Nothing is ever easy

After an evening full of stories, songs, and laughter, followed by a restful night spent in a real bed for once, Helia and Ceres set out towards the Soux mountains, to find the village of Alfor. Kesmer had given them enough food and water to last them more than two weeks’ worth, expecting the journey by foot to last a little less than seven days each way.

Usually, they would have been able to hitch a ride with one of the many merchants that take the route eastward from the capital, however, news of the incident traveled fast, and the risk wasn’t worth the potential gain. Helia didn’t particularly mind, though. She loved walking around the countryside when no one else was around, singing and playing music with Ceres, with nature as her audience.

Other than some light rain, they didn’t encounter any trouble along the way, and, after a few days, the mountains were within view. They camped earlier than usual, trying to adjust their arrival time to be during the day. Shadows were only active at nighttime, or within dark spaces, such as caves or dense forests. This was due to their aversion to all light, but especially that of the Sun.

The pair arrived before a sign indicating the inn, and thus the village, was near them, following the same road they were on, uphill.

“Helia”, warned Ceres, indicating a spot nearby. A crashed carriage laid there, with crates spilling from it. In direct sunlight, the three unnatural dark mounds around it were especially visible, and unsettling. Two of them had seemingly been trying to flee, while the last one, much bigger, was still attached to the front of the carriage.

Helia was about to start running towards them when Ceres stopped her. “We should take flight, and survey the zone.”

“But, those people!”, she retorted.

“You can’t help them if the Shadow still lives”, he reminded her, growing into his true form.

Begrudgingly, she agreed she was being illogical, and got on his back as he lowered himself in front of her. With a gust of Wind, he took off.

Grabbing his neck with all her strength, she let herself be carried to the skies. Ceres shouldn’t have been able to fly with both of their sizes and shapes combined, but he compensated for it with his Wind, and could barely feel the difference from doing it on his own.

They flew along the road, noticing with horror the many black lumps laying all around, until a big building came into view. The Alfor inn stood imposingly amongst several, much smaller houses and stables, with many carriages parked on its front.

And everywhere around it, unnerving shadows or varying sizes decorated the ground. Ceres flew in circles while Helia tried to count them, but there were too many, and she gave up.

“There are some Shadows inside the houses. Four, five, maybe. They seem fairly powerful, but you could deal with them easily, honestly”, said Ceres inside her mind.

She knew she was just supposed to survey and go back, but there was no way she would leave all these people in danger if there was something she could do about it. Helia agreed that she would be able to defeat the Shadows she sensed, so she signaled for Ceres to land near the entrance of one of the houses. A few shadowy victims were scattered around the front. The main door was ajar, but only darkness was visible from outside. Helia took out her bow and prepared a lumiranite arrow in silence, taking aim at the entrance. Once she was ready to shoot, Ceres threw the door open, and got himself ready to intercept any threats.

The shining arrow flew through the door, illuminating the inside of a modest living room as it went by, stopping on the opposite wall, above a table and chairs. A disturbing hiss shook the house, and the shape of a giant feline Shadow emerged from the dark, trying to get away from her projectile while simultaneously avoiding the sunlight coming in from the windows.

Ceres tried to provoke it with Wind from outside, however, the light of the Sun was too strong of a deterrent. It kept hissing and growling from inside the building, shaking its body around and creating a giant mess. Helia made a mental note to apologize to its owners once everything would be solved.

Preparing another arrow, she ran inside, and hit it with ease. The Shadow, akin to a giant tiger, was much too big of a target for its hiding place. It thrashed around, destroying everything in its path even further, which made Helia cringe in embarrassment, thinking about having to explain everything as she dodged its clumsy paws. Eventually, it vanished, and Helia recovered both of her arrows before heading outside.

They dealt with the two Shadows inside other houses with similar efficiency. So far, none of the corrupted victims had woken up, but that wasn’t too unusual. Just like she had seen in Varsey for the first time, and many after, a strong Shadow’s corruption could linger until directly purified through Handling, even if the original Shadow had been defeated.

“The one in the inn feels bigger”, said Helia. “It must be the one that started all this mess. Maybe we should head back now?”

“Really?”, asked Ceres. “Even if it’s bigger than the others, you can still take it down with your eyes closed. Honestly, I don’t know what the Church has been doing, these Handlers they sent must have been real amateurs.”

“I don’t know, Ceres… So many people have been corrupted by it, Handlers and warriors included. I’m not feeling it”, she responded, worried.

“When do you ever feel it, though?”, he retorted, exasperated. “Stop doubting yourself for one single second.”

