Shadow Clone Sorcery
Chapter 1: How Many More Deaths?

How many more times do I have to die today?

Twenty-foot-tall doors of solid gold towered over Lukas. Scenes from great battles and wars decorated their surface. The artisan had unnecessarily detailed the central character’s cruelty and inventive killing techniques. Lukas had little interest in experiencing them firsthand. Yet he continued towards the door, each step predetermined and purposeful.

Death was a regular possibility for all mortals, especially for individuals in Lukas’s line of work. He had long grown to accept the possibility and considered every death a learning opportunity. If not for looking Lady Death in the eyes on a daily basis, he’d still be nothing more than a mere valet. So, instead of fighting or avoiding the inevitable, Lukas focused his efforts on improving the probabilities in his favor.

“Did you lose your nerve?”A woman asked, almost making Lukas jump out of his skin. Almost, but not quite. The lookout had seen her coming. He expected her to appear eventually, but not so soon. Her scant clothes left most of her tattooed skin exposed. The runes covering her glowed and seemed to crawl across her body like countless thumbnail-sized spiders. The arcane markings moved freely between her arm and the crystal-sphere-topped staff that she carried. “Make up your mind, old man. We can’t wait all day.”

“Old?” Lukas feigned offense. “I’m but a spring lamb!”

“If he’s willing to soften the bitch up for us, let him,” her companion said, rising out of the shadows. She wore the stereotypical all-black garb, small blades, and a low hood like most rogues. Her contempt-filled eyes looked him up and down. “Or at least get her to waste some magic. You can do that, right, old timer?”

“Me? Challenge the mistress?” Lukas laughed heartily. “Oh, no. I could never, not even if I wanted to. I’m far too weak, and there is only one of me.” He bowed, stepping out of the way. “I’m here to deliver bad news and will probably get put down for it. If you can slay Lady Silverspine and free me of my contract, please do. I’ll be eternally grateful.”

The last of their troupe appeared—a giant warrior draped in furs and carrying an axe taller than his seven-foot stature. The weapon’s ugly head looked more like an executioner’s tool than a proper weapon of war. He pushed past Lukas, grunting, and kicked open the gold doors. “Coward.”

The woman and rogue swiftly followed, disappearing into the throne room without sparing Lukas a second glance. He didn’t mind. Unknown and underestimated were among his several secrets to success. Lukas estimated that taking the trio out would’ve only come at the cost of one death. The doors slammed shut behind the troupe.

Lukas took a moment to get his thoughts together, straighten his clothes, and check the contents of his pockets. He didn’t have to wait for long. Five minutes passed before the doors clicked again. He only needed to graze the engraved metal to get them to open. Only fools wasted energy on brute force and displays of power. Lukas inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with air before slowly exhaling. After several silent self-assurances, he marched onward.

“How long have you served me, Lukas?” Lady Silverspine’s melodious words echoed through the grand throne room as he approached.

All tapestries danced in a breeze with no apparent source while all else remained eerily still. Enchanted torches and chandeliers emitted lights that never stuck to a single shade for long. They illuminated scars and scorch marks left behind by battles old and recent. Spears, swords, and the weapons of countless fallen challengers and failed servants sat around the throne, embedded in the floor. The executioner’s axe and sorcerer's staff also stood among them. Lukas spotted no signs of their owners.

“Sixty years, my lady,” Lukas answered. Despite the decades of service, keeping his voice from trembling proved challenging. “Give or take a few months.”

“And you’ve been on this plane for how long?”

“Sixty as well.”

“That’s right. I was the one who took you in when you were a wide-eyed and naive Otherworlder, and gave you the chance to become more than a mundane mortal. Then why do I get the feeling you’re not grateful? Why are you here to make demands?”

“Not demands, my lady. Never demands. I only wish to make a request.”

“Which is?”

Instincts told Lukas to kneel, but went and ignored them. His back remained straight, and his eyes didn’t waver from the slender woman. She wore less than the sorceress. Only a seemingly endless length of crimson silk covered her. It fluttered in the breeze, doing little to cover her modesty, but Lukas refused to look anywhere but her face. One grows tired of perfection after witnessing it countless times.

“I completed my promised term of service ten years ago and have gone above and beyond my assigned duties. It's time for you to release me, my lady, and help me leave this realm as promised.”

“Gaia’s Ark? Diskverse? Yggdrasil’s Realms? Nexus Worlds? Where do you wish to flee?”

