Would the same happen to her if she shifted and then fought him?

Yes, if her Rothar remained the same when she shifted, it could be attacked regardless of her physical form. The sprites had spoken of exactly that, of ripping her.

Had they actually warned her?

Did they mean to say that she needed to shift her Rothar into darkness before fighting the shadebeast? To keep the Rothar safe from harm? To transform with her all?

Was that the “true affinity” she was lacking? Did the sprites mean to say Midnight could be like the shadebeast?

Midnight struggled to compare his existence to hers. She did not even know if he ever shifted in and out of the darkness, like she did — that was just it. First with the DΔϢΠΙΠƓϛ and now facing the shadebeast, Midnight had sensed entities more intimately bound to the darkness than herself, but until just now, she had simply seen this as their innate existence. Because they were so different from her, she had never considered that they might once have been beasts like her. She had not asked herself how she could be more like these others. Midnight only ever thought about how to become a better herself.

But this was what wizards did, was it not? The child wizard, who just a year ago struggled with walking and feeding, looked at the 200-year-old Master Luminary who was so different from him and so superior, and yet he asked himself, How can I be like him? And even this most powerful Master Luminary still looked around and asked himself, Why can the witches do what I cannot? How can I learn what they do?

How could Midnight be like the shadebeast? How was he different from her?

Midnight could not feel his presence as she did with other beasts. He was right behind her, but he had no tangible energy signature. The whole time he pursued her, she did not perceive him as a distinct being but rather as a dynamic distortion of density, a conscious ripple within the very fabric of darkness. He was not restricted by matter, passing in and out of the walls unhindered  — just like her darkness claws had with the stalactite pillar!

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