Then I watched as a second Modessa appeared. It happened as she teleported—as she stepped out of one shadow, another shadowy version of her appeared. It was clear that it wasn’t the real woman, but it attacked Cami just as effectively.

  I saw the fabric of the magic and realized it was far more than an illusion, something which Cami didn’t seem to realize.

  She blocked the attack from the real Modessa with a grace that I admired, but then was stabbed by a shadow weapon in the back. I felt something snap within me and surged across the room. My monk passive ability, Rapid Movement, made my speed at that moment as great as someone with significantly higher Agility. In an instant, my hands turned into claws, and I lashed out with one of the dragon style strikes.

  My claws were magical weapons in their own right and cut right through the shadow as though it had been flesh. I was surprised that I felt just the slightest bit of resistance, as though the shadow had actual substance. The shadow fought back, and the way it moved was with a speed that I couldn’t hope to match. I might be able to move as quickly as Modessa, but my monk skill didn’t extend to reaction speed or striking speed.

  The shadow blade lanced out, but since my class upgrade, my partial body transformation had become faster than ever. Thus shadow blade met blue dragon scales as the blade reached for my gut. I felt a pinch of pain. The blade dug in a full inch between two scales, but I was in a rage and pushed the pain aside as I fought to keep the shadow from Cami who had fallen to the ground.

  The real Modessa was running forward. She had dropped both her daggers and her hands were raised in the air. “Nico, don’t antagonize…”

  I opened my mouth in response.

  Dracomorphic Breath

  The lightning bolt was far from my most powerful, but the shadow Modessa was weak to it and burst apart as the electrical power ripped through her. I felt just a moment of satisfaction as Modessa exploded. It was only the shadow Modessa, but still…

  Then I dropped down to one knee as Cami looked up at me.

  “Nico, I’m fine. The shadow thrust was incorporeal when it hit me.”

  I felt relief that Cami wasn’t hurt, but then turned to glare at Modessa. “Why would you push her that hard?”

  Modessa glared right back. “It’s called training… maybe if your mentor wasn’t so soft on you, you’d know about it.”

  “You think, I don’t train?” I rose up to my full height.

  Modessa held her hands up. “Hold on. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have reacted like that.”

  I clenched my teeth for a moment before replying, “Why did your shadow clone keep attacking me?”

  It was as though a light had gone off for Modessa. “This is just another misunderstanding. Come sit down and I’ll explain the difference between illusions and phantasms.”

  Cami chimed in, “This is interesting.”

  But inside my head I heard her telepathic voice. “Thanks for jumping in to save me. I might not have needed it this time, but I’m glad to know that you’ll protect me. I want you to know that I’ll do the same for you.”

  I didn’t reply. I was too confused by what had just happened. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I had over-reacted. I had let instinct take control, and it led me down the wrong path. If I had taken an extra moment to think about it, I would have realized that the spell which Modessa was casting couldn’t be Shadow Clone.

  Cami already had that spell, and I’d seen her cast it. Even given the level difference, Shadow Clone was only an illusion and incapable of causing physical damage. The spell which Modessa used was higher than a 3rd Tier spell.

  I didn’t like this feeling. The conflict between instinct and intellect was going to be a larger challenge than I thought. “I have a question first,” I said as we sat down around the small table Modessa had set up on one side of the training room.

  “Fine, ask away. I owe you that and more. Oh, and you can have my drink, if you want. It’s fruit juice. Cami, you need to drink yours, though. You need all the strength you can get for the rest of our training.”

  Modessa’s tone, her very demeanor, unnerved me. Her initial reaction of confrontation was something that I expected from her. This apology and accommodation, however, was… well, it was most unnatural. I decided it would be best to beware of traps. Who knew what she might have put in the juice?

  I pushed the cup away from me and asked, “Cami, you have the spell Shadow Step, why weren’t you using it to fight Modessa? I assume that was what she was using, as well.”

  Cami started to speak, but Modessa held up her hand and answered for her apprentice. “This current training is focused on her reaction speed. Later this afternoon, we’ll work on her damage dealing, and then after that on her spell casting. You are correct, though, I was using Shadow Step. But at my level it provides me far more steps than it would for Cami.”

  I nodded, “Okay, what did you mean by phantasms?”

  Cami said, “This is the interesting part I was hoping Modessa would get to, but we haven’t had a chance to talk about it.”

  Modessa nodded. “Not everyone realizes this. It is one of the secret powers of shadow magic.” A crooked smile suddenly spread across her face. “You know, Cami has refused to become a shadow dancer or even a shadow caller for her second class, but I could teach you shadow magic, if you want. I bet that if you could add an element of deception to your physical attacks, you’d become even more dangerous.”

