It took over an hour of flying before we could see the dark zone. I felt it before I saw it, a bone-deep chill and the sickening sensation from mana so polluted by the evil magic of the Demons that I could feel my very soul recoiling in horror at its mere existence. Visually, it was a vast circle of black and blighted landscape, long left within death’s unrelenting grasp. “It is all dead,” I muttered as I looked away and tried not to throw up.

-Aye, Kaelyn, naught grows or lives in the dark zones, at least, nothing good,- Sharai warned. -Be cautious, even outside the dark zone, you might encounter that which was fouled within. Where there are dark zones there are Tainted, and worse yet, Darklings. The latter seldom stray far from the dark mana that spawned them though, lest they lose what mockery of life they possess.-

“Darklings? And why would they do that if they need the tainted mana to survive?” I asked. I knew that Tainted were people, animals, or other living things who were changed by long-term exposure to corrupted mana into monstrous creatures. I had never heard the other term though.

-Aye, Darklings. Souls of Faded Fae who died within a dark zone, forever tainted by dark mana and unable to return to the Weave. Shadowy parodies of what they once were in life and jealous of the living, especially Fae.-

I shivered at the thought but fortunately, the terrifying thoughts that brought to mind were scattered as Vesha’s voice asked, “Are you alright, Kaelyn?”

“Aye,” I managed after a moment and a deep breath to calm my mind. “Sharai was just warning me that we should be wary of Tainted and Darklings, even if we do not enter the dark zone itself.”

Vesha gave a grim nod of agreement. “She’s right. Let’s try and find these catacombs that Tanna mentioned. I want to finish this quest as soon as possible; I do not want to be wandering around here after the sun sets. If we do have to make camp somewhere, I would rather find someplace that can be easily defended.”

I was in full agreement with the Dragonkin and quickly scanned the ground around the dark zone. “Catacombs…” I turned the word over upon my tongue, considering what it might imply, and went over the prophecy in my mind again and again as we flew around the perimeter of the dark zone while keeping a safe distance. It was half an hour later that I spotted what looked like unusual rock formations poking up through the treetops, and one great spire that looked out of place somehow among the trees.

I could see the strange rock formations stretching into the dark zone as well, there was a sort of pattern to them. Wait, those were ruins. “Vesha, look there!” I called out. “Tanna said that we would find our proof in the shadows of the past!”

The ruins were vast, easily as large as the city of Majair though most of it was rubble, long since reclaimed by nature. There was little remaining now except for the occasional intact building jutting up past the treetops and the strange tower, but the fact that anything still stood at all after several millennia was a testament to the Ancient Ones. Ironically, it looked like the ruins within the dark zone fared better than outside, but I was not about to risk venturing there to explore them. Besides, we had a time limit, one that was passing faster than I liked.

It was nearing sunset now, leaving us little more than a day to finish our task and meet our troupe in Loden, and we had yet to find anything in these ruins that might lead us into the catacombs spoken of in the prophecy. We had looked through rubble and inside what few buildings that had, by some miracle, remained standing after so long, but we were getting nowhere.

I sat upon a moss-covered stone near another pile of ancient rubble that had yielded nothing and let out a sigh. There was too much of this ancient city for us to haphazardly search before our time was up. Perhaps it was time for a break while we figured out a proper plan. “Maybe we should find a secure place to make camp for the night, Vesha. The shadows are growing long, and this place makes me uneasy.”

Vesha’s shoulders sagged. I was fairly certain that she was feeling as disappointed as I was, but then she stood up straight and turned to look at me with wide eyes, “Wait, what did you just say?”

“I said that we should probably find a place to make camp,” I repeated wearily.

“No! The other part!” she exclaimed with a grin as she pointed toward the tallest of the towers that we had yet seen, a strange fusion of stone and metal that had withstood the test of time better than its counterparts. “You said the shadows are getting long, what if we’ve been going at this all wrong? What if, instead of looking at the rubble and in the buildings themselves, we need to look in the shadows they cast? In the shadows of the past.”

I was back on my feet in an instant as I realized that she might just be on to something. That was the riddle we needed to solve, and Vesha had probably just done so. “We need to hurry; we do not have long before the sun sets.”

As if by some unconscious accord, we both took to the air and flew straight for the tower, as it cast the largest shadow. I found myself watching the shadows uneasily as we traversed the city, but it was not solely to search for what we sought. This place made me uneasy, and I feared that there might be more in those shadows than our goal, something evil.

The tower cast a large shadow, it almost reached the dark zone to the east of us, and we had to search quickly. I could probably keep searching even after sunset with my night vision, but Vesha had no such advantage. The last light was nearly upon us when I spotted stone steps leading underground. I had almost missed them as they had been partially buried in the collapse of the large building that had once sheltered them.

I quickly called Vesha over and she had to be practically on top of the steps and summon a flame to her hand before she could see the opening in the fading light. “Good job, Kaelyn, I think this is it. Let’s go, maybe we can find a defendable spot to get some rest. We are far too close to the dark zone for my comfort.”

“I can sense dark magic down there. It is faint but moving, and there is more than one source. There are probably Tainted down there,” I cautioned. “At least the tunnel seems to be moving away from the dark zone, judging by where I’m sensing the movement.”

“Torr’s hairy balls!” she cursed in response, a frown darkening her face. “It looks like we’re not going to get through this trial without some sort of fight. Can you tell how close and how many?”

