To Fly the Soaring Tides

“Man…” Jimbo washed down his meal with a long and refreshing swig, “You really called it this time. Nothin’ like a good wormwich for a day of cave crawlin.”

“If only I had more time…” Cira lamented with sullen passion as she gazed longingly at the sandwich in her hand, “I would have asked Mephisto to share his secrets.”

Reason thirty-six why I must meet the Astral Witch in single combat.

The man with all the mana conjured some metal pans and Cira made flames sprout from one of the steps. Naturally, one of Cira’s pouches was stuffed full of food. This was a scenario she anticipated, after all.

“I could go for another round,” Shores spoke up, smacking his lips, “but how long are we gonna wait here? It’s already been a few hours.”

Ideally everyone would fill up on mana, but that could potentially take all day or longer, Cira thought. Shores’ question was essentially if they were camping out or not. The crushing shadows outside were far too volatile for novices to quickly fill their aura with, but it was mostly blocked by Cira’s barrier.

“Assuming we have to fight more, this will probably be like the first time we faced the slimes.” Cira replied, “We only need enough mana to take a glance and escape.”

“About that…” This whole time Tawny had been looking around uncomfortably, but it didn’t seem to bear fruit, “It seems completely black outside. Your barrier has blinded us. How are we supposed to glance at anything?”

“The only reason we can see anything at all is my barrier. It prevents the darkness from drowning us, but it does not block light, per se.”

“How the hell does that work?” Jimbo cut in. “Didn’t you say the barrier was made of shadows or something?”

“Well, darkness is the absence of light, and the barrier exists on an independent spatial layer, so light passes through with essentially no resistance. It’s the shadows outside my grasp which build up and—”

“Forget I asked—doesn’t that mean we still can’t see shit?” He was right.

“For now…” Cira had been doing a little trial and error while everyone recovered, but no enchantments stuck yet. There was plenty of darkness to go around, but it was surprisingly difficult to infuse with space. As void was the absence of space and a decent analog for darkness, it was like trying to combine something that didn’t exist with something that did. “I’ve nearly figured it out, but this will be simpler if there’s actually something to look at once I’ve finished.”

“Well, I’m about ready.” Tawny stood up and stretched out her legs. “They’ve got to be close to full by now too.”

Cira looked over the others and it was Gil who spoke, notorious for being the slowest to recover among the group, “I think I’ve got a little over half.”

“I’ve been full for a little while,” Cedric had been sitting silently on his step and only just opened his eyes, “There’s so much mana down here, it’s the perfect place to try and expand my aura.”

“No fair!” Ike shouted, still recovering his own, “Lady Cira, can we stay here for a bit longer? I think this is a training opportunity we can’t miss.”

After enjoying a brief chortle, Cira stood up too, “There will be plenty of time to run down here and train once we get me in the damn cauldron.” She was proud of her pupils for taking advantage of such conditions, even if she didn’t say it.

A few seemed displeased, but mainly to miss the chance to train rather than because they were tired or scared. Eventually, everyone was on their feet, and they once again descended the staircase.

“Mac, wake up,” Cira thought, “My soul’s pretty close, right?”

There was something to be said about how she already considered it hers, but that was neither here nor there.

“So what? You’ll know it when you see it.” The most infuriating part of this was that he could not lie, and thus could be as vague as he wanted. How he knew that Cira would recognize it on sight, she could not grasp, but the truth was not lost on her.

“Why are you so difficult? The only thing I’m really stopping you from doing is eating souls, which is objectively a pretty messed up thing to do.”

Without a soul, a being could not be. If anything was universally immoral, Cira figured eating souls was it. How much more blatantly diabolical could one possibly be?

“Maybe to you! However, it is my primary diet. You may think I don’t need souls because I haven’t eaten one in decades, but you have to realize I’ve lived for thousands of years. If my hunger grows any further, I will probably—I will… I’ll… Grahhh! I can’t even say it! I couldn’t possibly go into a frenzy with the collar you’ve cursed around my neck, I’ll just shrivel up and die. Is that what you want?”

