At the edge of night, a storm broke over the mountains.Rain poured from the heavens like a curtain of steel, and the Shadow Mountains flickered with lightning—like the chained heartbeats of a sleeping dragon.
Aiden stood by the window, staring into the storm-lit sky.The Black Star burned faintly against his chest, each pulse syncing with his heartbeat, as though something unseen were calling him by name.Since the Trial of Shadows, his sleep had been haunted by the same vision again and again—a falling light,and a face identical to his own.
In the dream, he always reached for the black star.And every time, he heard the same whisper—a voice echoing from the void, cold and indistinct:
"Eldra ven silen…"
He didn't know the language, yet the words carved themselves into his mind like a forbidden spell.
A soft sound broke the silence—footsteps outside his door.It creaked open, and a woman in a gray robe stepped inside.Lena, the instructor of runes and star sigils, moved with the sharp grace of a blade. Her eyes were clear and cutting, as if they could see through both lies and souls.
"Kaelus sent me to examine your mark," she said. Her tone was calm, but it carried a weight that brooked no refusal.
Aiden unfastened his shirt.The black star on his chest glowed faintly, its lines shifting like dark ink alive under the skin.
Lena watched for a long time before murmuring, "This is no ordinary sigil. It's… feeding on your star energy."
"Feeding?" Aiden frowned. "What does that mean?"
"It means it has consciousness."She traced a series of runes in the air. The mark shivered in response, almost as if offended.
"It isn't a part of you," she continued quietly. "It's something attached to you. It chose you—but that doesn't mean you can command it."
A surge of heat flared through Aiden's chest; his breath hitched in pain."If it keeps doing this… what happens to me?"
"Then you'll either die," Lena said simply, "or become it."
Thunder split the sky, rattling the tower's walls. Lena's gaze flicked toward the window, her brow tightening."It seems this night won't end quietly."
She left as quickly as she had come, the sound of her steps swallowed by the storm.
Lightning slashed across the sky once more.And in that instant, Aiden saw something moving far below the mountain—black mist creeping through the valley like a living tide. It wasn't fog; it pulsed with malice, climbing the cliffs as if countless hands were reaching upward toward the academy.
The mark on his chest flared violently.Aiden staggered back, clutching himself, gasping as the light beneath his skin turned blindingly bright.
Then came the whisper again—clear now, almost human.
"Awaken, bearer of the Dark Star…"
Before he could react, a wave of icy air burst from within him.Every candle in the room went out. The world fell into silence.
The air trembled.
The mark tore itself from his chest, rising into the air as a small, spinning sphere of black light.It wasn't merely dark—it was absence, a void devouring its own glow, neither light nor shadow but something between.
The door slammed open. Kaelus stormed in with several instructors at his back.They froze at the sight of the hovering black star.
"This is impossible," one whispered. "The Black Star has never taken form."
Kaelus's expression hardened. A silver-inlaid staff appeared in his grasp.He approached Aiden, voice low and urgent."Listen to me, boy. You must suppress it now—before it consumes your star veins!"
"I… I can't!" Aiden's voice cracked.
Kaelus pressed a hand to his forehead, chanting an ancient incantation.Runes flared and spiraled in the air—only to be torn apart one by one by the black star's radiance.The force within Aiden raged like a storm, rejecting all control.
"It's resisting," Lena's voice came from the doorway—cool, steady, but trembling with disbelief. "It's treating him as a vessel."
"Then we have no choice—" Kaelus began, but he never finished.
The black star erupted.
A shockwave tore through the room, flinging everyone backward.The air screamed; the walls cracked; outside, the storm itself split open under the force.
Aiden hung suspended in the center of the chaos, his eyes now entirely black.And from within him came a voice that was not his own—deep and resonant, echoing like the heartbeat of the cosmos:
"I am the void between stars…"
Kaelus stared up at him, his face drained of color. For the first time in decades, fear touched his eyes."He's resonating… with the Silent Star."
"No," Lena said sharply, hands weaving sigils that flared like chains of light. "That's not resonance. That's alignment."
A flash like lightning filled the chamber—then silence.
When their sight returned, the black star was gone.Aiden lay motionless on the ground. The mark on his chest had dulled to a deep gray, its glow extinguished.
He did not wake.
Kaelus approached, his voice almost a whisper."The mark of the Black Star… has completed the bond. That means it has chosen its moment to awaken."
Lena's gaze was cold as steel."And when will that be?"
Kaelus turned toward the storm outside. His words came slowly, heavy with dread.
"When the stars fall for the second time…there will be no more boundary between light and darkness."
The thunder faded. The rain slowed to a whisper.Yet at the mountain's base, the black mist still writhed, growing, alive.
From somewhere deep within the academy, the great bell began to toll—slow, mournful, endless.
That night, no one slept.
For every master of the Shadow Academy knew:Destiny had marked them.