Tarous, стр. 55
I looked around and noticed beneath my feet what appeared to be pink clouds. I looked up and noticed pink clouds also floating above me. I looked left and right. More pink clouds. I felt like I was trapped in a world of cotton candy.
Little red hearts floated through the air. They dipped and dived like a swarm of birds. In front of me were several chairs and tables that appeared to be carved from white marble. They looked like they should sink through the clouds, but apparently the clouds were strong enough to handle the large marble chairs.
Where in the world was I?
“Welcome to my realm. An entire dimension created for the God of Love. Please refrain from any flash photography.”
Wow.
“Oh and clothes are optional here.”
Please no. For the love of gods, no. Just no.
“Since you’re a guest here I will leave mine on this one time.”
I released a breath that I hadn’t realized I had been holding. I decided there were worse things than death. Being here was on that list. Being here with a naked Cupid was definitely at the top of that list.
I looked down and noticed my clothes were no longer black, but instead were solid pink. A really bright pink. Cupid noticed me staring at my own clothes.
“It’s an effect of this realm. It turns all clothes pink. Don’t worry, real men wear pink,” he said with a wink.
I was rather upset about my clothes. I liked black, it reflected my soul. I also hated pink. I gave a mental sigh. I just stood there and took it all in. All the pink made me want to throw up.
“F#(&,” I said out loud without meaning too. Instead of what I meant to say my words came out muffled and three tiny red hearts floated from my mouth.
“I have to leave. Two young people are about to meet. It will be the rare event of love at first sight. It will be a love so strong it will last their entire lives. I want to be there to see it. Feel free to get comfortable and use this time to train.”
With that, he disappeared and hundreds of little hearts floated away from where he had been a second ago. The hearts were all different shades of pink. I gave another mental sigh. Since I didn’t want more hearts flying out of my mouth I kept a civil tongue.
I thought back to all the abilities of shadow that Cronus and Cupid had mentioned. I looked at my shadow and concentrated. Following my natural instinct as the new God of Shadow, it was easy to breathe life into my shadow. It detached itself from me and rose up into a three dimensional being. It was no longer an outline, but a darker version of myself. I could see the very moment it received intelligence. It immediately went to its knees.
“My lord.”
It reminded me of my soul guides. Having what was essentially myself bowing to me was disconcerting.
“Rise,” I commanded it, not wanting it to remain kneeling a second longer.
“My lord, do you wish me to assist you with your training?”
I paused for a second. “How can you help me with my training?”
“My lord, I am a shadow. I know all the secrets of the shadows and I can teach them all to you. My only desire is to serve you.”
“Where would you suggest we start then?”
“Most of your techniques cannot hurt you, but one can easily kill you, even as a god. Just sending a single body part like an arm is rather safe, but traveling through the shadows is extremely dangerous. You need to learn about this ability immediately before an accident happens.”
“Really?”
“If you tried to travel somewhere without a clear destination you could be lost forever in the shadows. In the realm of shadows there are unlimited exit shadows. A portal to your house could be right beside another shadow portal that leads to the core of a planet on the other side of the universe.”
I was considering not learning to travel in shadows as it seemed too dangerous. Though being able to stab a person to death through a shadow was the ultimate assassination technique. My shadow seemed to know what I was thinking.
“The point is you could end up almost anywhere. Even in a place that could kill you. With great risk comes great reward, but in life there is no free lunch.”
I considered what my shadow was telling me. I looked down and I no longer had a shadow because mine was currently walking around on its own. It was rather unnerving not to have a shadow.
“Or you could accidentally send yourself through multiple portals at once. Imagine if your head traveled to one side of the universe and your body to the other side.”
I wasn’t sure even I could survive that. Maybe I could, but I didn’t want to test it.
The shadow reached out his hand. “Take my hand and I will guide you.”
I did as he said and grabbed his hand.
“Follow me into the shadows, my lord.”
We took a step into the nearest shadow and appeared inside a world of gray. We seemed to be floating in the air and everywhere we looked were spots of different colors. My shadow lead me into the shadow in front of us and we stepped out into a field in the middle of nowhere.
“Now we are going to return but you are going to be the one to do it. In your mind picture Cupid’s home realm with all the pink clouds. Now step into the shadows and use your will to direct us back to the shadow realm, then to Cupid’s realm.”
I did as he had suggested and we stepped into the nearest shadow and back into the shadow realm. Once again we were in a world of grey, floating in