The sky was leaden.
Like a wound covered in a thick crust.
Kael walked through the forest, with the Shadow of the Subjugated trailing behind.
He had no direction.
Only a pull. Like a hand yanking at his spine from the inside.
Time no longer mattered. Nor did hunger.
Ever since Seraphine had started merging with his soul, the world felt different.
Colors had taste.
Leaves whispered in dead languages.
And the footsteps of others... could be felt from kilometers away.
That's how he sensed them.
Three others.
He hadn't seen them yet. But the shadows of the forest warned him.
The leaves spun in circles. The crows fell silent. The air froze.
Like the moment before an execution.
Kael stopped at a fork in the path.
And then, one of them stepped out from between the trees.
A boy his age. With white hair and a mask made from crudely stitched human skin.
His eyes gleamed in two colors: blue and black.
— "You're the new one. I can smell the scent of a fresh pact."
His voice was calm, almost playful.
Kael said nothing. The shadow behind him began to rise.
— "Nice. You've got a Subjugated. Not everyone manages that with their first victim. What did it ask for in return? A memory? Or a piece of skin?"
Two more stepped from the darkness.
A girl in a bloodstained wedding dress, whispering to herself.
And an old man with a hunched back, walking with his hands clasped behind him—yet his veins moved like living snakes, slithering out of his flesh.
Kael felt Seraphine shift inside him. Agitated. Jealous.
"Don't listen to them. They're weak. Ruins."
— "Who are you?"
The question came out cold. Emotionless.
The boy with the mask grinned.
— "We're the ones the world lost. The ones the voices found.
Some resisted them. Others embraced them.
You… Kael… you're in-between. And soon, you'll have to choose."
Kael froze.
— "How do you know my name?"
— "Your entity… doesn't know how to stay silent. Seraphine is older than she seems. And far more dangerous than she lets on."
The girl in the wedding dress stepped forward. Touched his chest.
— "You're not whole. The shadow inside you hasn't tasted fresh blood yet. It's starving."
And the old man, without looking at him, whispered:
— "The first conscious kill will open the gates beyond. Only then will you be able to command legions."
Kael felt a chill climbing up his spine.
Not from fear.
But from confirmation.
All the voices. All the visions.
They weren't madness.
They were a calling.