SHADOW AND LIGHT (CHIAROSCURO)

EVOLUTION OF AURA BENDERS

“I wonder what's inside this magical door,” I uttered.

So I pressed myself further into the door, finding the courage to enter with my full body, whilst still tightly holding onto the softball inside.

Once I was in, all I could see was a dim yet light darkness surrounding me in a tunnel-like fashion. It was like a void of tangible shadows, flowing and weaving around me. It was like a fantasy enveloping me.

I looked down to see what the odd soft and plump ball was, only to find...

“Why, hello dear...” I smiled at the petite lady before me.

Right in front of me were a short, dark-skinned elf with pointy ears, jet-black hair and beautiful bangs that barely covered her dark pupils.

A beautiful crow perched on her shoulder and an eye patch were on her left eye.

In her right hand, she had a black scythe that seem bigger than her entire body size, the scythe had some amount of shadow-like aura emanating from it.

The little dark elf wore on her hands, a black glove. On her body, she wore a fashionably tattered black hooded robe that covered part of her luscious jet-black hair and medium-sized breasts.

However, her feet weren't christened with any shoe wear as she was barefooted.

As I further inspected her face, I noticed she wore a very annoyed expression which had confused me at first until I noticed what my hands had been grasping, fondling and holding onto all this time. It was her breast.

The soft and plump ball of fat that I had been fondling all this time happened to be her left B-cup breast that was halfway exposed due to the fashion of her robe...

“Um, you have a wonderful size and texture? ...OW!!” I nervously uttered, only to receive a resounding slap across my unsuspecting face.

The slap was so strong to the point it sent me flying out of the shadowy door back to the normal plane.

My head was hazy after that and I had begun to lose consciousness, but just before my eyes would close, I caught a glimpse of the short dark elf standing with such grace, looking at me through the shadowy door.

From my point of view, she looked like an angel of darkness coming out from a shadowy hell, a truly beautiful warrior dark elf.

With a disgusted expression, she said this before my eyes gave up, “Pervert...”

In a whisper, “It seems I've caught myself a dame in the shadows,” I uttered with a smile just before I lost consciousness.

I awoke on my bed once again, I remembered the encounter with a dark elf in a dark shadowy void. But it felt more like a dream.

So I rushed to the corner of the hall where I had first seen the shadowy door. But I found nothing there, absolutely nothing except...

"Nothing here! Not even a... A hair strand," I found a long strand of black hair on the wooden floor.

"This isn't mine is it, no, it couldn't be..." I inspected the hair closely, suspecting that it couldn't have been mine even though I was the only person in the entire kingdom that had black hair.

But that was not enough, I needed more clues, "Penelope...!" I called for my maid.

I was seated on my mattress, still in my chamber robe and with my legs crossed. I held the strand of black hair in my hand and had a thought...

"Dark hair, black eyes... Is it at all possible that there's someone out there with the same features just as I?"

"Yes sire," Penelope appeared before me in my chambers.

"Tell me, did you put me to bed?" I asked her whilst keeping my eyes on the strand of black hair.

"Pardon, sire?" Penelope looked at me with a confused look.

I asked again, this time looking at her sternly, "I meant to ask, did you by any chance find me on the floor and proceeded to put me on my bed?"

"I apologize, sire, but I did no such thing. I have been in the kitchen preparing the dinner meals with the chef and cooks," Penelope answered promptly.

"I see... You may leave now."

"Yes, sire."

Before she could leave, I said, "Wait!"

"Yes, sire?" she stopped and responded.

I took a moment to think about my stepmother's visit today, and asked Penelope, "You were there when the queen, my... 'stepmother' made a certain statement about the people around me, right?"

She answered so straightforwardly, "Yes, Sire. I was there and listening."

"Yes... You were..." I approached her and stared into her eyes.

I slowly asked her, "You wouldn't perchance be a spy for my stepmother, would you?"

She immediately chuckled, "Of course not, sire. She isn't worth my time." Those words sounded sincere to me, and I would have completely believed her.

That is if she hadn't also whispered something concerning right into my ears.

"However... if I were your highness, I would be careful with whom you trust." After making that comment, she gave me a kiss on my lips, adjusted my glasses on my surprised face and left my chambers with a somewhat devilish smile on her face.

