.Elementals.

-32-

I heard like glass cracking before it shattered, my vision clearing and seeing nothing in my hands.

I stood up and patted my mage uniform down to see if all was in its place, I touched my beads, my face to feel the scales lacking and my hair to check if it was as short as it should be.

"Shade." I growled in anger into the darkness I was floating in.

I hovered my hands close to each other, a ball of pure magic blazing alive, more and more gathering and creating a brighter and brighter light in the darkness.

I heard shrieking getting louder by the second, the light hurting the darkness the Shade cast over my soul.

it tried to fight back, to consume the light but nothing could be done as the all consuming light engulfed everything.

Soon I stood in darkness but not the Shade's one, it was crumpled and weak, on its knees in front of me, melting from the strength of the light I generated.

"Whoever sent you underestimated something." I told the creature that looked up at me, falling apart from the damage the light caused, I thrusted my hand through its dark gooey chest to grab the object it was bound too. "Me" I yanked it out.

It was a ring with a blue skarlatine gem encrusted into it.

I felt myself so heavy, as if I was under many piles of books.

"She's back."

"But she isn't moving."

"Trust me Highness, she is awake but still struggling with what the Shade did to her."

I huffed slowly, giving reason to Belladonna as I didn't feel capable of anything else for the moment.

"Oh my!" I would have smiled at how surprised the princess sounded. "Mystery you alright thank the gods you scared everyone." I heard Belladonna laugh and walk off as I weakly chuckled.

It took little time for me to regain a minimal control over my body, all feeling numb now.

I shifted around slightly, testing my limbs as I opened my eyes.

"Welcome back to the land of the living mage." I was a bit surprised to find myself face to face with the princess crouching next to the bed with her chin on the bed.

"Happy to be back." My voice was hoarse and scratchy.

"You scared us so much, the mages wouldn't tell us what was going on and I didn't know if you'd live."

"You are sweet to care princess and it was for the best."

"The best of what?"

"If I hadn't lived through the attack."

"What even happened? You can tell me now right? Unless you are too tired."

"A Shade was the culprit, entities made of the vengeance from lost souls, souls that died tragically and cannot pass on or souls that died with no intention of passing on until they have vengeance, the person that creates a Shade traps such a soul under their command with an object that was once the caster's."

"And it was after me."

"I think I was the target Highness, when I pushed you to hide behind Emersme it didn't change trajectory coming right at me which I hadn't expected."

"It was worrying to see the black tar like substance you were choking on."

"That's the Shade itself, it attaches itself to the person and siphons their will to fight death, weakening them before their choke on it, Belladonna knows a way to avoid the chocking effect, some plant making the Shade evaporate but its effect still remain at play."

"So it was trying to weaken you."

"My soul yes, a Shade shows someone a future, a present or a past they'd wish they would have and makes them believe that is reality and the deeper they fall into the fantasy the less likely are they to wake up, the Shade will try to kill them in that fantasy, it would be striking the soul at its core, fatal." I guess the Shade was those wolves. "As us mages know how to set up a shield around us the Shade needed to change a lot of things to get passed it, eliminate everything that would bind me to my current self."

"And what did you see if I may ask?" The princess sat on the bed next to my head.

"My life if I wasn't a mage and my dragon eyes had been scales instead from a family curse."

"You did say once you wished to go back there."

"I do also at times think what would happen it I didn't have magic so the Shade played with that."

"How did you escape?"

"Black wolves, probably the Shade, attacked me and a fake lover of mine, killing her and my hair fell into my face, I attach to much importance to my hair color and how my eyes look in this world but that's what saved me.... My mind kicking in that my hair shouldn't be brown but silver, after that a little magic ball of brightness and the Shade was gone."

She sighed relieved when I said it was gone before I started coughing yet again, feeling something in my airways.

She looked panicked as I had lunged up, coughing loudly.

I ended up spiting the ring I took out from inside the Shade into my lap.

I coughed softly as I lifted it and stared at it, turning it over before I was handed a cup by the princess.

I nodded in thanks and drank the tea in it, it soothed the ache this ring caused.

"I never saw a stone like that yet it is familiar."

"The gem stone is something you saw once actually, when we first met, Calypso wore a necklace with three of them on it, these gems come strictly from her home land."

"So someone from there is out for both of our lives?"

"Highly possible but we'll need to look into how many came from there... How long was I out?"

"a whole day, you have one day left to prepare for the tournament."

"Right.... Great."