The Greater The Shadow

"Yes, welcome, Willow, and because we don't have much time and I'll need to give you a crash course, we will have to skip over the more fun initiations." Joker snaps his finger, and all the doors and windows seem to lock. Drapes from the window close on their own, blocking all outside lights. The dim lamps in the room seem to grow brighter as if compensating for the lack of external light.

"Kairo, bring the ring of shadows to the front, please." Silence is all that comes from behind the black curtains, bringing frustration to Joker's brow.

"Kairo!! Could you-

-I fucking heard you!!" The voice from earlier interrupted Joker gritted his teeth at Kairo's blatant disrespect for him. Soon, a young man with white-rooted hair and dark brown tips shuffles from behind the curtains.

"Here's your bloody ring." He tosses an inky black ring that Joker somewhat struggles to catch. His gaze then lands on Salem, who waves sheepishly. He smiles sarcastically in reply and then notices me.

"Whos the new chick." He says as he takes a pack of rolling papers from his pocket, retrieves one, and then searches himself until he finds a hand full of green herbs with purple and orange markings. He closes the herbs tightly into one palm and lays the paper out on what had to be solid air as it hovers in front of him.

The closed palm then sprinkles what is now the grounded form of the herbs across the paper. With a snap of Kairos fingers, it rolls perfectly into a cigarette that he plucks from its suspension placed between his lips and lights with a fire that forms above his thumb.

"The new chick is Lady Ashes' granddaughter Willow." Salem said with an air of warning that brought a notable change to Kairo as he slightly began to shake.

"Nice to meet you. I am so sorry for calling you a chick." Kairo bowed hard, almost losing his joint in the process. Joker claps his hands to attain everyone's attention.

"Alright, if all the introductions are through, let's proceed. Joker makes his way from behind the desk, revealing the rest of his tall and slender frame. Salem and Kairo joined him on either side. All of their gazes focused on me. Joker signed and formed a couple of shapes with his hands and ended it with his right-hand pinky, making a circular motion at me.

For a moment, I thought I had caught a glimpse of a redheaded woman standing out of the corner of my vision. When I turned to look entirely, I found no one. The only one to notice this seemed to be Joker, who smiled his shady smile and outstretched his open hand to me.

"Put this on, please." In the center of his hand was an inky black ring that looked like it would melt into an oozy black mess. I glanced at Salem and Kairo, who both shook their heads at me to do it. My focus turns back to Joker, whose eyebrow raised slightly higher than the other to add to the provoking smile his face had. I quickly snatched the ring and held it with the tips of my fingers. It was cold and wet, but when I removed my finger to check if a black residue stained it, I found nothing.

I gripped the mercurial ring between two fingers and my thumb. Hesitating to slide it onto my finger, I quickly checked everyone's expressions. Salem watched me pensively while Kairo seemed to be preparing for something. Joker stood calmly, smiling as if anticipating a gift.

"What's going to happen when I do? Am I gonna explode?!" I couldn't help but genuinely feel distressed. All my experience with magic up until now had been traumatizing, to say the least, and now some devious magician wants me to slide a cold and creepy black ring onto my finger.

"Maybe." Kairo said, eyeing me up and down before taking a slight step behind Joker.

"Probably not..." Salem added sheepishly, also taking a quarter step behind Joker. I looked worriedly at Joker, whose expression slightly softened.

"Something amazing will happen, and as I promised Ashe, no harm will come to you, Willow." He held my gaze for a moment. There weren't any other options left for me, and this was the only step I knew I could take to find my father. I broke eye contact to look at the ring, and the more I did, the more unease nested in my stomach.

"A gift for courage..." The voice from early softly whispered over my shoulder, reminding me how my voice had returned and how the haze that weighed me down was now far away.

"Fine." I slip the ring on quickly, and as soon as I do, darkness rushes me, consuming the entire room up to a circular ring of light around me. A cylinder of illumination enclosed me in the center of the room. I could make out the slice of the rug I was standing on, and the circular piece of the ceiling still lit above me. The darkness seemed slightly ungulate. It resembled the ring in texture and behavior. Remembering the ring, I searched my hand and saw that the jet-black ring now glowed with a crimson iridescence, and instead of its liquid state, it was now velvety and warm... It was really warm and increasingly hotter as time passed. I gripped the ring and tugged, but not to my surprise, it didn't budge, and panic started to set in as I felt flesh searing.

"You need to plunge it into the shadow." Joker's voice barely escaped the darkness around me, I franticly searched with my eyes to find him, but the darkness proved too thick. Heeding his words, I outstretched my hand into the darkness around me. For a moment, the searing pain cooled significantly, and my composure slowly returned. I held my hand in the inky black wrist-deep, allowing everything past my wrist to be swallowed whole.

The darkness was cold, sticking to my fingers like oobleck as I waved them in it. Just for a moment, I felt something brush the tips of my finger before a sharp pain as if something had taken a nibble. I removed my hand so quickly that I stumbled over myself, landing on my ass, and almost falling out of the circle.