Geez… Cira didn’t expect to be lambasted so bluntly but such a ridiculously geriatric creature. I guess that was an oversight… I figured he could simply absorb mana like some kind of eight-legged sprite.

“I don’t think you have a neck,” Cira observed, “and you could have eaten one of the aggressive flame sprites, you know. Oh…? Could it be you were behaving conscientiously, and the thought didn’t even occur to you?”

If he wanted, then attempted to, and successfully ate a flame sprite, that would be proof Cira was okay with it. Like how he was able to dodge questions by sleeping. Cira was irritated by that, but it wouldn’t have felt right to force him to stay awake and endure an interrogation. Thus, Mac continued to sleep at will.

“More like you would regret letting it slide and punish me retroactively.” And his sincere retort cut deep into Cira’s heart, for it was again the truth. That does sound like something I would do. What punishment does he even expect, I wonder.

“Speak your mind more often, you stupid spider. It’s only fair I find you a soul as well.” Even if it was a calamitous soul-eating spider that her father imprisoned, she couldn’t just curse it into subservience then starve it to death.

“Very well. My hunger won’t be sated for some time, so I’m going back to sleep.” The crew looked at her funny as she groaned with no context.

“Fine then. Look for Nina while you’re at it.”

There was no reply, but Cira doubted she was nearby anyway. It was a fleeting worry that kept crossing her mind. Meanwhile, Kuja caught her grumbling as Shadow Quill carved into the shadowy membrane.

“Are the enchantments frustrating you…? We can turn back for the day. We still have time.” The concern was appreciated, but that wasn’t Cira’s problem.

“No need.” She was on the right track and decided to focus on the task at hand. “I almost have it, I swear.”

“Maybe hurry up a little this time.” The final step came into view and Jimbo was the first one down for some reason. He had a spring in his step that clacked against the stone. As the group caught up, the darkness could be seen seeping through the barrier with a faint radiance that nearly nullified their crimson bands.

Everyone slowed down but Cira pushed them along for a bit further until the whole crew was down and the stairs were no longer in view. They were almost blind, and the mana here felt like it was crushing their bones even inside the barrier. The fearless Dreadheart Armada looked nervous and unsteady on their feet just trying to stand.

“I have never seen this much mana… and your barrier is keeping most of it out.” Kuja had wide eyes as she tried to look through the shroud. “I sense souls… but everything is so muddled down here I cannot discern them. How can it be so much more intense than all those years ago?”

There were strange noises through the abyss that nobody seemed to want to talk about. Grinding stone and large, distant thrashing that echoed from somewhere indistinguishable. Above it all was an eerie white noise that Cira couldn’t quite place as running water.

“Well… Darkness doesn’t dissipate naturally. In fact, it has a remarkable propensity to condense the further it gets from light, especially undisturbed.” Cira inadvertently explained while laying out a few more runes. She was in the zone. “No matter how dark it gets, anything which can survive down here will contain a distinctly greater concentration of mana than the surrounding atmosphere—Ah! I’ve got it!”

A wide smile formed on Cira’s face at yet another unknown sorcery unraveled by her own hand. She didn’t think she held a candle to her father, but transforming the conceptual space between light and dark into an enchanted all-purpose bubble was as gratifying as any mountain.

In the same way that void was lack of space, darkness was the absence of light. Shadow itself acted like a malleable void she could manipulate to her own will, even crippled as she was given enough effort. Furthering this line of thinking, Cira’s fleeting sanctuary in the oppressive world of shadows took form as a domain of sorts. It was a void within the darkness itself. Logically speaking, it was only natural that they could see perfectly as if under the midday sun while within it, but that much wasn’t Cira’s goal. She needed to see outside.

The barrier was stronger than ever now as the wisping shadows were forced back outside, but this was only the first step. Cira finished her last brushstroke and a complex array of glyphs that hurt to look at lit up in tandem. Spatial mana appeared black and white, often simultaneously, because its color existed on a spectrum not perceptible through traditional means and not associated with light whatsoever. Then with the imbued darkness within, it made the mind incredibly uncomfortable.

The crew blocked their eyes and started fretting audibly, Oliver serving as their mouthpiece this time, “Lady Cira… what is this?”

