Pul

Is this how adventuring usually is? He’s heard from the older adventurers about how different Thedeim is to delve in, but he’s never delved anywhere else. But walking through the Southwood, he notices the little things the others do that his friends don’t often worry about.

Like looting. The Southwood hardly has worrying encounters compared to some of Thedeim’s areas, but where he and Freddie would usually spend a few minutes butchering and dressing the denizens, the others ignore the bodies, letting them dissipate into mana after they go.

They’re also a lot more observant than Pul’s friends. Rezlar isn’t terrible, and Fiona is actually pretty good, but it’s usually up to him to spot the next encounter. But between Yvonne and Vernew, he hasn’t been the first to spot anything yet. He’s even seen Ragnar point out a few signs of an impending encounter. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

After they deal with the bears and foxes, Pul gathers his courage and tries to speak to the dwarf. “How did you know there were some denizens nearby?”

Ragnar eyes him for a few moments before shrugging. “Ah felt ‘em.”

“Felt them?” asks Pul, still confused.

Ragnar nods. “Mental affinity, lad. Ah dinnae like tae spread it around, but it’s ‘ow I keep th’ beasties focused on me.”

“But the foxes made them invisible,” presses Pul, only for Ragnar to laugh.

“Most illusions’re jus’ sight, lad! Y’ve got more’n that tae pay attention with! An’ I c’n feel minds, if they get t’ close.”

Pul’s eyes widen at that. “Can you even detect me when I’m in shadows?”

“Aye, lad. Pick a tree t’ hide behind, and I’ll point y’ out with m’ eyes closed.”

Pul doesn’t look convinced of that, but he sees Yvonne watching with a smile, so he decides to give it a try. He starts walking and Ragnar closes his eyes, and the dwarf even spins in a few circles to throw off his sense of direction. Pul focuses on his stealth, lessening his personal gravity so he doesn’t even disturb the leaves on the ground as he picks out a tree to hide behind.

“He’s pointing, Tupul,” calls Yvonne, so Pul steps out from behind the tree, only to be surprised to see the dwarf pointing straight at him, his eyes still closed.

Ragnar opens his eyes and laughs at Pul’s expression, a good-natured lesson that Pul still has a lot to learn. “How’d you do that?” he asks as he gets closer, and the group resumes talking as Ragnar explains.

“Y’ need tae shroud yer thoughts, too. I dinnae ken how, I jus’ know Ah’ve seen Karn’s thoughts vanish even when Ah’m lookin’.”

“Hide my thoughts…” mutters Pul, wondering how he’s supposed to do something like that. Ragnar doesn’t know how, he just knows it’s possible. Pul just hopes he doesn’t need to be as good as the actual Guildmaster to be able to manage it.

Rocky grunts to get Pul’s attention, and he fights down the flinch when he sees how close Onyx is. Shades have a bad reputation, but Onyx has been nothing but friendly toward him and his friends. But sometimes, that smile…

“Miss Onyx has an exercise she wants to teach you, Tupul,” says Doppler, making Pul fight another flinch. He looks a lot less dangerous than Onyx, sure, but his shape feels… off to Pul. He wonders if it’s because he’s a changeling, and so the little things stick out to him more, or if everyone finds Doppler a little off-putting. Either way, he should probably respond.

“Something to help me hide my thoughts?” he asks and Onyx nods, having heard him talking with Ragnar.

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“Yes.” He doesn’t elaborate, letting Onyx explain.

“Shadows hide best in the dark,” she explains. “Nobody else can see your thoughts, so they’re in darkness. So hide the shadows in the darkness,” she explains like it’s so simple.

Doppler smiles at Pul’s confused look. “I would recommend exploring your affinity as we walk. We will all keep you safe while you focus.”

Pul feels a little bad about imposing like that, but everyone else looks fine with it, so he decides to try. He doesn’t close his eyes, but his attention is definitely more on his affinity than the terrain. Teemo said Thedeim wanted him to practice his affinities, and that Onyx would be a good teacher, so he’ll try.

