Shang is one of those mentors whose help comes with a very reasonable question: how much does he know that he still hasn't told anybody?

Shang is one of those mentors whose help comes with a very reasonable question: how much does he know that he still hasn't told anybody? He helps Sela understand her place in the larger conflict, but the explanations arrive in stages. At one point he admits that he didn't actually give her her powers, even though he previously let her believe that. His reason is that she wasn't ready for the truth. That may make sense from his perspective, but Sela is the person being sent into dangerous situations without the full explanation. When he finally tells her about the realms and Earth's place between them, it changes the meaning of the work she has already been doing. Those individual fairy-tale encounters are connected to a war. There are people trying to influence Earth, and she has a responsibility as a guardian. Shang is giving her information she needs, but he is also revealing how much of the situation was being managed around her. His connection to Allexa gives that mentorship another layer. She is the previous bearer of the book, and when Baba Yaga threatens her, passing it on becomes urgent. Shang worries that the successor isn't ready, but events don't leave them the time he wants. That puts some context behind the way he handles Sela. He is working with someone who has inherited enormous responsibilities before he thinks her preparation is complete. He also mentors Samantha. That matters because the defense of Earth can't depend on Sela being available everywhere at once. There have to be other people who can act, and Shang is involved in helping them understand what they are taking on. The difficulty is that training someone still means trusting them with the truth, not just trusting them to follow your instructions. His history with Malec reaches further back than the battle between the Council and the Horde. Shang knew the man who became the Dark One before that title defined him. That makes the war harder to view as a conflict between people who have always been strangers. Their history includes a point when the relationship was very different, before Malec's ambitions and transformation carried him into the role he later occupies. During the battle around issue fifty, Cindy kills Shang. For Sela, losing him comes in the middle of an already devastating collapse of the people and protections around her. Whatever frustrations come with having a secretive mentor, he has been a major source of guidance in a world she is still learning to navigate. His later return in the Jack Frost period puts him back into her life in a surprisingly ordinary setting: a school. By then, his absence has already mattered. Seeing him again doesn't turn all those earlier events into something that never happened. Shang's place beside the Council is useful to separate from simply calling him one of its rulers. His importance comes through guidance, magic, knowledge, and connections that cross generations of guardians. He knows enough to help people survive extraordinary situations. He also creates problems whenever deciding what someone is ready to know becomes more important than letting that person understand the danger for themselves.