“Any minute now…” This was a wide range perceptive sorcery, so Cira took the luxury to hype it up while it finished activating. “The void that is darkness… can be permeated without resistance by space itself. What is the essence of substance, if not space? Space exists within all, while all exists within space. Nothing can be without space. Likewise, where nothing exists, can be claimed with little effort. What space belongs to me can be freely manipulated, you see. Space can exist without light, and light inversely alters space to a particular state. This is one way to think about it…”

“Even I am lost, Child… Please get on with it. I do not think we are safe here.” Everyone had evidently been distracted by Cira’s spiel, but the old woman reminded them of the echoing scrapes and cracking which sounded off in the distance every few seconds. Something nearby that sounded like dust settling even made Cira nervous.

“Tch. As the space within this bubble has become my domain, so has the darkness beyond the barrier.” Proxy domain would be more accurate as she didn’t have an aura, but she didn’t want to keep dwelling on that. “Using a spatial array, I can gauge the shadows’ density. Then using, well, another… I can invert the perceived light as determined through the lens of my barrier by a degree dependent on the concentrations of dark mana in the area which… should be apparent shortly. The ambient darkness, of course, will remain black, so anything which possesses mana should show up as varying shades of dark gray. To put it in perspective, staring directly into the dark mana well under these conditions, it would appear as stark white. And it’s not like I can make it activate any faster—”

Cira was stalling because her glyph-based sorcery was such a slog, and her crew was either lost or irritated—notably not impressed and a little scared. Jimbo was about to say something, but everyone was silenced as the world flickered around them. Like a searing Lamplight, everyone had to shield their eyes again.

“What the shit—” Jimbo stumbled onto his ass while Oliver was in a similar position with his eyes peeled back.

“My… my god.”

“What is that…?” Even Tawny was horrified, and her voice shook while she instinctively stepped back.

“No way…” Cira too stared upwards into the massive eyes of a gleaming creature beyond comprehension. It shined a brilliant pure white through the lens of the shadow barrier. The man in Don’s treasury was a pitiful memory in the face of this massive being. Cira could see the distant ceiling of the largest tomb of Archaeum where shadows failed to penetrate stone and gathered. The humanoid creature could reach it if it would only stretch its arm up.

Could this thing even stand up if it wanted to? I don’t understand how it’s so huge… or why? All Cira could see was mana, so its features were out of focus, more or less. Still, its legs looked feeble, almost like they were withered from disuse—a distorted mirror of its former self perhaps, or a reflection of the last few centuries. It didn’t seem like it wanted to move around much.

Instead, its focus seemed to be on the crew. Curled up and seated while towering above them, one frail arm wrapped around its leg as it peeked at them past its knees, the creature blared a radiant white that burned her eyes, but Cira couldn’t look away.

“I’ve only seen them in illustrations…” Cira was equally terrified as she was entranced by the unfathomable mass of mana before her. This creature—this spirit—was not a fairy tale to her, merely a yet to be seen monstrosity.

“Are… are these mana wells?” Marko asked as the sound of what Cira now knew to be footsteps came from behind her. A smaller giant—which still dwarfed her many times over—had approached. Its head was three sizes too large and the same piercing glow as its counterpart made up its body. Cira noticed many more trundling around in the distance, slowly making their way over.

“Of course not.” Cira replied under the giants’ ostensibly curious gazes. It was indeed fascinating to find these here, but Cira felt a pit form in her stomach as she tried to find the right words. “What you all know as ghosts… Shades, specters, what have you… These can all be considered immature spirits as well as sprites. Likewise, revenants fall into this category. Kuja…” The woman narrowed her eyes nervously. “As a flame sprite becomes a salamander, dark sprites typically evolve into umbra. However… There exists a path which all immature spirits may end up on. When the soul degrades to a certain point and the will fades to obscurity—if enough mana convenes in such a being, they may turn into something else entirely.”

“Are you saying…” Kuja peered up at the expressionless faces of two gargantuan sprits of unfathomable darkness, “These… creatures are what became of my ancestors…?”