Legend of the Seven Lights

33. The Ocean's Bane

Today's code uses the Atbash Cipher. Resume "Requiem for the Lost Ones" from Bleach.

Chapter 33: The Ocean's Bane

Minerva's Cathedral

Dillon stood firm and locked his S.C.A.M.P.P. on the woman. While all the shadows felt solemn and cold around her, Dillon showed emotion in his brown eyes. Determination to get Mario back. Daphne looked at him with her cold dark eyes, which, if one looked closely enough, could see a shred of humor. "I was wondering who had walked in during my monologue." Daphne said with the same depressed tone. "What else did I expect... another wayward soul."

"Mario, get away from that woman!" Dillon demanded. "Come back to me!"

"Why should he." Daphne softly hugged Mario to her chest. "After all, you are his... reality. Shadows suffer so much... living in the light of their masters. Their emotions become the shadows. The shadows despair and decay in what the masters feel. No... a shadow... knows peace." She rested her head on Mario's, closing her eyes. "A shadow suffers in peace. All they should need... is quiet... blindness... bliss... but their masters ruin such tranquility." She reached for a black petal on the white stem. She plucked.

Dillon hated the Zoni for wanting to take away Vanellope's glitch, that which made her great.

"A true shadowbender... knows bliss like the shadows. They must become still... silent... soft..." She plucked another petal.

Dillon woke up with embarrassment on the Sunny Day, cuddling with Mason on that cold winter night.

"But the only way a person can know such tranquility... is through death. There's no more wonderful embrace. A Gray Shadow is a shadow whose master has faced death, in the most gentle way." She plucked another.

Five-year-old Dillon hugged his dad lovingly after he got home.

"Void of all emotion... all feeling... that is the beauty in my power." Daphne slowly reached for the last petal. "Enter that void... and sleep."

Dillon clutched Daphne's arm before it reached. She looked down at him. "A real shadowbender... knows how to let their shadow feel these things. A real shadowbender... takes their shadow away from that boring tranquility and shows them what it really means to have emotions. Instead of being just a shadow under their master... they get to be a friend to their master. They're able to stop being shy and interact... like a real human. If a Gray Shadow comes from a dead master... why are you so gray? Why am I feeling your flesh..."

Daphne closed her eyes. The memory brought no feeling to her heart.

Daphne was five years old, Isabelle Anderson was seven. They were two sisters living in Twilight Town. Although they were human born, their skin was pale, in the process of becoming Twili. Daphne loved to hide in the shade, Isabelle was a ray of sunshine. She always grabbed her little sister's arm and ran around the village, around the forest, playing games with their shadows. Isabelle ran too far, Daphne worriedly chased after her. Although young and full of energy, Daphne never expressed much emotion, only subtle hints.

Then the demons captured them. The demons that served Malladus and Hell's Royal Family. Malladus's son was married to Queen of Shadows, Malevolous. Shadows and shadowbenders alike were subject through experiments. Shadows were transformed into ravenous monsters, so why not do the same to shadowbenders? Give them a feeling of being demon. Isabelle and Daphne were in prison for years, before the demons decided to experiment on them.

Daphne's shadow, Shaydes was extremely agro, she bit and scratched the monsters, desperate to protect her master and sister. The demons injected the shadow with their dark magic, Daphne cried for her shadow, the girl had finally shown emotion in the form of tears. She hugged Shaydes closely. Let the tears soak her. It was unbearable, but the young shadow withstood, fought the pain. ...But at a price. Shaydes had faded into a soulless gray color. Her previous pitch-black form possessed the vibrance and joy Daphne lacked, but that color was sapped from her form now. The dyed shadow crept back behind her master, and in the weakest, most hopeless voice possible, Shaydes promised that she would always be with her.