As the four of them patrolled their respective quadrants, ignorant of Mon's plight, Alina reported that she had someone she wanted to convert.
Because he hadn't given them the power to make masks yet, he made his way to her location.
"Sorry, I forgot to give your masks the ability to replicate." Salem apologized just before he arrived.
Alina didn't reply, but Ruby did.
"Were you that distracted by the little Shadow?" She asked teasingly.
"No." Salem sighed. "I was distracted by the idiotic people who thought it was a good idea to attack us."
When he was close enough to modify her mask, he did so.
"You want me to be there for your first conversion?" Salem asked.
"Yes, please." Alina said.
"Alright." Salem said, landing softly behind her.
Her potential convert was a young girl who could have been a main character. Her irises were a stormy grey and her hair was a bright green.
She was cowering against the wall of the building next to them.
Salem gestured for Alina to proceed. Seeing his gesture, she nodded and created a mask for the poor soul.
Handing it to the girl, Alina motioned for her to put it on.
The girl cautiously placed it against her face, watching them carefully.
She placed the mask fully against her face, but threw the mask away when it began covering her with her cloth and wings.
Salem waved his hand and the mask flew to hover over his palm. Salem moved to hand the little girl the mask once more.
This time when she put it on, she tightened her fists against her partially torn trousers when it began covering her body with pitch black fabric.
Her scythe hovered in front of her until she tentatively reached out and grabbed it.
She was startled by its weight and staggered slightly, before promptly righting herself.
Once her transformation was complete, Salem went to Ruby to update her mask and instructed Alina to observe their new Shadow.
Arriving close enough to Ruby to update her mask, he let her know that she could make masks and departed for his personal quadrant.
Each of them, including Jane, made a new Shadow that night.
Of the Shadows they made, two passed the test, while the others rampaged and massacred innocents.
Landing at the hole, Salem conversed with Alina and Ruby briefly, while they waited for their new Shadows to arrive.
Salem had made absolutely certain that the new Shadows had seen them arrive here, so he was confident that human curiousity would make them come after them.
"Why is it that it's human nature to go mad with power, with only a few exceptions?" He wondered aloud. "It's almost like there's a trigger in the human mind that's flipped by the acquiring of power."
"Could just be that when a human gets too much power too quickly, they don't know what to do with it. Like a baby with a knife. They don't understand the impact of what they do with their power." Alina said. "And then when their power affects far more than they anticipated, they try to fix it. However, in their attempts to right their wrongs, they'll inevitably create more and more problems."
"Why do you speak as though you aren't human?" One of the new Shadows asked cautiously.
"Should we show them our faces?" Salem asked the girls.
"Couldn't hurt." Ruby said.
"Actually, it could." Alina said. "But I think we should. It'll increase their trust in us."
Salem shrugged and was the first to remove his mask. His wings and cloak stayed, however, as he hadn't made his mask like the little Shadows'.
Alina and Ruby took off their masks as well, their cloaks and wings staying too.
Throwing back their hoods, they gave their new recruits a full view of their faces.
"You're elves!" One of them exclaimed, before realizing she might have been offensive to their benefactors. "Sorry."
"No, no, it's fine." Ruby said and gestured to Salem. "If you can guess his race, you get a cookie."
Although they were confused by her saying 'you get a cookie', they still tried to guess his race.
"Vampire?" One ventured to guess.
"Werewolf?" Another guessed.
"I'll give you a hint." Salem said, taking out the contacts he'd kept in since the previous world, revealing his pure black eyes.
"Undead?" Jane asked.
"None of those." Salem smiled lightly. "And you wouldn't guess it even if I gave you more guesses."
Looking up at the sky, Alina noted that it would be daylight soon. "Change out of your Shadow Cloaks unless you want to burn alive.'' She said. "While you're wearing the cloak, you should never be out in direct sunlight."
"How does it burn us?" Jane asked.
"Well, your cloaks and wings absorb so much light that they heat up quickly." Salem said, making a dim light shine on their cloaks and having them touch the spot it had shone upon.
"It absorbs so much light that it will catch fire if in the sun for too long." Salem warned them, certain that one of them would try to go out in the sunlight. "I will soon make new cloaks for you that will reflect almost all light for the daytime."
Salem wanted to make sure that Jane could grow his little Shadows before allowing them to roam during the day.
Doing so would also make the opposition in the city assume they couldn't come out during the day, allowing opportunities to surprise them.
"You should only wear the cloaks that I give you later during their intended times." Salem warned. "You know why you shouldn't wear your night cloak during the day, and you shouldn't wear your daytime cloak during the night because it will ruin the belief set I'm trying to cultivate in the city. I want them to believe that Shadows have two forms; Night and Light. Wearing the wrong cloak for the time will ruin that effect."
They all nodded and took off their masks, watching as their cloaks faded into a mist that quickly was absorbed into the masks.
"Get some rest." Ruby said, hooking her arm into Salem's.
"You've got a big night tomorrow." Alina said, following Ruby's example.
While the two girls led Salem away, he called to the recruits over his shoulder.
"Your Empress will debrief you." He said. "She's got the golden scythe on her mask."
....
Jane started sweating when Salem said she should debrief them.
"I don't know how to command people." She admitted. "But I'll try."
The two new recruits looked at her and nodded.
"I'm Jane." Jane said. "And I was the first of their 'creations.' Why don't you guys introduce yourselves?"
"I'm Rose." The girl with green hair said.
Jane studied the small girl. She had beautiful grey eyes, in Jane's opinion, her brows sat prettily above her eyes, her mouth was set in a permanet pout, adding to her cuteness, and her body was painfully thin.
"I'm Maya." The other recruit with rose-gold hair and bright green eyes said.
Jane scrutinized her too. Her bright green eyes looked dead beneath her light and Nike-symbol-shaped eyebrows. Her body wasn't as thin as Rose's, but she was still clearly malnourished.
"Our creators want us to protect the innocent, punish the guilty, and serve as a law enforcement unit. I think you guys can create masks to recruit followers, but you should only create one follower a night. You should also follow the new recruit for the entirety of the night and kill them if they don't handle their power correctly." Jane explained to the newcomers.
They paled.
"So, we could have died tonight?" Rose asked.
"Yep." Jane said, unfazed. "When they chose me, they almost killed me because I chose to exact revenge."
They looked at her with respect.
"I couldn't get revenge because the person I need revenge on is the head of the Night family." Maya said.
"Ironic because we'll be the new rulers of the night." Jane said.
Rose giggled.
"Let's make this world a place people can live in peace." Jane said, holding out her hand.
Rose and Maya placed their hands atop Jane's.
"I hope we can work well together." Rose said.
"As do I." Maya said.
"I will try my best." Jane said, feeling slightly more confident in herself. Now, she had friends that she could help others with.