The Ancestors of Demons: The Shadows

By Tess Grebe

Come, gather around, humans, for a captivating tale awaits. The Shadows invite you to journey into their world, where magic reigns supreme and the impossible becomes reality. Let your imagination run wild as they share their inhuman experiences, offering a non-human outlook on life and a moral code that will challenge your understanding of what it means to be a monster.

Through their eyes, you will see a world so distant from your own, it seems like a dream - a world of demons, strange rules, and peculiar places. The Shadows will guide you on a journey that will leave you wondering, contemplating, and even questioning the very fabric of reality.

But fear not, for you are in good hands. Sit back, relax, and allow your mind to fall into this enchanting world, where you might stumble upon your wildest dreams or your worst nightmares. The Shadows have a great story to share, one that will transport you to a place where science meets magic, and the impossible becomes possible. So listen well, and let the magic of their tale take you on a wondrous adventure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jun 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781398479524

Tess Grebe

Tess Grebe lives in Paderborn, Germany. She has been a great  fan of fantasy books ever since she was little and has been  writing smaller and longer fantasy stories for just as long.  While Tess has lived in Germany all her life, she grew up  speaking English as her stepfather was a soldier in the British  army and she went to British school within the army camps.  She has found her place in life working with animals as a vet’s  assistant and writing the types of books she has always loved  to read.

Book preview

The Ancestors of Demons:

The Shadows

Tess Grebe

Austin Macauley Publishers

The Ancestors of Demons: The Shadows

About the Author

Dedication

Copyright Information ©

Acknowledgement

About the Author

Tess Grebe lives in Paderborn, Germany. She has been a great fan of fantasy books, ever since she has been little and has been writing smaller and longer fantasy stories for just as long. While Tess has lived in Germany all her life, she grew up speaking English, as her stepfather was a soldier in the British Army and she went to British school within the army camps. She has found her place in life, working with animals, as a vets assistant and writing the types of books she had always loved to read.

Dedication

For my parents, a special thanks. Chris, Angel and Andrew thank you for always supporting my writing, listening to me read out every little story I ever wrote and encouraging me to continue with my writing. I am here today, because of your support. In memory. It is 26.11 as I write this, I wish I could have finished the story I wrote for you. I wish you could see this day. I will never forget you.

Copyright Information ©

Tess Grebe 2023

The right of Tess Grebe to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398479517 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398479524 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the Austin Macauley Publishers for all the effort and support in publishing my book. It is a great experience to work with you, I could not have found a better publisher to work with. You have my gratitude.

What is Life? Life itself is something outside our field of vision, something we can’t touch, can’t ever hope to see or to reach, but it is there, endlessly present.

But what exactly is this Life we speak of?

Let us tell you about Life, about that which you don’t know and have yet to see.

Let us show you the Life, as we see it.

We, whose duty and sole purpose of life is to protect Life. We, the Shadows.

At the beginning of time there was nothing, a pitch black nothing. It was a black of a depth like no other and inside of it, there was absolute emptiness. It was the black of inexistence.

There was only one thing, one thing alone, that was present, but not. It existed in a way, that is beyond our understanding. It was present in the none-presence, but, without an error of doubt, it was there.

It was Life itself.

All that, which we refer to as life, has an origin and that origin is Life itself. (Now you’re probably thinking, that the previous sentence has no informative value and is just representing a pure fact in a ridiculously obvious way, but let us tell you, that that statement holds an answer, over which humans have yet to stumble).

Life itself and that which we refer to as life is most certainly, not even close to, the same thing.

Life itself is a living being, a being whose way of existence is beyond our knowledge. (We also can’t enlighten you on how it lives and what kind of creature it might be, that is one of the great secrets of Life even we don’t know). But; there is one thing we know for sure, it is a being, with a mind of its own. And that is not God; this is Life itself. Whether you want to describe it as such, is up to you, though we have been taught, that it is Life itself. So now, how does it differ to what we refer to as life? (Now sit tight people, this is where the fun starts, as well as the story of the Shadow race, our race).

During the time of the pitch black nothing, something inside Life itself birthed us. The purpose of our birth was to bring something into the black, something that Life could use to project itself, something that would grant it shape and structure. Something it could build upon and use to create. That something was light and darkness.