  I was completely caught off guard. A part of me wondered who this was and what they’d done with Modessa. I blurted out, “Why are you being nice to me?”

  Modessa laughed. Something was truly off. It wasn’t a wicked laugh or a mocking laugh. It was one of joy.

  “I owe you, Nico… I owe you a lot. I really don’t think now is the time to talk about it, but Galbrecht was right. We all owe you—and I more than any other. I haven’t figured out how to make things right, yet. Maybe that ship has sailed and I can’t.”

  She grimaced, but then shrugged. “I treated you like you were a wild mage ready to kill us all. You’re something else, just as dangerous in your own way, but being dangerous isn’t a crime.”

  I snorted. Power was danger, but the only law about it was the Law of Strength.

  “Lisella has assured the rest of us that you have no immediate plans to kill us, although she seems to think you may still try to do so at some point in the future. I get it... I’d hold a grudge, too. So, I need to see what I can do to make things right. If that debt wasn’t enough, then I also owe you for helping get Galbrecht to accept me.”

  I listened to her words, but kept trying to find the hidden meaning in everything she said. I put my hand up to my chin like some humans did when they were trying to think something through. Then I gave her my best ‘deep in thought expression’—or at least my best imitation of one. Flat human faces and their limited range of expression were still very strange.

  As I did, I asked Cami telepathically, “What is going on with her?”

  I half expected Cami to act surprised. She trusted Modessa far more than I liked, but she surprised me when she said, “I don’t know. She’s been acting… different, today. She kept asking me questions earlier about your minions and what they do for you, what kind of benefits they get, but then she just dropped it after I explained.”

  I thought about that for a second. It would, of course, only be natural for many humans to want to become my minion, but I’d also learned much more about humans than most of my ancestors seemed to understand. Even the blue Draconis and Wasnera, who had been bonded with a human and an orc respectively, didn’t seem to truly understand the conduct of the lesser races.

  It wasn’t that I did entirely, either.

  They acted insane at times and had the strangest customs. But by living amongst them, I believed I was gaining a deeper understanding than my ancestors had. That was why I found it so hard to believe that any level 20 adventurer might want to become my minion, let alone someone like Modessa.

  “I already have a path picked out for my class,” I eventually admitted, “but I would like to hear more about phantasms and maybe learn that spell. Creating a duplicate of myself would not only be a gift to the world, but also a useful technique.”

  Modessa coughed into her hand and then smiled at me. “Certainly. Phantasms are simple, really. An illusion is mostly a magical effect upon the mind. There is a sensory component, though, so that even those who resist the illusion and know that it isn’t real still see and hear—and can even sometimes smell—the illusion, depending upon the type of spell. But illusions don’t have a truly physical component.

  “In contrast, there are two other types of effects which are similar. Holograms are nothing more than light along with sound and rarely, smell. Just like illusions, they have no physical substance, but they also lack a mental component. Under the right circumstances, they might be used to deceive someone, but mostly they are used for communication or similar such purposes.”

  “Whatever I attacked had actual physical substance. I thought you were going to tell me about phantasms…”

  Modessa cut me off, “I am, Nico, but you have to be patient. I’m trying to make sure everything is explained. Phantasms are on the other end of the spectrum. They include not only the visual, auditory, and olfactory components of an illusion, as well as the mental effect, but they also include a physical substance made of shadow stuff that is pulled from the plane of shadows.

  “While an illusion might feel real to someone deceived by it, that would only be their mind tricking their body into believing they felt something. With a phantasm, there is an actual element of feeling it—even if the target resists the mental effect.”

  “Ah, so it’s like my…” I shut my mouth then, but it was already too late.

  Modessa sat up, “Wait, you already have a spell like this? Lisella’s been holding out on me.” She jumped up and started pacing around, talking to herself. “Who would she have even gotten to teach you a spell like that? There are only a few people with phantasm spells.”

  I stared at her for a moment.

  She stopped pacing on the other side of the room, turned towards me, and smiled. “If you show me yours, I’ll show you mine.”

  Internally, I laughed. She couldn’t learn my ability and, even if it had been a spell, she wouldn’t be able to learn it simply by watching me cast it. On the other hand, I could certainly learn a spell from her. Some of that inner mirth must have shown on my flat human face.

  Modessa’s smile fell when she looked at me, almost like she knew I was laughing at her—albeit on the inside.

  I said, “I don’t need another spell to create a copy of myself, but if you show me your best Tier 5 spell, then I’ll show you mine.”

  Modessa thought about it for a second before saying, “Best is subjective, but best for you... hmm… I think I have something in mind. But I’ll need a bit of room for this.”

  She walked out into the middle of the training room. She barked a few orders and soon Cami was helping her set up some training dummies. Before long, they had a dozen dummies set up, spread out to cover half the training area on the far side of the room.

