The silence that settled in the room wasn’t empty. It was the kind of stillness that seed to observe back, as if the walls themselves were attentive to what wasn’t being said. Kael remained lying down for a few monts, his eyes fixed on the ceiling, while Inari’s presence beside him filled not only the physical space, but also sothing deeper, sothing that existed between thought and instinct.
Inari turned her face slightly towards him, resting her head on her bent arm, observing him with a calm, almost lazy interest. There was sothing curious in her gaze, but also sothing sharper, more attentive. She wasn’t soone who asked questions just for the sake of it. When she asked, it was because she already knew the answer mattered.
"So..." she said, her voice soft but laden with intention. "What do you want, Kael?"
The question wasn’t simple.
And he knew it.
For a mont, he didn’t answer. His eyes remained on the ceiling, as if trying to organize sothing that wasn’t so easy to put into words. But then... a small smile appeared at the corner of his lips.
It wasn’t a light smile.
It was the kind of smile that carried a purpose.
He turned his face toward her.
"I want to know where Umbra is." The answer ca without hesitation.
Simple. Direct. But with a weight that didn’t need explaining.
Inari didn’t react imdiately. Her gaze lingered on him for a mont, analyzing not only the words, but what lay behind them. Then, slowly, she raised an eyebrow.
"Missing for a few days..." she murmured, almost as if repeating it more to herself than to him.
She let out a small sigh, turning completely sideways to face Kael, moving a little closer, further reducing the distance between them.
"And she didn’t say absolutely anything." There was sothing in the way she said it.
Sothing that wasn’t just observation.
It was... discomfort.
Subtle.
But real.
Inari rested her chin on her hand, her gaze now narrower, more focused.
"Funny, isn’t it?" she continued, tilting her head slightly. "We both... share the sa soul. The sa space. The sa body..."
She slowly reached out, lightly touching Kael’s chest, right over his heart.
"And yet... she simply disappears."
Her fingers lingered there a mont longer than necessary, as if sensing sothing beyond the surface.
"Without warning."
A pause.
"Without a trace."
She slowly pulled her hand away, but her gaze didn’t leave his.
"Not exactly polite."
Kael let out a slow breath through his nose, closing his eyes for a brief mont before opening them again. His expression didn’t change much, but there was sothing heavier there now. Sothing more serious.
"Umbra doesn’t disappear for nothing," he said, his voice low, firm.
It was a statent.
Not a doubt.
Inari smiled slightly.
"Exactly," she replied.
And that’s where the problem began.
She slid a little further onto the bed, lying completely beside him, her shoulder almost touching his now. Her presence was light, but constant, like a shadow that refused to disappear.
"Then we have two options," she continued, looking at the ceiling now, mirroring his position before.
"Either she found sothing she considered more important than letting us know..."
She turned her face slowly, her eyes eting his again. "Or sothing happened to her."
...
In that place, there was no sun... There was no sky.
What existed above was an infinite expanse of dense darkness, not empty, but filled with a black mist that moved slowly, as if breathing. It was a sky that didn’t illuminate, only observed.
The world below was also not alive.
But he wasn’t dead either.
He was sothing in between.
The Umbral.
The dinsion where shadows took shape, where echoes of forgotten souls wandered aimlessly, and where ti... wasn’t exactly reliable. In the distance, a colossal city rose, expanding in all directions like an endless tropolis, built with Victorian Gothic architecture, its tall, narrow, and ornate buildings intertwining on bridges of black stone and twisted iron.
Pointed towers pierced the dark mist, while tall, narrow windows shone with a pale, almost spectral light. There were no flas. There were no lanterns.
The illumination ca from the souls themselves.
Hundreds... thousands... perhaps millions of them.
Translucent figures walked the wide stone streets, their forms varying between complete humanoids and incomplete, fragnted silhouettes, like poorly preserved mories. So wandered aimlessly, their eyes empty. Others seed to repeat actions they no longer rembered why they had done.
It was a living city.
But made of death.
The air didn’t move as it should. There was no wind. Yet, fabrics, veils, and shadows trembled as if sothing invisible constantly touched them. Whispers ran through the streets, but there were no mouths to form them.
It was... a place that didn’t want to be understood.
In the center of that city, taller than any other building, stood an imnse tower, slender and elegant, like a needle piercing the very fabric of the Umbral. Its surface was smooth, black, reflecting not light, but absence.