We Shadows are beings completely composed of light and darkness. Our whole existence is based upon these two forces endlessly combining themselves inside of us and it is exactly these two forces, which Life used to project itself.

It released us into the black and alongside us light and darkness was brought into the black, so that it was no longer nothing.

And then …

Life used the fundamental opposites light and darkness to create something and everything.

We like to explain it as follows.

Light brings heat, dark brings cold. Cold brings ice and heat brings fire. Combining both brings water. Light’s extreme heat exposed to the extreme cold of darkness creates mass. Mass and water give soil. Soil and water, exposed to a day and night circle allow plants to grow. Plants growing from soil, a source of water, day and night, cold and warm allow animals to live.

This is how Life uses opposites to create or rather project. Don’t misunderstand us, it isn’t just as simple, this is simply the theory behind it. The actual projection happens through Life combining light and darkness over and over within less than a split second, reusing all that is created to create even more. The simple opposite nature of light and darkness basically allows Life to create endless amounts of opposites, as all opposites branch off the core opposites of light and dark. When these are then combined, they form neutrals, giving even more ground for combinations.

Thus what we refer to, as life, was formed, meaning all within this life, is a product of combined light and darkness. When you humans speak of atoms as the smallest particle of everything around you, we like to tell you, that there is just one step smaller, on a level of existence no machine could ever see and that is the light and darkness inside all of us. The essence of the projection of Life.

But as your kind has also noticed, life has structure and pattern, so when Life was projected a structure was created, a structure that exists throughout and must be protected for Life to continue projecting itself.

Let us show you this structure and pattern, that became the whole meaning of our lives and that we will protect until we die.

Let us reveal to you the many secrets that we Shadows were entrusted with by Life and tell you stories and show you worlds you wouldn’t have dreamed about in your wildest dreams.

Let us take you on a journey through your own mind, as you listen to our little story, letting your mind create even better pictures of our world, than our own eyes have probably seen. (Though we can see perfectly well).

After we came into this projection, a place formed around our feet.

We call it Begin.

It is a small island, in the leftovers of the nothing and much as ourselves, it is one of the few things in life, that is composed of pure light and darkness. This island, not long after, was giving the title of our home and remains as such, till this day. We’ve been told by Life, much like ourselves, Begin will, due to its nature, remain present even when the projection should end.

Begin is really not all that big, but it holds a simplistic beauty, that has become very dear to us, even with how long we lived for.

Begin is covered in a fresh green grass, that never wilts. It’s such a pure green, always covered by everlasting sunshine, that never leaves Begin, making it almost seems to glow. Scattered throughout the grass are small flowers, giving the grass a playful feeling and even if you pick the flowers or crush the grass, within a split second it looks like it’s never been touched. When you lie down and look up at the sky, it embraces you like the most softest pillow in the world and you feel like you’re lying on top of the clouds. We spend many days of our youths just like that, smiling up at the sun above us and enjoying the comforts of home.

There are a handful of trees growing on Begin and very much like the grass, the leaves seem to almost glow. Seeing them gracefully sway in the wind, as they reach across the sky, has always put our minds at ease. The tree trunks are perhaps a bit special from your point of view, since they go up in spirals.

Towards the last bit of the northern end of Begin is a small river flowing from east to west. The water is always crystal clear and small rocks cover the bottom, with the reflection of sunlight dancing gently over them.

The only sound you ever hear in Begin (except us chatting of course) is the flow of water and the splashing sound, that it makes, when it rushes down the, no more than 20cm, high waterfall.

This was on the first of the first in the year zero. Well, not after your time count, the place or rather the world you refer to as earth, formed much much later, but we will get to that when we get to that.

This was the first of the first in year zero in the first world. The day that life and many more came to be.

(If you are wondering, as to how many is the we we speak of, there were exactly one million Shadows born in one and the same moment, none of us is any older than the other. (Though it is just the five of us telling you this story now, none of the others will come.) And if you’re wondering how we all fit into one small little island, we can do a little trick called unmaterialising, which basically allows us to pass through anything or rather become untouchable. (We can also materialise, so make things you usually pass through, like air, touchable, but that’s past the point)).

The thing that was born only minutes after us, was a being known as Destiny. Destiny is a being tasked with shaping the way that life flows. Destiny is basically speaking, a story maker. Life itself gives life and Destiny makes the story, that life follows.

