Peter sighs, ‘Still, I need to get a better feel for the situation before I tell her. Meh, Rosha can deal with it. She’s the one I’m more invested in teaching anyway.’

He sits back as the group finishes cleaning up the swarms. Peter nods at them, “Much better. While I think you guys can improve your clear speed that was about the same speed as the last group despite having more swarms to deal with. Jason, good movement but try and be more elegant with it. A smoother path will not only make you look cooler but improve your pathing as it forces you to think ahead more.”

“Courtney, much better this time. Though I will admit that with your current equipment you aren’t the most effective at fighting things so much shorter than you. While that is the classic clothing for a healer there is a good margin of leeway with it. When Rosha goes to get a selection of weapons, you should get some custom tailored gear. You don’t have to completely give up the robe look, but some belts can help. Positioned right, they would let you cinch up the clothes when expecting combat.”

“Rosha, your attack pattern is stagnating. I have some more advice, but that mainly falls to teaching some more moves. That however isn’t something we need to stand around for. Though now that I think about it we didn’t have to stand around for any of this. It’s just that this one means we will be going ahead so I can teach you. Now lets move out, the two of you can walk. Rosha, jog ahead with me so I can train you some more.”

Peter and Rosha jog for a while, with Peter teaching a few things here and there. It doesn’t take long for him to finish passing on what he had planned on teaching. There is still a bit before the next gathering of swarms, and so the two of them lapse into silence. Peter wants to talk to Rosha about Courtney, but he is lacking a good way to start. There seems to be something complicated between them, and it really isn’t his place to bud in. Still, he doesn’t want to tell Courtney directly at the moment.

However Rosha isn’t dense. She can tell something is up and so after Peter stops talking she is the one to break the silence. “So, what’s the real reason for us going ahead? None of what you just taught me was a secret. I could go to any trainer and most of that would be thrown in for free within the first few lessons. Since you wanted to talk to me alone, it is either some catch about how I am doing, which I don’t quite believe. That or it is about someone else in the group and not only is my bet on this one but specifically on Courtney. Though admittedly that hunch more comes from the nonsense that just happened between us.”

Peter laughs, “Well, you’re not wrong. I have a thing to tell her but with the trouble in your group I don’t feel like sharing it at this moment. At least I don’t feel like sharing it with her directly. Can you relieve my worries?”

Rosha stays silent as she thinks. She looks down and sighs, “I can’t”.

Peter nods, “That’s what I was afraid of. Well, I can’t rightly advise her at the moment. Now she might already know about it. Courtney does seem to be your group’s information gatherer. Though with how you travellers have to handle illusions, it might not be well known. Anyway, I’ll tell you and when you feel you can trust her with the info will be up to you. Give it to her the second we meet back up or never, it will be on you.”

“Now this might shock you, but shadows are good for those who deal in illusions. I can tell you’re rolling your eyes. Yes, this is well known, but that is only the surface. Without magic involved, light level is all that matters when it comes to how bright or dark a place is. Magic takes that concept and throws it out the window. Light still illuminates, but darkness is also a thing in and of itself. With magic, light and darkness in an area will fight for dominance. The light of day will find itself unable to win against the darkness of a deep cave, even at the entrance.”

“Courtney will already know that bit, though. Well, she should or she isn’t worth being in charge of information gathering. I just needed to lay it out for you so that the secret will have the proper weight for you. Anyway, shadows are neither light nor dark. They stand between the two. Unable to exist in one or the other, yet unable to exist without them. Within a shadow, darkness seems to come into being, yet instead there is a lack of darkness magic. In other words, a shadow is like a void between the light and the dark.”

“Oh hey, that last line was superb. Use that one to explain the first part. Anyway, that void lacks magic and yet is magical. What is important here is that it fills shadows with some of the purest natural illusion aligned energy. Shadow magic at its base is an illusion that has been accepted as real by everyone. It is an accepted thing that shadows are real, and so the magic behind them has become just as real. Courtney wants to use the kitsune’s variant illusion magic to break through the divide between travellers and locals. If she uses shadows as well as the variant skill, good things will happen.”

Rosha sighs, “And now I have to choose when to tell her that nonsense. Though I guess it doesn’t matter too much at the moment. I can wait until she gets the variant skill at the least, and maybe whoever you find to teach her tells her in our place.”

Peter coughs, “Yeah, they totally could, yeah.”