Shadows Of The Undercity

Author: Akiko

The Creature

The shadows which abound in the Litharge Undercity.

The Tale

Zylas muses about shadows in the neon-lit gloom of the Undercity:

It isn't often that stories like this end with 'and our heroes all survived,' but if it helps, they were all in therapy for quite a while afterwards. A while ago, when the Blood Ark was still settling into Scatterhome, a handful of not-quite-gangers-per-se idiots with spaceships (we're all familiar with the sort) took it upon themselves to look into some disappearances along the remote Corsairs' trade route. It was probably pirates, they all assumed it was pirates, and along the way they hailed a little just-set-up colony who told them that it was, in fact, pirates, and invited them down to throw some money around on drinks and fuel. Strangest thing, though - their transfer shuttle had barely touched down when one of their number went flat blind.

Nothing happened to his eyes, zero physiological or chemical changes, no detected kith phenomena, just... blind. They were partway to the colony's infirmary when one of his friends leaned in to quietly ask:

"Hey."

"Hey what is it that you blue guys see with that weird forehead eye again?"

And then they started shooting, which saved their lives and the lives of a lot of other people going forward. The sheer number of corpses in the colony's chapel basement was so shocking it dominated the news cycle for half an entire day.

This may be the most extreme example, but it's something that preys on our minds a lot, when we're with you weirdos who can't see the darkness of transcendence.

Jin don't jump at shadows.

Jin just worry over which shadows are the ones only they can see.