As the night was starting to fully set, my family came together for a nice, early dinner. While the sun wasn’t setting as early here as it had near the Nexus Tower, the longest night was coming, and the nights were getting longer in preparation for that. We would have to see whether we wanted to do something special that night, either a celebration of our own or some mischief with the local sun-worshippers. Either would be interesting, though I had a feeling that Sunna wouldn’t be happy if anyone tried to disturb the religious celebrations they’d undoubtedly hold on that day.

  After all, what better day to celebrate the Sun Goddess than the longest night? People always feared the darkness, or rather, what was hiding within it, so asking for shelter and light that night was perfectly reasonable. And maybe it was just as reasonable to remind them why they were hiding in the first place.

  A grin started to form on my face as I started to consider the plans Lia and I had for the night, and how those plans could be escalated during the time before that night. If we went for symbolism, an attack during the celebration—a disruption of their festivities—could be devastating. After all, what better way to strike at their faith in the Sun Goddess than to make them feel as if the longest night would be eternal? It would be even worse if they started to experience discomfort and distrust now, have it slowly ramp up until the longest night, only to escalate afterwards.

  Unless Sunna was working from an entirely different playbook, the symbolism behind their celebration of the longest night would be something along the lines of the Sun defeating the Night, of Sunna pushing back the winter and bringing back summer or something like that. Not terribly creative, but given that days became longer after that date, it made sense.

  But what would happen if their fortunes didn’t improve?

  Sure, I would be hard-pressed to shorten the days; that was a little beyond my ability, but to inflict them with ever-increasing mental torment? That was something Lia and I should be able to accomplish. I might even be able to give the illusion of shortening days by messing with the weather, increasing the amount of clouds or something like that, but it was a stretch. And it might be too close to the things the Pale Lady had done on Mundus, with the whole ‘winter without end’ thing I had tried to kick off.

  So, maybe messing with the weather wouldn’t be a good idea, but giving them enough mental issues to make them a magazine could work.

  After dinner, Lia and I set off together, intending to test a few things, maybe scare a patrol or something like that. We weren’t out to fight, just to go bump in the night.

  It was strangely difficult to keep myself from cackling maniacally as Lia and I were darting through the forest. The sensation was quite similar to the one I experienced back when we were racing from the Nexus Tower to the area near the giants, only that I couldn’t really fly here. Instead, I was jumping from tree to tree, using Wind Magic and Blood Magic to speed myself up. The Wind Magic eliminated air resistance, effectively creating a funnel that constantly pulled me forward before closing behind me. At the same time, the Blood Magic simply enhanced my muscles, allowing them to perform better and heal the tears that constantly formed as I overused them.

  The sensation made me realise that I should probably check in on the giants one of these days, just to make sure my investment remained on the trajectory I wanted it to be on. It would seriously suck to return to Alaska in the spring, only to realise that there were no giants left, that they had all killed one another, or something like that.

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  For a moment, I considered whether staying here in the south was a good idea. There were a few points for the North, but just as many for our vacation. Ultimately, I had a feeling we wouldn’t stay in either spot the entire time. It wasn’t as if we had to worry about travel times or find a place to stay, thanks to the Shadow Steps and the towers on either end.

  Maybe I should try making it even easier. Stepping through the shadows was an extraordinary ability, but I was pretty sure I could make it more comfortable. The current idea I was working on, next to my white whale—the flying enchantment for Lia and Luna —was to create something similar to the water mirror I had based my scrying constructs on. That particular spell worked by linking two bodies of water, allowing for communication between them. From that base, I had first altered it to allow the use of one body of water to transmit images, and later sound, from one body of water to the one the spell was used on, and then changed the medium of transmission from water to shadow.

  Which, amusingly, was pretty much all my scrying spell did: use shadows to transmit sound and images from one place to another. The critical advance wasn’t a change in the transmission but in the shadow used to transmit. By using a conjured construct, I could move the shadow around and didn’t have to rely on natural shadows. It also opened other avenues, especially when it came to a bit of conceptual magic, but that wasn’t the important part.

  Now, my idea was to use something similar. It should be possible to link two areas of shadow together and shorten the link within the realm of shadows to the point that they effectively become one. Or rather, that the distance between them was so small that even the smallest, most minute bit of Darkness Affinity was enough to withstand exposure to that bit of shadow. Maybe it wouldn’t work for someone who only had an affinity for Light Magic, but I would have to try. Which, if I were being honest with myself, sounded like a fascinating experiment, as disturbing as a small part of me considered that feeling.

  However, the portal idea would have to wait. For now, Lia and I had some wards to test, some guards to haunt and some dreams to influence. It would be utterly glorious.

  By the time we got close to their compound, night had fallen entirely, the moon was high in the sky, and countless stars twinkled overhead. It was a stunning view, and to make things even better, the clear sky meant the temperature was dropping fast. It didn’t take long for it to be cold enough to make even Lia uncomfortable. For me, it was okay, thanks to enchanted clothes and my high Ice affinity, I could easily withstand the cold, but normal people? Well, they were staying indoors, likely huddled together near a fire, hiding in a comfortable cocoon of blankets. The night was ours, and we both had a few ideas.

  My first task was pretty simple: to carefully and very slowly advance, all my magical senses dialled up as high as they would go, looking for the wards these people had crafted to protect their home.

  Finding them was trivial. There were many things I could say about Sunna, but I doubted anyone would ever accuse her, or her worshippers, of being subtle. The wards were strong, sure, but they were glowing like the sun these people worshipped, completely and irrevocably obvious. Powerful, sure, but I knew I had more than enough time to study them and slowly make my way through, around, or maybe even under them.

  Lia, on the other hand, took a different approach, one I hadn’t even considered. She decided that looking for their water supply would be the thing to do. I realised this was a blind spot for me, something I hadn’t considered because it wasn’t something that mattered for us. I could conjure enough water to drown someone if I truly wanted to go that route, so why would I care for water sources?

  But these people? I doubted they had all that many arcane casters. Why would they? They had Sunna to provide for them, and I doubted that a Sun goddess was all that interested in conjuring water. She’d probably be able to provide, but it would be a nuisance and effectively lessen their value in her eyes.

  Even better, Lia was planning to mix up some alchemical concoction to make them paranoid, maybe even give them hallucinations. It meshed well with the rest of our ideas to attack them in several different ways, all slightly different but all with a single goal. To destroy the unity of their community and disrupt cohesion.

  We didn’t want to kill them. We wanted to make them turn on each other and do the job for us.