Lords of Shadow

Expectations

If he was going to get back to his prospective grave, he couldn't do it on foot. Luckily, he had taken an ATV before leaving. Driving was hard, but the streets taught him things. And more importantly, he needed to know what his shadow was about, and what it could do.

He had never seen a lord in action, so he didn't know what to expect from his experiments, and rightly so. Even the rumours couldn't prepare him since every shadow was different. Still, there were common points of origin for shadows, so a few things were the same nonetheless; like functional immortality and the movement of the shadow, not in the regular way, but as a different entity entirely.

He had overheard the affiliates of the lords mention once before, while he was cleaning their horse stables, that the latter was the holy grail of battle prowess, but still, the former interested him more.

Loki wasn't going to start with a knife in his chest, just in case he was wrong, but he could work his way up there.

"Hey, do you have a lighter?" Loki asked, staring intently at his finger.

"No," Elvis replied.

"What do you mean no? Doesn't your dad smoke?"

Elvis had his arms folded. "Only when he's depressed—which might be like five times a day. But he uses matches."

Loki took a moment of silence in honour of the outstanding achievement. Imagine how hard that was. He had to burn through half the matchbox anytime he wanted to start the stove.

"Okay, what about a knife?"

"Nope."

"You must be kidding, how don't you have a knife?"

"My dad thinks it's a bit of a waste to have one, especially since he gets everything he needs cut at the market."

Loki rolled his eyes. "You know, you're a bit too old to be boxed up like that, just doing what Daddy says."

"Ski, I'm just sixteen," Elvis retorted.

"Same am I, but I'm not living—"

"You live alone," Elvis said, a bit regretful that Loki did. "Besides, if you are so uncontrolled, where's your lighter?"

"At home, can't get it for obvious reasons. You know what, just give me what you have. I'll work with it."

Elvis studied him for a moment. "Can I use my fist?"

"You want to punch me?"

Elvis nodded.

"Ah... I suspected as much. But sure, let it rip."

Elvis didn't give Loki prep time, maybe to make sure it hurt, maybe to test his limits, as a real friend. Maybe both.

His hand struck Loki across the face, sending him staggering back into the wall. The impact point shone red with pain, but Loki almost didn't care.

He stared attentively as the bee buzzed, pulling on the pain with invisible suction. Suddenly, Loki felt relieved, and it seemed to have gotten bigger, by a millimetre.

Loki stood and threw his hands into the air. "It worked!"

Elvis didn't seem as giddy. "So you want to bet your life on this test? I mean, it was just a chubby kid that punched you."

"Thought you said you weren't fat."

"Chubby, not fat. There's a difference. Fat people don't have necks."

"Damn..."

"Anyways, what I'm saying is, do you really think that bug is enough to take on a shadowed beast?"

"Why, yes. It's a very aggressive bug."

"How exactly? It can't do anything."

Loki seemed offended. "It can; I just haven't figured out what that is."

Well, he wasn't completely in the blind. He had the immortality part down. But was that really immortality? The bee had taken his pain away, but what if he was killed so swiftly that it was painless?

Could a pain reliever save him after beheading? Maybe he couldn't be beheaded, or his skin cut, rather. Also, Elvis wasn't a fighter or anything. He should have been able to break his skin with the force he mustered, and yet, Loki was intact. Even the red swelling was gone.

He thought it over, but had to eventually move on. He still had other things to explore.

Next was movement. Right from the moment he fell into the shadow of the beast, he felt the connection between him and the bee immediately.

It was like having the arm of a mannequin held and trying to tell how hot the iron in its grip was. Almost impossible, but if one calmed down, or the iron was hot enough, they could make out something.

His analogy wasn't perfect, but if he could equate feeling to movement, it could be.

He stared at Elvis, who stared back at him, then at his shadow. Some familiarity existed between them, and he was going to pull on it, not physically, but with his longing.

It started slow, as he dragged on air, then it became heavier and heavier, until it felt like he was trying to pull in a grape a mile away with a metre-thick brass rope.

Still, he focused through the sweat. The bee buzzed violently, slightly lifting off the wood, until it did completely.

Loki struggled to look at it. His brain seemed to scramble and lose signal as he stared at the two-dimensional figure. It was a weird exercise for him, because when he looked at it head-on, it wasn't there.

Looking at it from the side exposed its height and length, but without depth, it had no other sides and could not be seen from a frontal view. It wasn't razor-thin; squinting wouldn't help. It was technically invisible.

Loki had it hover, edging closer to him because he willed it. He suddenly felt like a lord, having the absolute destiny of another being in his control. But reality struck him as he had expected.

It would take multiple dozens more of him this way to make even an affiliate shed a drop of blood.

With the bee floating right in front of him, he gulped, then reached out, and... touched it.

Suddenly, he felt a jolt rush through him, just like the first one, but madly more vivid. Elvis' punch looked like a tap in comparison.

The bee dissolved into a hybrid state, neither liquid nor solid, and flowed onto Loki's hand, forming a dark purple glove. It stung for a bit, but mellowed down into something relatively deadly, something with intent.

Loki reached out for Elvis.

Elvis stumbled back with fear in his steps. "Oh no you don't, don't dare touch me with those evil paws of yours."

"Evil? What if they help to increase longevity?"

"Sure, sure. Test it on that spider in the corner first."

Loki smiled. "What if I'm afraid?"

"W–well then, I could call the army and see if they can make you courageous."

"Is that a threat?"

Elvis picked up a frying pan on the table and pointed it.

Loki reached out, a bit scared and a bit in thought.

How is this place such a breeding ground for these things? This spider is huge!

Then he touched it.

It jerked, wriggled, and hopped off the wall.

And surprisingly, before it landed, it was dead.