Shadows Crumble Read online

  "I think—yes? There was some under the sink, but I haven't—had the time." Madison flushed. "I could probably use some more?"

  "I have a few bottles from the last mix," Suki said, briskly. "I'll bring over two from what's left, how's that?" She rose from her little perch by the tub.

  “That’s fine,” Madison said, quietly. “…thanks, Mama.”

  “You’re a good girl,” Suki said, simply. “And I want you to have good things, hm? Think about it, won’t you?”

  3

  A Falling Out - Madison

  Madison eventually emerged from the bathroom, dwarfed in her favorite well-worn bathrobe and rubbing some of the shadow-tincture into her damp hair to give her shadows a better personal anchor.

  She’d stalled as long as she could to make sure that her Mama would leave before their awkward conversation had to stretch out a little longer. As welcome as it was to know that she was around, the conversational turn had effectively shifted her mindset in the opposite direction.

  Madison was relieved to find two large charmed plates on the table and an empty apartment.

  Well.

  A mostly empty apartment.

  Celia sat at the other end of the table, slurping her spicy noodles noisily, her pipe resting beside her on the next placemat, a thin haze of smoke already beginning to fill the air.

  The familiar scent of her favorite comfort food, spicy-sweet fried noodles, filled the entire apartment with a cozy home, warmth on the hearth kind of vibe. It coaxed her mind back to memories of older days with softer times.

  The kinds of times where worrying about her future hadn't ever been a burden and she'd even entertained the idea of courting, dating or even just checking in to find a fostering match for her student years.

  A place where she could indulge her Pareyic instincts and be indulged in turn with her slightly obsessive tendencies.

  Slightly.

  They weren't really that noticeable. At least, not most of the time.

  “Really?” Madison dropped into the chair opposite of Celia at the small, square wooden table with the shadow-chewed teeth marks along the wobbly feet. Her earlier irritation resurfaced. “You called my bearer on me? Rude! I don't do that to you!”

  Celia rolled her eyes, the haze thickening around her. “If you weren’t clawing your way home every day—or every shift, I should say—dead on your feet, then we wouldn’t have this problem. And you're more than welcome to try to reach mine. She hasn't been in the same plane of existence since the day I was born!”

  “We have a problem?” Madison fixed her with a glower, summoning her charm-preserved plate to her designated space.

  The food smelled divine and she was grateful for that, at least, because sometimes on bad days, she could only ever stomach the food that her Mama made.

  Even the Pareyas back home had never been able to quite satisfy her picky tastes.

  There was just something about her Mama's food that hit right where it needed to and always at the right time.

  As much as she would’ve rather skipped the whole conversation about moving on with her life, the more she thought about it, the less it felt right.

  Bonding into any kind of Circle seemed pointless and too much of a hassle. There was enough family interaction to keep her instincts sated and rooming with Celia was one way to keep her magic in check.

  They were good for each other.

  Sort of.

  Except when they weren't. Sometimes, she felt that difference pushing and straining between them, stretching the boundaries between friendship and something that could never be more.

  Celia slurped her noodles obnoxiously, tapping away at a little crystal swirling gemstone that hovered in front of her plate, proof that she was communicating with her own family clan.

  It was a long, tapered gem of bright purple, some sort of spell-stone that she usually kept on her person.

  The Kadels were always a tricky bunch, given that they were rarely in the same planes of existence at the same time, regardless of which generation they were. Celia just happened to have taken up the Vision Smoke in order to stay within Nevarah’s plane.

  She’d also been looking for a roommate that would understand that she wasn’t trying to make everything all hazy and whatever, it was just a side effect of being a Kadel—and her Air element.

  “Celia,” Madison said, trying to keep the whine from her voice. “Are you even listening to me?”

  A silvery-blue eye flicked in her direction, before Celia shrugged. “You’re spoiling for a fight and I don’t feel like one right now.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You can't tell me that I didn't help. I know I did. I’ve watched you tear yourself apart for the past five years, Mads. If you thought I’d keep quiet about it for a little longer, then, I'm sorry to disappoint. I don't feel like being your scrap pile for all the emotions you don't want to process-“

  “I’m not that bad!”

  “Really? Explain.” Celia’s eyes flashed, darkening several shades in a heartbeat. “Because I can count the number of nights and shifts that I’ve seen you come through alright—on my claws.”

  “That’s not fair,” Madison said, hoarsely. Her bowl of noodles was more interesting than the dangerous glint in Celia's eyes. “You can’t just—look, it’s a busy time right now! That's how these seasons work. Healers all over the realm are-”

  “I know. Right in the middle of Gheyo season where they all think they have to make a point to each other by bleeding, screaming and dying all over the place. Yes. I know. I’m well aware.”

  “That’s not true—you aren’t being fair!”

  “To who? The Gheyos or you? Have you even taken a look at yourself in the mirror lately? Really. You look like the kinds of corpses that you keep trying to save and it's not a pretty sight-“

  “Celia!”

  “The Hunt was five years ago,” Celia said, matter-of-fairly. “And we had this same conversation then.”

