hoppy wrote:Umm, isn't it the the shadow fox monster/Arcan's fur that enables their powers. I think The Shadow Fox is only taking advantage of the situation or maybe she is combining this with a lesson. Key point, she still thinks of him as her shaman.
Yes and no IMHO. first you have to go back to the actual source of the shadow powers which is the fox herself. She made the Shadowfox Monsters, everything they are came from her including their powers.
I am the spirit of the shadow fox, and it was by my will that the shadow foxes came to be in the world.
“I’ve never heard of them.”
They are there. They hide, for your kind would call them monsters. They shun most areas settled by humans, but there are some few who live near Atan.
Your people have never seen one of my children, she added lightly. They have the power to meld with the shadows, making them invisible in the night. That is how they hunt.
“A sensible way to go about it,” he noted. “Do they eat crystals?”
No. They absorb the energy to grant them that power from the spirit world. It is a minor power and does not require so much energy as a crystal holds to enact. It is for them the same as spirit sight is for you, a passive ability.
Here is this line from the Shadowfox to Kyven:
Between what I teach you and my gift to you, you will be a match for any other Shaman.
Yes the fox will lie to Kyven but here I think she was actually telling him the unvarnished truth and just letting Kyven misinterpret what it means. You can deceive people with the unvarnished truth just as easily as with lies if you have a history of lying,deceiving and telling half truths like the fox. Being Arcan was never a gift, it was a means to an end, the shadow powers are her gift.
“You granted me whatever price I wished of you. And so I take your humanity as my price.
“This is the price I exact from you, my new Arcan,” her voice thundered silently across the meadow, and thundered through his soul. “You show a lack of wisdom towards the Arcans, viewing them through the blind eye of privilege and power.
But never let it be said that I would take all from you, for you would gain little wisdom in death. As I have taken, so have I given in return. Use my gift wisely
She took his humanity as the price of his bargain and made him Arcan to learn about them and humility. The shadow powers are her gift to him.
Go back and look at what Umbra showed Kyven and what she said. Then there is this little tidbit:
It was again something internal, and he reasoned quickly that what Umbra did was invest some of her own energy into creating that shadow-like cloud. It wasn’t real shadow, it was instead a form of magic innate to the shadow foxes, a magical shadow, or a shadow created by magic. It was the innate power of the shadow foxes, what made the monsters, and when he did it, he could feel the power of the spirit world channel through him almost as if he were using Shaman magic.
Kyven called the shadow from within himself, the fur just lets him blend in with the shadows easier. The Shadow powers come from the spirit world and the fox let him keep her gift of them, he just can't blend into them like he could with that fur.