Of the Ashes

1

I cursed as I skidded through leaves and slapped my way through branches, heading for the creek. The person behind me was fast. I was running at such a reckless speed that I couldn't risk a glance over my shoulder to identify my tail. The blue bristles on his helmet identified him as an enemy though, so I ran.

Stupid, I chided my self. You shouldn't have let yourself be seen! The information I had gathered during my sleuthing behind enemy lines would be invaluable to the others...as long as I could get it back to them.

I crashed into a clearing within the woods-too late for stealth now-and poured on the speed. I wasn't far from the borderline. Fumbling at my waist for the seeds that hung in a drawstring pouch from my belt, I jumped behind a fallen log and tossed the seeds behind me.

A shadow flashed above me, a human form with arms outstretched towards me. I thought I heard it screaming in my mind. I hear voices, but this was unlike any that had ever spoken to me. It had been months since I'd heard a new voice.

I gasped, flexing my wrists to summon my twin daggers and reached up to stab the thing-and it disappeared.

Conner got a fist full of seeds in the chest which grew with impossible speed into leafy vines that bound his entire body.

Nicely done, said Ace, the most encouraging of my ghosts, as I called them.

"I... Did you see that?" I asked him.

"See what?" Conner asked, standing up and ripping the vines from his body.

"That shadow," I replied to Ace, using Connors's moment of distraction with the vines to dash away from him. He cursed at me and he tried to follow but tripped over the log.
What shadow are you referring to? Ace said. I assume there are multiple shadows around you right now.

"The one that had no body," I said. "It tried to attack me. I could hear it in my mind...but I can't hear it now. Maybe it's gone? Did you hear it?"
We did not see any such shadow child. Likely it was just an illusion by Hecate's children to distract you, Rehan said. Rehan had a no-nonsense attitude making him appear aloof and uncaring. But in truth, he just had a very logical view of the world and tended to put facts before emotion.

"But-" I gasped as I ran, "I saw it. Is there anything in the memory about a shadow with no body?" The memory, as I called it, was a culmination of knowledge from my own brain, enhanced by the ghosts. I was no child of Athena, but I was able to read a passage from a book and one of my ghosts would store it. After some time, I wouldn't be able to specifically recall the exact words, but they would remain in the memory until I needed them again. The only problem with recalling from the memory was that once I had retrieved the memory, it would begin to fade in my mind, and would be re-entered into the memory with the damage that my mind had unwittingly caused it by being human.

There is something here, actually, Aiden whispered. She was a quiet one. She rarely spoke, but when she did, the other ghosts tended to listen to her. Erebus is said to be the primordial deity of shadows and darkness. The legends claim that Erebus - as a form if that makes any sense - was the first thing spirits passed through immediately after death.

It should also be noted, Rehan added, that Erebus is not the same thing as Nyx. Erebus symbolizes darkness and everything therein, whereas Nyx symbolizes night.

Yes, Aiden agreed. Nyx was said to be Erebus's wife.

There's a quote here, Ace said. It goes: "From chaos came forth Erebus and black Night(Nyx); but of Night were born Aether and Day(Hemera), whom she conceived and bore from union in love with Erebus." The source of the quote is unknown. In fact-