Rynx

Chapter 6 - Max

 Max looked back at Conjure, who had a determined look on her face. "You know what? Let's move on from that. I don't really think it'll help to stay caught up on that...incident."

Conjure nodded, her eyes burning with something that Max knew well—not rage, but wanting and feeling the urge to protect and overpower. Or was it slightly different? Max couldn't tell. She leaned forward a bit more on Aamaya's soft, warm back and squinted.

"Anyways. With the Shadows going rampage across the entire world of Rynx right now, I wouldn't recommend being careless. I did tell you what Shadows even are, right?"

Max sucked in a breath and whispered, "Aamaya. Pause," before quickly turning to look at Paranoia. "No, and I think that we need to know what a Shadow is, especially before we begin this terrible plan of saving this world," she said sharply.

Conjure stifled a laugh. "Saving the world? More like saving ourselves and then getting our butts back home..."

Max rolled her eyes. Of COURSE we're saving the world! What would stop everything from happening again if we don't fully stop everything?

Paranoia looked at the thick trees and sighed softly. "I'm sure they'll tell you. But I guess I'll humor them and tell you in their place."

Max looked at the huge swathes of trees and saw nothing. Confused, she looked back at Paranoia.

"Shadows were once human," she said carefully. "I only know this because...well, I...Most Shadows...forget everything. When they're Shadized. But, I wasn't fully Shadized, so I still have some memories. I know for a fact that you would need dark magic and Light magic. And the Mages had tons, though I'm not entirely sure why.

"To make a shadow, one needs to infuse a person's eyes with dark magic after a traumatic experience. The dark magic consumes the weak soul that is weaker under the pain, and they are awoken as an entirely new being, eaten alive by their emotions. Once we are free from that transformation stage, we seek out a name. I'm not entirely sure how I got mine, but I think it's because of the emotion that was the strongest when I Shadized was strong fear—strong paranoia.

"Our skin is darker based on how traumatic our past was, and our eyes have no set colour; they change based on our mana levels and how we deal with things. Most Shadows don't have any...feelings...as they are stripped from them during the Shadight Stage.

"A lot of Shadows go on a rampage trying to find themselves, others stay in place and wither away in their pain, others remember things which cause them to go insane, others are power hungry. And some haven't completely lost their minds, like me," Paranoia said.

Max blinked. "That was a lot more complex than I thought it would be," she pondered. Is this a good idea? We know that we have to destroy the Shadows, but...what did they ever do to deserve this? I think that the Shadows aren't the ones at fault here—but the Mages themselves. Us. Me and Conjure's Race. Did Father and Daddy know about this? About...Rynx? Are they worried? Or are they dead—does the time work differently there vs here? Has it been eighty years there and only a few days? I don't know, and that's what scares me. I don't know what to do, what to think, what's right and what's wrong. I don't know ANYTHING, and that makes me powerless in a world like this.

"Are you sure we even have the...right...to kill all the Shadows? You said so yourself—some haven't completely lost their minds, like you," Conjure said. She seemed to have the same thought-process as Max, which made her feel slightly better (but not really).

Paranoia sighed. "Just because we're like this doesn't mean we're all good. Some day, I will witness the end of the world, and then some. But I can't stop living, and witnessing, because I can't die. Someday I will go insane. Same to all the Shadows out there. We need to be annihilated."