The Shadows of Nature

5. Sorrow in the Valleys

"What?"

Kasia was now intrigued and surprised, closing her eyes as the sea-green parchment appeared again.

"An energy link has been established between Ethelred and The Land of Chaos. It just appeared but it seems to be very old. If I calculate the radiations emitted..."

A few more figures appeared on the parchment and Kasia widened her eyes.

"...it goes back around 4.6 billion years. Since the physical beginning of the Shadow Beings."

Ethelred wore a look of pure confusion and Zoey was dumbfounded, the others trying to understand what this information meant.

"What did the land tell you?" Mildred turned towards Ethelred, wariness reflecting in his eyes.

"I do not know, honestly. The Demon Lord has been replaced. The previous one is trapped and won't be freed until we free her... three millenia later?

"The Land said to not concern ourselves with that matter for now. The present Demon Lord does not have a physical form yet because it is the entity, and the object will grant it that. The previous Demon Lord cast some sort of a repelling blanket of energy with the help of the land. It can be destroyed quite easily, but the entity and demons have no effect on it.

"The last thing the land said was that we were to open the container at the right time while making the right choices. And then the thoughts were gone."

Dead silence followed, each Shadow moving into their different streams of thoughts.

"I believe by 'right time', the entity means that we have to open the container so that out of its two states, it chooses the one we need. The 'right choice' is deciding the one we need. The object is something of enormous Zeal value and its energy is in some form needed by the entity. However, there is one piece of information we're missing. Since the entity is one of the three Shadow Beings with the most power in the universe (maybe universes), I don't see why it really needs this object.

"Therefore, we cannot afford to make a mistake."

Everyone turned towards Zindel, Zoey sincerely nodding at his last statement. Kasia shook her head with a sigh before turning towards Ethelred.

"He's right, though the land told you to make the right choices, right? We need to make more than a single choice."

"That's why we need information."

Zindel looked towards Kasia expectantly, the latter shifting into her thinking phase.

Superposition... Sousconic...

Kasia couldn't think of any connection other than one little piece of information that caught her attention.

"The Shadow Dimension recognises the power of the entities so doesn't let them affect physical objects, the physical dimension, right? I think that includes space and time."

"Time isn't physical, though," Ethelred interjected in a confused tone.

"It isn't... but all physical objects move in time and are governed by time. Causality doesn't change for any being but in simple words, what is the Shadow Dimension?"

Everyone looked towards Mildred with either curious or bewildered expressions. Mildred sighed, speaking softly.

"A cloud of thoughts that is protected from extreme emotions. One sole sentiment remains that can only be recognised when we go there. But anyway, the point is that our consciousness becomes universal. Existing at every point in space and time with none of those boundaries, yet choosing to stay in the present for the sake of experiencing it. Our power would hence not affect spacetime in the slightest."

"So the entity needs something to channel its power. Some sort of medium of high energy... but what?" Thet finished, frowning as he went into deep thought.

"One of the superposed states of the object," Zindel whispered. "I am sorry to ask you again, Mildred, but what does your Yuran help you do? Pardon my curiosity but I believe the answer will help us."

"I truly do not know. As I said before, it is something you cannot describe... but in very simple words, it helps me see Truth, perhaps."

Zindel sighed and a tensed silence filled the atmosphere, the six once again thinking hard to lighten their concerns. He knew that it pertained to some Truth, Big what sense of Truth was the question.

Zindel and Kasia began to discuss in hushed tones and Zoey approached Ethelred, one pair pondering about the object and the other about the entity.

"A star. You said you saw a star in my eye, right Mildred?"

Mildred gave Thet a small nod who suddenly smiled, approaching the cubical void again.

"Perhaps it is something like that. Instead of a sphere of gases it's a mixture of some sort of energy. I sense a strong one dimensional point in the centre, as if it's the objects origin."

Thet raised his eyebrows, clearly surprised that Mildred failed to notice that powerful aura. The woman turned towards the void with a calm expression, closing her eyes. She remain still letting the smallest bits of aura reach out to her.

"Nothing. I sense nothing."

Zoey gave a frown and took a step towards her, closing her eyes as she looked for the source of that energy. A few moments of silence passed, only Ethelred noticing the increasing darkness in the pitch black sky.

"I don't feel anything either."

It was now Thet's turn to frown and Kasia and Zindel practiced the same, only to shake their heads, confirming no one other than Thet felt anything.

"There is one end of a connection here, and this end is at its weakest," Ethelred broke the silence with his deep tone, his face devoid of expression.

Everyone remain motionless in the confused silence, lost in their thoughts. Mildred turned towards the shadowed sky, her eyes partly open. An esoteric sensation of questions and tranquillity flooded her mind, nothing in its purest form her sight.

Slowly, seven minute dots appeared in her vision, five of them sitting in a dull fashion while the two at the ends glowed fiercely, one an idyllic white and the other a percipient crimson.

Mildred stared at them in wonder, feeling nothing other than a familiarly foreign sensation deep within her consciousness, one that could never be expressed. She wondered if this was her Yuran's work, but in that moment she also let go of all her thoughts.

For one brief moment, an elating, haunting, curious and serene spark propagated through her, its short presence powerful beyond anything Mildred had ever known. Space and time had shrunken to be mere dimensions around her inner circle, her spirit's dimension, and she could sense herself.

Sense herself just be.

Suddenly, while she lay amidst that void, the point close to the white one lighted to life, a deep and brilliant blue now a member of the detached fragment.

The atmosphere grew heavy and laborious. Mildred opened her eyes to see Zoey lay on the ground with the others huddled around her.