The enchanted torches along the walls flickered softly, casting dim golden light that seemed to breathe.
Shadows among the ancient bookshelves danced slowly, shifting as though waiting for something unseen.
Auren sat on the cold floor of the library.
The golden book lay open before her, displaying a cracked circle drawn across the page — unchanged since the night before.
> "What you seek is not what is seen.
The first step lies hidden behind the darkness you ignore."
She read the words over and over again.
Each line felt like a riddle without an answer.
Auren tried to trace the circle's shape in the air.
But as her finger moved through the empty space, her shadow on the floor quivered... then fractured.
The fragments of that shadow moved on their own, forming a faint figure with hollow eyes.
Auren froze.
The shadow looked at her.
And when it spoke, its voice seemed to rise from within her own chest.
"You wish to know the truth? Then show me who you are without light."
Auren swallowed hard.
"What... do you mean?"
The shadow smiled — a smile far too similar to hers.
"I am everything you've denied."
A wave of dark energy rippled through the room.
The shelves creaked and shifted; pages tore free, fluttering through the air like black birds.
The golden book opened wider, revealing a new symbol spinning above it —
a perfect circle, split down the middle by a thin crack.
Auren tried to recreate it again.
But her shadow copied her — faster, sharper, more alive.
Each mistake shook the room.
Each fear made the shadow more real.
"You're afraid of what lives inside you," whispered the shadow.
"That's why the darkness refuses you."
Auren closed her eyes.
Her breathing trembled.
In the quiet of her mind, she heard the soft voice of the Guidebook:
> "Do not give up. But also... do not believe too easily in what you see."
She opened her eyes.
This time, she did not resist.
She moved with the shadow — calm, steady — letting their motions mirror each other.
The symbol in the air slowly fused together.
The crack down the center vanished.
Dark light flowed between them — gentle, warm... alive.
The shadow smiled once more before fading into nothing.
Its final whisper brushed against Auren's ear like the wind itself:
"You are beginning to listen."
When Auren looked back at the golden book, new words appeared across its page:
> "Darkness is not meant to be defeated... but to be understood."
She stared at the line for a long moment,
unsure whether it meant victory — or the beginning of something deeper.
But for the first time,
she didn't feel completely alone within the darkness.
Just when she thought she understood the whispers of the book,
something else stirred within the dark.
Her footsteps were still silent —
but now, another set followed her own.
And for the first time,
the library looked back.