Twili: pronounced Tweye – lie (You will understand this later in the chapter.)

“I am not too sure about this…”

“You will be fine lad. Now it’s time for you to take back your Province.” Ordona gave Faron a rather skeptical look but began to leave the area of the spring and head towards the forbidden bridge. Eldin twisted a curl of hair around his fingers as he watched the youngest of them all walk into danger, fully knowing the consequences should he fail.

“He will do just fine…” He muttered reassuringly to himself. “Just fine…” Ordona reached the edge of the clearing and looked back one last time at the three of them before he crested the hill and vanished from sight, heading towards the darkness of the realm of Shadow beings.

Ordona stared at the black pulsing wall of inky blackness before him with trepidation and looked down to the tooth around his neck. He had no idea how to bring out his power let alone use it. He looked up sharply when he heard a slight shuffling noise to see a scabby blue hand reaching out towards him. He leapt back as it made a swipe at him and he drew his sword in defense. The hand came at him again and he sliced at it, severing it from the rest of the limb which pulled back into the wall with a screeching howl.

The tooth began to glow brighter. Ordona held it in his palm, confused and unsure. He clasped his hand around it and a thick silver light enveloped him. He felt a rush of burning along his skin and something seemed to be poking out of skin in droves, almost like his hair standing on end. His face stretched outwards, forming into a rounded muzzle of sorts; his arms and legs thinned and became somewhat bowed but were tight with muscle. A pair of ears with rounded points poked their way out from his hair and he was assaulted by a blast of stronger senses; hearing and smell most specifically. He let go of the tooth as he began to panic and the silver light died, leaving him standing there trapped between forms; half man, half silvery gold wolf with dark hair. He looked down at his hands in shock to see a pair of furred hands with long, curved, sharp nails extending from his four fingers.

“What do I do now?!” He yelled but all he heard was howling. He couldn’t speak or at least… he couldn’t speak human. Ordona held his head in his hands as hopelessness set in before his ears perked up at the echoing, or at least it was to him, sound of a twig breaking underfoot. He looked up to see the strangest and yet the most beautiful woman his eye s had yet set upon.

Her skin was black as the midnight sky with deep sapphire blue slash like stripes along every exposed part of her skin other than her hands, her bare feet, and her face. Were it not for these barely seen stripes, she would be completely invisible against the shadow wall. Her eyes burned a bright crimson red, her lips and nose the same sapphire blue. Her hair was noticeably long but it was too dark to be seen for colour. She wore a blood red chest covering with sky blue patterning and a blood red skirt with sky blue trim. She had cloak bound on her shoulders, the same colours are her clothes; blood red with sky blue trim. She held in her left hand a spear of sorts on a spry wooden pole. The spearhead was silvery and it had the appearance of an axe with the blade of an intricate dagger attached in the middle of the axe head and pointing to the sky.

“Who are you?” She called out, seeing his eyes staring at her. He didn’t respond other than to whimper. She drew closer but froze upon reaching the circle of light his pendant cast out, raising her spear against him.

“Province Master!” She hissed venomously. He didn’t move; didn’t flinch; didn’t even blink. He said not a word; choosing to plead with his eyes. She looked him in the face and saw neither hatred nor fear or challenges in his eyes but something unfamiliar to her. She raised the point of her weapon to the sky and looked him over.

“You are trapped between forms.” She said simply. He blinked at her, confused. She took his hand and pressed it against the tooth pendant. His frame glowed for a few seconds when the light around him burst and was sucked back into the pendant. He gasped and felt his arms and face to find not fur but skin once more.

“Thank you.” He panted; still in slight shock. She stared at him, the words foreign to her.

“Thank you? What is that? Is it a light person’s custom?” He stared at her.

“It’s to show gratitude. For your helping me.” She nodded.

“Very well. Then be on your way Province Master. Should any of my kin see you, they will kill you on sight.”

“Why?”

“It is the way it has been for generations.”

“That is not a good reason.”

“It is the way. That is all I need to know.”

“Could you not get in trouble for letting me go free?”

“I could if anyone finds out.”

“Then you can at least tell me your name.” She frowned at him.

“I cannot do this. I have already broken a sacred law of my people by allowing you to leave unharmed. Do not ask me to break another.”

“My name is Ordona.” He said simply. She nodded but did not speak.

“And yours?”

“I already told you. I cannot say.”

“Then I will not leave.”

“Then you will be killed when I am relieved of my post.”

“So be it.”

“Marial. That is my name.” He smiled at having won the battle of wits.

“It is a lovely name.” He took her free hand and kissed it respectfully. She took her hand back and stared at it curious and confused.

“Another custom of your people I presume.”

“Only for those whom we wish to give respect.” She gave him a rare smile.

“You are strange for a light dweller.”

“So you are a Shadow then.” He said knowingly.

