The Shadow Princess

Learning New Tricks

I nodded and said, "So when you say everything is my choice in here, do you mean I can use this world to gain invisibility?" Jakobi laughed heartily at my comment and replied, "Yes, you can use this world to hold your soul while your physical form is out in the real world. You need to learn how to do it."

I smiled and asked, "Then can you teach me?" He looked at me and nodded. "I can teach you teleportation and invisibility while we make our way to your father's kingdom." I nodded in agreement, and he lowered his face towards the ground. "First, you need to call the shadows to you."

I looked at him and asked, "And exactly how do I do that?" He met my gaze and said, "Pull them towards you. Imagine them coming to you and enveloping you in darkness. Once you have that down, we can move on to invisibility." I bit the inside of my cheek and closed my eyes, picturing what the shadows looked like and how warm they felt as they enveloped me like a comforting quilt.

Soon, I opened my eyes and saw that they were swirling around me. I almost shrieked from the sheer number of them. Jakobi laughed at my startled expression and said, "Good job! That was the easy part, but now comes the hard part. You need to make them cover you completely, making you disappear, while also quieting your breath and heartbeat and eliminating your scent. If you don't, you'll be easily discovered."

I nodded and repeated, "So when you say everything is my choice in here, do you mean I can use this world to gain invisibility?" Jakobi laughed again and confirmed, "Yes, you can use this world to hold your soul while your physical form is out in the real world. You need to learn how to do it."

I smiled and asked once more, "Can you teach me?" He nodded and replied, "I can teach you teleportation and invisibility while we journey to your father's kingdom. But first, you need to learn how to pull the shadows to you, and then we can move on to the next lesson, which will be invisibility."

I bit my lip and looked at him, "And exactly how do I do that?" He smiled and explained, "Imagine you're calling them, and they wrap around you like a warm blanket, trying to envelop you and keep you warm during a cold winter night."

I closed my eyes and envisioned the shadows, picturing them wrapping around me and becoming one with me. When I opened my eyes, I nearly screamed as I saw the shadows swirling around me, diving into my skin. To my astonishment, they formed ancient words that seemed to tattoo themselves onto my arms. Jakobi watched with his mouth partially open.

"I have never seen these spells," he said. I looked at him with wide eyes, "Spells? What do you mean by spells?" He clarified, "That is exactly what they are. Can you read them?"

As I examined my arms, the shadows continued to flow into me, moving upward. The more I focused on the words, the clearer they became. When I looked at Jakobi and nodded, he gasped softly.

"It seems they have chosen to become one with you, as you are their master. They have essentially pledged their loyalty to you and you alone." I look down at them and stroke them gently, causing them to glow brightly at my touch, filling my body with warmth and energy. Jakobi looks at me and clears his throat.

"Sorry, princess, but if you want to continue learning, we need to keep moving forward so we don’t waste any time. We're not far from your father's kingdom." I nod, urging him to continue.

"Okay, now that you have that down, we will work on becoming invisible. I want you to call upon the shadows, imagining that they are covering you and camouflaging you. You’ll need to keep this in mind the whole time; otherwise, the invisibility will fail. Also, you need to slow your heartbeat to almost nothing. You can ask the shadows to help you with that. Additionally, you must slow your breathing and eliminate your scent. Your scent is your most powerful attribute, and if someone can smell you, they can find you."

I close my eyes and imagine the shadows coming from my new tattoos, blanketing me and slowing my heart as I take small, deep breaths and hold them for a few minutes at a time. Jakobi says, "I can still smell you, princess."

I snap back, "I'm working on it." I feel the shadows dissolve away, exposing me. Jakobi sighs and says, "You lost focus. I know it's hard to maintain focus, but you need to concentrate. As you keep training with this, it won't be so difficult to maintain, but you have to get it down first."

I growl softly and say, "You're the one who made me lose focus in the first place!" He chuckles softly and nods.

I begin again, thinking about the shadows coming from my skin, wrapping around me, and making me one with the realm around me. I envision them reaching my heart and beginning to slow it almost to a standstill as I take deep, slow breaths. Once I have that down, I imagine my scent being contained in a bottle inside me, capping it tightly to ensure none leaks out.

Jakobi smiles and says, "Good, now I can't see you or smell you." He begins to walk towards where I was, but I start moving, coming beside him to watch as he realizes I am no longer there. He smiles when he reaches out, but his hand meets nothing but air. His smile drops, and he says, "Alright, very funny, princess. Time to come out."

I smirk when he says this and whisper in his ear, "Boo." He jumps almost 20 feet in the air. I laugh so hard that I have to clutch my ribs while maintaining invisibility. It's definitely difficult for now, but I'm learning to feed it through my mind while still being able to walk around and talk.

He snorts softly and says, "That wasn't funny, princess. I didn't know you would be such a fast learner." I smirk and say, "Well, I am quite smart for a girl who finished school at the age of 15."

He looks baffled when I say this and repeats, "15?" I nod and smile while he continues to look around for me. I focus on silencing my footsteps so he can't track me that way, laughing as he jumps around trying to find me. Finally, after 20 minutes of jumping, he finds me and breathes a sigh of relief.

"Now that you have invisibility down, we can work on teleportation. I must warn you that you can only teleport to places you've seen. If you try to teleport somewhere you can't see, you could get trapped in the walls or somewhere else that's unsafe."

I nod and say, "Yes, yes, I promise to only use it when I know where I’m going." He smiles and says, "Okay, then use it to go over to that tree over there."

I growl, saying, "You still have to explain how to use it!" He laughs and replies, "I thought you had it down pat with how cocky you were being, princess." I grab a rock and throw it at him, but it goes right through him. I growl again in frustration.

He laughs even harder and finally says, "Okay, okay, I'll stop teasing you, princess. So, you're going to have the shadows move you over there by telling them your destination."

I nod and close my eyes again, asking the shadows to take me to the tree he pointed to. I feel the air whip at my skin, and when I open my eyes, I find myself in the air, dropping fast. I fell about 10 feet and hit the ground with a loud "oomph," hearing Jakobi laughing from where we were earlier.

He hollers out, "You have to tell them the exact place you want to be; otherwise, they'll just put you in the vicinity." I get up, brush off the dirt from my clothes, and growl at him, "THANKS A LOT, GENIUS! THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE TO KNOW SOONER!"

When I turn, Jakobi is right beside me, still laughing. "Sorry, princess, I failed to remind you of that. Try it again, but over a shorter distance." I reach out and grab his wrist and say, "Right after I do this." I flip him over on his back, making him hit the ground and laugh as I hear him smack the ground hard. I drop his wrist and close my eyes and ask the shadows to move me over to my new destination, but on the ground this time, and by the time Jakobi is off the ground, dusting himself off, I am already a few meters away from him, smirking with my arms crossed. I hear a bell go off in the distance, and Jakobi looks up at me and smiles. "It seems that we are here, my dear princess."