Helia furrowed her brows, thinking about it. Even she had to admit she had gotten stronger after years of training her Handling and her physical skills, but that didn’t mean she was invincible. The little voice in the back of her head that always pestered her reminded her that so many people had failed at this particular task before. How dare she think she’s better than them? Why would she be able to do it, if they hadn’t?

But then, what good was all her training, and all her good intentions, if she couldn’t even help all these people around her? The numerous dark lumps that once were people pulsated with darkness, making her head spin and throb, as if mocking her.

As Helia was standing there, frozen, unable to decide what the best course of action would be, Ceres sighed. “It’s fine. We can go back, if that’s what you want. Hopefully, they won’t be consumed before extra help arrives", that got a reaction from Helia, who stared at Ceres with wide eyes, horrified.

Not much was known about the phenomenon widely called consumption. Sometimes, when a Shadow corrupted a living being, and no one was able to get to them in time, they disappeared. The blocks of shadows couldn’t be displaced from the place they had fallen, corrupting any other living beings that touch them, and not reacting to non-living things. No one has seen them move on their own, or actually vanish, but after some point, they were no more. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the time it would take for this to happen, either, which only increased the urgency of quickly purifying any victims.

“Fine”, responded Helia, tightening her shaking fists. “But you will be the one who deals with Kesmer when we go back.”

Ceres looked at her back as she walked towards the inn, feeling slightly guilty. He wasn’t proud of the way he had manipulated Helia, but sometimes, it was the push she needed. Or, at least, that was how he justified it to himself. The more time he spent with her, the more impatient and frustrated he got at her lack of confidence. He hoped that, by forcing her into these situations, she would end up acknowledging her own strength and worth.

She opened the door with a kick, her hands already holding another readied arrow. She was fully alert, and fairly scared, as surveyed the interior with abundant caution.

The main floor of the inn held a very spacious tavern, with the bar acting as a reception, surrounded by many tables. A big stairway led to the first floor, where many rooms were spread across an open hallway, separated from the lower floor by a railing. Human-sized shadows were scattered everywhere: across the floor and tables, behind the bar, and on the stairs. Helia suppressed the urge to vomit, and tried to focus on the Shadow.

She could not pinpoint the source of the familiar yet disconcerting strangeness emanating from the Shadow, so she used the same strategy as before, and shot her arrow towards the back of the room.

As it flew, shadows emerged from the opposite side of every piece of furniture its light touched. Helia intently surveyed the room, her anxiety rising with every second she couldn’t find her foe. With a sudden realization, she looked at the ceiling.

However, that wasn’t it, either.

All the shadows that her arrow and the sunlight created flickered, faster and faster every second, until they were violently shaking. One by one, they detached themselves from the walls, floor, and furniture, taking a defined shape. Dozens, hundreds of winged Shadows the size of a human fist woke up from their slumber, enraged, and turned their attention towards Helia.

Too big to enter normally through the door, Ceres shrunk, and then transformed once again after he was inside, trying desperately to reach Helia before the tiny beasts threw themselves at her. Their eyes met one last time as the darkness covered her whole body.

Shocked, horrified, all he could do was watch the enormous shadow grow more and more, bubbling with malice and wrongness.

Suddenly, their vibrating screeches came to a halt, and the room exploded with a blinding light. The tiny Shadows were expelled, revealing Helia’s form, glowing in its entirety with silvery moonlight.

Most of them dissipated fully before even colliding with anything in the room, too small and weak to resist such a direct Divine hit, their only strength having been their huge numbers.

Helia exhaled and deactivated her shining armor, looking around some more for any stray Shadows, but she had gotten them all. She recovered her lumiranite arrow, and only when putting it back in her quiver she remarked Ceres frozen near the entrance.

“Is everything okay?”, she asked, anxious once again. “Are you hurt?”

He shook his slender neck and gave her a smile. “I was just admiring my Handler, that’s all.”

Helia’s face reddened, and she hit him playfully on his wing. “Shut up”, she added, embarrassed.

“I told you; you could do it”, he ignored her protest. “Now, wake everyone up, and let them admire you, too.”

Helia sighed, still blushing, and proceeded to channel Divine towards one of the people laying within darkness. She was just about to make a comment to Ceres that it was taking much longer than usual, when suddenly, the Sun disappeared. Spirit and Handler shared a concerned look, and ran outside, directing their attention to the sky.

Between them and the Sun, a titanic Shadow flew, circling above their heads, completely unbothered by sunlight.