Ancient Pasts - Tbate

Ancients and Secrets

Eleanor Leywin Pov

The surrounding mana, aether—and everything, for that matter—trembled, shaking as if someone was threatening them with their destruction. Uriel, the shadow, and I fell to the ground, heavily gasping for air.

The shadow had it much better thanks to literally being a shadow of an asura. Uriel and I, on the other hand, didn't have it so easy. We could barely look up to see Azrael's familiar face hidden behind an unfamiliar stone mask.

He glared at the shadow with his lavender eyes. Despite it not being directed towards me, I felt my hair stand on end as Boo—hiding in my core—helped me regain some courage.

"So you're Sylvie's shadow?" Azrael raised a brow.

Frowning slightly, I thought that something was a little strange about Azrael. And I quickly had a theory.

"Tsk." He clicked his tongue, glaring down at her. "What a weak shadow."

Her eyes widened not in fear, but in rage. "What did you jus-"

Before she could do anything, Azrael disappeared and reappeared behind her, and with a quick chop, knocked her out. I felt my mouth hang agape. The shadow girl was strong—even Uriel was losing to her—but Azrael knocked her out in one hit.

Reining his aura back in, he let out a long sigh. I stood up with shaky legs, looking at Azrael with wide eyes. I've always known he was strong, but this was another level of what I thought.

Uriel stood up and dusted himself off, looking at Cathan with guilt. Disappearing for a moment, he reappeared with his wounds all healed—or rather gone. Seeing that, I mentally facepalmed as I reminded myself that Uriel—a literal crystal—had no body.

Uriel snapped his fingers, and I felt myself grow light headed as our location changed. I stumbled a little and looked around. Finding myself in the training room with Uriel, Azrael, and the unconscious shadow, I recomposed myself.

Looking around, I saw Caera standing over a bed with a bucket next to her. Seeing her like this, I knew my theory was right. This wasn't Azrael, but it was his shadow. I already knew a little about how these mana arts worked and guessed that this shadow magic was related to water magic.

Although he couldn't use them normally, Azrael had an affinity to both fire and water. That surprised me. Azrael is a Vritra and a dragon, so he had both mana arts.

Cathan already gave Arthur, Azrael, Caera, Sylvie, and me a lesson on these mana arts. I wasn't sure how decay mana arts relate to shadows, but I guess Cathan phrased it like that to make it easier to understand.

Running towards Caera, I asked. "What's happening?"

"I don't know. They just fell down while we were training," Caera answered with a frown, sweat trickling down her face.

"Cathan is using too much mana." Azrael's shadow suddenly stated, walking up to us with his hands in his robe's pockets.

"What?" I bolted up, already fearing the worst.

"He'll be fine." He quickly replied. "We should focus on sealing their cores."

"Seal their cores?" I echoed with a frown.

"Even now, Sylvie and Azrael both have seals on their core. Because Miras doesn't have an actual body and Cathan is using too much mana, their seals were removed." He explained.

"How do you know all of that?" Caera asked.

"You try being stuck as the shadow of someone in a coma and see how much time you have to think." Azrael's shadow quipped. "I might be a shadow, but I've been here since Azrael was born."