Whap!
"—Ow!" she flinched, grabbing her own arm. "Ugh! Damn it, why do I feel it too?!"
The bird weakly flopped to the side with a single deadpan caw.
Wang Xiao blinked.
"…Are you done?"
The girl froze, looked up, then slowly stood, brushing dirt off her knees.
"…Who are you?" she asked, cautiously.
"I live here. Who the hell are you?"
"I-I was flying!" she snapped, pointing at the bird. "Until he decided to nosedive into a rock pretending to be a man!"
"I'm not a rock."
"You didn't move."
"I didn't have to."
"Ugh!!"
She turned to the bird again. "Umbra, if I die because of you, I'm feeding your wings to the foxes!"
Wang Xiao raised an eyebrow. "You talk a lot for soone who just broke into my house."
"This is your house?"
"It is now."
"Squatter."
"Crash-lander."
They glared at each other for two seconds before she huffed and folded her arms, glancing around the magnificent, sprawling castle. It seed she had crashed into the ho of a rich, yet clearly troubleso man. And if his words were true, this place belonged to him.
She sighed.
"…Anyway, where is this place?"
Wang Xiao sighed. "Middle of nowhere, top of nowhere, inside an abandoned castle no one dares to visit."
She looked around, confused.
"Wait, this isn't the Southern Skyroot Ruins?"
"Nope."
"…Crap."
She turned to the crow again. "You idiot! You went north instead of south again?! That's twice in one week!"
Squawk...
Wang Xiao leaned against the balcony railing, arms folded.
This was going to be fun.
The girl stood there for a mont, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Her lips parted, then closed again. She looked at her crow, then at him.
Finally, she straightened her back and spoke, voice quieter this ti.
"…I apologize, sir."
Wang Xiao glanced sideways at her. "Hmm?"
She t his eyes. "For crashing into you. And for the trouble I caused."
He nodded slowly. "That's better."
She added quickly, "It wasn't intentional. I was off course... Umbra misjudged the wind currents."
The crow groaned pitifully from the side.
Wang Xiao looked down at it. "You sure it wasn't a suicidal attempt?"
She lowered her head. "…He's usually better."
"Doesn't look like it."
There was an awkward pause.
Then she spoke again, more composed this ti.
"I am Vel, from the Southern Lands. This is my beast, Umbra."
She glanced at the giant crow beside her, then added after a beat, "We're Shadowborn."
Wang Xiao raised a brow but didn't interrupt.
Vel continued, brushing a strand of dark hair behind her ear.
"We've been flying for over a month now. Ideally, we should've been ho two weeks ago… but", her gaze flicked toward Umbra with mild exasperation, "as you can see, he's not exactly gifted with direction."
The crow let out a disgruntled caw, as if offended.
Vel turned back to Wang Xiao, softening her tone a little.
"Do you happen to have a map? Sothing I could use to find my bearings?"
Wang Xiao's brows furrowed slightly. Her lashes tremble, was she scared and simply pretending to be composed?
She wasn't very good at hiding it. He could see it in the way her eyes briefly flicked toward the dark corridor behind him. The castle exuded a kind of silence that made the soul ache, ancient, and eerie.
"Map? No." He turned slowly, "But you can stay inside… until your crow recovers."
"…Crow?" she echoed in a whisper, the foreign word twisting awkwardly on her tongue. But she still followed him in, steps cautious.
"Leave him. Soone will take care of it."
She instinctively turned to retrieve Umbra, but he halted her with a lazy flick of his fingers, without even looking back.
She paused mid-step.
'Does he have eyes on his back?'
They walked through a cold stone hallway and entered a room, a plain bedroom, wide and quiet, lit by a dying chandelier swaying slightly above. A massive bed covered in snow-white sheets took center stage. An old lion lion like creature's head, clearly hunted and preserved, hung from one side of the wall. A few oil paintings, likely older than the girl herself, stared blankly back at her from their fras.
The room was black and white.
