Aeron woke with the wail of the wind whipping through the frozen air like a knifing. His body was in agony due to the cold factor, and his muscles were so stiff from the hard test he'd gone through. The room he'd fallen in wasn't the cold, icy chamber he had fought in but another place altogether-cold, yet different and darker. Even colder than it was. He felt the cold heavily on his chest; it was as if the darkness had housed its presence in the atmosphere.
He sat up and began to rub his arms in an attempt to gain some warmth, but it made little difference. He was still off from fighting the ice, and his brain was weary. He breathed in short, painful gasps, the cold continuing to bite into his skin.
Aeryn stood a little distance away from him. Her form almost continued into the shadows that filled the room. She regarded him with a cool, watchful glance as her trademark serenity remained unruffled by the dark mood surrounding them.
"You have passed the Trial of Ice," she said, her voice no louder than any summer breeze, "but the true test is far from over. The Aether does not only test one's endurance of physical pain but also that of the mind, spirit, and soul. Now is the time when the actual trial begins."
Aeron squinted, still confused from what happened. "What do you mean by that? Isn't just staying alive in the cold enough?"
Aeryn smiled a little, but it did nothing for the cold. "One thing about staying alive in the cold is just part of the test. The Aether makes you face your greatest fear and want. It will show you the darkness inside of you, and you will have to deal with it, or it will devour you."
And whereas she spoke, the shadows in that room seemed to grow thicker and blacker, the wind howled louder and wilder, and the soft light inside the room began to dance around as if in a struggle against some kind of invisible foe. There was a clench in Aeron's chest as a bubbling sense of unease sifted through his gut and seemed to close in on him.
Suddenly, the shades came alive-twisting, changing form, rising in dark tendrils that moved with speed toward him. He barely had time to react when the shadows already enveloped him, dragging him into some strange, distorting world different from the one he knew.
The World of Shadows
Aeron stood in thick woods, yet not one of the tall, green trees of familiarity; rather twisted, rough, and dark, their branches stretching outward, so many bony fingers. The sky above was strange, a reddish hue that cast sickly light over all. The heavy smell of decaying matter filled the air while beneath his feet, it felt like the earth was spongy-almost filled with blood.
His heart was racing in his chest as he looked around. This just wasn't real. It couldn't be. The Trial of Shadows had started, and he was caught inside its weird version of reality.
A voice boomed into the air, husky and low, like to the snarl of some hidden animal.
"Welcome to the Shadow Realm, Aeron. Here all of your worst nightmares come true. Here, you shall finally face your inner darkness.
Aeron's breath caught as the voice went on and on, a mocking, distorted laughter ringing in his ears.
"Will you defeat it or fall prey to it, just as so many have gone before?
Before he could say a word, the world around contorted and twisted. Trees turned towards them, the ground splitting open as a figure emerged from behind the shadows. She was a woman, but her face was shrouded in darkness, her eyes glowing some kind of red. Fluid movements, she drew closer, like a hunter closing in on its prey.
Aeron's heart was racing as she drew closer and could be better seen; there was something incomplete, unfinished, about her, almost recognisable and yet wrong. Her features contorted in hatred, her eyes cold, void of human warmth, and filled with much darker things.
Her it was.
Lina. His childhood friend, the girl he was never able to protect.
The Illusion of Regret
Lina stood over him, eyes glowing in the dark light that seemed to surround them. "You failed me, Aeron," she told him, her voice empty, echoing off the darkness. "You were to keep me safe. You was to save me, and yet I died.
Aeron took a step backward, feeling his heart tighten. The words hit more hurtfully than any other physical hurt. The guilt that had been bothering him for a long time well arose in his stomach, a weight that almost crushed him.
"No… no, I tried! I tried to save you!" Aeron's voice cracked with the desperation in the pit of his stomach. "Couldn't… couldn't do anything—"
Lina's smile was mean, her eyes bugging with the crazed kind of exhilaration. "You failed, Aeron. You always do. You're weak. You're nothing.
Words were like pointed daggers, and their venomous fangs nestled in his chest: it was the guilt, the regret, the helplessness that happenings of his life had crystallized into, and he knew he was getting it all back once again. The thought of that tragic day when he had not been able to save her from the enemy that took away her life once again tormented him. His body shook under the weight of his failure.
"You are a failure," Lina's voice boomed again, this time louder, scarier.
Aeron fell to his knees and reeled as some darkness enveloped him. The shadows, the voice, and the guilty verdict proved just too much to handle. He wanted to run away, he wanted it over with, but with every hard struggle, the shadows managed to get hold of his mind, pulling him deeper in sadness. Then from deep within the dark, a fire started to burn.
Small, just a spark, but it would do. Aeron reached his hand out and grasped onto it like it was his lifeblood.
It is not true, he said to himself calmly; this is not actuality. It will never dominate my life.
With his concentration, the flame flared brighter, pushing back the shadows against the welling depths of darkness that sought to overwhelm him. He began to call upon the Aether in earnest now, as he had previously called fire, but this was different-it was essence, fire was everything, the balance of all the elements within him. The shadows would not advance now, and the fire spread, yet it wasn't just fire.
It was ice, water, and earth—every element he had touched and every power he had learned to control.
The figure of Lina, going ahead of him, became deformed and faded out into a haze until she was almost a ghost.
"You cannot defeat me only with fire," she whispered, and her voice was carried away by the wind.
But Aeron had not given up yet. He rose, feeling Aether surge through him like a river, filling him with both heat and cold, the power of the earth, the movement of water-he wasn't one element, but all of them-and he would not let the shadows take him.
That was the last surge of energy; the darkness began to break away. The weirdness that covered him simply fled, giving way to the serene aspect of reality. Aeron was standing, gasping for breath, his hands shaking, his resolution unshaken. Aeryn was still standing at the edge of the room, regarding him with a cool steady gaze. You have passed the Trial of Shadows," she said in a hushed voice. "But let this be remembered: the darkness inside of you shall never be gone, it is always there, waiting. The only thing you can do is to keep it at bay. Aeron stared back at her, his chest rising and falling with every breath. "Then I will keep it away," he replied calmly. "I will not lose.