It was difficult to keep track of the passage of time in the Abyss.

Sua settled into a routine very quickly: she would sleep when fatigue caught up to her, eat another apple when she was awake, and listen to the stories from the shadows until it was time for her to practice the boring breathing.

The stories the shadows told would be difficult to believe if they did not play out in front of her eyes in every minute detail: worlds where humans could train themselves to run across clouds, where creatures with fearsome features would fight to the death, where powerful demons would devour all that stood in their way, where even the largest being was no bigger than her fingernail.

Sua would lose herself in the stories for hours, perhaps even days, as her fatigue began to happen with less and less frequency. It was easy to forget the hardships of Earth as she watched people battle with every fiber of their being or wave their hands to create entire kingdoms.

Each tale the shadows weaved for her was more riveting than the last and, before Sua knew it, she wanted to see what it felt to have such power for herself.

The joy of their storytelling was only ruined by the shadows insistence that Sua meditate when they were finished with their tales.

It was boring. More than once, Sua fell asleep only to be jolted by the sensation of the floor dropping out from under her.

Startled awake for the sixth time with a yelp, Sua rubbed at her eyes, her impatience bubbling over. “Why do I have to do this? I’m not learning anything.”

<There are things you cannot learn until you strengthen your mind and have control over your emotions.>

"Will I be able to learn how to do the things in your stories, Shadow-nim?”

<Perhaps some of them, if you are talented enough.>

“Really?” The word burst out of her mouth in surprise, “I was joking!”

<We are not. You are stronger now than the normal human of your size from your world. There is much you will be able to do if you train.>

That was almost too much for her to digest, but Sua shoved aside any confusion in favor of her own excitement, nearly vibrating in place from anticipation. “What do I have to do?”

The shadows rustled around her, brushing against Sua’s sides and sliding over her shoulders, seeming to evaluate her as the sensation of contemplation washed over her. <You must master meditation first, then you will be prepared to learn.>

She swallowed a groan at the unhelpful response, “… how does breathing slowly help with anything?”

<It is a technique used across realms and universes. Do you know more about training than the masters, child?>

Obviously, she didn’t. “It’s just hard! I’m still a kid!”

The shadows pushed in around her, the darkness starting to grow suffocating in a way it never had before. Sua’s body began to protest, bones creaking from the pressure.

<The longer you cling to human whims, the slower this will become your reality. The Abyss does not conform to your preferences until you learn to move through it.>

All at once, the pressure was gone  and Sua sucked in a gasp of air, chest heaving slightly as she stared out into the darkness, “… move through it how?”

<What is the Abyss, Sua?>

Sua frowned slightly, “It’s where you live, all the shadows.”

<No. It is of us. We are the Abyss and we are part of it. It exists everywhere we do, connecting us through galaxies and universes. If you become one with it, you can travel anywhere we exist.>

Her eyes, originally narrowed as she tried to understand the abstract explanation, widened at the implications. “I could really travel to the places from the stories?”

<If you master what we have to teach you. That includes meditation, which you will need to start again.>

As much as she wanted to complain, Sua swallowed her grumbling as she turned her attention back to her breath.

She supposed, if she really tried hard enough, she could figure out how to stop falling asleep.

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

<Sua, where did you go?>

The question floated through the serenity of the dark, tickling Sua's consciousness and slowly pulling her out of her own mind.

Slightly groggy in a way that only occurred after a deep sleep or equally deep meditation, she blinked open her eyes.

After spending over a decade in the Abyss, she was able to pick out the teeming mass of writhing darkness that made up the shadow conscious as easy as if a spotlight were shining all around her.

She could still remember the faint echo of excitement the first time she was able to differentiate between the shades of black, how nice it felt to finally direct her replies somewhere concrete rather than out into nothing and everything all at once.

“I was thinking about how I came here and when I first started training.” The corners of her mouth curled upwards in a ghost of a smile—the largest form of emotion she showed after adapting to the Abyss, “I’ve heard it’s good to reflect on your journey before taking a particularly monumental step.”

There was a slight pause. 

The longer Sua spent here, the more human the shadows seemed to become, to the point that now she could sense reluctance in their silence, even without the emotion bleeding into her as it once did when her mind lacked any sort of fortification.

<So you already knew it was time to leave.>

If she were still a child, Sua would have played dumb or protested the idea of leaving: this place had become her home, there was a security in the darkness that she might never find again.

But, she was not a child anymore.

“I didn’t know it was right this minute, but it felt like this was coming to an end soon.”

The shadows curled around her slender frame in a warm embrace. <Where do you wish to go? We can deposit you in any realm.>

“I want to go back to Korea, I’m curious what it’s like now.”

<There is danger there, more than you know.>

Getting to her feet, Sua stretched out muscles stiff from meditation with a barely audible huff of amusement, “It’s not like I’m defenseless after all these years of training. Plus, I won’t be alone.”

Out of the darkness, something similar to a hand patted her head, weight pressing against her without a physical presence. <While human in form, you are one of us now. You will always have our support.>

“I know.” It was a comforting truth she had accepted years ago. “Will you finally tell me what happened to Jae-sung now?”

Her brother's name felt foreign on her tongue.

In keeping her initial promise with the shadows, Sua had never raised a question about his whereabouts even though the specter of his disappearance routinely clouded her mind.

Her training had kept her busy, her meditation had kept her emotions as even as a still pond, but the desire for answers had never entirely left.

Despite the time that had passed, despite the way her feelings had largely gone numb, Sua couldn't shake the fundamental need to discover what had happened to Jae-sung.

<We lost track of him some time ago.>

Her brow inched up at the answer. There were not very many places a person could go to shed a tracking shadow. After all, if he had died, they would have been able to tell as much.

“When?”

<Four human years after your arrival.>

That would make Jae-sung somewhere around eighteen when they lost him.

How unusual.

Nodding her understanding, Sua started down a familiar walkway. To the eye of any creature from Earth, there was no way to distinguish the narrow path from the endless chasm of abyss on either side of it, but there was no hesitation in her step.

“Thanks for telling me.”

<What use do you have for a brother that abandoned you?>

“An answer would be nice. I don’t think he left intending to abandon me. Even if I don’t get an answer from him, it will be good to know what happened to him: it’s a human thing.”

The path had branches every few steps, leading to the various worlds that the shadows moved in and out of. Sua had been shown the exit to her own world nearly three years ago. Stopping in front of it, she glanced up at them, “Do you know how many human years have passed on Earth since I came here?"

Their next pause was contemplative, likely the result of the shadows reaching across Earth to try and calculate the answer. <Twelve.>

She supposed that was plenty of time for a country to change. "Will I be able to come back when I leave?”

The shadows rustled, their amusement echoing in the space around her. <You are a Shadow Walker, child. You will always be able to find your way home.>

It had been several years since Sua had last felt her face curl into a proper smile, however, no amount of training could dissuade the spark of joy the response gave her, “I’m off, then. Wish me luck.”

<You have no need for such a thing.>

A little laugh bubbled from Sua’s lips as she took her last step forward and tumbled into the ether.