Nox woke up to silence.
Not to a sound. To its absence. In the slums, there is never silence. There is always something creaking, coughing, screaming behind a wall, humming underground. Here it was quiet. Truly quiet. So quiet that he sat up abruptly, his heart pounding, not understanding where he was.
Then he remembered.
The room was small. Two beds, a table, a window with dark, heavy curtains. No light came through them, but the morning could be guessed by the way they grew slightly lighter at the edges.
Lin was asleep on her bed.
Nox looked at her for a long time. She lay in the middle of the bed, sprawled out, taking up all the space at once. The blanket pulled up to her nose. Her hair spread across the pillow. She was sleeping so deeply and so peacefully as she had not slept once in all the years in the slums. There, she always curled up into a ball, as if trying to take up as little space as possible in a world that was not glad to have her. Not here. Here she took up everything. As she should have.
Nox got up and went downstairs.
Sylvana was already in the kitchen. She stood at the stove with her back to him. Her silver hair was tied in a knot, one strand loose. No hat, no coat. A dark shirt, trousers, bare feet on the wooden floor. Without all of that, she looked different. No less dangerous. Just different.
Something was sizzling on the stove, and the smell made Nox's stomach demand attention immediately.
«Sit down,» she said without turning around.
«You heard me coming down?»
«You walk loudly.»
«Nox walks quietly,» he said.
She turned around. She raised an eyebrow.
«You just spoke about yourself in the third person.»
«Nox speaks how he wants.»
She looked at him for a second. Then she turned back to the stove.
«Sit down,» she repeated. Without a smile. But there was something in her voice, as if she had taken that information and put it on a shelf somewhere. For later use.
Nox sat down. He watched her put food on a plate. Eggs, bread, something else he did not know the name of. She set it before him and returned to the stove.
He looked at the food. Then at her.
«Why are you doing this,» he asked.
«Making breakfast?»
«All of this.» He gestured around the kitchen. «Feeding us. Giving us a room. Saving us in the alley yesterday.» A pause. «What do you really want.»
She turned around. She looked at him.
«Eat,» she said. «Then we will talk.»
«We will talk now.»
«Nox.»
«What.»
«Eat.»
He opened his mouth. Closed it. He picked up a fork.
A stomping came from above. Fast, light, not at all sleepy. Lin flew into the kitchen with her hair sticking out in all directions and stopped on the threshold. She looked around. She saw the food. Her eyes widened slightly.
«Good morning,» she said to Sylvana.
«Good morning,» she answered.
«Is all of this for eating?»
«That is what it is for.»
Lin sat down next to Nox. Sylvana put a plate before her. Lin looked at it. Then at Nox. Then at the plate again. She picked up a fork and began to eat with an expression as if she had been doing it her whole life. Nox knew her well enough to see that she was trying not to show how important this was. She was not succeeding.
Sylvana sat down across from them. She poured herself something dark into a cup. She looked at both of them.
«Questions,» she said finally. «Yesterday you said you would ask them.»
«I will,» Nox said. He put down his fork. «Our family. Who are we.»
Sylvana set down her cup. She folded her hands before her.
«Your family was the first ducal house of Greymont,» she said slowly.
Silence.
Lin stopped chewing.
«Dukes,» Nox repeated.
«The first house,» Sylvana clarified. «That is not just a title. The first house stands right after the king. Not next to him. After him. The king signs the laws. The first house says which laws to sign. The king declares war. The first house decides with whom and when.» A pause. «Trade routes, military contracts, academies, courts. Half of Greymont worked because your family allowed it to work.»
Nox sat and stared at the table.
«This is not true,» he said quietly.
«Why.»
«Because Nox lived in the slums.» He looked up. Something sharp and hot was in his voice. «In a hole made of scrap metal. He could not find food for his sister.» A pause. «Dukes do not live like that.»
«They do not,» Sylvana agreed. «Until they are cursed.»
Lin put down her fork.
«The Moon Goddess,» she said.
«Yes.»
«Why.»
Sylvana looked at the girl. Then at Nox. Then at Lin again.
«Your family served the Moon Goddess. Several generations ago, there was a pact. In your bloodline, Shadow was born generation after generation. The goddess wanted this power. The pact was simple. The first Shadow bearer in each generation serves her personally.»
«Serves how,» Nox asked.
«In different ways.» She did not elaborate. «Your father was a bearer.»
Something inside Nox clenched sharply and painfully.
«He refused,» he said. Not a question. He just felt it and said it.
«Yes,» Sylvana said quietly. «He refused.»
«Why,» Lin asked.
«Because he loved your mother.» Simply. Without adornment. «And he did not want to leave. The goddess does not forgive refusals.»
Nox stared at the table. He saw his hands before him. Large, with calluses on the palms. The only thing he remembered of his father.
«She killed them,» he said. His voice was even. Too even for what was inside.