I shook my head, mirroring her frown. “It is hard to say. We are far too close to the dark zone and it has… a presence. It is making sensing magic difficult, especially anything similar to the corrupted mana there. It will become easier as we move away from the dark zone but…”

Suddenly, Vesha shoved me roughly to the side, hissing in pain as her arm took a thrust that would have likely skewered me from behind. Her scales had taken the blow but even they had not completely protected her and I could see small rivulets of blood in the light of the flames that erupted from her mouth to send the shadowy creature back several steps. I had not even sensed its approach with the interference from the nearby dark zone and as I got a good look at it in the light of Vesha’s flames, Sharai’s voice exclaimed, -A Darkling!-

It reminded me of a Demon outside a corporeal body, smoke and shadow vainly holding on to the shape and form the creature had once had as a Fae. In life, she had probably once been a Faerie, like me. I could not make out any distinct features, save for the balefully glowering crimson eyes, but she was similar to me in shape and size, and wisps of darkness behind her parodied my wings.

She wore silvery-blue armor that mostly covered her shadowy form from the neck down, including a full plate cuirass with an attached chainmail skirt of sorts that reached mid-thigh on her. Thick plated pauldrons, vambraces, gauntlets, greaves, and sabatons were also worn over finely woven chainmail leggings and a hooded coif. The armor shone in the light of Vesha’s flames and did not look like it had ever seen a day of battle. The strangest thing though, was her sword; an unnatural swirling mix of light and shadow.

Vesha’s flames had seemed to surprise the Darkling more than hurt her and she turned away from the Dragonkin to leap at me once again with a scream of fury. I let Sharai take control and she rolled our body backward before getting to our feet and drawing Neva’kul to parry the Darkling’s attack in one smooth motion. “Vesha, you cannot harm this one, it is neither living nor corporeal. Only magic can hope to stand against such a creature, and Neva’kul is a magical blade,” she warned in our voice.

“Can we harm it?” I thought at her nervously.

-I… do not know. I have never attempted to fight a shade such as this, and that armor is completely made from moonsilver, heavily enchanted as well to be in such pristine condition. I shall need to attack the unprotected areas,- was her reply as she parried another attack and countered with a thrust toward the creature's unprotected head as I felt her channeling my body’s mana into the blade.

Neva’kul passed right through the creature’s head as if it was the smoke it resembled, only seeming to anger her further. She used the thrust against us, forcing Sharai to roll our body to the side to prevent her strange blade, which had somehow switched hands in the blink of an eye, from getting inside our guard.

“How did she switch hands so fast?!” I seethed as we got to our feet just in time to block another frenzied attack. “And I thought you said that Neva’kul could hurt her!”

-The blade is probably the corrupted remnant of the gift she had in life, and I said that magic was our only hope, not that it was certain to work,- Sharai snapped back. Her frustration was understandable. We both knew that eventually, she was going to tire and when that happened, I would be facing the Darkling alone, without the benefit of Sharai’s fighting experience. If we could not hurt it, even with Neva’kul, how were we going to live through this?

Our fight raged on and sunset had faded into twilight. I was glad for the speed and agility that our body possessed as Sharai, parried, dodged, and backed out of the reach of another rapid flurry of attacks. Without her guiding my body, I would likely be dead by now. Thanks to Sharai, our opponent had yet to so much as scratch me, but that wasn’t going to last. Our breathing was becoming labored, her attacks were coming closer and closer to hitting each time, and we still had no way to actually hurt the Darkling.

Sharai had even tried using magic, but what small spells that she knew were not offensive in nature. They did not bother the Darkling any more than Vesha’s flames had, everything seemed to just pass right through it if it wasn’t stopped by the armor first. She was swiftly tiring from appending so much time in control of my body while casting spells and infusing mana into Neva’kul whenever she attacked possible weak spots.

-Kaelyn, I will need to rest soon. You may have to use Tamisun’s glyph to increase your speed and reflexes. If you must do that, use mine as well. Perhaps you can escape using your copies as a distraction,- Sharai told me tiredly. –I am sorry, I should have learned to use more magic than simple cantrips when I was alive, as Tamisun told me. I always thought that I would have plenty of time to learn.-

How could we beat this thing? It was more annoying than fighting Demons. At least Demons were reliant on a physical body that you could kill. Then they could be destroyed with the purifying flames of faerie fire. Wait. This thing was a Fae soul, corrupted by the tainted mana in the dark zone. Maybe Sharai was right about using magic after all.

“Sharai, cast a faerie fire!” My projected thought surprised her as she deflected the Darkling’s weapon wearily and leaped backward to put some distance between us, but one brief glimpse at what I was thinking had her quickly summoning a massive rose-hued faerie fire that completely encompassed our adversary. Her screams were torturous, and it took longer to purify her than any of the Demons that I had done so with. Sharai relinquished control of my body once she was certain that it was working and Vesha approached as soon as the screaming began and for a time, the pair of us stood there silently as we watched my flames consume the Darkling.

Finally, the screaming stopped, the empty armor crashed to the ground, and a naked translucent figure stepped out from inside the flames, closing the distance between us. She was a Faerie with long red-gold hair and amber eyes and wings, and I allowed my flames to vanish since I suspected that their work was now done. Vesha was about to step between us, but the spirit smiled and shook her head as she simply stepped through the Dragonkin’s extended arm.

I was exhausted but I remained standing as the spirit took my hands in hers, eliciting a shiver all the way up my arms and down my spine. “Thank you for setting me free, youngling, may this gift keep you safe,” the woman’s voice whispered as a burning agony was seared into the back of my left hand. When she removed her hands from mine, I saw a strange golden glyph on the back of her left hand, one that matched the one now on my hand, where the burning sensation had been a moment before.

The apparition stepped away, briefly casting a sorrowful look toward Vesha, or rather her arm. The scales were turning black where the Darkling’s first blow had managed to penetrate her scales. “I am sorry, young Salamander, the darkness spreads. Hurry to the chamber of fire.” She was quickly fading from sight as she gave that last warning and when the last word left her lips, she burst into countless motes of light. The lights swirled around us in one final farewell before floating up into the sky and fading from sight.