(We’ve been asked this many times, so we shall just answer this unspoken question. No, Destiny does not control every part of your life, Destiny merely creates key-points or goals your life must reach, the path up to there is up to you. You will make that path, all which Destiny does is, guarantee that you reach a certain point. An example of this is, we’ll take something simple. It is your destiny to finish school in five years, how well you do, who you get along with in that time, any side incidents, all that comes from you, all that is set, is that you will finish in five years.)

Making the story of life, also means making the basis for the story, meaning all the tools a story maker uses to give his story shape, such as where it’s set, the characters in it, everything is all part of Destiny’s duty. Meaning Destiny creates not only your destiny, but also the worlds we all live in and has to plan each and everybody’s birth. Everyone gets destined to be born and everyone gets their own role in life and based on the destiny to be born, Life gives out life.

So when Destiny was born, the first thing it created was the first world, formed around Begin. Worlds are very much like, that which you call parallel worlds. But while parallel worlds are supposedly worlds, that form from all possibilities, worlds are more like different planets with different life on them. Worlds can be consistent of multiple planets, whole universes or just a single surface to live on, without the space outside of it. These worlds, even though they exist in the same place and at the same time, just like parallel worlds, they are absolutely out of reach from each other. You can travel your whole universe and you will never leave your world to reach even the world right next to yours. They simple exist in different dimensions, which we call world dimensions. Though there are certain types of creatures, with the ability to cross between these dimensions. Creatures with such an ability are called outworldish creatures. Beside the Shadow race and one more demon race, there are only three more beings with this ability.

All worlds exist in a place known as the worlduniverse. The best way to understand this whole concept is this … Your earth, with your star system and all of the universe you see around you is one world. Now just imagine, there was another planet just like yours, perhaps with a different structure and environment and a different race than yours. But just like with your earth it is surrounded by a star system and they can also see endlessly far into the universe unsure if there is even an end to it. That is also a world, they both exist in one and the same worlduniverse. You can think of the worlduniverse as just like your star system, but except for planets, there are worlds inside of it. These worlds all look like you zoomed into the light a star projects, onto the night sky. So basically a giant dot of light, with smaller, less prominent rays coming of the edges. The centre of these lights is a bright and pure white, while the rays shimmer in ever-changing colours.

With the first world coming into existence, Life created the first rules. These so called rules are known as the laws of light and darkness and are basically speaking laws that Life creates to protect its projection. Everything in these rules must be kept, if they get broken, there is the risk, that life will seize to exist. This is where we Shadows come in. Our duty is to make sure, these laws are kept and if any of them get broken, it is our duty to fix them. When Life made us, Life gave us abilities. These abilities are made for fixing everything that exists in life. So, we Shadows, can almost do anything, simply because it is our duty to do so. (But don’t pray to us, simply because we can do almost anything. We most certainly won’t appreciate it. We aren’t made to be prayed to, it is against our nature, meaning it will cause us massive pain if anybody prays to us. We will kill you if you pray to us, sometimes even without a previous warning. Though if you ever meet us, we won’t mind you asking us for help. You can tell if a Shadow is around, if you ever see our symbol. It is a moon and a sun coming together to form a circle. The moon represents darkness and the sun light, forming a circle to make something whole. It is both the symbol of Shadows and life. If you ever find such a symbol anywhere, it either means someone tried summoning a Shadow or a Shadow wants to make someone aware of their presence. Be careful though, we won’t always be friendly, if you encounter us. It depends on our mood, if you are unfortunate, we might just kill you. Don’t look like that now, the five of us won’t kill you, we agreed to tell you this story, so you don’t have anything to fear from us.)

The first laws, we received, concerned the setup of a world. The existence of worlds requires some jobs to be done or rather administrative roles to be filled.

Before we tell you about these roles, there is something you first need to know about how Destiny makes things destined. Destiny can only make directly the destiny for administrative roles, no other being than those. (Shadows are excluded from this, we don’t have a destiny, because we need to be free from Destiny’s control, so if there is ever a broken rule concerning Destiny, we can fix this).

But this flaw in the working of destiny means, Destiny needs a medium, which it can use to make the destiny of those, that don’t have an administrative role.

This is where the first administrative role comes in. This role has the name, by the laws of light and darkness, of god.

A god is not quite what you