He tries to draw on the affinity without actually using it, just getting a better feel for it. He’s done a few simple things with it so far, like using it to hide himself, but he hasn’t really tried to understand it yet. So he starts with a mental image of shadows… and immediately frowns. A candle in the middle of a room should be a good image of shadow, shouldn’t it? Darkness everywhere, dancing and fighting the light?

But it doesn’t feel right. Shadow blades are pitch black, sure, but normal shadows aren’t that dark. So… lack of light is only part of shadow affinity? What else? He starts populating his mental image with more candles, lighting up the imagined room, and remembers something from when he was younger.

He and his parents never really stayed up very late, but sometimes they’d enjoy evenings chatting and playing dice by candlelight. Of course, they’d need quite a few to be able to read the pips, and he remembers the shadows the falling dice would make, each candle adding another shadow to each die. Some would be darker than others, some overlap to be darker still, some so light they hardly could be noticed.

Darkness is a lack of light, but shadow needs light to be cast. That feels closer, but he’s definitely still missing something. Onyx said there’s no light on his thoughts, so they must be in shadow. It makes a weird sort of sense, but it doesn’t mesh with his understanding of shadow just yet. He doesn’t entertain that Onyx might be wrong about shadow. Of the two of them, he’s going to trust the Shade has a better understanding of the affinity.

But thinking of the tumbling shadows of the tumbling dice makes him wonder if he can actually make his thoughts have shadows. Convincing shadows. He’s seen shadow puppets with hands that look very realistic. Can he make the idea work with… ideas?

He loses track of time as he tries to make it work, but he can barely even wrap his head around making a full shadow of his mind, let alone actually implement it. It’s not until they make camp near the border of the Southwood that he realizes what he’s doing wrong.

It’s the dancing shadows created by the campfire that finally make it click for him. A shadow has a lot less detail. Even hand shadow puppets are simplified. Instead of trying to make a shadow of his full self, he just needs to make puppets!

He focuses on a single idea: of him dashing behind a tree. Yes, he’s still sitting on a rock by the fire, but he can refine the technique later! For now, he’s just trying to make a shadow of an idea. He tries to send the idea out, along with a bit of his mana, but doesn’t see a reaction from Ragnar yet. That’s fine. He’s had to practice a lot to get something to work before.

He nearly falls over backward when Onyx appears before him, her smile wider than he’s seen before. “Oohh, that’s something new. What’re you doing?”

Pul tries to get his heart back under control as he nods. “I’m… I’m trying to make shadows of an idea.”

Onyx beams in pride as Doppler nears, looking confused. “Shadows… of an idea?”

Pul nods. “I’m still figuring it out, but I guess Onyx noticed? Does that mean it’ll actually work?”

Onyx’s excited squeal and nod are a pretty clear answer. “Huh. Well, I think once I figure this out, I might be able to actually hide my thoughts. I’m still trying to feel out how to make the two work together.”

Rocky grunts, and Pul actually doesn’t jump. He’s just more used to Rocky, he supposes.

“He wants to know how you’re doing that. I think he hopes to expand into shadow affinity,” translates Doppler.

“I… don’t think it’ll work for that? I’m not really doing anything with my mind. I’m just… taking a vague outline of a thought. A shadow of it.”

The boxer gives a thoughtful grunt which apparently isn’t a question, or at least not addressed to Pul, as Doppler doesn’t translate. Still the crowd of scions draws the attention of everyone else, and soon everyone else gathers around to see what’s going on, and to see if they can help.

Most of them are only an audience, though Honey is taking extensive notes. Ragnar confirms he can feel something with the shadows, so Pul is happy to be on the right track. Still, his practice isn’t exactly exciting to the others, so they soon return to what they were doing for the evening.

Pul continues practicing and refining the technique, not even noticing as sleep claims him.