text: The rest of the day was met with pokes and prods, pain and insults, and a whole lot of suspicion. No one was able to crack the Mother of Shadows' protection on his mind.
  
  When they wanted to see his affinity, they saw him in all his glorious, untainted Light, following the Sisters of Death. When they tested his mana, it was pure. When they stabbed him, he bled like any other creature in the world. And of course he did. They probably just wanted an excuse to cause him pain.
  
  One bright man decided that screaming random insults would get his dark and evil energies to manifest. When nothing happened beyond a slight giggle—how was "Shriveled up granny toes" an insult?—they washed their hands of him and sentenced him to the dungeon.
  
  The guard, a woman with massive hands, pinched the back of his neck, fingers digging into his skin and drawing flakes of light. She unlocked a wooden and steel door with her phone and shoved him forward.
  
  The cell was a good three feet below, at the end of stone steps. She barked a deep, meaty laugh. "Watch that first step!"
  
  But then, of course, Dhane already knew of the first step and easily touched bottom, spun with arms still achingly bound to his back, and gave an elegant, performers bow.
  
  She screwed up her face—looking quite constipated—sniffed, then slammed the cell door shut before walking the long distance back down the dark, damp, and cold stone hallway.
  
  "Visitor, visitor!" a spry old man yelled from the corner, lit only by a dim crystal. A thick metal collar wrapped his neck and was chained to the wall, maybe eight feet long.
  
  The man had a long white beard that dragged along the floor since he didn't walk upright, moving at a constant crouch. His arms and legs and pretty much everything else was bone thin and knobby.
  
  "I love visitors!" he said, voice scratchy and high pitched. His head was kinked all the way to the left, staring from blue eyes, thick wedge-shaped eyebrows playing pinball.
  
  At this point, it had become so common to call out to people's affinity, Dhane didn't even realize he had done it. The man had a tainted affinity of Light, following the Monkey.
  
  "Hello," Dhane said with a bit of uncertainty.
  
  "You see my soul, you did, you did! You looked, you peaked, you pervert!"
  
  "I'm . . . not—"
  
  "You are, you are! No request for permission, you just look and take and think you know, but know you do not. I am more than Light or Shadow or symbol, I say!"
  
  Dhane considered this and nodded slowly. If it weren't for the knowledge at the back of his mind telling him that such requests were considered a social norm, he'd feel—and had felt—them to be quite invasive.
  
  But socially acceptable or not, this particular person didn't appreciate it. He said, "I'm sorry for not asking permission."
  
  The man smiled, then stood upright to nearly seven feet tall, tapping a finger to his lips. "Unexpected reply," he said, his voice less scratchy, more full and considered. "I think we will get along quite well. I am Reditus Leon."
  
  A Reditus! Down here in the dungeon? Dhane stiffened. All the priests from their mysterious sects were strange in one way or another. They had that inhuman feel to them, as if only pretending to be human, but entirely something else.
  
  I eat him? Octoralis projected.
  
  No, Dhane thought back and felt Octoralis grumble about not being fun, then seemed to catch herself and started apologizing profusely about how bad she was and what type of punishment Daddy should give her.
  
  One of these days, he'd find a way to just let her kill and eat whatever she wanted. This thought brought a swirl of warmth to his chest, a smile from the soul spider.
  
  "It would seem," Leon said, "you're not a fan of the Reditai. Please, my boy, enlighten me."
  
  "Why are you down here?" The mere suggestion of a priest of Light being locked up beneath the Royals' palace was absurd.
  
  "He answers with questions. . . . Why are you down here?"
  
  "The Veritai think I'm of Shadow. They think I'm a vile evil that needs to be smooshed at the end of a stick."
  
  "Ah, and are you what they say you are?"
  
  "Take a look if you want. I've passed all of their tests, what's one more?"
  
  Leon laughed a hearty laugh and stepped forward. The chain attached to his collar grew taut, then the man pinched the sides of the metal and unlatched it from his neck. "Turn, let me see your bonds."
  
  Dhane turned and a moment later, the energetic material that wrapped his wrists, fell away and vanished. To simply be able to hold his arms ahead of himself was a divine gift.
  
  Leon turned him back around and considered him with a serious look, a look that didn't seek his soul, didn't ask for his affinity. "I don't care about affinity, Light or Shadow."
  
  "Wait, really? You're a priest of the Light and you don't care about affinities?"
  
