The Sonance of the Shadow

“The first leg of their journey,” begins Sophie the Storyteller, “takes them across the range of mountains called The Variety and over the Ocean of the Forgotten. The two of them are on a tight schedule and must arrive at their destination before the moon and the sun come together else the endless round loses its rhythm. The consequences for humanity could be cataclysmic.

Over the first seven days, they work their way back and forth across the face of the mountain, making slow but steady progress. Quickly becoming bored with what initially appeared to be an adventure, Light begins to pester Sophia with questions about the world and the people who live in it, but she remains on the whole silent, avoiding his questions or giving shallow answers. This frustrates him, but he’s not sure how to approach the issue, so he lapses into silence himself. On the morning of the seventh day, as they begin their descent on the far side of the mountain, something changes. Rather than Light questioning Sophia, she begins to question him instead. She asks him at what time they awoke that morning and why, and asks about the path they have been taking up the mountain. She asks what they have been doing.

Dissatisfied with his responses, she says “You have so many questions, but you do not take responsibility for them. You ask me to answer you, rather than choosing to use the eyes that God gave you to see for yourself. If you had your eyes open, you could not have failed to notice that the distance we have covered in the course of a week could have cost but a day. You could have noticed this, but you were content to let me lead you along like a shepherd leads his sheep. We both know we have a destination to reach and a limited time to get there, and yet each morning you are content to sleep for half the day, despite the fact that you were born with the gift to rise in synchrony with the sun itself. You have many such gifts, only you do not know them because you do not take the time to ask yourself your questions, and to search within for answers. You have no insight into yourself, yet the success of our quest in fact pivots on your capacity to reflect upon your nature and remember what you find.”

By this tirade Light felt very much rebuked, though he finds that his tongue will not obey him when he attempts a scathing reply. He remains in this state of silent contemplation throughout the duration of the day as they complete their descent; the spell is only broken once their path leads them to a vast salty lake with the most enchanting ripples and curls passing through the surface. Every now and then there is a sudden surge of energy and one of the undulating ripples eats the others up one by one until it comes crashing down at their feet.

“What is this thing?” Light asks with an expression of rapt wonder.

“This,” replied Sophia, “is the ocean of the forgotten. We must walk along its shores until we find a vessel that can carry us across. Any direction will do.”

Her response puzzled Light, but it was getting late and for some reason he didn’t like the idea of sleeping on the sandy shore, so without a word he set off with the water to his left. He was still feeling salty that she’d suggested he didn’t pay attention, although he vaguely suspected that the mood might be something in the air. Staring at his feet as he walked along, he kicked a black pebble and when it came to a rest, it was next to a shadowy foot. Startled, Light glances up and is astonished to find a mirror image of himself, but monochrome, standing beside an old boat. Light turned for Sophia, only to find her at his shoulder, staring warily at the stranger. She says only that it is too late to set out across the ocean now, and they must camp until morning. Sophia suggests that they camp a little ways up the mountain rather than on the beach and despite his initial attitude he feels a sudden defiance flare up inside him that he can’t quite place. He quashes it, and they set up camp. Just before they retire to sleep, Sophia instructs Light to wake them both at the crack of dawn, so they can get ahead of the coming storm - whatever that means. He feels a sudden burst of irritation at Sophia always telling him what to do, but bites his tongue and is soon deeply asleep.

Stirring at dawn, he briefly considers waking Sophia, but decides against it. When he opens his eyes again, the sun has moved a quarter of its path across the sky and Sophia blots out the other half, standing over him wearing an expression of fury. As they pack, he cannot quite comprehend the intensity of her reaction to his rather trivial decision, though she seems thoroughly disinterested in enlightening him. Without a word, they cast off from the beach, although Sophia is watching Light’s every movement carefully. A storm is brewing in the sky above them, and the waves are becoming choppy. The same indignation and defiance from before surfaces in his chest, but it is immediately swept away by the most delightful feeling of being in a dream. This dream seems hyper-real, and suddenly he hears the most divine melody echoing across the waves. As the song grows louder, all else fades from view and his singular goal is to close the gap between himself and the source of this transcendent music.

When he comes to, he is hanging over the edge of the boat with Sophia’s arms around him. Feeling shocked, he glances around the boat and realises that they must be in the eye of the storm. He stares at the suddenly still waters, unable to fully process what is going on, then abruptly stands up and walks over to the shadow. Sophia feels the waves of energy radiating off Light from his sudden and intense anger. She knows that for a moment he considers throwing the shadow into the ocean so that he can drown beneath the waves, but instead a subtle shift in his mood occurs and the anger begins to ebb. Quickly love begins to take its place, and reaching for his shadow, he pulls it into an embrace. The shadow begins to glow briefly before rapidly fading from view, having been absorbed into Light.

In a moment, Light becomes older and wiser. The storm dies away almost as quickly as it began, and for a time silence reigns.”