Ezousia crashed onto my bed, while I slumped down on the couch, facing her eager face. I was going to tell her how I became the Conqueror of Shadows.
It wasn't something I was fond of narrating.
Flashback:
I was able to manipulate shadows to travel, to store things and sumon beings like Mrs. O'Leary and other things. I was pretty proud about my achievement, but there was one thing I was curious about. It was about using shadows to fight. I had seen Erebus, Nyx and Eris doing it and always wondered how they did it.
I decided to ask my father Erebus.
After asking him about it, he looked at me thoughtfully.
"I can tell you how to do it Perseus, but it will affect you. It might even scar you for life."
"What's the worse that could happen?" I asked, curiously.
"You could loose yourself," he explained seriously.
My eyes widened.
"Only I have complete authority over shadows," he slowly explained. "Shadows are formed because of the obstruction of light by a darker object. This will be hard to understand but I will do my best."
I nodded slowly.
"Okay, imagine you are the light. You strike a dark object and the shadow of the object is cast on the background. Most of my children wield this power. I have taught all my children other than Eris, Algos and another two how to manipulate shadows formed only due to light. But now, imagine instead of having a light to create a shadow, you are dark enough to mask the object and create a shadow formed by darkness."
I stared at him, my mouth agape.
He cursed under his breath. "I shouldn't have told you this. Your mother will kill me. It's a secret we decided to never share."
"Teach me," I pleaded.
My father chuckled, "my dear boy, don't you think that if it could be taught, I would have already taught everyone?"
I looked at him confused.
"It can only be achieved Perseus," he said. "To be able to become dark enough to cast shadows of darkness, use a person's shadow to fight them and creat a shadow in broad daylight and complete darkness, one must bring out the darkness from within them. You have to conquer the worst darkness inside you and cast it out so that it's so dark it can form a shadow."
"How do I do that?" I asked.
"You will not," he said strictly. "It is a journey that takes place within one's self. The only way to bring it out is to relive memories that broke you, that scarred you and hurt you the most. Memories that brought the darkest darkness out of you."
I gulped. The only time that had happened was when I was cast out by the Olympians and betrayed by the one I used to love. I shuddered.
Erebus nodded. "I don't want you reliving any of that. You can use the shadows as it is. You may push yourself and train yourself to bend and manipulate shadows, but fighting, creating and becoming a literal one with the shadows is too dangerous. A person can loose themselves to it."
Let's just say I didn't listen to him and got into a whole lot of trouble. Yep, you heard me. I messed up big time.
The thing was, I had no idea how to use the shadows to fight.
I just tried the normal summoning shadows; which caused me to sweat a lot. I tried to form a weapon with it, but failed miserably and lost my grip over the shadows.
