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Shadowflux, the sixth element, is the more rudimentary form of shadows. This element rests far in the atmosphere. The element is widely unknown, and the people who have heard of it often pretend it doesn't exist. Shades also prefer shadowvapor over shadowflux, because it is much easier to control and not many can control this powerful side-element. Shadowflux is very hard to manipulate because the element only respects those with enough confidence to command it. It is rarely able to be contained.
Shadowflux by itself is neither evil nor good and is just waiting for a strong-willed Shade to control it. When encountered, shadowflux leaves behind an echo as a remnant. Echoes from Shadowflux are a burden to bear but will eventually fade with time. Shadowflux is loaded with emotion, and the emotion is what leaves behind an echo. The nature of the echo is determined by the emotion the wielder was feeling when they used the Shadowflux. If anger is transmitted, the echo is destructive. If calmer emotions are loaded in, the echoes usually don't affect the person negatively.
Tam using shadowflux to “transform” Keefe due to Glimmer’s quintessence bonds.
Echoes haunt the victim in the area struck. For example, if a heart were to be struck, the pulse and emotions would be affected, whereas, for the head, certain thoughts would be affected. The specific emotion would change the toleration level and the time it lasts. When the conscious isn't in control, the echo takes over, controlling thoughts, memories, and emotions. Though eventually fading, some tiny remnant will always remain of the echo.
Echoes cannot be fully cured, but the person they encountered can become very close. The Shadowflux's echoes' effects can be cured with songs as performed by Calla's niece, Flori.
Uses[]
In Flashback, Sophie was hit with spears of shadowflux by Umber, the Neverseen's Shade, which caused the shadows to sink into her skin, shredding muscle and a nerve. Fitz was also hit with shadowflux arrows. It didn't listen to any of Tam's commands and he was forced to wrap shadowvapor around the shadows to control them, resulting in them slithering away instead of fading.
Later, throughout many lessons though, Tam gains control of this pure darkness, although he is often shown to be afraid of this strong power. It is revealed that he had let a bit under his skin, leaving an echo, but it was much calmer than Sophie or Fitz's.
Umber and Tam are the only known elves to be able to control shadowflux. However, since Umber was crushed by the falling door at the illegal troll hive in Everglen, Tam is the only known living elf who can control shadowflux.
Shadowflux can also be used to conceal mental transmissions from telepaths, as shown by Tam in Legacy. In Legacy Tam uses Shadowflux to make shadow bonds on Lady Gisela, which leaves her injured, but she still escapes.
In Stellarlune, it was revealed that shadowflux can be used as a tracker if a ripple occurs in a person, or perhaps even an object (though that has not been seen yet). When Keefe was with the Neverseen in Lodestar, Umber put minuscule amounts of shadowflux in his food every day and would guide the shadowflux that he ingested from his stomach to his heart. The rhythm of Keefe's heartbeat made the shadowflux slowly pile on top of itself, until it eventually toppled over, the sudden shift causing a ripple. To be specific, a ripple is like a tiny shock wave that radiates across the shadowplane. After the shadowflux fell, it would take a while to build up again, so this process would happen in Keefe two times a day, at the eleventh hour.
To sense the ripples, either Umber needs to be in the same room as Keefe or a Technopath needs to modify a Spyball and rewire it to access the shadowplane, (meaning it would then focus on darkness instead of people), and program it to search for anomalies. If anyone turned on such a Spyball at the eleventh hour, it would pick up on the ripple in Keefe and track it. Ripples can be removed by any Shade talented enough, though, as seen when Tam yanked out the shadowflux from Keefe's heart in the Forbidden Cities.