The night on campus was never truly quiet.
It was a false silence. Technological.
A calm created by white noise systems, by sensors that detected sleep and adjusted the atmosphere.
But Kael wasn't sleeping.
His shadow lay stretched across the floor… and it was breathing.
Not with air. Not with lungs.
But with thoughts.
Kael lay in bed, eyes open, chest bare, surrounded by artificial silence.
Beneath the mattress, the Book pulsed faintly. He hadn't touched it in days. Seraphine was silent. But not defeated. Just… waiting.
— "Your shadow follows you even when you're quiet," Seth's voice whispered in his mind.
— "It doesn't fully belong to you anymore."
Kael clenched his fist.
He was right. He could feel it. The shadow was becoming more autonomous. More aware.
And today… someone had almost seen it.
Earlier, during a reaction drill in the training hall, Instructor Valein had stared at his shadow for a second too long.
— "Strange reflex," he'd said dryly. "Looks like you've got reverse latency."
But Kael knew the truth. The shadow had moved before him.
—
Now, in the dorm room, someone stirred on the top bunk.
Yven.
He was dreaming again. The same dream.
Kael didn't want to hear it, but the whispers spilled from the sleeping boy's mouth like a river of buried memories:
— "No… dad, no… I told the truth…"
— "Don't tell mom, please… I was just cold…"
Kael closed his eyes.
— "They're all broken," Seth said.
— "But you… you're empty."
Just then, a soft blue beam swept through the room — a routine scan for energy fluctuations.
Kael's shadow stretched upward instinctively, like a hand reaching for the light.
Kael froze.
He realized… he hadn't controlled that movement.
He hadn't given any command.
His shadow had reacted on its own.
— "It's time," Seraphine said suddenly, awakened, her voice colder than ever.
— "Either you master it… or it devours you."
Kael got out of bed. He walked silently, barefoot, to the center of the room.
He raised his hand.
— "Enough."
The shadow contracted. Returned beneath him. Like an animal licking invisible wounds.
Yven stirred. He saw him.
— "Did you… talk in your sleep?" he asked drowsily.
Kael looked at him.
— "No."
— "Your shadow… it's weird," Yven continued. "It has a double outline… I thought I was dreaming."
Kael smiled. A cold smile.
— "You were dreaming."
Yven turned back in bed, but his eyes remained open.
He knew.
Or at least… he felt it.
🩸 Chapter 17 – Reign of the Shadow (part 2)
On the dorm rooftop. A cold air.
Where no one was.
No one except Kael… and what he kept in the dark.
The Thrall — the soldier's shadow — knelt, bound in circles of charcoal and blood.
It didn't speak. It couldn't.
Its mouth had been replaced with a stitched smile.
It lived — but felt nothing. It moved — but without will.
An animal, severed from its soul.
But in the past days… it had stopped obeying.
It resisted commands. Delayed. Hesitant. As if something in it remembered.
Kael paced in a circle around it, barefoot.
With every step, a dark imprint was left on the stone floor.
— "Do you know who you are?" Kael asked calmly.
The shadow did not react.
Kael raised his hand. From his fingertips, thin strands of dense darkness dripped, like the venom of a god-forgotten entity.
— "I created you from hatred. Tore you from death. And yet… you want to go back to what you were?"
No answer.
— "Very well."
With a gesture, a black nail of shadow materialized and pierced the shadow's knee.
No blood. But pain. The shadow trembled violently.
From behind its empty eyes came a muted sound — not a scream, but a vibration.
Like a child wanting to cry, but no longer having a mouth.
Kael leaned closer. Whispered directly into its shadow-ear:
— "You remember my skin, don't you? When you laughed and pressed the cigarette? You liked that, didn't you? You liked seeing my mother burn?"
The shadow couldn't answer. But it trembled.
Seth's voice slid through Kael's thoughts like a blade:
"Shadows don't understand mercy. Mercy is for those with a soul. You have none."
Kael raised his palm.
From its center, a miniature version of the shadow emerged — a black, living larva of night.
— "See this?" he said.
The Thrall squirmed.
— "This is what you're about to become. Fragmented. Broken. Remade. Until you no longer have a face — only my will."
Kael dropped it onto the shadow's chest.
Instantly, the shadow-larva began to dig, to burrow, to merge — opening channels of pain and reprogramming.
The soldier-shadow tried to escape — but couldn't.
The chains were ancient magic, corrupted systems, and his own blood.
Kael leaned in, face close:
— "I don't want you to obey. I want you to follow. Without question. Without hesitation. You are the weapon. I am the hand."
The shadow collapsed for a few seconds.
Then… it began to rise. Slowly.
A new layer had formed on its skin — a crust of darkness with red reflections.
From its stitched mouth, a thread of smoke emerged.
Its eyes lit up — two glowing points pulsing in sync with Kael's heart.
Kael smiled. Coldly.
— "Good. Now… tell me who we start with."
Seth laughed inside his mind.
Seraphine was silent.
The shadow… bowed.
Control was complete.
But something… something inside Kael broke in that moment.
A fragment of voice. A memory.
Maybe even the last regret.
But it didn't matter anymore.
Kael stood up.
— "I have my army."
And on the rooftop,
the shadow followed him.
Not like a slave.
Like a dog trained to kill.
And something was deeply wrong.