Book One – Chapter 13

It was disturbing. Midnight was not much to begin with. She had been unable to regain her former size, to grow back. Even the darkness she had split from the shadebeast could not be assimilated; in the ice cave, it had remained as an external force she could control but not consume to reshape herself. After the fight, Midnight had absorbed the essence of the shadebeast, but she did not know if it had caused her to grow in any manner. She had been unable to discern at that moment, and she still could not. She had been too immersed in the intoxicating essence of the beast. She wondered if she would, over time, surpass this diminutive residue of her existence on her own, as she had once evolved from a mere patherren to a full pathera?

In the past, her growth had been fuelled by external forces: physical prey and the energy of Rothar. Without a tangible body, she no longer needed to hunt for sustenance. But what about the energy she had once derived from the moon? Could Sey still strengthen her, or had she lost that connection entirely? Was she still, somewhere, somehow, a midnight stalker, or had she become something else entirely?

Midnight now understood that her formidable abilities had been entirely dependent on her environment. In the profound darkness of the Albweiss, she had thrived, but in this world flooded with light, she felt weakened and vulnerable. Would she only be able to exist in environments devoid of light? The realm immediately beneath the Raja Siena stood in stark contrast to the subterranean world of the Albweiss. In the depths of the mountain, Midnight had manifested her existence without any cost or compromise. But beyond the underground realm, there were no expanses of uninterrupted darkness. Everywhere was bathed in light, day and night. Even during the darker hours, some source of illumination persisted, whether it was the moons or the stars — except, of course, during the witching hour, the period of absolute darkness. A question arose in Midnight’s mind: Would th dark moon affect the encircling light? Would T̰́̇ͦ̀è̸̷̸̬̤̗̊_̸̵̰̦̗̒͜ȟ̗̍ͤa̶͉͉͍̭̰̅̀̈͜ͅȓ̶̶̛̦͇͙̟̈̿͒ͮ͑̋̚͡u̟͖͔̖̙͙͆̄̿ͩͧ̃̽̓̈̌̀͟͞n influence her?