The editing for Outcast Shadows is done, as is a sketch of
the front cover! Next comes formatting the text, setting up the ISBNs, and
coloring the cover. I’m hoping to have this all finished by the end of December
so people can pre-order the book. The book will be out in March, but in the
meantime, here is a sneak peak of the prologue (under the break)!
♠♦♣♥♣♦♠
Prologue
260 Years Ago
The full moon rose in the eastern
sky, visible above the outer walls of Melieh’s
Academy of Magic. Professor Leech had finally
given up his nightly watch to go stop a fight between two students just indoors, which was a set-up, of course. Now
sure that they would not be interrupted, Alistair called the rest of the
students to the center of the courtyard.
Since the end of the day’s classes, they had been surreptitiously
gathering out there, some pretending to study while others conversed
about seemingly carefree subjects whenever a teacher passed. Two had even
brought a picnic blanket and food to have the excuse of staying out late to
enjoy the romantic evening. Now they formed a small ring of eleven around the
pale, dark-haired boy who stood next to the statue of a Styx goblin, not saying
a word. One by one, the oil lamps in the
academy windows were extinguished, until only the light of the moon above lit
the square, etching the statue’s shadow deep onto the pavement.
“Well,” Alistair said heavily,
“let’s begin.”
A petite girl with copper-colored
skin and short, boyish hair stepped forward, spun gracefully around, and faced
the group.
“Alistair and I will do this first
one,” Inez explained. “If it works, we’ll go on from there. If it doesn’t,
well, we’ll just have to try something new.”
“Wait,” one of the students said. “I
want to know why we’re doing this in the first place.”
Inez raised an annoyed eyebrow, but
the student continued.
“I mean, I’m here—and I’ll bet I’m
in the majority—but I’m here because, let’s face it, I’m not so great at magic,
and this seems like the next biggest thing, and I intend to ride its coattails
to the top.”
“Your point, Olivia?”
“My point is, I've been led to
believe that we’re doing some groundbreaking new magic tonight that will make
us all famous, and yet we’re scurrying around like criminals. We even sent
Professor Leech away, when he could have witnessed and approved of the event.”
“He wouldn’t have approved it,”
Alistair said solemnly, and looked at the ground beneath him. “What we are
about to do is groundbreaking. No
one, human or goblin, has ever done what we’re about to do: create an immortal
beast.”
“About that,” Olivia continued,
unimpressed by this speech. “Why an immortal beast? They’re just legends,
right?”
“Which is why we need to make our
own,” Inez said.
“But why? I mean, we can conjure
birds and flowers out of nothing. What’s so special about bringing something
else to life?”
“Birds and
flowers aren't out of 'nothing'; When we conjure a bird, it comes from the
potential existence of any real bird. Professor Hollyhock explained that in
year one.”
“It’s been a
while,” Olivia mumbled, smoothing down the purple underskirt that signified she
was in her final year of school.
“And anyway,”
Alistair said. “birds and flowers die.”
“Don’t tell me you’re seeking some
secret to immortality,” a tall, serious-looking
student named Jurek asked.
“No,” Alistair said. “I'm almost
certain that immortality is linked to a creature’s form. The legends about
immortal beasts suggest that their immortality, as well as their shape-shifting
ability, is due to their fluid, changing form. Humans have always had a mortal
form. The only way to be immortal would be to start out that way.
“Which brings us here tonight. I
think, if we could create an immortal beast, we could at least learn more about
healing magic. As it stands now, we have to stick with healing people inside of
boxes, which is not only unreliable under the best conditions, but completely
impractical in real-world emergencies. If we
could find a new way of healing, think of the lives we would save.”
Most of the students nodded, but
Olivia looked up at the statue, its cavalier grin seeming out of place in the
dark courtyard.
“So…” Olivia said, “why do we need
to do this… shadow thing?”
“Since we can’t take something
that’s mortal and make it immortal, we have to make something immortal from
scratch, specifically, from starting with nothing.”
“How exactly is this ‘something from
nothing’? A shadow is still something, isn’t it?”
“No,” Inez said, sounding offended
by the suggestion.
“Then what is it, exactly?”
“A privation. An absence.
Nothingness.”
Olivia continued to sneer, so Inez
continued.
“It’s like if you have dirt, and then you have
a place without dirt, you call it a hole, right? We all know what a hole is. We
can identify it or draw it or even make one, but technically speaking, a hole
doesn’t exist. It’s just a place where there isn’t any earth. But a hole is too
abstract a thing to cast a spell on, so we chose a different privation, namely
this shadow,” she said, pointing to the pavement at their feet. “A shadow is an
absence of light. It exists, to use the term loosely, as a nothingness. So, to
test our theory, we’re going to try to bring it to life.”
“And this living shadow will be immortal
because…?”
“Because a shadow is on the edge of
existence and nonexistence, I believe it will have a similar form to that of
the mythical immortal beasts.”
“If you say so,” Olivia muttered,
sounding unconvinced.
“If there are no more questions,” Alistair said, “then let’s begin.”
He and Inez knelt on either side of
the shadow.
“Now remember,” Inez said, “magic is
an act of the will. We really have to mean it. Ready?”
They placed their hands on the
shadow and began to speak together in low voices.
“Empty shadow, nothingness,
a hole in the light in which we
stand,
listen with the mind which is
absent,
obey my will’s command.”
“Why are they reciting poetry?”
Olivia whispered.
“I’ve heard that the K’nic-k’nack
goblins say their spells out loud to aid in concentration,” Jurek answered, then muttered, “but this spell
sounds… dark.”
Inez silenced them with a stare
while Alistair continued, unperturbed.
“Take on shape and substance,
like dew forms from a mist.
Like breath brought forth from a
corpse,
Defy your form: exist!”
The courtyard became utterly silent.
Not a single student dared to breathe. Only the faint fluttering of birds on
the academy roof could be heard, and some footsteps out on the street. Each
student waited, and willed, for something to happen.
Then, the shadow began to move.
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