«Not immediately.» Sylvana looked at him without looking away. «First, she took everything. The name. The title. The house. She destroyed the family from within. Those who knew you began to forget. Those who remembered could not speak. You were erased from history the way you erase a mistake.» A pause. «Then she came for them.»
Nox was silent.
Lin sat still. She stared at her plate. Her small hands on the table slowly clenched into fists.
«And us,» she said finally. Her voice did not waver. Not at all. «Why were we left.»
«Because you were not found,» Sylvana said. «Your mother hid you a second before they came. She knew what would happen.» A short pause. «She was a very smart woman.»
«Was,» Nox repeated.
«Yes.»
He stood up. He walked to the window. He stood with his back to the room, looking out at the street. Beyond the glass was the middle tier. Clean pavements, people going about their business. An ordinary morning for everyone except him.
Lin looked at his back. Then at Sylvana.
«He is angry,» Lin said quietly.
«I see.»
«When he is angry, he talks about himself in the third person.» Lin paused. «And he goes to the window.»
«Lin,» Nox said from the window.
«What.»
«Please be quiet.»
«I am just explaining.»
«Nox did not ask for an explanation.»
Lin looked at Sylvana. She was looking at Nox's back with the expression of someone thinking about several things at once.
«Nox,» Sylvana said.
«What.»
«Come here.»
«Why.»
«Come here,» she repeated. Not an order. Just calmly. That calmness worked better than any order.
He turned around. He looked at her. Then he slowly returned to the table. He remained standing.
«Show me your back,» she said.
Nox frowned.
«Why.»
«Show me.»
«First tell me why.»
Sylvana looked at him for a second. Then she said:
«Because I need to check something. And because it is important.»
Nox stood there. Then he took off his shirt.
He turned his back.
The kitchen grew quiet. Lin stopped breathing. Nox felt Sylvana's gaze like a physical pressure. The tattoo on his back reacted immediately. A warm pulse along his spine, slow, rhythmic. As always.
But then something else was added.
Sylvana stood up. She walked over to him. Nox heard her steps. She stopped behind him and was silent for a long time.
«There it is,» she said quietly. To herself, not to him.
«What,» Nox asked.
«Look at your forearm.»
He lowered his gaze to his left forearm. And he saw.
Where there had only been skin before, slowly, barely noticeably, lines were emerging. Thin, black. They formed a shape he recognized immediately.
A snake.
Small. Coiled. Exactly like the one that had bitten him in the tunnel. Scale by scale, it appeared on his skin as if it had always been there and had just been waiting for the moment to show itself.
«What is this,» Nox asked.
Sylvana returned to her place. Nox put his shirt back on and turned around. She looked at him with an expression he could not fully decipher.
«In your family,» she began. «Every bearer of Shadow received a tattoo along the spine. That is the foundation. But alongside it, a second one always appeared. Personal. Different for each.» A pause. «Your father had a wolf. His father had an eagle. Your great-grandfather had a chain.» She looked at his forearm. «You have a snake. The very one that bit you.»
Nox sat down.
Slowly. Like a person who needed time to digest too much at once.
«The snake was not an accident,» he said.
«Nothing in this is an accident.»
«It chose me.»
«Yes.»
«Why.»
«Because the time has come.» Sylvana picked up her cup. «Shadow was dormant in your blood from birth. Waiting. The snake was the conduit. It awakened what was already inside.»
Lin listened to all of this in silence. Nox noticed she was not asking questions. She just sat and absorbed. That meant she was thinking. Seriously thinking. It was always a little frightening.
«Tell me about the magics,» Nox said. «About all of them. Nox wants to understand what Shadow really is.»
The third person again. Sylvana noticed. She said nothing.
«There are nineteen magics,» she began. «Each its own. Fire, Blood, Ice, Wind, and so on. Each gives its own tattoo. Its own manifestation. Its own price.» A pause. «But Shadow stands apart. It is not just magic. It is a boundary.»
«A boundary of what,» Lin asked.
«Between what is and what is not.» Sylvana looked at her cup. «Fire is fire. It is seen, felt, understood. Shadow is what lies between. Between light and darkness. Between the living and the dead. Between a word and silence.» She raised her gaze to Nox. «A Shadow bearer does not just control darkness. They control what should not exist.»
«That is why they fear it,» Nox said.
«That is why they fear it,» she confirmed.
«And hybrids,» Lin asked. «Yesterday you said hybrids exist.»
Sylvana looked at her with the same slight interest as before.
«Sometimes,» she said. «Rarely. When two magics unite in one person. It is not a choice. It happens on its own.» She set down her cup. «For example, Blood and Shadow. Bloodshadow. Shadows made of blood, living and obedient. Assassins who cannot be seen.» A pause. «Or Shadow and Water. Liquid shadow that drags its victim into the abyss.» She paused slightly. «Hybrids are rare. But they exist.»
