The Gathering (Sky: Children of the Light)

~Chapter Fifteen~

ECLIPSE'S POV

The sight in the prairie caves that morning was not a very welcoming one. The six sky children sat in a circle with their masks off, surrounded by swirling tendrils of shadow. Mez told the group that the trick to shadow magic was emotion. The more negative your emotions were, the harder the shadows were to control. The more positive, shadow magic was like melted butter. 

To do shadow magic, you needed to be perfectly calm. Mez suggested wrapping shadows around your head. Even though it sounded weird, she told them that the spark was their emotional center, and it reacted to magic. Mez also told them the only way they could use light magic again was to master shadow magic. Waving her hands around, she guided them through the steps of shadows. Mez looked completely at peace for once, forming birds and mantas. Each sky child slowly but steadily mastered the art of shadow magic.

Eclipse waved her hands around, guiding shadow around her fingers. Mex called out from above.

"Make bonds between the darkness and the light. Let it reveal your true self. Your elder self."

Eclipse internally freaked out. How was she supposed to know what that meant? Finding out what elder she would be made it all the more stressful. Learning to fill an elder's shoes was not going to be easy. Forming flickering light around one hand, and shadow on the other, Eclipse wove the two together. She felt something click on her head. She called out to Mez.

"How do I know if it worked?"

Mez glanced at her. "Your spark changes color. Should turn opalescent."

Eclipse shuffled over to the reflective surface of the dark water. Her spark was the same old gold color.

"Try it again. Maybe make something familiar to you." Mez suggested. Eclipse tried again. This time, she made an object she knew well, her red barrette. The click this time reverberated throughout her whole body. Scrambling over to the pond, her spark was white and shimmered like an opal. She had done it! To try it out, she floated a small balloon of light over to Mez. Mez flicked it away with a bolt of shadow, flinging the balloon into a wall. Ao snarled at Mez, most likely surprised by the shower of sparks. Shooting over to the Eden elder, Ao bit Mez. Hard.

"OW!" Mez shrieked. Ao made a sound that could only be classified as a snicker. Rayem sprinted over to Ao and started growling and screeching at her. To Eclipse's surprise, Ao responded. And not just in dark dragon.

"DIE SHADOW CHILD!!" She screeched.

Mez glared at the baby Dark Dragon.

✵

The sound of water splashing on stones echoed around the room. This floor of the vault had multiple floating islands scattered in the void. A few ghost mantas supported lanterns glided and swooped around them. A couple of the islands had calm waterfalls splashing off the edges and into the floors below.

The vault floor was supposedly the place of ceremony. Each sky child would be figuring out what elder they would be one day. They would also meet the other two to-be elders. Gliding to and from islands were two sky children.

"Ethis!" Mez shouted "Kira! Come down!" The two figures obeyed, hurtling towards the platform everyone was standing on. Kira had curly hair pulled up in two buns, and a navy blue and gold petal cape. Ethis had a layered red cape with fringe on the bottom and black boots.

"Hi!" Kira said cheerfully.

"You got roped into this too, huh?" Ethis said grumpily.

Kira elbowed him, "Sorry for my brother being rude. He means that we also have no idea what's happening! We did get to meet this cool dude who taught us some shadow and light magic! That's one bonus!"