The vision hit Inyocha like a physical blow.
He was a child again five years old, small and scared, standing in the darkness of the Sunken City. The old ones had just thrown him away. He could still feel their hands on his shoulders, pushing him through the portal, sealing the door behind him.
"I'm sorry," they whispered. "But you carry the shadow. You're dangerous. You can't be with the light."
"Please," the child Inyocha begged. "Please don't leave me alone. I'm scared."
"The shadow isn't afraid. The shadow endures."
The portal closed.
Inyocha was alone.
He stayed in that spot for three days, crying, screaming, begging for someone to come back. No one came. No one ever came. Eventually, the hunger started. Not for food for souls. The darkness in his chest was hungry, and it wouldn't be ignored.
He took his first soul when he was six. A demon that had crawled up from the deep places. It was accident the demon attacked, Inyocha's darkness lashed out, and the demon dissolved, its essence flowing into Inyocha's chest.
The power was intoxicating. The hunger faded. And for the first time since being abandoned, Inyocha felt full.
He started hunting. Demons at first, then shadows, then anything that moved. The hunger grew. The power grew. And the loneliness... the loneliness never went away. It just got quieter, buried under layers of consumed souls.
By the time he was twelve, Inyocha had forgotten what it felt like to be held. To be loved. To be seen. He was the Shadow Weaver, the terror of the Sunken City, the monster that monsters feared.
And then Lee came.
Lee, with his gold and silver eyes and his stupid smile and his refusal to give up. Lee, who looked at a monster and saw a brother. Lee, who offered his hand and said, "Come with me. Let me save you."
The vision ended.
Inyocha pulled his hand away from the flower, gasping.
"Inyocha!" Lee was at his side, holding him up. "Are you okay?"
Inyocha looked at his brother at the face that had haunted his dreams for years, first with hatred, then with longing, now with something that felt like home.
"I remember," Inyocha said. "I remember what it felt like to be alone. And I remember what it felt like when you found me."
Lee's eyes glistened. "What did it feel like?"
Inyocha smiled a real smile, warm and tearful.
"It felt like the sun coming out after a thousand years of rain."
Lee pulled him into a hug.
"Then let's make sure no one else has to wait that long," Lee said. "Let's free this city. Let's free these people. Let's show them that the sun still shines."
Inyocha hugged him back.
"Okay," he said. "Let's do it."