«You have Blood,» Nox said. He looked at her left hand. At the glove. «I saw your tattoo yesterday.»
«Yes.»
«Have you ever met a hybrid of Blood and Shadow.»
Sylvana looked at him.
«Once,» she said quietly.
«Who was it.»
«Your father.»
Silence fell on the kitchen like a stone dropped into water. Nox did not move. Lin looked at her brother. Then at Sylvana. Then at her brother again.
«Bloodshadow,» Nox said slowly. «He had Bloodshadow.»
«Yes.»
«That is why the goddess wanted him so badly.»
«Yes.»
Nox stared at the table. Something was happening inside him. Complex. Mixed. Anger and something like pride and something else for which he had no name. His father had been a bearer of the rarest magic. He had been the second most powerful person in the country. He had had everything. And he had given up everything for his mother. For them.
«Nox did not know,» he said quietly.
«I know.»
«No one ever said.»
«No one could.»
He looked up.
«And me,» he said. «Could I be a hybrid?»
Sylvana looked at him for a long time. A very long time. Then she said:
«I do not know.» Honestly. Without adornment. «You already have Shadow. What comes next, time will tell.»
Lin suddenly stood up. She walked over to Nox. She stood beside him and took his hand. She just took it and held it. She said nothing.
Nox looked at her. She was looking at Sylvana.
«Tell us about the academies,» Lin said. «Mara said something. We did not understand.»
Sylvana turned her gaze to her. She smiled slightly. Barely noticeably.
«There are six main academies in the world,» she began. «Each its own. Noxspire in Greymont for humans. Greylorn in Silden for elves. Seldora in Nirvald for vampires.» A pause. «Varsal for demons. Embrion on the flying city of Mirgast. Marheim on the military city of Shorn.»
«Noxspire,» Nox repeated. «In Greymont.»
«Yes.»
«Do they take everyone?»
«Those who have magic.» Sylvana looked at him. «And those who know how to hide it.»
«Nox does not know how to hide it.»
«Not yet.»
He frowned.
«You want to send me there.»
«It is part of the terms.»
«Nox did not say he agreed to the terms.»
«Nox said okay yesterday,» Lin reminded him innocently.
«That does not count.»
«It very much counts.»
«Lin.»
«What.»
«Whose side are you on.»
«My own,» she said. «As always.»
Sylvana looked at both of them. There was something warm in her violet eyes. Just a little. Barely noticeable. Like a fire behind thick glass.
«The academy will give you control,» she said to Nox. «Without control, Shadow will kill someone. By accident. You have already seen what happens when it breaks free.»
Nox was silent.
«That man in the alley,» he said finally. Quietly.
«He is alive,» Sylvana repeated. «But next time, he might not be.»
Nox looked at his hands. At his forearm, where the snake was slowly emerging. Small. Quiet. His.
«Does Noxspire know about Shadow,» he asked.
«No. And it will not know until I want it to.» Sylvana stood up. She walked to the window. She looked out at the street. «You will enter there as an ordinary bearer. Without a name. Without a past. Just a boy with a tattoo.»
«Nox knows how to be without a name,» he said.
«I know.» She turned around. «That is why I chose you.»
«Nox is not chosen,» he said sharply. «Nox decides for himself.»
«Fine,» she said simply. «Then decide.»
He looked at her. She looked at him. The taut string was between them again.
Then Sylvana stepped toward him.
Nox did not have time to understand what was happening. She hugged him. Just like yesterday. She just walked over and hugged him. Her arms around his shoulders, her chin almost touching the top of his head. She smelled of something cold and unfamiliar. Not food, not smoke. Something he could not name.
Nox froze.
His arms hung at his sides. His mind stopped. He stood and did not know what to do with absolutely anything.
«Everything will be fine,» she said quietly. Not a promise. Just a statement.
Nox did not answer. Because his throat was not working.
Behind him, Lin said with absolute seriousness and absolute lack of pity:
«Brother, your ears are red again.»
Nox jerked.
«Lin, I will…»
«You will what.»
«Nothing.»
«Exactly.»
Sylvana let him go and stepped back. On her face was that smile. Cold and beautiful. Nox stared strictly to the side. At the wall. At the window. Anywhere but at her.
«We will start today,» Sylvana said evenly. As if nothing had happened. «First lesson. Control.»
«When,» Nox asked. His voice almost normal. Almost.
«After your ears return to their normal color,» she said and left the kitchen.
Nox stood there.
Lin walked over to him. She stood beside him. She looked up at him.
«Nox,» she said seriously.
«What.»
«Your ears really are red.»
«Lin.»
«What, Lin. I am just…»
«Be quiet.»
«Fine,» she agreed. She paused for three seconds. «But they are red.»
Nox closed his eyes. He exhaled. He opened them.
Outside the window, Mirtarind lived its ordinary life. Magic trains were humming. Factories were smoking. People were going somewhere about their business.