Ash still hung in the air, drifting slowly around them like the remnants of a fire long extinguished. Kael stood frozen, her arms limp at her sides, her gaze locked on Spandrex as if trying to see past his skin—into whatever remained inside.
"Say something," she whispered, her voice raw.
Spandrex blinked, slow and uncertain. His mouth opened, then closed again. His throat bobbed.
Finally, he said, "Is it… quiet?"
Kael stepped closer. "What?"
He stared at his hands, flexing his fingers like they weren't his. "The voice. It was everywhere. All at once. I… I can't tell if it's gone or if I've just… gotten used to it."
Kael swallowed. One of his eyes—the left—had turned back to its usual amber-brown. But the right eye still glistened with a bottomless blackness, slick and glassy, like the surface of an ancient well. Something moved in that darkness. Not visibly, but felt.
She stepped forward. "You're back. Or… part of you is."
"Which part?" His voice was quieter now. "And for how long?"
He looked at her, and for a brief second, the darkness in his right eye twitched. Not his eye—something inside it.
Kael flinched. "You're still Spandrex."
"Am I?" He touched his chest, where the glyph had once flared open in the dome. It no longer glowed, but something faint—like a scar written in smoke—still pulsed beneath the fabric.
"I saw it," he murmured. "Everything. I saw myself, again and again. Other versions of me. Writing the same things. Repeating the same fate. The book was never telling us what would happen—it was reminding us of what always does."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "What are you saying?"
"That it's not coming, Kael." His gaze lifted to hers. "It's already here. It's been here. Whispering. Waiting."
Kael took a breath and laid a hand gently on his shoulder. "Then we fight it."
He stared at her hand. "You still believe we have a choice?"
Kael nodded firmly. "Always."
For a moment, something flickered in his expression—recognition, maybe even hope.
But then the lights overhead flickered.
Both of them looked up. The bulbs buzzed faintly, humming like insects before a storm. A sudden chill swept through the room—not cold, but ancient. Heavy. Not alone.
Kael drew closer. "Spandrex, we need to go."
He nodded and turned toward the exit—but as he moved, his shadow didn't follow.
Kael noticed first.
"Your… shadow," she said, voice sharp with alarm.
He froze and looked down. His shadow remained behind him, still stretched across the floor—unmoving, unnatural. Then slowly, it lifted.
Detached from his feet.
It twisted upright. A grin formed—an impossible curvature across a blank black face.
Kael stumbled back. "Spandrex—"
"I see it," he whispered.
The shadow lunged—not at them, but toward the wall. It didn't make a sound. Its limbs elongated, then collapsed inward, morphing into something nearly human, then less than human.
And just like that, it was gone.
No smoke. No crack. Just absence.
Kael stared at the empty stone. "What was that?"
Spandrex's voice was low. Hollow. "Something that used to be part of me… but isn't anymore."
Kael gritted her teeth. "So it's loose now."
He turned slowly toward her. "It always was. We just gave it a face."
Behind them, the lights finally dimmed—then died.
Only silence remained.