Miyoshi Seikai "The Iceman"

"Enter the Darkness"

Part Twenty

It was an odd recognition, considering her ethereal state, but Arimani sensed she was getting stronger. Little by little. It was like being 'brighter', more substantial, when she chose to be.

It wasn't as if she had much else to occupy her time, so she followed Taro for much of his day and worked on seeing if she could make her presence felt.

What she came to realise though, was that Taro truly did have his mind buried in his work. Unlike Seikai, he didn't have a highly trained awareness, and for the most part, it was like trying to talk to a brick. An adorable, good natured brick, but a brick nonetheless. Bit rough around the edges too, now she came to picture it.

On one occasion, he had spilt some water on the flagstones by the forge, so trying her influence, she had guided a few threads of the liquid into forming the letters of her name.

She was absolutely delighted to create recognisable "A", "R" and an "I" before his great plates of feet sploshed through her masterpiece on his way past to get something.

She had tried moving a few small sticks near the woodpile to form an "A"… it took two attempts because the first took her back to the stone rings, at The Sanctuary gates, but she persevered (after throwing a bit of a tantrum, it should be noted), but again the bulky blacksmith didn't notice, and then a raven took one of the pieces…

What she did discover, however, was that when Taro was drunk he could almost hear her. Almost…And after an entire evening hovering not half an inch from his ear and shouting for all she was worth, she finally hit total exasperation..

Because she woke up..yes..back at the rings again, and almost half a day had passed. Energy, she was finding out the hard way, had a price. The more intensely she tried to use it, the longer it sometimes took to recover.

The rest of that day had seen her give in to melancholy, she was, she finally admitted, lonely. Seikai might have only thought of her as a figment of his imagination, but he did see her and talk to her. Well, kind of more talk 'at' her, but compared to this being untethered, it was something she now found she ached for.

What Arimani wasn't aware of though, is that melancholy is quite a regular expression for a shade such as herself. Being tethered to Seikai, and avoiding any others of her 'kind' which she had sensed or glimpsed, unfortunately left her ignorant to the true meaning of what she actually was, and melancholy was one state which once it enveloped a shade, was virtually impossible to break free from.

In her wandering amongst the rings, her sad voice a haunting melody on the breeze, as she lamented her condition, she never knew that she had been heard. Not by her beloved, but by something which had actually been watching her with interest for some time.

Malevolence has a consciousness, weaving itself along different planes of existence, drawn to the light as much as the dark. As ancient as the ethereal plane itself, and always happy to find lost souls or misdirect the lingering. It was even known to throw itself into the mortal realm on occasion and enjoy its myriad of delights.

But even Malevolence stood in the shade of its personification.

He had noticed the appearance of Power and Potential the moment they had appeared. The strange objects were off world, and out of sync with Time. How many planes could they cross? The possibilities were more than a little arousing.

The sinewy presence had been attached to Keiro that particular day, as the one known as 'The Darkness' always made him chuckle, but once drawn to the artefacts, the lifeforms around them became of absolutely no consequence at all.