  Modessa turned her back to me. “Now pay close attention, so I don’t have to show this to you again.”

  She mumbled a quick invocation and then leaped into the air. All the light in the room seemed to be sucked into her. All sound disappeared and a feeling of dread rushed out of her in waves. Wings burst out behind her as she headed for the target.

  They didn’t help her fly, though; she was still moving under the power of her mighty leap. The wings, however, lashed forward and a dozen spears of darkness blasted from them. The room chilled as they did and the training dummies were blown apart. The rogue landed amongst them, and I realized that her leap had only been for theatrical purposes.

  Only part of my attention had been on her. The other part had been focused on learning her spell. The fabric of this magic was interesting. It had both an aspect of the same phantasmal magic she had used when sparring with Cami, but also a touch of time or something else dark in it.

  Do you wish to learn the spell - Malcor’s Wings of Darkness?

  That was fascinating. I didn’t think that I had ever seen a spell which was named after someone. Certainly, a couple of the healing spells I had were linked to Miseria, but this seemed different.

  I accepted and felt the power of the spell fill my mind.

  Malcor’s Wings of Darkness - Tier 5 spell: This spell was created by the Archmage Malcor. He was fascinated with all things that could fly and many of his spells reflect that. He also had a penchant for time and negative energy theory. Each of his spells is a unique masterpiece with greater power than their Tier would suggest. But to balance that, each has specific limitations.

  Limitation: This spell may only be cast while the caster is in the air. Contact with the ground as the spell is completed will negate the spell while still draining the full amount of mana.

  The spell creates wings with a span 25 times the width of the caster. Malcor was a hefty man and that may explain his fascination with flight. The wings are charged with negative energy and drain the light and sound from the surrounding area.

  This energy then explodes outward in two waves. First wave is a feeling of dread which comes from the caster’s own soul. The second is a combination of time and negative energy. The target instantly ages 10% of the caster’s age. This portion of the effect will wear off over the next 1 minute per level of the caster, if the target is still alive by then. The negative energy acts upon all matter, as necrotic energy does on living tissue. It breaks down that which bonds matter together.

  Mana: 90

  Cast Time: 3 seconds

  Cooldown: 1 hour

  AoE: relative to caster’s size

  Duration: 1 minute per caster level

  Damage: 1 spear per two feet of wingspan. Each spear deals 40-240 + 3 per caster level damage instantly and a lingering effect of 5 per caster level each minute until the duration is over.

  My jaw dropped in awe as I read the description—so much so that I mumbled, “How?”

  Modessa grinned but said, “Unique spells are not often shared. I only learned that one because I stumbled onto a spell scroll which Malcor had created. It was in one of his former safe houses—which became a dungeon after his death. I figure I owe you a lot, though, so I was willing to share it. Hopefully, that will at least show you that I’m serious about trying to sort this out.”

  I was in no way ready to suddenly forgive Modessa for everything she had done, but that spell was impressive. I wasn’t quite sure what to say. Now, I almost felt bad that she wouldn’t be able to get anything from my ability… almost.

  She was impressed by my Project Image ability. Which, of course, she should be, since it could cast the spell as a racial ability. When she realized it was a draconic ability, she started to call me a cheater, but then bit her tongue.

  As she glowered at me, I said, “Who knows… it is possible I could gift abilities to a minion.”

  Then, while she was still picking her jaw up off the floor, I walked out of the training room. It had already been a most productive day.

  Chapter 10 - You Can’t Handle the Truth

  I took the next couple of hours to practice casting my new spell. With the cooldown, I could only cast it once per hour, but that gave me some sense of how it worked. The effects were impressive. My effective casting level was lower than Modessa’s, but that didn’t mean I was unable to use the spell to cause significant damage.

  The first time I cast it, I only maintained my plain human form. The size of the spell's effect was largely the same as it was for Modessa. Even then, it was a few feet wider and produced a couple of extra spears, just because I was wider than she was.

  The next time, though, I went full draconian warrior like Edgar had. I sprouted wings, covered my entire body in scales and let myself grow to be a full ten feet tall. It was the first time that I had tried growing like that, using the draconian warrior form, and it showed me that I was still only scratching the surface of what I could do with Shape Change.

  That wasn’t my primary purpose for trying a new form. The real value came in seeing how this form affected the spell’s output. Obviously, since my body was almost twice as wide, it had a dramatic effect. What I hadn’t been expecting was a number of other changes that occurred.

  The first of them was that the shape of the wings was altered. Previously, they had looked like they had shadowy feathers, but now they looked positively draconic—that is, if there was such a thing as a shadow dragon. If there was, they would doubtlessly fight filthy dwarves in the dark bowels of the world, perhaps even inhabiting one of the dwarven strongholds with a pompous name like Mithril Hall.