The Books of the Shadows II - The Broken House

1 This is the story of the Broken House, the Second from the Books of the Shadows.   On the long and dark corridor, you can see at one point among the dances of the shadows, the light of a torch moving on the walls. There are hurried footsteps and squeaks of the child as if someone is pulling or dragging something after him. Immediately the silhouette of an old monk appears in sight, dressed in a white robe, with long white hair that frames his face, and, struggling hard, he pulls after him but the force, a child. Dressed in monastic clothes just like the monk, the child does not seem out of this world. His long hair is bluish-black, and long to the waist, and his big blue eyes follow the monk with disappointment, who mercilessly opens a heavy room door and slams the child on the floor on the cold floor:  -Do you want to speak of demons?? Take a lesson here about demons, young man! Then we talk about it! This is the demons’ world! Read and learn about demons now and then we talk about that!! Until then, this is where you will live if you are looking for demons!! And you will speak to no one again! The monk leaves him in the room and slams the door behind him, locking it.  The child lifted his eyes and he could see in the darkness the shadows of the big, tall shelves that were tipped with books in old covers and all kinds of scrolls. He was in the Coven’s library, the old sacred section, where the children were not allowed, due to the secret information there were hidden in there. Pieces of information about the real demons living in this world. The demons that crave blood. This evening, Sei was taken by surprise by a few brothers, at about his age, and they tried to hit him again, for they were scared of his appearance. The appearance of the demons they were all afraid of. He did not ask for that; he did not want to be one of them… he was just a Coven apprentice… They were wrong to pick on him just because of his looks. And he will show them sometimes, just like today. He was stronger than any of them, anyway. He did not take the beating, and he responded a little harshly, but they sure deserved it. Every one of them. He slammed one into the wall, and he saw the other two bleeding on the floor. He did not quite remember well what he did, but they were all screaming and crying like scared children. But they started it and he finished it. And now, he was the one being punished, and he hated it. He only remembered them calling him one of them, those demons. That was what got him mad. He was not one of them. He could not be. He was a monk wanna be. And they will respect him.  By now, it is clear, Sei probably won't get food tonight either. But it was alright, it was not the first time that would happen to him.     ******** Of course, maybe you do not know how the history of the Realms began, so let me tell you the story from the beginning as we know it to the shadow world. The history of shadows is perhaps the oldest of all beings in the ancient world. The first people tell of them as descending demons from darkness. When they came to live in the sunlight, a piece of darkness gave them strength, and that piece is actually the Saruman. A demon with wings that dwells in the depths of the being of shadows, a piece of darkness thirsty for blood.  Nobody knows where the shadows came from anymore. When the first shadows appeared into this world, they were already bonded with their saruman demons. They came through a window from another place that nobody knew before. It was such a dark, dark place, that even that place threw them out, humans say today. These windows, people called them portals now, and they still open from time to time, yet nobody knows when or why. First came a few, and they were families, all warriors with even a few children. They all belonged to the house of the Shadow Assassins as they were the scouts for the avant-garde to arrive later. They called the inhabitant Humans  - people of the light, and these humans feared them even in the first moments of contact. Now, it is known that shadows are very protective of their own children, and it was believed that, that was why, at first, they were very hostile; light people still tried to teach them how to find good food in this world.  Yet the shadow people loved to hunt and war.  Soon more came, through another window opened into the world of humans. That made the humans fear more, because, if there were to be more windows opening into their world, and more shadows invading their land, and they were surely not friendly, how would they manage to survive and keep the harmony?   Indeed, three more portals opened in less than 100 years. More shadows came through, and they took the lands from the humans that could not resist them. The invaders were stronger, faster, knew how to fight, and were ruthless in taking their prey and they just loved to war. Humans did not stand a chance; they treated them friendly at first, but as time passed, they realized that these were not friendly creatures you can reason with. In time, they just slowly liberated the vast territories that belonged to them, making room for the strongest, who settled as rightful owners of the land and took their resources. Although they could work in their mines in fairly severe conditions, many people fell prey to the shadows that they discovered they could even feed on, besides the hunting parties they organized, so many people preferred to escape and leave their lands rather than become their prey. In time, they formed the light kingdoms as the shadows formed their own. Humans started studying them, and built The Coven, in order to make a strategy about their moves, if they wanted to have at least one chance in the war that was coming. And the war came soon enough. And it was not just one battle.  The beat of the darkness is living within the body of the shadow, and it shares a power that humans do not have. Some shadows can shield themselves and others from the human eyes, becoming invisible, some have the gift of speed, some can gain control over the mind. We do not know how the demon chooses the shadow to bond with, because not every shadow has one. But the saruman demon is all about the wild nature of the shadow and the veritable monster, one may say. It is also depending on the family they get born into.  By now, we know that is the saruman who chooses the mate of the shadow and when they do, they form a mating bond that allows them to grow even stronger.  Even within the conception moments, they further transfer the gene and in the bloodline, the newborn shadow body already contains inside his new Saruman demon created from the connection of the parents. This mating bond makes the shadows even stronger, because they help to heal each other faster, they calm each other down and they can even connect faster, in an intuitive way.  It is sad, really, to know that sometimes, there are sarumans who do not find a mate, therefore they just wander the world and this life all alone. But the ones who can order their shadows "Mate!" when they find each other, they grow stronger.  The connection between the shadow and his saruman starts from the womb of the shadow mother. Sometimes, there are shadows that chose women from the world of lights, but they could never survive the birth. Sarumans demons have found in human lights a very fine food, which they like, which is why they feed on the mother's womb taken all the energy of her body. Fortunately, shadow mothers during pregnancy become ferocious hunters and due to hunger, everyone tries to please them, even the most feared husbands. No one wants to upset a pregnant, angry, and hungry saruman-shadow female! The saruman in her defends the unborn baby, and during pregnancy, the shadow mother acquires new powers, because she can borrow the power of the child she carries inside, and will always use it to contribute to the survival of the species.  At first, the baby saruman does not show up. It needs the shadow to be at least 5 years old to support the process of changing and the body changes along with the saruman that learns how to control it. It is said that the shadow has no control whatsoever over the demon within, and this one gets out of the shadow's body when it feels threatened or when they find their mates and need to mate as well. When they mate, they just take advantage of the mating rituals of their hosts, but they actually pull the strings in this process too, as all the drives of the shadow come through the body of the saruman and that transmits it throughout the vital energy of the shadow. So that means that the shadow will always feel the drives of the saruman within and the demon is the one that rules the body as we know it so far.  Shadows will state it simply: it is who I am.