I shuddered at that interaction and gulped. "I think I'll have to be watchful of her," I thought.

It had not been more than a month since I had known Penelope and that lady was still such a mystery to me.

It took a short while for me to compose myself. Once I did, I kept the strand of hair in one of my vest's pockets. And called for my page. "PAIGE...!!"

It took but a few minutes before he appeared in my chambers, before then, I had already worn my outdoor garments and that was including my vest with the hair strand in one of the pockets.

"Your highness! How... Ha...! Ha...! H-How may I serve you today?" Paige said, gasping for air. It seemed like he may have run all the way here.

"Well, I need you to summon the chamberlain for me. Also, prepare my steed, Moonlight for me, I'll be heading into town." I stated whilst adjusting my glasses.

Paige responded immediately, "At once, your highne—"

But I interrupted, "—And...! Take your time. Maybe get a cup of water while passing by the kitchen."

"Ah... Yes, your highness. Thank you, your highness." And he left gracefully with a bow.

After a few minutes, "Sire? You called for me?" said my chamberlain, Lord Ferdinand as he entered my private chamber. He appeared before me with a worried look on his face.

I thought, "It seems like he hadn't forgotten our last interaction. Good."

I stood before him with a serious look on my face and said, "Now, I believe that you have something you'd like to share with me?"

"I... Couldn't say," he avoided my gaze.

"Why is that? You were very chatty before, weren't you?" I asked as I menacingly approached him.

"That is because, it was an order from your father, the king of Gladia," he answered, still avoiding my gaze.

"I see..." I said, turning my back towards him.

I stoked my bangs back, revealing my forehead and adjusted my glasses before I began to laugh maniacally.

"Hahahahahahaha...." My laughter was long and loud. It was unexpected and uncontrolled so it took Lord Ferdinand by surprise.

I could feel the fear in Lord Ferdinand grow. I took a moment to pause my laughter, turned towards him, leaned into his ear and asked menacingly, "Hey...? I heard a rumour that you were an aura lord, is that true?"

His body trembled. "Um... Y-Yes, sire. It is not official but yes, I evolved into an aura lord just last month."

"Hmm... I wonder how you did that? It couldn't have been easy at all, was it?" I asked in an interrogating tone.

He gulped, "O-Of course not, sire. I went through strenuous training to get where I am now."

"Probably another lie," I thought to myself with an unsurprised look.

I responded nonchalantly, "I bet you did... Well, that's a question for later." I decided to not ask him any further, I was, however, very suspicious of his methods in evolving into an aura lord.

Why? Well, mainly because of the different methods one would have to adapt to evolve as an aura bender.

There are officially two methods to evolve into higher levels of aura mastery, the first one being meditation and training, putting your mind, body and soul through immense training to envelop aura into one's being.

It's a long and hardly rewarding method but it works for those that have great endurance, determination and the unrelenting will to evolve.

Some even say you have to be ready to embrace madness to evolve using that method. That's just how taxing it is.

The second method isn't easy either, hunting aura beasts—beasts with the ability to use aura. There are three types of aura beasts in Areth: Earth Beasts, Sky Beast and Ancient Beasts. All more powerful than any average man or demi that lived in the world. What's evident of the beasts being aura beasts is the aura core — a stone filled with aura, embedded externally on their body where their heart should be.

Earth beasts are beasts that live on land and have the ability to use aura. Most earth beasts use aura to hunt or defend themselves and nothing more. Their aura cores are usually green or dark green depending on the quality of the aura in them.

Green, if low in quality and dark green, if high in quality. The volume or quantity of aura in them is always low.

Sky beasts are beasts that roam the sky or better yet, have the ability of flight and the ability to use and absorb aura from other living things. They're very ferocious and intelligent creatures when it comes to hunting their prey. Their aura cores are usually yellow or orange depending on their volume of aura and quality.

Yellow, if high in volume but low in quality and orange if low in volume but extremely high in quality.

Lastly, there are ancient beasts or sometimes called divine beasts. They are extremely intelligent beasts whose aura abilities and skills are incomprehensible to the arethian mind.

These creatures are said to be as old as time and have not only obtained high levels of control over aura or the ability to manipulate or drain it from other living things but also the ability to produce aura.