Chapter 36: Fractures in the Light
The forest clearing was still.
But Andrew wasn't.
His hands trembled as he returned to the Academy, Ashren now sheathed but pulsing faintly at his hip—restless, like it had felt the battle, and still tasted the shadow it once called home.
Each footstep echoed heavier than the last.
The encounter with Noir Caelum—his own reflection twisted by power—had left him shaken in a way no physical wound ever had. That face. That voice. That offer.
And worst of all… the part of him that had listened, even if just for a heartbeat.
- The Fire Within -
Mihai found him at dawn, sitting alone on the temple steps of the Academy's eastern wing.
"You saw him," Mihai said, not needing to ask.
Andrew didn't look up. "He offered to train me. He said we could rule the world together… that no god could stop us if I gave him Ashren."
Mihai exhaled slowly, leaning beside him. "And what did you say?"
"I said no. Then we fought."
"You lived. That already makes you stronger than most."
Andrew clenched his fists. "He was me. Just… worse. A version of me who gave in."
Mihai placed a hand on Andrew's shoulder. "Or maybe the version that was never stopped. Power without purpose is chaos. He is your chaos."
- Whispers and Warnings -
News spread through the Academy of strange magical surges. Instructors whispered of "echoes" appearing in the east wing—shadows behaving as if alive, mirrors cracking without touch, brief flickers of a figure in black vanishing when looked at too long.
Some said Andrew had summoned something from beyond the veil.
Others said he was the thing.
The headmaster issued an official warning: "All relic-bearers must be monitored. The fabric of reality is thinning."
Andrew found his name written in chalk behind a training hall: "Shadowspawn."He erased it. Quietly.
- Signs of Collapse -
Later that night, Andrew returned to the place they fought.
The grass hadn't regrown.
Ashren buzzed against his palm, almost reluctant to be unsheathed—but when he drew it, it shimmered differently than before. The shadows curled more gently now, like a beast no longer snarling but… curious.
Andrew closed his eyes. He saw flashes—not full visions, but fragments.
A tower in the distance, wrapped in chains of void-light.A woman with wings of crystal, weeping into a field of ash.And a throne made of swords, where he sat—his past self—laughing into the dark.
- The Line Has Been Crossed -
Mihai arrived again, slower this time.
"I don't think he was meant to cross over," Andrew said. "Not fully. But now that he has…"
Mihai nodded. "He'll return. He always finds a way."
"Is it because of Ashren?"
"Partially. But mostly because of you. You're waking up… and so is he."
Andrew turned to him. "Then teach me. For real this time. Not just how to use Ashren—but how to fight what's inside me."
Mihai looked at him, seeing something new.
Not fear.
Resolve.
- Elsewhere… -
Beneath the continent of Elaris, in chambers lost to time, ancient watchers stirred.
One of them—a seer wrapped in chains of time—opened her blind eyes and whispered:
"The Shadow King stirs again… and the chosen has chosen the path of light."
"The fracture deepens."