Sixth Child

This story is told from the perspective of Jex, in March of 96 AE.
Part 1
To think it’s already been 6 months since the war with Tethris. At least, that’s what I’d like to think. While everyone else has spent this time either licking their wounds or cleaning up the aftermath, I’ve spent this time unconscious on an operating table in Dalverad.
During the battle with Tethris, my shadow was broken, and apparently that can be lethal. Something about my blood vessels bursting from the backlash. I don’t remember most of the details, as I’ve been in a daze since I woke up. Though now that I think about it, that isn’t saying much. After all, I’ve been awake for about… 10 minutes now?
Even though it’s been 10 minutes, I still can’t move anything. Can’t say I’m surprised, sleeping for 6 months wouldn’t be quick to recover from. Even so, it’s a bit of a pain.
Suddenly, I hear a door open, followed by footsteps walking towards me.
“I had heard you were finally awake.” A familiar voice said, “Took you long enough.”
I would recognize that voice anywhere. It belonged to my mentor, He Who Walks in Shadows. I could never be bothered to say the whole name, so I’ve always just called him mentor.
“Yeah yeah, whatever.” I said. “I see you haven’t changed a bit.”
“Boy, I haven’t changed anything since before your grandfather was born.” He said, “Why would I start now?”
I tried to shake my head, but still couldn’t move.
“Whatever, old man.” I said. “So whats new with you?”
“I can tell from your tone that you don’t really care.” He replied, “So why bother asking?”
I let out a light laugh, “True enough. Guess I was just making small talk or some shit.”
“Well cut it out.” He said, “I don’t want to have to deal with you any longer than I need to.”
“Well fuck you too.” I replied, “I was planning on leaving anyway!”
A few moments of silence followed before we both burst into laughter.
“Oh how I miss this.” He said, “Nobody around here dares trash talk with me anymore. They think I might drag them into the darkness and rip them to shreds or something.”
“And you’d do it too!” I said, “If you weren’t too old to give a shit!”
“True enough, I suppose.” He said.
A few moments of silence followed. It was a bit awkward, but I felt compelled to stay silent.
“Listen Jex...” He said, suddenly serious, “I have a proposition for you.”
“Oh?” I asked, “You want me to clean between your toes or something?”
“No.” He replied, “And get serious for a second.”
I haven’t heard the old man get serious like this for a long time. Hell, the last time I saw it was when he suggested attempting the stage 5 treatment.
“We just might have figured out the trick to stage 6.”
Wait, hes serious? Stage 6 Shade Magic has been nothing but a theory, a small glimmer of hope that shade mages can continue to grow. Did he seriously figure out a way to make it real?
“I’m listening.” I said.
“We haven’t tested it yet,” he said, “but we made a batch of compound that should work.”
‘Should’ work. While I hope it does, I’m getting the impression that it won’t be as simple as working or not working.
“So whats the deal?” I ask, “You want me to be the first test subject for the new compound?”
“You?” He asked, “Oh no, you’re way too valuable to our friends above to risk potentially killing you. Besides, we already have a volunteer to test it.”
“Oh.” I said, a bit disappointed, “Then what do you want from me?”
“We just want you to be on standby when we do the test.” He said, “Just incase something goes… nuclear.”
Ok… So whatever it is thats special about this new compound might just have side effects bad enough to need an Unknown Soldier around. Wonderful. That doesn’t sound inconspicuous at all.
“That sounds easy enough.” I said, “So whos the volunteer?”
“I think you know him.” He said, “Considering how hes the only other Stage 5 besides you.”
I should have figured as much. Kristian Gleath. I met him a few times while I was learning shade magic. Guys a bit of an ass, but hes a damn good shade mage.
“So when are we doing this?” I asked, “Cause I’m gonna have to report back at some point.”
“Now.” He replied, “We were waiting for you to wake up.”
“Well alright then.” I said, “Do me a favour and help me up. Let’s get this show on the road.”
===Part 2===
I was expecting to do this in the typical place in Dalverad, but instead I find myself in some random room in the middle of nowhere. Apparently they had this place specially made for this particular occasion. Can’t say I’m impressed, it’s just a small room with an operating table in the middle, a chair, and a box of tools. Well whatever, so long as we get this done fast. I’m going to need to report back soon, and would hate to waste time here.
