"What?" Eclipse asked Mez.

"Don't you know? You are a myth to the children of shadows," Mez responded, narrowing her eyes, "You aren't going to tell anyone I'm here, right?"

"N-no," Sunny stammered, "But... children of shadows? Those aren't real... that's just a name we made up for some random sky child!"

Mez waved to herself, "Look at me! I'm real, and that's what we call ourselves!"

"You're just a child of light," Zaira snorted.

Mez smirked, then drew a long strand of shadows out of the air. "Sure I am," She said. All three light children's jaws dropped wide open. "Now, I'm still here to conquer this realm!"

"Why in the world do you need to conquer Daylight Prairie?" Eclipse asked Mez. "Don't you have your own home?"

"Would you still decide to stay in your home realm if you lived in the Eye of Eden?" Mez snarled at them, "It's not like we have pretty little butterflies or mantas to protect us. We get to hang out with Dark Dragons! But I suppose I should find a different realm to conquer... " She flew away muttering something about 'Elder magic'.

"So you're saying... Children of Shadows are real, they live in the Eye of Eden, can perform shadow magic, and one is here in the sky kingdom conquering realms AND YOU DIDN'T THINK TO GET ME?" Edna shouted at them.

The threesome had contacted Edna via messenger manta, and she had come to their tent circle straight away.

Eclipse winced."Sorry! We were busy making sure she didn't conquer Daylight Prairie! Mez is intense!" Edna whipped around to look at them

"Did you say Mez?"

"Yeah...?"

Edna sighed, "I know Mez." She mumbled.

"You do?"

"You guys do too! Haven't you seen her around? She goes to the Gathering!"

Eclipse's eyes widened, "WHAT? But she's a child of shadow!"

"The elders did say that all Sky Children were welcome... I suppose that includes Children of Shadows..." Edna replied with a shrug, "Or maybe they don't know."

"Wait... you said you saw a sky child doing shadow magic at the first gathering, and that's what made you teleport to the Home space! That had to have been Mez!" Sunny said thoughtfully.

"That's right! If she's at the gathering tomorrow, we can talk to her about the other child who hurt Rayem!" Zaira chimed in.

"Speaking of Rayem, where is he?" Edna said, "He should be clued in on this too"

Sunny shrugged "Probably in the Forgotten Ark, like always."

Edna nodded and went to go get him.

Thinking to herself, Sunny knew the revelation of the Children of Shadows would change the sky kingdoms. She had mixed opinions about the Shadow Children. They were just like the Children of Light, just with different magic! Why did they have to live in the Eye of Eden? Nothing seemed to make sense anymore, and why the Elders accepted Mez into the Gathering without telling anyone about the Children of Shadows was beyond her. Looking behind her, she thought she saw a smear of black running through the long grass. Deciding it was nothing, she ducked back into her cloth tent.

✵

Soft wind skimmed the hills, but the dark figure was oblivious to it. Staring at the tent circle in the distance. The snobby children of light had no idea what happened when their magic got exposed to shadows. No idea at all. The figure snarled. He couldn't let them ever know, or there would be no stopping them.