The sunset cast its purple glow over the rooftops of the gray academy, the air heavy with the scent of old ink and cold stone. Raine sat on the stone ledge atop the western tower, watching the creeping silence settle over the souls around him.
His shadow, which had lately begun to take on a disturbing personality, murmured softly:
"You are returning… but you will not return as you once were."
Raine said nothing. He simply closed his eyes, as if afraid that an answer he did not know might slip out.
The sound of soft footsteps broke the silence. It was Renal, carrying a small bag.
"I won't say goodbye," he said, placing the bag beside Raine, "because I'm sure you'll be expelled and back within two weeks."
Raine chuckled quietly, then reached out to shake his hand.
Minutes later, Lina appeared. She said nothing, only handed him a book bound in strange leather, its pages untranslated. Then she leaned in and whispered:
"Don't forget you're not alone… even if everyone else disappears."
The passage to Darkol was through a massive magical gate carved into the academy's dungeon, only opened by special permission. When Raine stepped through, he felt time stretch and then collapse upon itself.
He arrived at the northern gate of Darkol city and was greeted by an old guard. The guard gave him a long look and said:
"We thought you wouldn't return… after what happened in Krysay."
"Neither did I," Raine muttered.
He entered the city, which remained the same: gray, solid, suffocating. But he no longer saw it the same way. Something had broken between him and this place.
No welcome ceremony awaited him, no announcements. Only an elderly servant silently led him to his old wing. Everything was in place… even the dust, as if he had never left.
What unsettled Raine was the silent change: a new wing built on the western end of the family wing, heavily guarded and off-limits.
On the first night, as he tossed in bed, he heard faint crying… coming from the dark corridor behind the wing.
In the morning, curiosity got the better of him. He followed the sound to a small wooden door, opened it without thinking… and found a little girl, no more than five, with silver hair and wide eyes staring at him in surprise.
"Are you my brother?" she asked in a trembling voice.
He did not answer. He just stared as if time had stopped.
Suddenly, the maid rushed in and pulled the girl away:
"Excuse me, Sir Raine. Entry to this wing is forbidden."
"Who… is she?" he asked in a broken voice.
"Princess Elin," she replied hesitantly, then whispered: "But no one talks about her."
That night, Raine returned to his room and opened the book Lina had given him. He turned the pages slowly… and suddenly, a small paper slipped out.
It was an old photograph… of a baby wrapped in a black shawl, looking almost identical to him.
At the bottom of the photo was written sharply:
"In the darkness, secrets are not born… they are hidden."
Raine closed the book slowly. This time, it was not his shadow speaking… but his heart.