  "Affinities reveals nothing of the character. But more in a moment! Come, sit, partake of my food and be welcome! I have not had a visitor for some months now."
  
  "Months?"
  
  Leon turned and waved him over to a small cot against the wall. He had little bowls, cups, and tiny bags that rested on a stone shelf to one side, oddly not stored in his Inventory app.
  
  This all reminded Dhane that he had access to his hands again and could message Penny. It had been a very long day, and who knew if Aaliyah had been released, or if she had, whether or not she delivered his message.
  
  He summoned his phone and it flickered, the screen was transparent, bolts of red electricity dancing from corner to corner.
  
  Dhane frowned and Leon said, "Oh, don't—"
  
  It exploded!
  
  A blast of energy surged into Dhane's hand, arm, and chest. It burned like someone had thrown a Molotov cocktail at him, spreading hungry flames across his clothes to scorch and sizzle and melt away skin.
  
  He screamed and danced, slapping at his clothes that were most definitely not on fire. And then the sensation was gone. But not just that, he hadn't even lost health.
  
  "What the hell was that!"
  
  Leon looked pained. "I was getting to that, my boy. It appears I should have warned you sooner."
  
  "You think?"
  
  "Well, let's not get testy about it. This is prison, you can't summon your phone here. And now you know. Come, sit."
  
  Dhane stood there, glaring at the Reditus as the man poked about his meager belongings. There were so many questions to be asked, so many unknowns. Of course, annoying the old man wouldn't help, so Dhane, with an ample amount of reluctance, sat on the cot.
  
  Leon grabbed a cup and held it up to the wall where water trickled through a crack. Once full, he sprinkled something in it, stirred it with his finger, and summoned an already lit, wax candle, onto the floor.
  
  The flame danced, casting a warm glow to counter that of the cold, dim light from the crystal in the wall. Leon held the cup over the flame.
  
  Dhane sighed. "I don't even know why I'm here. I mean, they ran all of their tests. Why can't I leave?"
  
  "If you were of Shadow, you certainly wouldn't be here with me. They'd throw you in with all their captured mobs. They'd treat you like an animal or slave."
  
  "So why am I here?"
  
  "My boy, that I cannot say. I imagine they believe time will reveal the truth, that if you were of Shadow, pretending to be of Light must require significant effort."
  
  "If that's true, why am I here with you? Wouldn't they be worried I'd kill you?"
  
  "Or I you," Leon said. "You think I'm feeble, though I can hold my own, that I can."
  
  "Fine, either way."
  
  "We share this cell because it's the only cell for those of Light. Prisons don't really exist in this world. The threat of being thrown in prison for eternity is enough to keep people in line."
  
  Leon poured the cup out into a new cup and handed it to Dhane. "Drink this. It's my feel-good specialty."
  
  Dhane accepted the cup and smelled the liquid. It had a sweet scent and was already hot despite only being heated for a few minutes. He tried it. The warmth, tinged with a fruity flavor, pooled into his chest.
  
  Then the world shifted on its side. The candle's flame grew and turned at precise angles, drawing round and round into a hole at its center.
  
  Dhane couldn't move, didn't want to move. All of his thoughts seeped out into a void of nothingness, replaced by the flickering of fire, replaced with the warmth it provided.
  
  Leon's voice wafted over the display of shifting colors and turning shapes. He had a soothing, calm voice, saying words over and over until those words took on the shape of butterflies with a color and pattern of flickering orange flame.
  
  Then all was replaced by nothing.
  
  "Breakfast!" a deep voice called from the cell's door.
  
  Dhane snapped awake, lying in the corner with a blanket over him. He half expected to be hungover, to have a headache, to feel his pulse echo in his ears as his stomach twisted in knots. . ..
  
  But he felt perfectly fine.
  
  "What did you say?" Leon cried back in his crazy man voice, hunched over, head kinked to the side. "Son, speak up, speak up! My hearing isn't what it used to be!"
  
  "I said BREAKFAST, you old man! And don't you eat both of them." A tray slid down the stairs, slapped against the cell's floor, rotated once, and came to a stop. Two plates full of eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast with purple jam, clinked against each other.
  
  Dhane was famished. He hadn't really eaten anything for well over a day now. While he didn't feel weak, there was a gnawing ache in his stomach, a demon of a thing demanding to be fed.
  
  He threw off the blanket and scurried over to the tray.
  
