Death came like a closing curtain. One breath. One cut. One silent moment where Nev did not even feel his body fall. Everything slipped away. The world dropped from around him and the cold swept in.
Then the void opened.
It did not open like a door. It bloomed like a bruise behind his thoughts. Darkness brightened into an endless space that felt too large for a human mind to understand. Stars hung like waiting eyes, but they were not stars. They were points where realities touched, tiny trembling lights inside a place that should have had no sky.
Nev felt himself floating. No pain. No weight. No body at first, just awareness stitched together by stubborn will.
A second later, something hit him.
A shard. Cold. Sharp. Alive.
It slammed into the center of his chest like a falling blade, but instead of cutting him open, it sunk inside, passing through his being as if he had never been made of flesh at all. He gasped. Light burst behind his eyes even though he had none.
The void rippled.
Something was watching.
A voice came from everywhere at once. It was calm. Patient. Detached. As if every sentence had been practiced a thousand times before being spoken.
"You survived again," the voice said. "Early, but not unexpected."
Nev forced himself to speak. His voice sounded thin in the vastness. "What was that. Something entered me."
"A shard," the void answered.
Nev waited, but no explanation followed. He clenched his fists, or he imagined he had fists. His form was a mix of shadow and fading memory, but the fear inside him felt real enough to grip.
"You gave it to me," Nev said.
"No," the void replied. "It is something you take. Every time you die, you collect something from the one who kills you. The first death gave you a small one. Weak. Unshaped. This death gave something sharper."
Nev felt it again. A cold presence near his heart. Like a thin blade resting against him, not yet drawn.
"What does it do?" Nev asked.
The void paused. Its silence was long enough to make him uneasy.
"It teaches," the void said. "Not power. Not strength. It gives you a direction. A lesson that the living world refused to teach you. And you will need many lessons to stand against what waits for you."
Nev's breathing quickened. "I could not even see him. I could not see the blade. I just died."
"You saw what you needed to see," the void murmured. "And the shard saw for you. Death offers clarity that life hides."
Nev swallowed hard. Something about the words felt wrong. Like they hid more than they revealed.
"Why me," Nev whispered. "Why do I come back. Why do I collect these things."
"Because you are not finished," the void said. "Because you still break the shape of things. Because those above do not want you wandering freely."
"Above?"
"Not yet," the void said. "Your understanding is too young. Knowledge given too early becomes poison. Walk your path. Collect your lessons. When you are ready, you will see who truly holds the threads of your life."
Nev wanted to fight the answer, but another presence tugged at him. A thread looped around his chest and tightened, pulling him through the darkness. The void whispered one last thing before he vanished.
"When you wake, listen closely. Your senses will not feel the same. Learn from them, but do not trust them too fast. A second life is an opportunity. A third is a warning. A fourth is a debt."
And then, softer, almost like a truth slipping out by accident:
"Remember this. Every shard takes something from your killer. But every shard also leaves something behind in you."
The void collapsed around him. Light rushed in. Heat. Smell. Sound.
Nev woke with a sharp breath.
He lay on a soft bed, wrapped in thick blankets. A high ceiling stretched above him with carved wooden beams. Sunlight spilled through a window and painted the room gold. This was not poverty. Not an alley. Not a corpse-filled basement.
It was a rich home.
His heart thudded. The shard pulsed once. The room sharpened. He could hear something. Footsteps. Two pairs. Light and quick. Maids approaching.
He sat up before they touched the door.
He did not hear the knob turn. He sensed their movement before it happened. He felt the air shift, just a small change in pressure, but enough to make something in him react.
The door opened a moment later, exactly as he had felt.
One maid gasped. "Young master Nev. You are awake."
Nev blinked. The words landed strangely. Young master. Not boy. Not street rat. Not captured. Not beaten.
He looked down at himself. His hands were clean. His nails trimmed. His skin had no scars from torture. This body was twenty one maybe. Taller. Stronger. Well fed.
He stood slowly and faced the mirror.
A new face looked back at him. Black hair falling slightly over his eyes. A sharper jawline. Dark brown eyes that held a tiredness his body had not earned. His reflection wore a modest rich robe and a pendant on his chest with a crest he did not recognize.
He leaned closer to the mirror.
The shard pulsed again.
For a moment the reflection flickered. Not physically. But his senses sharpened around his own movement. He could see the way muscles in his shoulder shifted a fraction of a second before he leaned. He could see the reflection of dust drifting behind him in slow floating pieces.
Ardon's shard had given him something.
Not speed.
Not strength.
But awareness.
A new sense of danger. A new ability to detect motion before it happened. His body reacted faster than his thoughts.
He took a step back. The room felt clearer. He could feel everything moving around him.
One maid bowed. "Your parents are waiting for you. They have been worried all morning."
Nev followed her through the hallway. The house felt large, filled with expensive wood, silk curtains, polished floors, and painted vases. Everything felt unfamiliar, but the shard made him feel like he could sense the edges of the world more clearly.
In the dining room, a man and woman sat waiting. Both wore fine clothes and warm expressions. They stood as soon as he entered.
"Nev," his mother said softly. "You scared us again."
His father's voice was deeper. "Sit, son. Eat with us. You look like you have been through something heavy."
Nev sat down slowly. The smell of warm bread and stew filled the room. His stomach growled, reminding him he had died just minutes ago. For a moment he could not speak. The sight of them, two parents looking at him with genuine care, made something inside him ache.
After a quiet moment, his father asked, "What are your plans now. You rest for days and then disappear for days. Do you want to work with me. Take over someday. Or do you have something you want to pursue."
Nev looked at them. In another world he had no parents. Only Lila. Only a small sister he had protected since she was born. Only responsibility and fear and hunger.
Here he had warmth. A house. People who cared.
The words came to him slowly.
"I want to be a Holder," Nev said.
His parents paused in surprise. Not mockery. Not disbelief. Just surprise.
Then his mother smiled gently. His father nodded with something like pride.
"Then we will support you," his father said. "Whatever path you choose, we will not stop you."
Nev lowered his gaze. His chest tightened in a way he could not describe. He ate quietly. They did not push him. They asked simple things. If he slept well. If he felt healthy. If he needed anything.
Nev answered lightly, but the emotions inside him were heavy.
Later that night, he went to his new room. He closed the door and leaned against it. The silence felt warm for once.
He looked at his hands. Clean. Alive. Not bleeding. Not shaking.
The shard pulsed again.
He felt his eyes burn. He sat on the edge of his bed and let himself breathe slowly. The warmth of parents. The memory of torture. The weight of the void. The strange new awareness that came with the shard.
It was too much.
A tear fell before he could stop it. Then another. He covered his face with his hands and let himself cry quietly. Not for the pain. Not for the death. But for finally feeling something he had never felt before.
Belonging.
Somewhere deep inside, a quiet truth settled.
"Every lesson from suffering becomes a step forward, but every moment of kindness becomes a reason to keep walking."
Nev wiped his eyes. He breathed in. He breathed out. The world felt different now. Sharper. More dangerous. But for the first time, he felt like there was something worth protecting again.
And he promised himself he would not waste this life. Not this time.
Not with a shard still burning inside him.