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Another day, and the girls were still practicing. Kat was having some success, and she had managed to transform her nerves! She also found that somehow, her hand did indeed continue to work if it was just bone. As long as it was surrounded by water, the bones acted as if the required muscle and skin were there without issue. Kat had also managed to transform her legs, the other arm, but no progress was made on her horns. The fact she could move her arm even without muscle did give her confidence that she wouldn\'t accidentally cripple or kill herself. 

Lily was making good progress herself, and seeing Kat collapse onto the bed to regenerate demonic energy for perhaps the hundredth time that day, she decided to cheer her girlfriend up a bit. "So… would you like to hear what I\'ve worked out?" asked Lily. 

*I mean… Kat does say that she likes to hear me talk… so she should enjoy this right? I… well I haven\'t really found that much stuff out but I can turn it into a decent conversation for Kat if she wants me too. I can make it sound like a book report! I… I also know she can\'t hear me. She\'s still blocking me out after I asked her too… just in case she hurts herself again. Which…

I don\'t like having the link blocked off like this. It feels weird not getting that trickle of emotions from Kat. I didn\'t realise how comforting that was, nor how much I\'ve been leaning on that stream to keep myself comfortable at times. I didn\'t notice it when I was fighting with those cultivators and saving Lian… is this a new fear I have? I hope not. Then again… wishing that the answer is that I\'m too used to the sensations from the link isn\'t exactly healthy either… then again do I care?*

"I\'d love to," answered Kat. Yes! I wasn\'t wrong! Perhaps this can cheer her up a bit. 

Lily turned to Kat and debated where to sit. After a moment of thought she pulled Kat up to the end of the bed so that Kat would be slightly elevated by the pillows then sat down at the foot of the bed and started to talk. Kat\'s eyes followed Lily\'s every movement, but that was the only indication she was paying attention. 

*Damn, I really am reliant on the link for judging Kat\'s moods now aren\'t I? When did I get so bad at reading her face? Dammit, I need to train that skill back up at some point.* "Ok awesome. Well, the first thing I found out is that there seems to be something inherently different between shadows with and without magic in them. I don\'t know what that means in more practical terms, but it isn\'t just a matter of if I can manipulate them or not. 

"Shadows with magic seem to shift colour slightly when I look at them, and they almost seem to move. I\'m also able to determine that a shadow realm might actually exist, and a shadow pocket makes a lot more sense now. Shadows with magic in them… are intrinsically more than just the absence of light. I\'m not yet sure what they ARE but it\'s something. 

"I\'ve also worked out that it\'s easiest to manipulate my own shadow. Not only does it take less mana to fill up, but it seems to obey me better. Which… might sound weird but I can already sort of tell my shadow to move in certain ways and have it listen. I suspect that high level shadow mages can treat their shadow like a second body in way but I can\'t exactly see out of my shadows eyes… yet. Might be possible. 

"As for shadows of other things… well it depends what I use. I haven\'t tried it on your shadow yet… I\'m not sure what would happen because if you remember, apparently you leak demonic energy into the environment. Not in amounts that matter to normal creatures… but it\'s YOUR shadow, and that might be an important distinction when it comes to magical matters such as this. 

"Once we\'re on a different world I\'m more confident testing it, as while it might have demonic energy corrupt it… it\'s still ultimately the shadow of my girlfriend, and I from what I can understand that also matters. Perhaps I\'d need explicit permission, but I suspect the fact you trust me completely should let me manipulate your shadow almost as well as my own. 

"Then we have inanimate object shadows. Shadows of things that are not, and have never been anything… I hesitate to say real but that\'s almost what it feels like. Not trees and plants and stuff, we\'ll get to those later, but shadows of things like the bed, the desk, or a door. I\'ve found that… inanimate shadows like to remain stationary. 

"They don\'t really flow like a person or a plant\'s shadow. You can move them, certainly, but it takes focus and they sort of… snap into shape. So take the door for instance. I could make it\'s shadow grow spikes, and that\'s fine, but I couldn\'t turn it into a wave and let it keep flowing as I watched. This oddly applies even to curved objects, which was a heck of a thing to learn. 

"I tried it out with a ball Vivian had around, and it still wanted to remain in fixed sharper shapes. Now, I\'m not able to push the shadows off the ground. Control and shape them? That\'s fine, but at the moment I can\'t do anything physical with anything except my own shadow… and even that is really weak. I was just trying to lift a pillow with it and my shadow couldn\'t even get that far. I\'m not sure if I wasn\'t using enough mana, or if I need a spell or what the problem was…

"So of course I tried the spells. They are… to be honest they are pretty useless. Once again, it might just be the lack of magic in these shadows and the fact I have to provide mana for the shadows, mana for the spells, and keep concentrating on both what I want and two separate steams of mana. It\'s exhausting and produces basically no results. I went outside to test the shadow arrows against some rocks and I didn\'t need to bother. 

"The best I managed? I could move the rock… maybe ten centimetres. It was pretty disappointing. The shadow glob does stick to things, as I\'d thought… but it\'s also somewhat pathetic. It takes so much mana to make it anywhere near a useful size. As it is… it\'s like throwing little bits of dust at people. Though…

"I have had success with merging shadow and paper stuff. It seems that using purely magical paper really helps the shadow stuff along. Using paper as a medium I can draw all the shapes I want. I\'m not even limited by the inanimate objects issues that normally plague me. It\'s still a little… jittery I guess, and it prefers to stay squarish when I\'ve covered the whole paper in shadow, but it will move and listen to me if I force the issue. 

"Additionally, after a bit of effort, I managed to make a… \'Paper Shadow Arrow\' I suppose you can call it, and that DOES work. Quite well in fact. It sliced through all of the twigs I set up. I also underpowered it a fair bit and shot it at the fence, and the paper would stick into the wood. Which means that at the very least, shadow magic won\'t be a waste of time, even if I\'m stuck combining it with paper. 

"I think I\'m going to split my time between pumping mana into my shadow, and practicing my combined spells. Not sure if it\'s really worth keeping my shadow saturated with mana… but once I started doing it… it just felt right you know? I think it has to be part of my Memphis instincts, or perhaps just shadow magic affinity in general. I\'m not sure what will happen, but I imagine something well," 

Lily exhaled deeply, despite already being somewhat out of breath and smiled. Kat looked enthralled during the entire explanation and Lily needed no additional advice to realise that Kat had been listening well the entire time. *Perhaps I haven\'t lost it after all.*

"I\'m glad you\'ve been making so much progress Lily," said Kat. "I\'ve been making decent enough use of my time… and I\'m not in pain anymore because I can reliably vanish my nerves… but I\'m not sure I can get my bones, or my wings, hidden before the weekend. I\'m not entirely sure what I\'m going to do. Perhaps you could ask Callisto and Sylvie if they have ideas? I\'d ask myself, but they want to keep everything all hush, hush," 

"Sure Kat," said Lily. "I\'ll ask them after you get back to practicing," Lily then laid herself down next to Kat and pulled her girlfriend tight against her body. A worthwhile reward.