The Flux's Flower

Truth

Lalna woke to a ghostly Nano standing over him. "Hey there. Does this mean I'm dead?"

Nano smiled and helped him up. "Not quite."

As Lalna stood, he looked over at Shadow, who wasn't wearing his visor, yet was standing in the darkness. He noticed Lalna and did a curt wave "Welcome back. I'll let your friend explain what happened"

Lalna looked back at Nano expectantly. She sighed "Alright, remember when you were fighting me and my form appeared to separate?"

Lalna nodded "Your physical body, and this version of you. But you imploded back into the body, didn't you?"

Nano looked away "Not..exactly. When Mother gave me the Flugel eyes so that I could teleport, I unintentionally created a mental link with you"

"That was you. I wasn't going crazy then"

Nano smiled "Yeah, it was me. Well, basically, when I tried to project out of my body, Mother was dragging me back in. However, I managed to escape using the link I had made with you, but in the process I had to cut the link, so she wouldn't follow. Then your...friend over here had somehow created that arrow, so when it was stabbed into you, it separated my astral form from your physical one."

Lalna looked up at Shadow "You said I was going to die if I wasn't inhabited by an astral being. What exactly would have happened?"

Shadow shifted "I lied about that part. If it can't find an astral form to separate, it's just a normal arrow, albeit a painful one."

Nano glanced over at Shadow "That's not the only thing you've been lying about"

Lalna looked at Shadow questioningly , and the latter sighed "Yes, that's right."

When Lalna continued to stare, Shadow gave in. "Fine. I posses one of the relic artifacts, known as the Key of The King's Law. Its what I used to fend off that horde of monsters from earlier, by summoning thousands of golden blades upon them."

Nano crossed her hands "aaannndd...?"

Shadow exhaled loudly, chuckled, and took a deep breath. "I suppose it's only fair that I show you"

Shadow stepped forward into the light, and suddenly Lalna pieced everything together. How Shadow had been able to open a portal directly to him, why he'd insisted on travel close to the taint, and most importantly, even why his natural abilities seemed to be off the charts. Lalna gathered all of this simply by seeing Shadow's eyes, or rather, his eye. The other was clouded over by purple markings.

Shadow was fluxed.