Missions can often Clash with building an empire

  Yana stood in the center of her Shi underground complex, her mind a buzz with all that she needed to do. She knew her remaining shadow memory shards were on Sho and that she only had 4000 shadow truths in the Winter Soul. She was not sure how many truths she needed to reach Blessed-Soul soul depth but she was assuming it would take all of the ones Winter Soul held – and probably more.

  She looked out over her people. She had decided to protect anyone who chose to be loyal to her. It went against her natural instinct but she was no longer sure how natural that instinct actually was. Since her memories returned she had begun to understand the choices she had made to become the individual she now was.

  Losing all gave her a rare opportunity to change and she wanted to change for the better. She looked to Ka. “Three of the four have begun to talk.” She looked to her Pet Starguide. “Starlight has marked them for me. Tell me about the fourth.”

  Ka nodded, as if he were fully aware of any intel she may have. “The fourth is an assassin clan mostly made up of Pra assassins. They will not ally with the others and they may have already infiltrated.”

  Yana nodded and looked to Starlight again. The Starguide fluttered with random colors as she received orders from her mistress. ‘Go find them for me but protect yourself. Only mark them for me and if you need to speak for me do so. You know my mind in this.’

  ‘Yes mistress.’ The Starguide blinked twice more and then seemed to blink out of existence. [Star Walk]

  She looked to the others. “I am going for a walk. Let me see how powerful these factions are.” She turned her head and a portal opened before her. Vora stepped through with the calm assurance of a feline. “You’re with me Vora. We will begin to settle this together and when I travel to Sho you will finish it.”

  The Pra Princess did not speak, she merely stepped in line beside Yana, as Heli pranced to Yana’s other side. She looked to the Demon dog with a smile. “You want to show off your new abilities?” the demon dog looked to her, his golden-black flames surging more intensely on his back. Yana nodded. “You better not disappoint me.”

  Yana, Vora, and Heli walked through the quiet streets of the largest city of Shi. Shi is a vast realm of both shadow and light but the light here is subdued because there is always a dusting of light blue clouds in the sky. This has an effect on their sun and allows its warmth to reach Shi but not its visual brilliance. Because of this the shadows of Shi behaved differently. They tended to be denser and, if they contained it, their magic was more intense and wider reaching.

  For both Yana and Vora it was a rather fertile hunting ground. They could both find an ample supply of very powerful shadows. But they were not there for that now. They were there to have a quiet talk with factions that were refusing to solidify under Yana to form one cohesive organization within the world of Shi.

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  And – unknown to her – to start her empire all over again.

  The trio walked the streets of Shiredone as if they had not a single care in the world. Their steps calm, smooth, unhurried. Their expressions blissfully blank, and their postures relaxed.

  All three of them felt the Shift at the same time. The thin blue-black air before them seemed to thicken with a tension of surprise, fear, and determination. Many people were moving towards them from four directions at once. Heli spoke first, a low growl rumbled through him into the ground – his golden-black flames crackling as they rippled along his spine. It wasn’t a true [Void Growl], merely a precursor.

  Still his power rolled through the streets before them and the movement hesitated and stopped. It was sufficient for both him and Vora to move forward and attack.

  Yana allowed her senses to spread outward and looking into the four, no two groups. She smiled. Starlight had been right the Fae faction would not participate in this. She waited a moment longer and as she heard the first grunts and screams she moved out. A new magic revealed itself as she moved forward and three other versions of her being split from her into different directions.

  [Shadow Split]

  She was only at level one and could manifest six incarnations at a time. She only needed three for now so it was not very taxing to move forward and pass Heli and Vora to enter the thick of the fray. Even though they were not fighting side by side it seemed like they were synchronized in their efforts.

  Vora moved through the Human faction with ease, her thick long tail helping her to cut down those brave enough to actually approach her, and those that ran. She moved with grace and she dispatched her enemy like the seasoned warrior she was.

  Even as she did this Yana’s incarnation moved through the humans like a misty shadow – one minute there and fighting, the next a horrid nightmare fading from memory. Her shadow weapon continually changed form as if it was having an identity crisis and she had a wide insane smile across her face and dancing in her intense black eyes.

  Heli used his growls and fire to burn through the Serpent faction. Yana’s incarnation seemed to dance within the golden-black flames as if she were a serpent herself, slithering through the air and avoiding nothing in particular.

  But it was Yana and her incarnation who fought alone that truly decimated the Human and Serpent factions. She didn’t use her shadow weapon in these two confrontations. She manipulated the shadows around them and sliced, chopped, and suffocated all beings around her.

  As they died the Winter Soul absorbed their souls without prejudice. It was a slaughter and all three of them lost themselves into it, but like a trigger they stopped when it registered that only five of their enemies were left. That was Yana’s order five to go back to their leaders. They regrouped and Yana smiled. “How fortunate, ten Humans and ten Serpents.” She cracked her neck twice. “I wasn’t really finished.”

  She manipulated the shadows around her and brought a human to her. Her Wao physiology made her much taller than humans and the shadows lifted the man up so that they were at eye level. Her black eyes twinkled with cold light as she used another new magic and ripped the human from the lines of fate – even as she read his fate. She watched as fate lines broke and then re-tethered to her own, making the human hers – mind, body, and soul.

  She looked to the other nine humans and no longer saw recognition in their eyes. Her eyes narrowed as the shadows lowered the man to her side and pulled a serpent beastken to her.

  When she was finished with the Serpent Yana, Heli, and Vora turned to their right as one. “Come out Fae. Has your master sent you?”

  Yana was pleased. She would rule Shi from the depths of the underground networks and use these beginnings to rule all seven rings of Pa.