Decayling lesson time had ended about an hour ago. Thassalin had gone back to the guard tower with Elksia, Talok had rushed off to play on the ice slide Akah had made and the two Phovoses were currently brushing each others’ hair. Kuta didn’t seem to have anything to do and had retired to their bedroom for a bit, since they had a bit of a telepathic headache currently. But for some reason, Nyssi and her team had headed off to the far side of the lake, underneath the shady trees.
“Alright, so, that’s the basics, right?” Kayel exclaimed as he pointed at some drawings on a white board he had stolen from Kal.
“I still don’t get it…” Nyssi seemed uncertain. But Tenuk and Retvik seemed to be understanding things.
“What bit don’t you get?” Kayel asked.
“I don’t really understand what constitutes an useable shadow.”
Tanos shrugged. “Kinda seems like, there’s a limit, you know?”
“Really, it’s any dark shadow. I’d say the trees here are the best example of what counts.”
“But what if we can’t remember where we’re going?” Nyssi had more concerns. “You said, when we were mortal, if you didn’t properly think of a location, you’d end up in that nice park on the Skyan home world. If we mess up here, where do we go?”
Kayel tutted. “The reason why one could end up at Zero Zero is only because that was where Arkay was found when their dumb old universe turned into our new universe.”
“We’re basing our shadows off you though!” Nyssi was still anxious. “What if we mess up and end up back inside our universe and taint it with our presence?”
“Huh…” Kayel thought for a moment. “I actually don’t know what would happen, especially when I create my own shadows to jump through. But while I was being friends-with-benefits with Arkay, he did explain that a failed shadowjump always returns you to a source of some sort. Last time we chatted, Arkay suggested that, these days, we’d probably end up by the shady tree next to Elksia’s guard tower.”
“How comes?”
“That was another place where Arkay believes he died…” Kayel trailed off. “But I honestly don’t think that’s even a thing any more, since we’re divine thingies. I USED to draw my power from Arkay, like all Phantasmas did, but now we’re all split from that. We’re no longer drawing the energy from Arkay, we draw it from ourselves. Either way, we ought to start with small jumps first.”
Nyssi continued to be uncertain, but Tenuk and Retvik seemed to have picked it all up, no problem. However, Retvik glanced at his wristband and grunted.
“Do you need anything more from us?” Retvik asked. “Because I do… want to try something.”
“Nah. You got the basics. It’ll become second nature once we all work out how to borrow powers more cleanly.”
“Alright,” Retvik smiled a little. “I suggest we practice here for a bit.”
“Sure, that was the plan.”
Eventually, things quietened down. Tenuk had made himself nauseous by doing too many shadowjumps at once, but Nyssi’s confidence came back as she did her own first shadow jump, and Retvik and Kayel seemed to be enjoying themselves and whispering to each other. After a while, they decided to take a break, and everyone went their separate ways.
Across the base, Kuta had just been lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. Their headache had passed somewhat, but Kuta was instructed to take a few more hours off, so they’d be back to full health.
However, all of a sudden, Kuta sat up straight, after hearing a weird bump noise. There was something pushing its way through the shadow underneath Kuta’s desk. Suddenly, two plates of pancakes appeared on the floor and were pushed towards Kuta and their bed. After a few more moments of knocking things around, Retvik managed to pull himself out of the shadow, knocking over Kuta’s desk in the process.
“That was not as easy as I expected…” Retvik grunted as he dusted himself down, put Kuta’s desk back in its right place and picked the two plates of pancakes off the floor. “Either way, happy nine months!”
Kuta stared somewhat blankly at Retvik.
“Uh, dear, is something wrong?” Retvik asked as he placed the pancakes on the desk.
Kuta continued to stare.
“Kuta?”
The mention of Kuta’s name snapped them back to reality. And confused the heck out of them. “Did you… did you just… did you just fucking shadowjump?”
Retvik nodded. “Kayel taught us how use his shadow powers.”
“… Really?”
“Yes! Nyssi, Tenuk, Kayel and I are learning how to borrow each others’ powers. I taught the others how to make my little light motes yesterday.”
Kuta blinked some more, then rubbed their eyes. Retvik took one of the places of pancakes and handed it to Kuta.
“Why have you given me pancakes?”
“Because it is our nine month anniversary!” Retvik beamed. “I made pancakes for our three month anniversary, I thought making more pancakes for our ninth month together would be a nice throwback.”
“Oh…” Kuta frowned. “I am sorry, I forgot.”
“It is easy to forget when there is no night or day or anything!” Retvik patted Kuta on the shoulder. “But I do admittedly have a timer on my wristband that goes off about every week.”
Kuta calmed down somewhat, and finally accepted the pancakes, which had a sugar-dusted heart on top. They were surprised at how nice they were.
“Did you make these?” Kuta asked.
“Admittedly, no. Tenuk made them and I added the little heart.”
“Well, either way, they are very sweet. Almost as sweet as you are!”
Kuta put the plate down, then wrapped their arms around Retvik, hugging him tightly. Retvik smiled and hugged Kuta back.
“I love you, more than anything, Retvik. Even if sometimes I go a bit cold and lost in my thoughts.”
“It is fine, dear!” Retvik hugged Kuta even more. “You are fine! We all have our ups and downs, and no matter what, at the end of the day, I will be here for you, and you will be here for me!”
“Always…” Kuta trailed off for a moment, then nuzzled up to Retvik.
“Is something wrong, Kuta?”
“No, no… I am just… overwhelmed by how wonderful you are. And it… is making me think about… things.”
“What sort of things?”
“Things… I cannot tell you about yet.”
“Is it about kids?”
“Oh, no, no, nothing as… extreme as that…” Kuta looked up at Retvik and went back to smiling. “But I have some thoughts that I will, uh, reveal to you at a later date.”
Retvik shrugged, accepting Kuta’s answer. “Fair enough. In the mean time though, do you want to snuggle?”
Kuta’s smile turned into a grin. “I would LOVE to snuggle with you.”
“Wonderful…” Retvik whispered as he pushed Kuta onto the bed, then pulled a blanket over them both. “Absolutely wonderful…”