  “What conversation?” Madison stabbed her spoon a little too-hard into the old ceramic bowl.

  It was only Celia’s hasty spell zipping across the small table that kept the dish—and its contents—intact and still edible.

  Her face warmed. “Look, I get that you’re worried and it’s definitely not a picnic for me either. It’s a lot of work, thankless work these past few months, but I’ve really made a difference and out of everything-“

  “You’re not listening to me, are you?” Celia’s expression shifted, shuttering almost as she frowned at her. “Are you even listening to yourself?”

  “Of course, I am!” Madison couldn’t help the slight twinge of nerves that sprouted in her stomach.

  She’d only seen Celia get serious a handful of times in their odd little friendship and each of those times had wound up rather memorable—and somewhat emotionally and mentally taxing on everyone involved.

  Now was a bad time for that.

  She was nowhere near a good headspace to handle a Kadel-style meltdown and those usually followed that particular darkened expression.

  “…Celia?”

  “You know what, my mother’s been after me to shift planes and spend some time with her,” Celia said, abruptly. “I’ve been thinking I should visit.”

  “R-really?” Madison shoveled some noodles in her mouth and chewed slowly to give herself enough time to think of a nice and polite response.

  She couldn’t.

  Even with the extra time.

  Because Celia was wrong. She wasn't spoiling for a fight. She didn't want any sort of fight or confrontation. That was just—too much to deal with.

  “Really. She’s expecting again, but we aren’t sure where the baby’s going to be born. Da thinks it might be in the seventh plane and Mera’s sure it’ll be in the celestial realms. You know how it is.”

  Madison shrugged. “Yeah…sounds…rough?”

  “It is. I should be there for moral support.”

  “…yeah.
Probably.”

  “Good. Don’t say I didn’t tell you when I’m gone.”

  Madison rolled her eyes. “Whatever. It’s just—never mind. As long as I don’t have to do anything for your-“

  “I’ll take care of everything before I leave,” Celia said, slowly. “Weren’t you planning on taking some kind of internship this summer?”

  “Eh. I don’t know if it’s worth the hassle anymore. I’m so damn tired all the time and then there’s all the student rotations from the recent influx of graduates and-“

  “Didn’t you say that the internship only comes around once a century?”

  Madison scowled. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean I have to take it this century. I could do it in the next or the one after. There’s plenty of other courses I could do in the meantime and it’s hardly a-“

  “I thought you wanted to take it now because of the boost it would give you and the extra credentials that would back your-“

  “Quit making sense,” Madison groaned, burying her head in her hands. She dug her fingers into her scalp, pressing hard enough to have something to focus on. “I have a lot of other things to deal with and a full internship of that level would certainly leave me beyond tired and exhausted in every realm.”

  Celia sighed. “Like I said, don’t say I didn’t warn you about the consequences of not taking care of yourself.”

  “If you’ve seen something bad, at least give me a better hint than that.”

  Slowly, Celia rose from the table. Her shimmering gemstone of purple floated after her and her pipe automatically leaped to her open hand.

  “Right. I’ll be sure to warn you when it’s doomsday,” Celia said, airily. “Congratulations—it’s doomsday. Figure out your own self-created problems when you’re ready to get your head out of your-“

  “Not funny, Celia,” Madison said, still glowering at her. “Not funny at all.”

  “Doomsday for you would be a full emergency-ward, wouldn’t it?” Celia shook her head, taking a long draw of her pipe.

  The smoke began to change shifting from the pale white-grey to the expected lavender hue as her magic altered it.

  “Oh, wait—but you've had several of those lately, haven't you? I’m just saying, Mads. You need to take better care of yourself or you're going to work yourself into the kind of early grave that you keep harping on your patients for-“

  “I heard you the first dozen times,” Madison said, shoulders hunching forward. “Quit it.”

  She didn’t bother looking up until Celia had retreated to her bedroom, the door closing firmly behind her.

  She sighed, half-melting over her warm bowl.

  “Just quit it,” Madison whispered, half to herself. “It’s not like I haven’t been handling everything just fine for the past five years.” Her eyes burned with telltale tears lurking deep inside. "It's not like anyone's really cared in the past either..."

  4

  Shadows Stretching Long - Madison

  Madison stalked through the hallways of the emergency clinic that had requested her immediate presence. Hot food, a long nap—because really, four hours couldn't be called a proper sleep—and her shadowy bath had done a lot in making her more presentable for coherent interaction.

  Presentable and coherent, not necessarily polite and pleased-to-be-there. Her shadows frothed around her feet as she walked, pulling on the overhead lights and casting various shadowed shapes along the wall.

  There was little care for that detail, because her irritation had doubled in the space of a few hours. Not only was she forced to step in and lend a hand while barely rested herself, she was now in the thick of things.

  Her nose wrinkled from the sour-smell of various body fluids smeared all over the front and sleeves of her healing smock. One of the kids had lost control of their magic and cancelled all necessary magics of things like protective charms over standard-issue uniforms and general wards for things like snot, blood, vomit and other fluids.