“If that is what you call us then yes. However amongst ourselves, we are known as Twili.” She frowned at him once more.

“Now be off.”

“No.”

“No? Why not?”

“I am to take back my Province from your people.”

“You cannot do this!” She cried. “We have nowhere else for us to make home!” A stab of pity struck his heart as he stared at her red eyes sparkling with fear for her people.

“If I don’t, I will be turned out.” Marial stared at him.

“If you are turned out then what will you do?”

“I don’t know… I have no where else to go. My fellows will not shelter me anymore now that I am not being trained.” He gave her a sad smile and pushed her aside.

“I am truly sorry for this.” He raised his hand up and made a quick slashing motion, cutting through the blackness with silvery light. Marial watched not in fear but in awe, struck dumb by his power. He stepped through the slash he had made, drawing his sword as he entered. He had walked into what appeared to be an encampment overlooked by a tall building perched on a cliff and overlooking a small living area with more wooden buildings and filled with tents. He saw families, warriors, elders; an entire populace of life and he was to disrupt it and destroy their lives. His guilt grew and tears began to gather at the corners of his eyes. He did not want to do this.

“I am so sorry…” He whispered, his apology carried away on the wind he had summoned. Faces turned to see him standing in the middle of the clearing; little children clung to the legs of their mothers; elders hunkered down together in a crowd around the mothers and children; the warriors gathered their spears and drew up in lines to charge him. He sighed and as tears of guilt fell, he blasted them with the full brunt of his powers; terrifying them beyond belief with chilled winds from the North, roaring gusts that sent them flying, airless bubbles that allowed them not to breathe for several minutes before they burst and they dropped to the ground, alive but unable to move. But no one was hurt, no one was killed. He watched them all for a few minutes before his spoke, his face grim and his voice tense.

“It would be best if you gathered your kin and left.” His words were laced with an underlying threat, one he would carry through with great regret if they refused. The mothers panicked and fled to their husbands, begging them to retreat, to save not only their own lives but that of their children. It took little persuasion for the husbands to be willing to leave. Ordona oversaw the actions of their removal and watched as what looked to be the head male manifest a bridge over the river leading towards a black swirling vortex at the river’s end.

When the entire populace was gone, all was silent. Nothing stirred within the clearing and a chill whistling wind passed between the buildings. Ordona’s eyes scanned over the sight of what he had to govern then looked to the clouds. They were mixtures of black and orange and gray, forever shifting like smoke. He turned sharply, his cape whipping around behind him and he marched back up the hill and out of the clearing to where the house on the cliff sat where he then turned and headed back to where he had left Marial. She was still standing there when he stepped through the shadow wall. Her eyes sparkled with tears as even more tears trickled down her black cheeks.

“You had best be off as well Marial. The rest of your kin are gone.” Her face began to turn furious and she gripped her spear purposefully.

“You vile…. You horrible…. You monster! You slaughtered them did you not?!” She demanded. He smiled.

“No. I did not.” She started, dumbstruck.

“You did not hurt them?” She whispered in awe. He shook his head and strode past her towards a nearby locked gate he had not seen on his first pass.

“What is behind this gate?” She stood beside him, her voice trembling.

“It is the pond on light. We sealed it to prevent its power from being brought about.” She turned to look at him. “But you have allowed us to leave in peace. This is your Province to govern. And we shall respect that.” She stretched out her palm and a mass of black squares formed in it before combining into the shape of a small silver key. She unclasped the lock from the gate and stepped back.

Ordona pushed open the gate to open it onto a spring. The ground he stood on was a soft white and sandy with a small bunch of horseshoe shaped reeds poking out. The water was clear crystal blue and it spilled out into the pool by a small ridge waterfall. There were large rocks with carvings along their surface rising out in the deeper water along the face of the cliff that was the back of the spring. He stepped into the middle of spring and raised his hands to the sky.

The carvings on the rocks glowed a bright sky blue and lit of the area; casting Ordona into its light and making it appear as if he were made of the light itself. Marial peered around the gate with awe, her face bathed with the warmth of the light. She gulped when she saw Ordona, feeling a fluttering feeling within the pit of her stomach. He turned towards her and reached out a hand.

“Don’t be afraid.” He whispered. She moved towards him without a second thought, trusting him implicitly and took his hand. The blue glow travelled up along her arm and engulfed her body. She cried out in alarm but when she went to let go of Ordona’s hand, he held it tighter and prevented her from fleeing. The glow soon died and the sky shone with blue and fluffy clouds of white. The shadow over the Province was gone. Marial stared around her, seeing the world in a whole new perspective. Gone were the blacks and grays of the world she knew replaced with browns and greens, blues and whites, and colours of many other calibers. She spun to Ordona, frightened.

“What is this place?” He smiled and took a step closer to her and, holding her close to him, whispered in her ear.

“Welcome to the world of light.”