Spell

Shadow Step

Dark · Circle 1 — A step into the dark and out of the line of sight — the dark is the absence that holds the shape, and the shape is the one who is not seen.

What It Does

A step into the dark and out of the line of sight — the dark is the absence that holds the shape, and the shape is the one who is not seen. It is the cantrip of the school: the dark does not hide, the dark takes the name out of the light, and the name is the one the camp has to stop looking for.

The Cost

Circle 1 · Dark · Exchange: gesture — casting time one beat. On the ladder in The Veil, the gesture rung is the price.

The Failure

The step is held a beat too long, and the dark keeps the tension — the shape is the one who is not seen, and the one who is not seen is the one who is standing in the wrong gap.

In Stories

The camp's first dark spell; the one the new arrival casts when the light is the argument and the dark is the one who has to hold.

The door's scale anchor is Shadowveil — the dragon casts it without thinking, which is how a reader learns the shape of the thing.

Inscribed Sep 09, 2026 at 10:15 PM Revised Sep 09, 2026 at 10:15 PM