“Fracture,” Lukas answered without hesitation.

“Why Fracture?” Lady Silverspine asked, her sapphire eyes narrowing. The arcane lights around the throne room dimmed while her irises gained luminosity.

“Be free? Forge my own path and fate? I wish to achieve the same strength and influence as you, my lady, without relying on anyone but myself. Nothing borrowed or gifted but taken and earned. Where else but on Fracture can I achieve that?”

“Achieving godhood without stacking favors and debts is a rare feat and a near-impossible goal. Do you have a plan? Do you know what you’re going to do? Don’t you think life here is better?”

“It will depend on which of my gifts you let me retain. Don’t get me wrong, Lady Silverspine. Serving you has been an honor. It has had its thrills, and I’ve learned and experienced more than I ever expected. But my time is done. I do not wish to live in a plane where the rulers are set, and there is not enough power to rise to the same ranks.” He paused, nodding at the new weapons sitting around the throne. “Without suicidal attempts on your life or those of the other Greater Beings, of course. I do not doubt that no matter how long I spend here, however many deaths I experience, I’m never going to be anything more than a Lesser Being. Set me free. Grant me what I’m owed.”

“You have some nerve.” All the lights went out, and the temperature dropped drastically. The breeze turned into a gale, nipping at Lukas’s cheeks. The urge to kneel strengthened, but he refused. Submitting meant extending his service. “You demand freedom and gifts but don’t have the gall to face me yourself?”

“But—”

“The clone outside the palace is supposed to convince me otherwise?” The sapphire eyes grew brighter. “Do you take me for a fool? You’re playing this same game with half a dozen others.”

Lukas’s shoulders slumped. The drive to remain formal and respectful disappeared. He had dealt with enough immortals to know that they only respected mortals who spoke their minds without fear of death. “I know I’m done on this Realm and am willing to leave with or without what I’m owed.”

Images appeared, floating in the air. One showed Lukas conversing with a robed undead. “The Lich of Chronid,” Lady Silverspine announced. Another featured him in full-court regalia, bowing before a feather-covered woman who looked more bird than human. “Minarv, of the Court of Owls.” A third kowtowed before a rag-covered man. “The Hermit of the Bamboo Sea.”

Of the two remaining, Lukas envied the bruised and battered one drinking and laughing with a rotund dwarf with a beard decorated with gold and precious stones. It appeared he was having a better time than all of the others. “Lord of Brawls and Feasts.” Lady Silverspine skipped the next clone as it lay motionless at a crimson-tusked giant’s feet. “You stand here claiming to have fulfilled the contract when you’re allied with five other Great Powers and are demanding the same of them. Are you playing us off each other for the best deal?”

Lukas couldn’t think of doing much besides shrugging. His attempts at suppressing a grin also failed. “You can’t blame me for playing the field and trying all my options, my lady,” he replied. “Entities of your stature have a history of extending contracts or not holding up their end of the bargain. Most servants perish before getting the promised reward and severance. In fact, none who started before or with me are alive. A good deal of those who followed me have also faced violent or miserable ends.” Lukas’s knees had long turned into jelly, and he plopped onto his bottom, leaning back on his hands instead of kneeling or bowing. “I only want what I’m due and to be free.”

A sudden burst of movement followed. Silver flashed. The sound of blades shearing air followed. The world spun and moved erratically around Lukas. Everything stilled following soft, wet thunks again, and his perspective was far lower than below. He, or more specifically, his head, lay sideways on the floor.

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“Now, you see why I send clones for our meetings, my lady,” another Lukas said, emerging from a pillar’s shadows. The giant sapphire eyes looked bewildered, shooting to where he stood.

And the death counter for the day hits two!

A burst of sapphire flame engulfed him, instantly turning the clone into ash. It left no trace of Lukas. Only a scorch mark remained on the pillar.

“I’d rather not end things this way, my lady,” a third Lukas declared, emerging from a pillar behind the throne. A gust of air almost knocked him off his feet as the giant sapphire eyes spun to face him. “I’m leaving this realm today. I have decided as much. It would pain me to leave things on a sour note after everything you’ve done for me. So, please. Let's just talk things out.”

Aaand that’s three. Give me a break, Silver.

A rush of wind blasted Lukas, and he dove out of the way. A white blur shot through where he had stood milliseconds later. “Please, Lady Silverspine. Clones don’t grow on trees. Can’t we negotiate? I’m sure I can also help you on Fracture.”