  Leon shoved him back, screaming, "My food, mine, mine! Pervert doesn't get food"
  
  "Share dammit!" the guard yelled, though Leon kept screaming. Finally, the guard opened the door and marched down the three stone steps to the cell.
  
  He was a big man in full armor, brown skin, broad chest, and a sharp, no-nonsense glare, aimed at Leon and his two . . . empty plates. "You've gotta be kidding me. Ugh! I hate this job."
  
  Dhane was still staring at the empty plates. His stomach was still staring at those empty plates. How did so much food disappear in a matter of seconds?
  
  I eat him? Octoralis asked, and at that moment, Dhane was conflicted between letting his soul spider eat the wiry old man, or doing it himself.
  
  The guard shook his head, grinding teeth. "You're the biggest pain in my ass, you know that?"
  
  "What? Speak up!" Leon yelled back.
  
  The guard looked like he'd summon a weapon and chop Leon into tiny pieces, but instead, he marched back up the stairs and slammed the door. Footsteps clinked down the tunnel, leaving the old man alone, locked in a cell with . . . the darkness.
  
  Before Dhane could tear a limb off the man, Leon straightened and smiled. He summoned the food back to the plates, as if pulling it out of his Inventory app.
  
  "Hungry?" Leon asked and handed Dhane a plate.
  
  "How are you doing that? And why?"
  
  Leon shrugged and settled back on his cot. "They don't serve lunch. Now Tanner, our lovely guard who has kept me company all of these months, has to get another plate made up for you. It's good for him. Being a guard can be quite boring, I imagine."
  
  It was a solid answer that Dhane simply couldn't care about at this pressing moment. He shoved his mouth full of eggs and managed to bite a piece of bacon, sausage, and toast before swallowing.
  
  "Last night," Leon said after a few minutes, "got a bit interesting. To imagine, you passed all of your tests only to let your guard down with little old me."
  
  "What are you talking about?" Then again, he couldn't quite remember what had happened. Couldn't remember getting the blanket he had, now wrapped around himself. Couldn't even remember lying down to go to sleep.
  
  "I gave you a little of my feel-good concoction and you spilled all your little, dark secrets. I imagine you're the first human I've met to be of Shadow."
  
  Dhane stopped eating and just stared at the old man and his slight grin, eyes sparkling with a sense of victory. Tiny shards of ice sprouted legs and squirmed their way down Dhane's spine. Dammit! He was entirely too trusting and should have never accepted a drink from a complete stranger.
  
  And what could he say in response to that? He didn't even know what the old man knew. In fact, all of this could simply be a game to get Dhane to reveal himself.
  
  "I'm not of Shadow," he said as simply and casually as possible, then continued to eat.
  
  "Now-now-now, we're already past that. Maybe you didn't tell me last night, not with me giving you my medicine to help you sleep, but just now when you thought your secret had been discovered. You revealed everything I needed to know."
  
  "I don't know what you're talking about." And no, he thought to Octoralis, you cannot eat him. She sent back a mental sigh.
  
  "What I said last night was the truth," Leon said, placing an empty plate to the side and leaning against the wall. "I don't believe what's being preached is true, that those of Shadow are evil. Your affinity has nothing to do with morality or your character."
  
  Dhane swallowed and considered Leon. "You never told me why you're here, a priest of Light, locked up in the only cell for those of Light."
  
  "Oh? I suppose I didn't. It's only fair to share if you care, am I right?" he asked, smiling. "I'm here because the Reditai have changed. Not all of them, of course, but enough to overthrow order. I stood opposed to the changes, changes that threatened the balance of this world.
  
  "What better way to silence the opposition than to throw the leader of said opposition"—he motioned to himself—"into prison? But it's not like I don't get my perks. Those of the Reditai who remain unchanged, often visit and give me gifts to pass the time."
  
  "What do you mean, changed?"
  
  "You're asking for information incredibly sensitive. . . . But if you are what I think you are, I'll tell you everything I know."
  
  "I just have to show you my affinity."
  
  "Yes. I already know, of course, though trust goes both ways."
  
  Dhane considered this as he chewed. The single truth that Leon had shared, the bit of information he had already heard from Mahai and the Mother of Shadows, was that the balance of the game was being threatened. It was the entire reason he had both affinities, of Shadow and Light, to be the bringer of balance.
  
