Ar'Kendrithyst

The sun set to one side of the horizon while the moons teased their presence upon the other, and a rainbow of reds, yellow, and blues stretched across the heavens between, covering the world in color. All around, grasses swayed under northern winds. Though this was Veird’s equivalent of Spring, it was still cold at night, in this part of the world. Erick’s breath fogged in the chill air, producing streamers of visible warmth that whipped away in the breeze.

In the distance, and all around, tiny dots of light danced among the grasses. They weren’t fireflies; they were much larger, each about the size of his thumb. Erick had heard them called lightbugs, and they were harmless. They flitted among the tall green grasses, glittering in whites and greens and yellows, bringing light to the deepening night. They had a few slim uses. About one in a hundred thousand had Light Essence in their glowing bodies, which was about the most expensive thing about them. Hunting for those specific lightbugs was like hunting for dropped gold coins on a beach, though; no one did it unless they were a rather odd person or had some method to shorten the search. Either way, only the foolish or needy would go hunting for such a specific payout, since hunting the monsters which were out here at the same time would provide a much more steady paycheck.

But the lightbugs were pretty to look at. Erick had chosen this spot because of those lightbugs, for they gave rise to the idea that even in the dark, there was light, and even when the world seemed empty, that was just an illusion.

Ah.

Yes.

There’s the mindset.

Erick relaxed into the moment. With one hand, he channeled his mana through [Lightshape]. With the other, he channeled [Shadowshape]. He found the harmony almost instantly, like someone else had taken the vocals and the instrumentals of a song and pulled them apart, and here Erick was, putting them back together.

He cast.

The world in front of him took on an unreality. Small natural damage done to the grasses all around him, like bent blades and chewed stems, vanished. The breeze turned more hospitable, warming up by degrees. Lightbugs appeared, but they were fake, too; all the real ones had stopped glowing around Erick, for they would not glow in the direct presence of others. That was one of the ways that a grass traveler could tell if there were monsters waiting in the deepening twilight, just out of sight.

A blue box appeared, but Erick ignored it for a moment, as he tested the control he had imposed upon the scene. He made the false lightbugs glow brighter. He made the night deepen. He made the air turn frozen, and chilly, sending the dancing illusions of lightbugs to the ground like scattered, glowing ice cubes, their glows rapidly giving out. And then when even the distant lightbugs noticed this and shut off their lights, Erick went the other way with his illusions. He warmed the world, bringing high summer to the night, making the world muggy and false, and bright with buzzing lights. He hid himself, Poi, Jane, and Teressa, in the illusion.

It didn’t take long for the lightbugs to notice the happening scene in front of them. The real bugs all began to relight. They moved into the area and seemed to love the false warmth.

The night danced with illusions of brightness.

The spell soon ran its course; Erick had asked too much of the Shaping magic. The cold night returned. The fake lightbugs vanished. The real lightbugs saw Erick, standing in the middle of their glow party, and they stopped glowing. They dropped into the shadowy grasses and hid, once again.

Erick checked his spell.