Shadow Whispers

Chapter 8 ☀ Boats

Zamir glanced at Khoeli with a light smile on his face. "Watch out for what?"

Half frozen, she could only stare at the approaching beast as she repeated what she'd just said. "Watch out for the, the..."

The guards didn't notice the beast either, and continued to sneer in Zamir's direction. But when they noticed the shadows growing around them, and the sun disappearing under the inky darkness, worried frowns started to appear upon their faces.

Then, out of nowhere, her stomach gave a heaving lurch, and her recent supper spilled out onto the ground. She weakly held onto a nearby tree as her stomach emptied its contents onto the ground. As Zamir stepped forward and chanted under his breath, she felt another wave of pressure wash over her, and the guards collapsed to the ground soon after, although not with the same vomiting she was experiencing.

Another small mouthful of bile dribbled from her quivering lips onto her side, and she huddled down to the ground, wanting to ignore everything.

But to her surprise, the shadow beast remained a cautious distance away, but when it noticed the helpless guards, it leaped forward and nudged them around. Seemingly satisfied, it morphed into smoke and faded away.

"Zamir," she murmured. "I swear I saw the.. some sort of shadow beast, I'm not crazy. It was right there. It.. it had red eyes."

Zamir suddenly noticed her condition, and rushed to her side, worry in his face. "You should not have gotten that sick from that. You're from Aevirun..." he paused. "And how were you able to see the Ilsúrï beast?"

Why was he rushing to care for a stranger? And it hadn't been the forest doing the shadows, it was... something else?

He froze, and stepped back from her. "Someone has been masking your energy signature."

"My.. what?"

"What do you know of the Mo'ori?" He ignored her question, asking her another instead.

Now that her stomach had stopped lurching, she merely felt bruised inside. She didn't even have enough energy to feel anything besides gratitude for his concern.

"I don't understand your question. The Mo'ori are a myth..." she murmured. "What game are you playing at here?"

"There is no game," he smiled. "I am a wielder of Mo'ori powers, and these are our forests. However," he admitted. "I must admit I hadn't realized how much the shadows would have affected you as a Tu'uli."

"A what?" she asked incredulously, not even attempting to hide the amusement in her words. "I'm not one of them, and again, the Mo'ori don't exist, they're just a myth, an old wives' tale told to children to keep them away from these-" she hesitated. "These creepy woods. It's easy to get lost in here as a young child."

"Well," he paused. "Unfortunately, the Mo'ori exist. Apologies for 'bursting your bubble', as some might say. Regardless of what you might think, most stories told have some degree of truth to them. But even a non aura reader or Brother-young should be able to recognize the fact that my manipulation of the shadows reveals my Mo'ori affiliation.

"You're making this a-all up," she stammered. "You just put someone else up to thi-"

"Making this all up, you say?" he murmured. "Then tell me," he paused, letting a shadow dance over his palm and slide back down. "How am I able to bend these shadows to my will, forcing them to obey my movements over the physics of this world? Is that not what the Mo'ori in your myths are capable of?"

"I... I don't know," she stammered. "There has to be some other explanation, you just wanted to..." She stopped upon noticing the shadows grow more and more, only able to see the light from the torches illuminating their faces. "You can't possibly..."