“First, I want the truth. Where is the real you right now?” The sapphire eyes grew bigger. “What power is it conspiring with? Don’t lie. I can tell.”

“El-Prime is on the Amervan Coast, sipping iced coconut liquor and watching the waves with the Ocean Emperor’s second daughter. If all else fails, he plans to hold her hostage until the ransom of a transmigration scroll is paid.”

“Is she in on the plan?”

Lukas nodded. “She believes I’ll take her with me.”

“And do you intend to?”

“No. I don’t wish to bind myself to a spoiled psychopath who drowns young virgin sailors for entertainment. Her greed and hatred for her father make her an easy mark. She’ll slink back to her father, hurt and embarrassed, and probably weave a wild tale of how I manipulated and fooled her.”

“But you did.”

Lukas shrugged again.

Lady Silverspine guffawed. Her melodious laugh lost its pitch, growing deeper and making the floor tremble. The sapphire eyes brightened, and the light seemed to move like a fluid as it spread until it illuminated her entire body. The slender woman draped in crimson had disappeared. A towering silver dragon sat in her place.

“You’re far from my best servant or champion, Lukas Zaun, but you’ve always been the most entertaining,” she said. “Your development and utilization of the clone spell has been most amusing. How do you coordinate them all?”

“After Arcane Cloning, I poured all of my focus into the Telepathy spell,” he answered. “It’s not the best over grand distances, but it has been great for training and intelligence gathering. Along with Transformation, of course.”

“Explains your competency as a spy and thief.” Lady Silverspine paused, her giant dragon eyes dimmed. It felt as if she was looking straight through Lukas. “Have you been spying on me for the others?”

“No. I might be playing the field to an almost suicidal extent, but you were my first employer and the one who gave me my first bit of magic. The clones in service to others worked to gather information for you, but that doesn’t mean they can’t reap the benefits of serving other Great Powers while at it.”

“And how do I know you’re not saying the exact same things to the others?”

“Have you faced any setbacks or losses because of the Five in the past six decades?” Lukas asked, nodding at the floating images. “No. You’ve only profited from their mistakes and failures. I might favor the Lich for some years and the Hermit after. But you’ve always come first.” His matter-of-fact tone hadn’t failed him thus far, and he stuck to it. “You may not pay as much as Minarv or treat me as well as the dwarf, but you’ve consistently helped me grow stronger and learn. It might’ve been to serve you better, but I’m—”

“Are you being frank or brown-nosing?”

He shrugged. “Can’t it be both?”

“Do you have what I requested?” Lady Silverspine shrank to her humanoid form. She returned to her throne but didn’t bother covering herself. The perfection she displayed was only achievable through careful design and refinement. Her unnatural symmetry and lack of flaws gave her away as a Greater Being, and Lukas couldn’t help but find it off-putting.

“And more,” Lukas answered, fishing a pouch from his coat pocket. The dragon-woman purred like a cat when a glass sphere filled with golden flames emerged from it. Luminous feathers that appeared carved from crystallized fire followed. “I wasn’t sure if you had any use for the feathers, but I grabbed the best of them anyway.”

“The phoenix didn’t give you much trouble, did it?”

“Finding him was the issue, my lady. In case you're wondering, no. I didn’t dare face him in direct combat.”

“So you tricked him?” Lady Silverspine asked, snorting.

“Trickery and deception have lower mortality rates. The monster loved seducing old ladies, burning them to a crisp, and then stealing anything of value. I had a transformed clone pose as the perfect mark. Then—”

“Spare me the details.” Lady Silverspine held up a delicate hand. The fingernails were perfectly manicured and ended in sharp, tapered points. “You send clones for all the dangerous jobs.”

“Death still hurts, and the final moments of pain and trauma haunt my nightmares. That’s until Empress Minarv purges them, of course.”

“Of course.” Lady Silverspine laughed. “Fine. Lukas Zaun, I release you from servitude. Which of your gifts would you like to take to Fracture with you?”

“Arcane Clone, of course.”

“I expected as much,” the ancient silver dragon sighed. “Power works differently on Fracture. I’ll have to weaken the ability and return it to its base form. Are you fine with that?”

“Will it retain the ability to create physical copies?” Lukas asked. “Will I absorb everything they have learned when they die or are dispelled?”

Lady Silverspine nodded. “You’ll lose the volume. They might not be able to use magic until you find and master the appropriate complementary abilities. Location swapping will be lost, too.”

