The world felt colder after the fall. Not because the wind had changed, but because something inside me had shifted.
Since the day I didn't die, I'd begun hearing whispers—not voices like Nyssara's, Solara's, or Aelira's, but something deeper. It wasn't sound. It was weight. Pressure. Familiar, yet unknowable. As if a part of me I had never met was pressing against the walls of my soul, begging to be seen.
It started in the shadows.
Not the natural ones that came with the turning sun, but mine.
My own.
It moved when I didn't.
Sometimes, when I blinked, it lingered.
And sometimes—when I stood too still—it breathed.
I tried to tell Aelira once. She brushed it off with a lazy smirk, though her eyes didn't match her tone.
"Shadow spirits are rare, sure, but yours… feels different. Like it's waiting."
Waiting?
For what?
That answer came the night I chased the dying fox.
I hadn't meant to. I was just walking home from the canyon when I saw it—limping through the underbrush, trails of black ichor dripping from an open wound across its side. Its fur shimmered oddly in the moonlight, like it wasn't truly there.
It collapsed near a tree and whimpered, but when I took a step forward—it hissed. Then… it spoke.
Not in words, but in essence.
Challenge.
Trial.
Truth.
My shadow lengthened behind me, even though the moon was straight overhead.
The fox's eyes turned black. Then empty. Then gone.
A tear in reality opened beneath it—not of death, but of something far more ancient.
A presence stirred.
And then I heard her.
A voice like silk and thunder wrapped in loyalty and longing.
"You shouldn't have seen this yet… but I won't hide from you any longer."
My shadow broke free.
Not crawled—not slithered—rose.
It stood tall, taller than me by nearly a head, then took shape.
Black flames licked across the surface of her body, veins of white electricity tracing elegant curves. Her form was feminine. Strong. Ageless. She looked like me—if I had grown up, if I were a woman, if I were forged of shadow and fury.
But her eyes…
Her eyes were mine—before I had ever opened them.
She looked down at me like a mother, a sister, a twin, a blade.
"Igris," she said softly. "I am Raven. Your final spirit. Your shadow, your shield, your echo. Born of your essence. I live because you defy death."
I stepped back.
Not from fear.
From recognition.
I knew her.
Not in memory, but in truth.
"Why now?" I asked.
The forest stilled. Even the spirits watching from the veil remained silent.
"To test you," she said. "To see if you were ready."
Her gaze shifted to the spot where the fox had died. The remnants of its corrupted spirit still lingered, twitching in the essence realm.
"That wasn't a beast. It was a sentient decay. Left behind by something that wanted to see what you'd do."
I frowned. "Did I pass?"
"You survived."
She stepped forward, placing a hand over my chest.
The world around us flickered.
Suddenly, I was elsewhere.
Darkness without edges. A void that hummed with power. All around me, fragments of beings drifted—echoes of magic, aura, soul, bloodline, and something beyond them all. A sea of knowledge waiting to be stolen.
"This is what I see," she said. "All that can be learned… and all that should never be touched."
I gasped. "You can… see all this?"
She nodded. "And I will teach you. Through me, you will grasp every force that exists. Not through theft, but through resonance. I imitate. You evolve."
My hands trembled.
"You're mine," I whispered.
She smiled. "And you are mine."
Her form flickered—shifting into a cloak of shadow that wrapped around me like a heartbeat.
In that moment, I felt her curl beneath my skin. possessive.
We were now one and two. Always together. Always watching.
Later that night, I stood before the mirror in our home.
My shadow stared back—but now, when I blinked, she waved.
From that day on, Raven followed me.
Not like the others.
Nyssara watched. Solara guided. Aelira teased.
But Raven? Raven guarded.
When I nearly lost control during aura training, she caught the explosion with a palm of obsidian flame.
When a strange spirit beast crept into our field, she didn't warn me—she devoured it whole.
And when I lay awake at night, wondering who I really was… she whispered:
"You are the storm the gods forgot to name."
There was still more to learn. More to unlock.
But now, I wasn't alone.
Not truly.
Because no matter where I walked, my shadow would walk with me.
And her name… was Raven.