular I was looking for (though by the look that was given the piles of books gathered around me, he already knew the obvious answer). I explained what I was trying to find, what I was looking for, my very Search for who I was, and was given an odd look in return. Afrit asked me to clean up the mess I had made and wait, for there was a book I needed to read. And so I cleaned it up, and waited, and waited, and waited. When Afrit returned, he was carrying a book dripping goo and guarded by a particular looking bat. He silently put it on the desk in front of me and walked away.

Tell me what your soul is worth

I could not tell you what was in the book. Rather, I don’t believe anything was actually written in the book. Instead, each page held knowledge that I just knew, just by looking at the page, just by interacting with it. The glow shrooms so loved by Shadow flight were their connection to the dead, and they only grew where blood had been shed for a worthy cause. It meant the whole of the Tangled Wood had been a battleground at one point, perhaps in a time long past. It also had a name for my talent. I was a ferrydragon, of sorts. I did not create death, but rather I ferried the dead away from their chains that bound them to the mortal world and allowed them to finally go to the next plane. They called those who had this ability the Shades of Charon, for Charon was said to be the first dragon gifted the ability to ferry souls of the dead from the mortal lands to the undying coil. According to the book, my skill was one so rare, the gods themselves only bestowed it upon those who had a pure soul and sense of purpose, those fully grounded in the living and in doing what was right. If the book was to be believed, the Shadowbinder herself had created me, molded me into what I was, placed me in the Sundial Terrace so that the Lightweaver could send an acolyte to find me and give me purpose. The Lightweaver had chosen Mercy, for her work, and the work of those in her clan, was the brightest light to pierce the darkness around the lost spirits. Together, we were a force to be reckoned with.

I will give you tranquility

I must have studied the pages for hours before I was being nudged awake by Afrit. Gone was the book, the goo, the mention of the Dark Side and cookies (and really, cookies? Where did that idea even come from?). Afrit scolded me lightly for falling asleep with my maw in a book, but when I looked it was a history about the Sunbeam Ruins, not the shadow-filled pages that had been presented before. When asked, Afrit had no recollection of the book, and shoo’d me out of his library with an annoying cluck for wasting his time talking nonsense. Yet when I returned to my room, I was not alone. The creature that had been protecting the book, the Spirit of Shadow, was still on me, nestled between my wings and sleeping easily. Studying the creature gave me pause, for if the creature was there, then it was not some kind of dream.

Who am I? I’m not the devil. Let me take you to my level. Above the rocks, above the earth. Tell me what your soul is worth. I will bring you tranquility.

The Shade of Charon, that is me.

lore by ShadeOfChaos