After waiting for about 15 minutes, the man of the hour, Kristian Gleath, showed up. It’s been around 10 years since I’ve seen him, but he hasn’t changed at all. Looks the same, and still has that stupid look on his face.
“Been awhile, Jex.” He said, “Tell me, how’s the life of a forgotten soldier treating you?”
“Oh, pretty well.” I said, “How’s the life of a social outcast amongst social outcasts working out?”
“Gentlemen, please,” Said the man in the room that I didn’t recognize, “Let’s just get this started.”
“Humph, fine.” Kristian said, walking over to the operating table.
He pulled his shirt off, and lay down on the table. The man who had interrupted us pulled out a suitcase of sorts, opened it, and pulled out a large glass tube filled with a black substance. So, that’s the stage 6 advancement compound. I was expecting something different, but instead it looks exactly the same as the other 5 compounds. Oh well.
The man hooked the tube up to an iv, as Mentor began to strap Kristian down to the table with leather straps. Pretty standard procedure, nothing wrong so far. The man began to stick the iv tubes into Kristian’s right arm. The compound flowed through the tubes, and into his body.
I’ve gone through this process 5 times myself, so I already know what’s going to happen next.
Just as expected, Kristian began to struggle, and started crying out. He began to struggle, but wasn’t able to do much tied down like that. So far, everything is going as expected.
After a minute or so, the tube with the compound had completely emptied, Kristians flailing intensified. He struggled to the point that he ripped the straps and fell to the ground, knocking the table over. His screaming intensified, to a degree that his mouth began to bleed. I knew the process got more painful with each stage, I had felt it after all. But this didn’t seem to be any worse than the stage 4 advancement. I don’t know, maybe his body was used to the feeling by now.
The time that I was thinking this was when things started to go wrong. Black vein patterns began to spread all over his body, and they seemed to be coming from his heart. As the veins spread, his screaming became more of an angry roar.
“Well,” I mumbled, “That’s different.”
I stand up straight, and take up an unarmed stance. I’m not sure why, but I get the feeling something bad is about to happen.
Unfortunately, my hunch was right. Kristian stood up, and began smashing at everything around him. It was like he had lost his mind and was going on a rampage. Did the compound fry his brain? Or was it just from the pain?
Suddenly, his shadow began to quiver, and black spikes formed in the air behind him. With a grunt, he sent the spikes flying in all directions, breaking everything that he hadn’t already broken, including the single light. Well, at least now he won’t be able to use his shade magic.
Or so I thought.
Stages 1-5 involved manipulating energy inside of your body by using your shadow as a release point. However, nobody had fine enough control to shape the energy in complete darkness, and required their shadow to be used as a mold. For whatever reason, Kristian began to form more black spikes in the air around him, in total darkness.
Welp, guess we know what stage 6 does. Shit.
More black spikes began to scatter from all directions, in all directions. It was taking everything I had to weave out of the way and avoid getting hit. The man who had injected him had become a pincushion, with spikes sticking out of his body in all places. Guess hes dead. Mentor was nowhere to be seen, so I assume he had run.
So it’s just me and the psychopath who doesn’t seem to have control over his actions. Wonderful.
Now think, what’s the best way to deal with this guy? I can’t use my own shade magic, since its completely dark in here. Guess that means I’m using my backup style, time to bring in my daggers.
I prepare my teleport glyph to bring in my daggers but…. Wait what’s happening? I can’t detect my daggers, they’re not in their usual place! Hold on, I get it. They’re probably all at the bottom of the ocean in Stormvale, and I haven’t had the chance to get new ones since then.
So I’m unarmed, and can’t use shade magic. Shit, now what do I do?
I look around, but Kristian appears to have regained his composure. He let out an angry, animalistic roar at me, and began to launch more spikes at me. I continued to weave between them, but there were more this time than before. I wasn’t going to be able to keep this up forever, eventually 1 will hit me. If 1 hits me, it’s likely all over.
Think Jex, what else can you do…
I risk a glance to the center of the room, and notice the box of tools that Kristian had knocked over. It had popped open, and various medical tools were scattered around on the floor. Stethoscopes, those little rubber hammers, and… scalpels! There were at least a dozen scalpels scattered around on the floor. I still have my magnetic glyphs branded into my arms, so I can use those!
