Something was wrong, the channel she had carved — now so large it made her first attempt seem like barely the width of a hair — had stopped flowing with magic. The darkness was pulling away from her, taking with it the feeling of comforting bliss and she whimpered as reality reasserted herself. She stretched out desperately trying to pull it back, but it slid away from her. It was coalescing in the corner of the cave.

At first, it wasn’t a discernible shape, but as more darkness flowed towards the corner it started taking shape. It pressed together to form a figure of feminine perfection, Umbra watched as the darkness shaped features on to the figures face, slender lips, an elegant nose and almond-shaped eyes framed by arched eyebrows. midnight-black hair grew, flowing over her slender shoulders and she stepped towards Umbra.

The presence of the figure was oppressive it crushed down on Umbra and brought tears to her eyes and she fell to her knees. It felt like the primordial terror of the night. Umbra tried to tilt her head up, but she found she couldn’t even move, she was not bound by any magic, just the figures presence.

“How fitting you would wake me.” Her voice — because it was a woman — was rich, melodious and hypnotic in its cadence, odd whispering followed after her words, indiscernible.

“Who, who are you,” asked Umbra fear making her voice tremble.

“How long has it been, that people no longer recognise me.” The woman mused aloud. “I am Nyx, the Deity of night and darkness. And you woke me from my hibernation.”

“Me, how would I have done that?”

“Oh, you don’t know what you are?” and she laughed. “How quaint.”

“What am I?” Umbra asked still trembling, Nyx’s presence had almost completely pressed her into the floor, Umbra couldn’t see the obsidian-black figure at all.

“It isn’t important right now.” Umbra felt a flare of anger this Deity knew what she was and wouldn’t tell her, she forced that ugly emotion away, there was nothing she could do about it.

“Angry, I suppose that is to be expected.” Umbra felt a cold hand fall onto her shoulder.

“You have potential. But first.” Umbra opened her mouth to speak but the hand gripped her like a vice and she let out a small gasp. “Do not interrupt. Now you deserve a gift for bringing me back to this world, will you accept it?” Nyx said in her rich voice and removed her hand from Umbra’s shoulder.

“What?” Umbra managed to say, she was way out of depth here. She had never heard of anyone but the favoured talking to the Deities directly.

“Will you accept?” Nyx’s voice had risen a few levels. I should accept, I might offend her if I say no, but it could be something horrible, I don’t know what this god is like.

“Yes, ok I accept,” but Umbra’s voice wavered revealing her uncertainty.

“You must be sure, a gift given cannot be returned once given.”

“Yes, I am sure,” Umbra said resolving herself, better to say yes than make another enemy of a Deity.

Nyx pressed her hand to Umbra’s forehead. Excruciating pain crept from Nyx’s obsidian-black hand and into Umbra’s head, it was slow, it felt as if someone was burrowing into her skull. Umbra screamed and tried to rip herself free of the hand but she was being crushed by the Deities presence, effectively paralysed and the pain ever so slowly etched its way down from her head, leaving furrows of pain behind, it slid down to her neck with the speed of sap from a tree. It didn’t stop there, it curled around her arms down to her fingers, leaving behind tracks. It slid down her back and sides and across her belly before winding its way down her legs. It was pain beyond belief and her vision tightened and she saw black.

The cold unyielding stone woke Umbra. She felt horrible, a headache of epic proportions pounded away at her skull, she tried to stand, her limbs were numb and behaved as if they had not a single bone in them. This was Nyx’s gift, was she some trickster god, what has happened to me. She looked down at herself, lines of black encircled her slender arms they moved and twisted slowly as if they were being blown by a light wind. She followed them up to her shoulders, they didn’t stop there. Umbra started panicking what had Nyx done to her. She frantically took off her dress the black lines were not only on her arms they were all across her body swirling on her pale skin. She scratched at the skin of her arm trying to get it out it, she scratched until she bled but the darkness just flowed around the wound. What had she done to me, I need to find Master Otaro maybe he can fix this. Why did I trust an unknown Deity, I am so stupid. She tried to stand again, it was better this time but she still felt incredibly weak. she could hobble and she made her way to the entrance of the cave. It was early night outside, so why could she see perfectly fine, the darkness was still there she noticed, but it didn’t obstruct her vision anymore. This was Nyx’s gift all that pain, and barely being able to move and she gave me night-vision, this is a joke, a sick joke. It doesn’t matter though; I just need to get to Master Otaro he can reverse this.

The walk back to the estate took much longer on the way back, Umbra fell more times than she could count and her pace was nothing more than a hobble. She was exhausted beyond anything she had experienced, and the sun had risen by the time she could see the estate. The ground around the estate was hilly and each climb up and subsequent fall back down ate at the last of her determination. The final hill before the estate was her undoing, and she collapsed in full view of the courtyard, there was shouting far off in the distance then a strong gust of wind blew then nothing.