  And now Leon spoke of the very same problem. He had been thrown into this prison cell for standing against the problem. Or . . . he was conveniently placed here as another test. . ..
  
  Everything had a risk. People did what they could to limit those risks, but sometimes they'd find themselves in a condition like this one, where there was simply no way to know whether he could or couldn't trust the old, crazy man across the cell from him.
  
  Then again, the potential to learn something not even the Mother of Shadows knew, could change everything.
  
  Perhaps he could get Leon to sweeten the deal so that even if this were a trap, he'd gain something. "It's a deal," he said, "if you show me how you're interacting with your phone without summoning it."
  
  Leon laughed and sat up. "Of course, my boy. Your phone is a part of your soul. When you summon it, you only give it a physical manifestation. That doesn't mean it has to be physical."
  
  Huh. So his phone worked very similarly to how Octoralis worked. She was always there, a mere thought away that could also be summoned into the physical world. With that bit of knowledge, he felt for the device deep in his mind, in his soul.
  
  "It's very hard to learn," Leon said. "It's like bending reality to your will. I've trained a few priests of Light in the technique, but it can take months before—"
  
  Dhane withdrew his Cobalin sword. The outline of it shimmered in the air, exactly where he intended it to be. He touched it and the gleaming, silver metal materialized.
  
  Leon gaped, forehead screwed up.
  
  Dhane laughed. It felt good to laugh after everything that had happened. And now he understood how his phone worked, he wanted to check for messages from Penny. But that could wait. What Leon knew was of vital importance.
  
  "Go ahead," he said, "call to my affinity."
  
  Leon nodded and sent a tentative touch. It didn't feel anything like Reditus Owen, who was cold and inhuman. This was like any other request from an adventurer or merchant.
  
  Dhane projected his affinity of Shadow, following the Mother of Shadows, and his affinity of Light, following the Sisters of Death. He could feel the affinities, see them in his own mind's eye.
  
  Leon's eyes widened. "Two affinities?"
  
  "I'm not pretending to be of Light, I am of Light."
  
  "This is remarkable, my boy! You are the answer we've been waiting for. Proof that the changed are wrong. I need to get a message to the other Reditai."
  
  Distant footsteps vibrated down the hallway, but it wasn't just one set, as if belonging to the guard returning with another plate of food, it was many.
  
  "People are coming," Dhane said.
  
  "Damn it all!" Leon whispered and motioned Dhane closer. "Listen to me. The Reditai were normal players, the same as merchants and adventurers. We cared about helping people overcome traumatic deaths. The Changed Reditai and Veritai wanted to take this further, they wanted to purge the world of Shadow. They...."
  
  The cell door opened and Veritus Scyla stepped inside, guards following behind. "Hello, Dhane. I trust—"
  
  "Veritus Scyla."
  
  "Don't you EVER use my name! It is not yours to speak, shadowling." She took in a deep breath and raised her head so she could glare down her nose at him. "It seems you have tricked everyone of your true nature. But you can't escape the test of death near a cemetery of Shadow, can you? Where will you come back, hmm?"
  
  "You can't do that!" Leon cried, taking on his crazy man act again. "You can't, you can't! Against the laws to kill."
  
  Veritus Scyla scrunched up her nose when she looked at Leon. "How the mighty have fallen. And yes, I can kill him, I can tear out his throat if I should want. The Royals' have given me this right, and I'll exercise it however I please.
  
  "Now, guards, I see Dhane's bindings have been removed. Please secure him for our final test. And Dhane, look on the bright side, should you revive in a cemetery of Light, you'll have proven yourself innocent." She smiled at that thought, as if she knew without a doubt that he'd Return in the cemetery of Shadow.
  
  A guard pulled Dhane's arms behind him and wrapped a familiar, energetic rope around his wrists. The guard then turned him toward the door.
  
  Leon jumped up. "I say my goodbye, my goodbye. You take my friend, you do! Let me say my goodbye!"
  
  Veritus Scyle flexed her jaw and turned toward the stairs.
  
  Leon hugged Dhane and kissed his cheek, his nose, and his forehead. "Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye my friend." Then he leaned in close, whispering, "They're sacrificing souls. They don't Return. Consuming them for power."
  
  A guard tore Leon away and shoved him down on his cot. Then Dhane was led out of the cell, every bit of him tingling from the new, terrible knowledge that he could forever die, be consumed. And if he could, so could everyone else.
  
  Oh, shit brownies. . ..