I weave for a few more seconds, then dive to the side. A lone needle hits my leg, and pain erupts all the way up to my hip. I ignore the pain, and launch a magnetic field at the scalpels. The field hits, and I launch them blade first straight at Kristian. All of them imbed in his arm and torso.
He lets out a painful grunt, and falls to his knees. I quickly pull the scalpels back towards me, and suspend them in the air around me. It was a little but unconventional, but hey, it worked. However, I know it’s going to take more than a few flesh wounds to take this beast down.
Sure enough, Kristian quickly scrambled back up, and started gasping heavily. He looked back at me, his face even angrier before. Angry enough that his eyes had started bleeding, and black blood began to pour down his face. If I weren’t in a life or death situation right now, I would think he looked pretty badass.
He let out another angry scream… and suddenly he was inches in front of me. How the hell did he move that fast in this state? Ask questions later, stab now. I launch the scalpels at him again, each impaling a different part of his upper body. One even struck him right on top of his head, but he didn’t even flinch. He reached both hands out, and started squeezing my arms extremely tightly.
Pain erupted from my arms, as his fingers tore right through my skin. I could feel him digging deeper, to the point that I’m pretty sure he was touching my bones.
Suddenly, pain unlike anything I had ever felt before erupted throughout my entire body.
I couldn’t even begin to attempt to withhold my scream, which echoed throughout the entire room and started killing my ears. Kristian began roaring along with me, at least, I think he was. It sounded like it, but I can’t tell if it’s that or just my brain screaming from the pain. I felt it slowly pass through my body, like it was tearing me apart from the inside, one centimeter at a time.
However, the pain only lasted about 10 seconds, and suddenly it was gone. Kristian suddenly let go of me, and I fell to my side. While the pain had stopped, my body hadn’t recovered from it yet. I wasn’t able to move. Shit, this is bad… this is really bad.
I managed to turn my head, and I look up at Kristian. His anger seemed to be gone, and he was staring at me inquisitively. Wait, what happened? Did he suddenly recover from whatever rage he gone into?
I hear footsteps behind me, and Kristian looks up at whoever had made them. The rage suddenly returned, and he roared at this new figure.
I thought I could hear someone calling out my name through the roar, but I can’t be too sure.
I hear it again, sure that this time I wasn’t imagining it.
“Jex!” The voice yells, “Get up!”
I recognize that voice, its Mentor’s. So he had come back, DAMNIT! I can’t do anything, and Kristian is just going to kill him! No, I won’t let him. Mentor is the closest thing I still have to a father, and I won’t lose my father for a third time!
I raise my arm, and instinctively let out an angry roar. A large black spike shoots out of my hand, and impales Kristian’s chest.
He roars in pain, and falls on his back.
I struggle to my feet, and look down at my hand. I… I had just used shade magic in total darkness…
Was I… was I stage 6 now? No, that can’t be it. I never had the compound…. No
Kristian’s fingers, they dug into me. The pain had flowed slowly through my body. He stopped being aggressive when the pain stopped.
Had… had Kristian’s blood gotten into my bloodstream? And had that somehow caused me to develop into stage 6?
I shake my head. I can’t think about that now, attend to the matter at hand.
I look down at Kristian, who’s struggling to get the large spike out of his chest. I see now that the spike was at least 3 feet long, and had hit just below his heart. He was losing a lot of blood really fast, and his movements began to slow down. I walk over to him, and looked down. His rage was slowly fading as he gradually stopped moving, and eventually he looked up at me.
“Jex…” he mumbled. So he had finally come to his senses. “It hurts…. Please…..”
I understood what he was saying, and created another large spike in the air above him. I threw the spike straight into his heart, and he stopped moving altogether.
Kristian Gleath was dead.
==Aftermath==
While the test subject had died, the experiment was considered a success. Jex was officially recognized as the first stage 6 shade mage.
Despire suffering heavy injury right after waking up from a coma, Jex walked away from the event in a relatively ok state. He reported back to base, and life resumed as normal.
Due to the unfortunate turn of events, the experiment, as well as Jex's stage advancement, were kept a secret from the rest of the world.
Category:New Voldrania Category:Story