Umbra woke in a white room surrounded by beds. she felt a lot better she wasn’t numb for a start, her body actually tingled pleasantly. She lifted her hand in front of her face the black lines were still there, she recognised them now, they were strands of darkness. It still unsettled her immensely. “Umbra?” a light voice spoke. Umbra turned her head sitting on a chair next to her bed was Jeeani a radiant smile on her face. What had I done to deserve someone as special as her at my bedside? “Are you OK Umbra?” She asked

“I don’t know everything feels weird.”

“Well you have shadows in you for a start,” Jeeani said and gave a short laugh. “I was worried about you; I’ve been looking for you for almost a month?”

“I’ve been gone a month,” Umbra said, her volume increased in incredulity there was no way I was out for that long, maybe it was when I was channelling.

“You’ve been gone about a month and a half, Master Otaro has been tearing the island apart looking for you. Oh, that reminds me he wanted to talk to you as soon as you woke up.” Jeeani stood and turned to leave, but Umbra reached out and caught her arm, the touch sending Jeeani’s light rushing through her. “Wait Jeeani,” she turned and looked at Umbra concern showing on her face. “I just want to say thank you for being here, I don’t have anyone else to do that for me.” Jeeani smiled.

“You don’t have to thank me.”

“But I do, thank you,” Umbra said and let go of Jeeani’s hand. Jeeani nodded seriously then left, off to go get Master Otaro.

Umbra sat up in bed and watched the shadows under her skin while she waited, they were hypnotic, seeming almost alive in their movements. The door opened startling Umbra out of her fixation. Master Otaro strode through his blue eyes seemed even more tired than usual and his usually neat beard was unkempt, Jeeani waved at her from the doorway and left. “You will tell me everything from when you left the estate at midnight.” He said, his voice hard and his eyes looking at something above her head.

Umbra explained how she had found the rock formation, how she had channelled inside of it, and how the darkness had formed into Nyx, and the presence the deity had carried with her. Master Otaro interrupted her his eyes wide “You are sure she said her name was Nyx,”

“I am sure,” Umbra replied. Master Otaro shook his head.

“That is impossible.”

“Obviously not,” Umbra pointed out.

“As a child, I heard stories of Nyx, but they were considered nothing more than fairy-tales, and now only the oldest remember them.”

“So she isn’t that powerful, right? no one remembers her. You can fix this then?” Umbra pointed at the shadows running along her skin, Master Otaro glanced at them.

“Nyx is one of the so-called primordial deities she didn’t ascend as Scrios and every god has since, she was born in the chaos of creation. You didn’t even meet her, that was most likely an avatar of her, her true form’s presence would’ve killed you, she is more powerful than you can imagine… Tell me how you got those shadows then.” And he glanced at something above her eyes again. Umbra explained the rest of the event up until she was found. “You woke her, and she gave you a gift. A primordial Deity has taken an interest in you Umbra”

“What does that mean"

"It means you are already on your way to becoming favoured, and you are only 2 months in, it usually takes at least 30 years before someone with potential even gets interest from a Deity, and they wouldn't expect gifts from them, until at least another 20 years of completing tasks for them. You are exceptionally lucky Umbra." Master Otaro looked above her eyes again. “And honestly, I have never seen anything like this gift, I can’t even imagine its use.”

“What do you keep looking at,” Umbra asked defensively reaching up to touch her forehead.

“Ah, you might need a mirror, your changes are not isolated to your body.”

“What is it?” Umbra asked as she continued exploring her face looking for deficits.

“It is better you see for yourself.” Master Otaro replied. “You missed almost 6 weeks of tests, by the way, you haven’t seemed to have fallen too far behind though, your magical strength is years ahead of what it should be, looks like Nyx’s shrine paid off, just remember soon darkness will not be enough to sate you.” He stood up looked her over again and left, stopping at the door. “Remember tests will continue next week do not disappear for months this time.”

Umbra sat for a while on the bed dwelling on what Master Otaro had said. She had met a deity and not just anyone, a primordial one, whatever that meant. She needed a visit to the library, her knowledge was severely lacking. But first she needed to see her face, it frightened her to think about, but it can’t be that bad otherwise Jeeani would have said something right? Or maybe she was too nice to say anything. Umbra cringed yeah it was probably the latter.

with way too many beds for the students Master Otaro had. She managed to find a small mirror in the top drawer of her writing desk, she hadn’t bothered to check the writing desk. She hesitantly moved the mirror in front of her face. What, her grey eyes, they were gone and in their place lay black orbs that swirled like the shadows on her body. That wasn’t the most noticeable change, a circlet of shadows ran around the top of her head, it was intricate constantly swirling into different shapes and patterns. And Umbra could feel it the shadows in her skin moving through her, they were a part of her and she found that she could manipulate them like she did her fingers or limbs, controlling their movement pushing them deeper under her skin so they barely showed, or forcing them closer to the surface making her look like a shadow. This is amazing. she wouldn't doubt Nyx again.