  Madison glowered at the scrubbed tiles that were soft and quiet beneath her feet. She wished that part of the uniform was heeled boots if only so the sound of her angry footsteps could echo in the space around her.

  There were too many Senior and Elite Healers joining the incident and they were crowding out some of the first responders—like herself.

  It didn't help that half of them were elemental-specific as they were definitely taking time to sort and heal by element—something that shouldn't have taken half as long as it did.

  A growl built in her throat and Madison stubbornly swallowed it down.

  The last thing she needed was to wind up with some dominant rank healer lecturing her for growling or riding so close to her instincts after the catastrophe of a day she'd already half-survived.

  Her shadows continued to try and appease her as she swapped out a vomit-covered healing smock for a clean one with a hasty switching spell.

  The children's ward from the emergency overflow was the worst.

  It helped to know that parents and guardians were rushing in to pick them up. But the fact that the actual accident and subsequent chaos of getting everything sorted and nicely organized for said parental pick-up was a whole other headache.

  One that was definitely not her problem.

  The problem with listening to Celia was more along the lines of her Kadel-centric crypticness and the hassle of having to fill in for a back-to-back emergency shift because of a massive spell-gone-wrong and the consecutive wipeout of all of the junior Healers on call.

  It wasn't the first time that something strange and unexpected had happened to pull her in off of a requested leave.

  She'd specifically requested time-off after the stupidness of the previous day.

  There were plenty of Healers available, always. But elemental specialties were rarer and experience often bumped a chosen Healer up to the top of the queue when a tricky case came in.

  For Madison, working within her family Clan had gifted her plenty of elemental experience and an equal amount of opportunities to use her Shadow element within a controlled setting.

  A good healer with the practice to back it up.

  A good healer that was probably going to lose her mind sometime soon in the next couple of hours if she didn't get the stupid request form cancelled. Madison clenched the receipt tightly in her hands, half-clawed out of sheer annoyance.

  Her shadows flickered and whispered around her, trying to offer bits of comfort and humor as they curled around her wrists and blew little raspberries along her ears. She swatted at the smaller ones, annoyed.

  There was no time for playing now.

  No time for leisurely figuring out why someone wasn't paying attention when they were supposed to be. There was just—so much pain radiating out of the emergency ward and right now, that atmosphere was practically doubling.

  Madison rounded the corner and collided with the Kalzik twins, Farnati and Karnati Kalzik, both of them looking equally as frazzled as she felt.

  For a moment, there was an entire string of words that she couldn't understand—though half of them had to be insults from the sharpness of the tone—and then Farnati—the one with the perfect eyeliner—swatted her sister on the arm.

  The expected scold carried through—again, in that language that Madison was never quite sure was a proper language at all.

  The Kalziks were known for various communication methods on account of their Clan Healer training and while she did know a few things besides Dragel-speak and Shadow-tongue, there were little bits and pieces of language that slipped through the crack.

  "...look, whatever you have to say, I don't want to hear it so-" Madison made a shooing motion with her hands, grateful that her shadows had picked her up off of the floor.

  She would've been happier if they'd helped her to avoid the collision altogether, but her shadows had never quite been that helpful as far as she could remember.

  It took a significant amount of energy and focus to exert her influence
over them to the point where they would want to be moderately helpful.

  Sometimes, it worked.

  Sometimes, it didn't.

  Karnati flushed a soft pink and she flipped her long, thick braid of hair over one shoulder with enough force that it smacked her sister in the shoulder.

  "Hey!" Farnati frowned, reaching over to flick her in retaliation. "You're the one that was so distracted with-"

  "You don't look too good," Karnati said, bluntly. Her golden eyes roved over Madison from head to toe, narrowing further. "You look dead on your feet. Should you even be up and around here?"

  "I was off," Madison said, tightly. "And then there was an emergency and now I'm here. I have been here for the past-"

  "Weren't you signed off to leave?" Farnati asked, reaching out to smooth one of the creases in Madison's healer smock. She froze at the tiny growl.

  "Don't touch her if she doesn't want to be touched," Karnati scolded. Her golden eyes slipped a few shades darker. "We just decided to leave, because none of the Elites could be bothered to sign off on our absences either. We were going to ask Mama to sign us out."

  Farnati rolled her eyes. "What she means is that if you want to-" she stopped when Madison shoved her attendance ID card into her hands. "Madison?"

  "Just tell her to write me out. I'm tired of this. I'm tired of this whole mess." Tears prickled at the corners of her eyes, mixing with the frustration built up from the past several hours. "I'm so tired right now, you don't even know. I can barely see straight and I certainly can't think straight. I'm so tired of people telling me what to do and right now-"

  "We'll get it," Farnati said, quietly. She took the ID card, looping the lanyard around her hand, along with her own card. "Do you want anything specific-?"

  "I want no one to bother me for the next decade! I want to be able to sleep without worrying that I'm going to be yanked out of a dead sleep and thrown into a mix with thirteen other healers trying to save someone who was stupid enough to play with the kind of magic that can erase an entire Clan for-!"