Kael crouched.The fragments still shimmered, scattered across the cold stone.But he froze.
His golden gaze caught something else.
In one corner of the cell…a small pile of patched cloth.A crude cushion set atop a frayed mat.
On it, a stuffed toy.Worn.One button eye missing.
Beside it, a dog-eared book.Clumsy drawings scrawled in the margins.
Farther on… a sewing kit, thread still through the needle.As if someone had been forced to stop…and never returned.
Kael went still.His breath grew heavier.
This was not a gaol.It was a room.A broken home.
But that thought…was impossible.
They were in a gaol.Not a bedroom.
Kael clenched his teeth.His golden eyes swept the walls—every corner, every crack.He hunted for the smallest detail.Any clue that might betray an illusion.
He almost forgot the fragments.His fingers did not move.Thana, silently, gathered them in his stead.
Thana, for her part, was lost in her thoughts.Thankfully for Kael.
Her tiny hands picked up shards by rote, barely noticing them.Her eyes stayed veiled.
She kept replaying what had happened.Had she been too harsh?Too hard… even cruel?Not listening enough?
Or was it something else?A bitter hint of jealousy.That demonic lineage…The fear of losing him to someone—or something—else?
She couldn't decide.Her thoughts tangled.Her emotions turned chaotic.
Kael…He was truly special to her.
Not like other hosts she had known.They… passed through.He… remained.
He was different.
And she cared for him.More than anything else.
Perhaps too much.
So the thought of losing him…was unbearable.And managing her own emotions was becoming harder than protecting him.
Across the room,
Kael stayed crouched, eyes locked on the floor.His fingers traced the wet stone, climbed the walls, returned to the bars.
He searched.For what?He had no idea.
He only knew something was missing.That something here was wrong.
His breath shortened.His jaw tightened.He straightened, took a few steps, bent again, resumed.
He wasn't seeking an object.Not a clear sign.It was his instinct howling.Pounding inside his skull:— Look. Look. Keep going.
As if truth hid beneath the stones themselves.As if without finding it, he would suffocate along with them.
His fingers lingered in every fissure.Moisture clung there like a cold skin.Dust stuck to his knuckles, leaving a fine grey film.
He breathed deeper.Stale air filled his lungs.Fetid.Sour.As if the air itself were rotting with the walls.
Every motion rang too loudly in the hush:his palm scraping stone,the crisp click of a chip he shifted,the dull creak when he pressed too hard.
He crouched again.His eyes swept the floor.The planks, dark with damp, bore greenish mold.A floor that was nothing like raw stone.Too crafted.Too lived-in.
Kael frowned.A shiver climbed his spine.Everything in him screamed this place was no mere cell.
And then, as he rose to scan the shelves…a flash struck him.
The floor.
What was a plank floor doing… here?In a gaol?
Kael froze, golden eyes widening.Then he threw himself to his knees.
His fingers wedged between the blackened slats.He pulled.Again.Again.
Mold burst beneath his nails; damp spat in dark flecks.No discretion.No method.
Thana watched, rigid.From that angle, he looked almost hysterical.Possessed.
— Kael?… what are you—
He didn't answer.Too focused.Too drawn in.
A pinch tightened her heart.She had never seen his gaze like this.
Suddenly, Kael stopped.His hands trembled.So did his breath.
— … I found it!
He tore up one last board.Beneath the damp, his fingers closed on an intact vellum roll.
He unrolled it with a near-religious slowness.His eyes latched onto the pigments, the meticulous strokes.
A small boy—seven or eight—painted with unsettling precision.Above him…a black, draped, absolute entity.
Its contours quivered like living shadow, as if the pen had captured the impossible.
Thana drew near, lips tight.A breath escaped her—a strangled sound—and a tear traced her cheek.
— … Hypnos.
Thana discreetly wiped her cheek, as if nothing had happened.The parchment lay open between them, heavy with silence.
But this wasn't the time.Not now.Not with Hypnos.
She pressed her lips together, looked away.Kael kept staring at the lines as though still searching for a hidden meaning.He said nothing.
A pang crossed Thana's heart.What if he resented her?What if his silence was not reflection… but anger?
She breathed in.Softly.Gathered her courage.
Her lips parted.— Kael, I—
A shadow cracked through the cell.Dry.Violent.
Umbra burst in, scoring the air with a black shiver.The spectral flames wavered; the floor thrummed.
Thana wiped the damp at the corner of her eye.She steadied her breath.
— Kael, I—
The shadow surged.
Umbra had returned.The air tightened; a scent of cold ash bit the throat.The spectral flames shivered, then stilled—as if the gaol held its breath.
Grave murmurs rolled within the black mass.Not words. Waves.Irregular pulses that struck the skin more than touched the ear.
Thana inclined her head, just so.Her halo vibrated—twice, short—as if answering.— … Yes. Where?She paused, eyes fixed in the shadow.— I'm listening.
Kael set his jaw.— What's he saying?
Thana translated, low, precise:— He patrolled farther, as agreed.In one of the cells… a soul just spoke words.Not moans. Words.
Umbra's coils stretched toward the corridor, pointing to an unseen direction.A heavier pulse rippled through the cell.
— He confirms she's still speaking, Thana added.And… that she's waiting for us.
Kael met her eyes.The parchment trembled faintly in his hands.Umbra hung motionless, suspended like a blade in air—ready to guide them at the first sign.
Kael drew a long breath.His eyes stayed on Umbra, but his voice turned to Thana:
— Even if something… this strange just happened, we can't leave this behind.
She studied him a moment, then nodded without argument.
So, in silence, they resumed gathering.Each fragment, lifted one by one.The dry clink repeated in the satchel—monotonous, almost soothing.
Kael added the painted vellum, neatly rolled, inside.Then, without knowing why… he took the toy as well.Worn, damaged, yet still whole.
His fingers tightened on it, as if afraid it would vanish.
Thana watched in silence.Her halo quivered faintly, troubled.
She could have asked why.She could have reminded him it was only a toy.A useless scrap.
But she kept quiet.She could see his golden gaze—harder, graver.An instinct was leading him.And she had learned not to thwart that instinct.
Kael drew the satchel to his chest.Then lifted his eyes to the shadow.
— Show us.
Umbra moved—fluid—black coils brushing the walls like a flow of living ink.
Kael followed, Thana perched on his shoulder.His gaze did not stay straight ahead.It flicked left, right—caught by what he glimpsed behind the bars.
The cells Umbra had already emptied gaped open.Inside, there were no more cries.No spectral glows.
Only fragments of halted lives.Here, a rickety table strewn with dishes.There, an unfinished embroidery, thread still through the needle.Farther on, a lantern set upon a child's little desk.Always the same scene: instants torn from daily life, nailed into eternity.
Kael frowned, breath heavier.Each cell, each glance at those relics, deepened the sense that this place had never been built to punish…but to imprison a whole world.
The corridor seemed to stretch to infinity.No sound, save Umbra's soft rustle against stone.
Kael kept pace, eyes fixed on the open cells.Each step drew him nearer; each turn of the head ripped free a new vision of broken lives.And then—suddenly—
Umbra halted dead.His coils stiffened, aimed at a half-collapsed cell.
Kael approached.His golden eyes met the impossible.
Inside, curled in the shadows, a fragile figure.A faint breath.Then a voice—weak. Trembling.
— Please… I don't want to stay here anymore…I want to go to my mom… and my dad.
Kael froze.Time held.His fingers tightened around the toy.
Then, slowly, it slipped.Fell to the wet stone.The dull thud rang in the silence like a knell.