“As long as I can use them to learn, train, and gather intelligence, everything else is secondary.”

“Fair enough.” Lady Silverspine snapped her fingers, and the phoenix’s core disappeared. The feathers floated off the ground, came together in a swirling tornado, and fused. Runes flowed from where the sorcerer's staff stood, climbing out of the crystal and off the wood like a line of ants and joining the miniature vortex. The feathers lost their glossy texture and luminosity and transformed into a palm-sized leather-bound journal. “Consider it a part of your severance.”

Everything within trembled and vibrated when Lukas’s fingers grazed the worn leather. He knew at touch that the journal was a part of him. “This is soulbound, isn’t it?”

“Correct. The transmigration will put you in a new body. Knowledge gained on this realm and the specifics of relating to us Greater Beings may blur, fade, or warp. The journal will help you hold onto some things you’ve learned, universal truths, and the life that preceded this one. Tracking power and growth on Fracture can also be challenging, depending on where you are. The journal will provide valuable assistance.”

Driven by eagerness, Lukas flipped it open. The front page displayed a compass but lacked the traditional annotations, and the heading read ‘Pillars of Self.’ Body sat in place of North, and Heart occupied East’s position. Where South should’ve been, there was Mind, and Soul resided in West’s spot.

“Well, this takes half the fun out of starting afresh,” he commented, checking the blank pages that followed before returning to the compass. “I rather like figuring things out for myself.”

“There is plenty left unsaid and yet to be discovered,” the dragon said. “Don’t look a gift dragon in the mouth. You’ll be thankful when you start in a teenage or young adult body and find yourself lagging behind everyone else. Figuring out how abilities and magic function on Fracture and the Pillars of Self won’t be an easy feat, especially as an outsider. You’ll need all the help you can get.”

“And I don’t owe you anything for the journal? The scales are balanced?”

Lady Silverspine grinned. “As you said, I have interests on Fracture. The journal will offer quests and reward you for seeing them fulfilled. You can reject them if you want. It won’t change much. However, power is readily found but hard to process. The journal will remove hurdles and increase your chances of survival and success. It's your best bet if you want to become a Great Power and achieve immortality in your next natural lifespan.”

“Thank you.” Lukas would’ve preferred it if she just cut him loose. He had held up his part of the bargain, after all. But her unwillingness to just leave him be came as no surprise. He was too good an employee to release.

“I’m sure the taste of your first reward or thirst for power will change your mind,” Lady Silverspine said. The phoenix's core appeared, floating in front of her face. The dragon licked her lips hesitantly, reaching for it. “Begone. I’m sick of you and bored with this conversation.”

“I had one last question.”

“What is it?”

“How much will I forget? Will transmigration take everything? Will it change who I am?”

“You needn’t worry,” the dragon answered, her face softening. The expression appeared alien on her, but Lukas detected genuine concern. “It’s arcane knowledge and information against the world’s powers that will fade. Not your memories and what makes you, you.” She paused. “Much. It's a safety precaution of the transmigration process. The laws of magic and science are different in every realm. Misusing something you learned here might be catastrophic on Fracture. Your new home will want to protect itself, primarily from things you’ve learned here. Hence the fading.”

“I’m not particularly comforted but I suppose it's better than forgetting who I am, and what made me.”

“That’s safe. You might forget some of your escapades and how you developed and improved your spells and abilities. However, the actual applications and ideas will remain. The same will go for the bulk of your adventures—” Lady Silverspine paused. “Half the fun is in figuring things out, right? Get out before I decide to keep you here for good.”

Now that Lukas had what he needed and desired, he wasted no more time on the other Greater Beings. The more time the clones spent around them, the more the chances of encountering trouble and obstacles would increase. They all had connections on Fracture, after all. He dispelled all of his clones, including the one sitting on the beach with the Ocean Emperor’s second daughter. Even his current consciousness with the journal vanished, but thanks to the item being bound to his soul, it traveled to his true self.

The only Lukas Zaun that remained was the true El-Prime, sitting in the remote mountain manor between all lands of the Great Powers he served. The location ensured that the real him never had to leave home, and he hadn’t in close to five years.

Everything the clones had learned and experienced in their journeys flowed into Lukas’s subconscious, ready to be called forth when necessary. It was likely that the files and shelves of his mental library would disappear once transmigrated, but he cared little for them. The only thing that mattered was the scroll that followed the new soul-bound journal.

“Thank you, Lady Silverspine,” Lukas whispered, breaking the magical seal.