Chapter 5
The third morning in a row Eren woke with the shard clutched in his hand, he knew there was no escaping it.
It wasn't a dream. Not some one-off hallucination. The Eclipse was part of his life now, as real as the hunger in his gut and the cracks in his ceiling.
The shard pulsed faintly against his skin, warm in a way glass shouldn't be. The glow dimmed as sunlight filled the room, as if retreating from the day.
Eren sat on the mattress, elbows on his knees, staring at it. His body ached less today. His ribs still throbbed, but there was strength in his limbs, a sharpness in his vision. The fragments were changing him, and not just when he was asleep.
He flexed his hand. If he closed his eyes, he could almost feel them—the fragments lodged somewhere deep inside, like embers smoldering in his chest.
Mira was right. They needed each other. But they needed more than that.
They needed rules.
They met again in the same alley behind the convenience store. Mira looked just as tired as he felt, though her gaze was sharper now, less panicked. She carried herself differently, like she was forcing herself to stand straighter, breathe steadier.
"You feel it too, don't you?" she said as soon as she saw him.
Eren raised an eyebrow. "Feel what?"
"The… change. Since the fragments."
He didn't answer right away, but the flicker in her eyes told him she knew.
She pulled her shard from her backpack. It glowed faintly, even in daylight. "These things—they're not just weapons. They're… anchors. Maybe even conduits."
"Big words," Eren muttered, but his jaw tightened. She was right.
Mira crouched, pressing her shard to the asphalt. For a moment, nothing happened. Then a faint ripple spread outward, like heat rising off a road.
Eren's eyes widened. "You did that?"
She nodded, pale but steady. "I don't know how. It's like… the shard listens when I focus. But it takes something out of me."
Eren stared at her for a long moment before pulling out his own shard. He didn't press it to the ground—he gripped it tighter, focused on the fragments inside him.
A faint hum built in his chest. The shard flared brighter, the glow sharp and dangerous.
Eren gasped, dropping it. The light flickered out, leaving him trembling.
Mira's eyes widened. "You felt it too."
He didn't answer.
But yes. He had.
That night, they went into the Eclipse with a plan.
Instead of waiting for the shadows to attack, they tested.
Eren pressed his shard into the black sand. Nothing at first—then a faint circle of light spread out beneath his feet, no larger than a manhole cover. It lasted seconds before sputtering out.
Mira, watching with sharp eyes, said, "That was you. Not the shard."
"How do you figure?"
"You drew from the fragments. I could see it. The light—it started in you."
Eren didn't like the sound of that. If the fragments were inside him, then they weren't just tools. They were changing him at the core.
Mira tried next. She gripped her shard and closed her eyes. The ground rippled outward again, stronger this time. A wave of force pushed the nearest shadow back a few steps.
Mira gasped, swaying, her knees nearly buckling.
Eren grabbed her arm before she fell. "Don't push it."
She met his gaze, her lips tight. "If we don't push, we'll die."
Eren didn't argue. She was right.
The shadows closed in. Three again, maybe four. Eren stepped forward, shards glowing in both their hands.
This time, they weren't just surviving.
Eren slashed the first shadow, the blade biting deeper, faster. Mira followed with a wild strike that sent another reeling. She wasn't strong, but she was learning.
Together, they cut them down.
By the time the last shadow dissolved, both of them were gasping for breath, drenched in sweat. But something was different.
They hadn't just endured. They had won.
Back in the real world, Mira wiped blood from her lip and leaned against the wall of the abandoned building Eren called home.
"We need to keep track," she said. "Patterns. How many shadows. How strong they get. What the fragments can do."
Eren raised an eyebrow. "Like a rulebook?"
Her eyes hardened. "Like a survival guide."
Eren looked at the shard in his hand, faintly pulsing with light.
Rules written in shadows.
For the first time, the thought of two thousand nights didn't seem impossible.
Terrifying, yes. But not impossible.
Not if they learned the rules.
T O .B E . C O N T I N U E D...