The Beauty of the Garden

[Great Thrash]

Thrash growls.

"This treatment is alright by you, Yerkan? Just say the word..."

[Steepest Durin]

I build a night-lantern prototype ta project th' absence of light, using deconstructive waves in a calculated array. Th' principle is similar ta others you've seen before.

[AIiCE]

I inspect the machine enthusiastically.

"Fascinating. How did you get around the duality problem? Nobody in my facet has been able to do it yet."

[Steepest Durin]

I use a nanocrystal coatin', which can generate a fine electric charge. That charge can, if th' calculations are right, filter out somethin' as fine as a particle, leavin' only cancellable waves. An' just like anythin' that's solely a wave, a wave of th' opposite amplitude can cancel it right out.

So basically th' photons are absorbed by highly conductive material made of indium tin oxide crystal - which I'm sure you're familiar with.
I use a special niobium oxide ta detect th' photons for filterin' in th' first place.

Th' tricky part is that photons are massless an' chargeless, so I must rely solely on things like polarization an' spin ta manipulate 'em.

[AIiCE]

"Aah. Very clever. So really it's more like a globe of darkness than a lantern, isn't it? Because it has limited range?"

[Grey Aides]

Shadows...are nothing to fear. Leave it to its...games. The only thing to fear...is what is concealed within a shadow...

AIiCE...do you detect aught else within the shadow? Look....deeper...

[Steepest Durin]

"Aah. Very clever. So really it's more like a globe of darkness than a lantern, isn't it? Because it has limited range?"

I could mebbe alter th' range, but it doesn't flood th' room ta it's limits like another light source would.

[AIiCE]

"I would look deeper if the thing would hold still. That's why we were trying to trap it in the first place. Now that everything's gone topsy turvy I suppose we've lost it again."

[Yerkan of Elish]

"Perhaps Ptah could try slowing down the time of the n-dimension space surrounding the shadow. We know that something is casting it, and we care relatively little for the shadow itself. Perhaps we've had no luck stopping the shadow, because we've not been stopping it at its source.

If nothing else, we'll be making a shot in the dark with some slowed time, and that always has a chance, albeit a minimal one, of working."

[Diamond Master]

This strategy does increase your advantage so that you can go more toe-to-toe with the shadow, who essentially has a Speed domain.