Lifeless, yet regal but unwelcoming.
Velkhara bit her lip, she shouldn't have co in.
"Sit," he said.
She hesitated, but obeyed.
The bed sank slightly beneath her. Soft, too soft. Beds weren't like this in her part of the world. Her eyes reflected the faint light, a swirling night sky in her irises, srizing dark blue orbs glowing faintly.
Wang Xiao stepped out again, disappearing to the balcony. A few monts later, he returned, with Umbra in his arms, unconscious but breathing. He placed the beast quietly in the corner.
"You live here alone?" she asked, voice unsure. "Didn't you say soone would… take care of him?"
Wang Xiao smiled faintly.
"I did, and I am."
"Really? Isn't this place too big for you?" Velkhara asked, glancing around in surprise. The sheer size of the room dwarfed her. The bed alone could host a banquet.
Wang Xiao pulled over a chair and sat, relaxed. "I don't have a shadow like yours," he said, gesturing toward Umbra.
Only now did he truly notice it, the connection between the two. Not just master and beast, but sothing... Like two halves of the sa soul.
Pain in one echoed in the other.
Velkhara blinked. "Mage…?"
Before she could ask further, a teacup floated toward her, then another toward Wang Xiao. Both cups landed gently without a sound.
Her eyes widened. He looked barely a decade older than her, maybe even younger, depending on how the light caught his face. Yet the power he held… it wasn't sothing her people could even comprehend.
"You're too young to be this powerful," she muttered, almost to herself.
Wang Xiao smirked, sipping calmly. "And you're too curious for soone lost."
She stiffened slightly but didn't reply.
Instead, she looked down at the greenish tea in her hand. It was warm. Fragrant, nothing she'd tasted before.
"How long have you been living here?" she finally asked, quieter now.
He didn't answer right away.
"Long enough to forget who am I," Wang Xiao yawned lazily, his gaze shifted back to her. "Anyway, I'm more interested in that beast of yours. Why did you call it your shadow? And what exactly is a Shadowborn?"
He flipped the question smoothly, eyes studying her with calm amusent.
To him, she looked like an awkward adolescent pretending to be a wanderer. Fair skin, delicate brows and lashes, lips tinged pink like wild cherries in bloom, and those deep blue eyes, like orbs suspended in a velvet sky.
Beautiful, yes. Untouched, maybe. But the most intriguing part? The word she let slip.
"Shadowborn."
Velkhara shifted uncomfortably. She hadn't ant to reveal that, but it wasn't exactly a secret either.
"We..." She hesitated, then exhaled. "We're a small tribe… born in pairs, you could say. Half of us grows as this" she nodded at Umbra, "and the other half… as ourselves."
"One soul… two bodies?" Wang Xiao murmured, eyes narrowing.
She nodded. "We share vision, emotion. If one is wounded, the other feels it."
Wang Xiao leaned forward, chin resting on a knuckle. "And pain?"
Velkhara looked away. "…Especially pain."
He understood imdiately. Not physical wounds, not scars you could see.
But soul-rending agony. To forcibly split sothing whole and let both halves grow, separately, while still tethered... it would feel like dying without dying.
That explained the decline in their numbers. The first decade must be hell. Screams at night. Fevers, and madness. Most didn't survive. Those who did… shared a bond deeper than blood. They could rge, synchronize in ways others couldn't dream of.
She didn't say all that. She didn't have to. Her eyes did.
Wang Xiao sipped his tea again. "You've not rged yet."
She nodded.
"And your control… is weak," he added bluntly.
"…It's enough," she muttered, defensive.
He chuckled. "Enough to fly into walls?"
Velkhara gritted her teeth, cheeks red. "It was his fault."
"You sure?" Wang Xiao smiled. "I thought you were one soul."
She turned her head away, refusing to answer.
What she didn't ntion, what she deliberately avoided, was that their tribe wasn't just known for their bond with beasts… but their assassins.
Infamous in hidden circles.
Shadows in truth, not just na.
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