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There are lots of different kinds of magic, so of course there is a magic for mastering and controlling shadows.  Those who use it generally attempt to enslave my kind at some point -- it makes them very powerful.  Er, they seek to enslave the kind of shadow we used to be before the change.

That whole hideous crew are called by the title "shadow masters" and they are about as evil a creature that walks the earth that isn't undead or a demon.  And when they've reached their power, they can seize control of a shadow vampire from anything that has it, even a city.

So, of course, one came to call.

I guess it was part of a group of shadow masters that were responsible for the spell that brought us all here working in the first place.  She/he/it (I'm really not sure what it was) intended to come to town, face the city spirit, take control of the shadow vampires in the hrythgar and then use them to eat the city spirit.  

Everything went according to that script, except, of course, the seize control of the shadow vampires part, since when we showed up we weren't shadow vampires any more.  The shadow master was history before the hrythgar finished forming up.

Which was the start of a little bit of trouble.

The thirteen shadow masters it had left behind went looking for what went wrong.  Well, they didn't find out, but they did find out about my godfather and godmother and decided to take them out and try again.  Why they were so consumed with rage against someone who had nothing to do with their problems, I'll never know.  But they had one of the three great wraith lords as their leader and that one has never been balked.

But, first thing I know there is a full coven of thirteen with a binding spell of shadows in the middle of the night.  You can hear them in the great chant and the whole house is shuddering.

I'm so frozen my heart isn't even beating when my god father rolls out of bed in the next room, looks in on me and the baby and asks me to stay still and be quiet so that I don't startle my godmother if she wakes up.  He is really serious and repeats himself just to make sure I heard him.  As if I could move.  As if with that warning I'd do anything but stay frozen even if the house burned down.  Then he walks out the front door.  It is like the magic isn't even there.

He walks right through the circle of power and right through the binding as if they were moonbeams in daylight.  Then he asks the shadow masters if they could please be a little quieter, so as not to wake the baby, his wife wouldn't like that. You can tell he is serious too, he really wants his wife to get her sleep.

The shadow masters just explode with rage.  You can see the power boil around them and they fall on him like rabid wolves.  He seems to glow just a little more than usual for just a second and they disintergrate as they come in contact with the light.  The spells dissolve and he just shakes his head and goes back in the house, checks on everyone, tells me to go back to sleep and please not to mention this to his wife in the morning, he will tell her later, and he goes back to bed himself.  Luckily my godmother sleeps through the whole thing.

In the morning you can't even see the echos of the magic.  I can feel that the city's spirit stirred, but that it had not fully woken before peace was restored.  My godfather tells me I've done well.  All I did was stay still and stay quiet.


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