And at the top of that tower...
She was there.
Standing.
Observing.
The female figure seed almost out of place in that world. Her dress was long, flowing, made of a translucent white fabric that shone softly, as if capturing a light that didn’t exist in that place. The contrast with the environnt was absurd.
She didn’t belong to that world.
And yet...
She was there. Her long hair fell down her back, moving gently despite the absence of wind. Her skin seed to have its own glow, not intense, but enough to make her presence stand out like a point of light in the midst of that sea of darkness.
Her eyes were fixed on the city below.
Observing.
Not with curiosity.
But with... assessnt.
Like soone analyzing sothing they already understood.
Her face was serene.
Calm.
But there was sothing more there.
Sothing ancient.
Sothing... deeply weary.
She slowly brought one hand to her own arm, as if sensing sothing... or confirming sothing. Her fingers slid across her skin, leaving a faint trail of light where they touched, which disappeared seconds later.
"So... I was forced to co back here," Umbra said, looking at her own dinsion... "I wanted to know how this happened... I was sealed inside Kael, I wasn’t supposed to co back here." The echo of Umbra’s own words did not dissipate.
It spread.
Not as sound...
But as presence.
The Umbral heard.
The shadows, which until then had moved chaotically and aimlessly, began to slow down. They didn’t stop—that world never stopped—but there was a subtle change in rhythm, as if sothing had been recognized.
She didn’t look away from the city.
But she felt it.
Not with her ordinary senses.
With sothing deeper.
Sothing that didn’t belong to the body... but to the very essence of that place.
She wasn’t alone.
Behind her, darkness began to accumulate.
First, as a distortion in space.
Then... as form.
Two silhouettes slowly erged, appearing out of nowhere as if they had always been there, just waiting for the right mont to be perceived. There were no footsteps. There was no sound.
Only... presence.
They solidified gradually.
Tall, elegant female bodies, ford by a mixture of liquid shadow and defined contours. Their features weren’t completely visible—as if the darkness itself refused to allow them to be seen in their entirety.
But their eyes...
They shone.
A deep, almost violet hue, like embers hidden beneath eternal ashes.
The two stopped a few steps apart.
And then—
They bowed.
Deeply.
With a reverence that wasn’t rely formal.
It was... absolute.
"Welco back..."
The voice ca from both of them at the sa ti.
Synchronized.
Perfect.
"...Queen."
The title didn’t resonate.
But it weighed heavily.
Like a truth that didn’t need reaffirming.
Umbra remained motionless.
But her eyes changed.
That calm expression... adjusted.
No longer observant.
But dominant.
She didn’t turn completely.
Just enough to see them over her shoulder.
And, in that small movent...
Sothing in the world responded.
The shadows around the tower bowed.
Literally.
As if reality itself recognized her presence.
The two figures remained inclined for a few seconds.
And then one of them slightly raised her face.
Her features were still undefined... but her voice carried identity.
"It’s been ages..."
A pause.
"...since the last ti we felt your presence, my Queen."
The other continued, softly, completing the sentence as if it were a single shared thought.
"The Umbral... was empty without you."
Umbra didn’t react imdiately.
Her eyes returned to the city.
"It wasn’t empty."
The answer ca simply.
Coldly.
"It was... out of control."
Silence.
The two exchanged a brief glance—a minimal gesture, but laden with aning.
Then, slowly, both rose completely.
Now visible in full posture.
The first took a small step forward.
"Allow to announce, as I always have..."
She placed a hand on her chest, tilting her head slightly.
"Lyra Noctis, Guardian of the Dark Veil."
Her form swayed slightly, as if partially inside and outside of reality at the sa ti.
The second followed.
"Seryth Vhal, Guardian of Lost Souls."
Her presence was denser.
Heavier. As if she carried within her the weight of thousands of voices that never found rest.
Both bowed again, this ti less deeply, but still with absolute respect.
"Eternal servants of the Umbral Throne."
Umbra observed them both in silence.
And then...
A slight smile appeared.
It wasn’t kind.
But it wasn’t cruel either.
It was... recognition.
"You are still here."
Lyra raised her face slightly.
"We would never leave."
Seryth finished.
"Even when we believed you... wouldn’t return."
This ti, Umbra turned completely.
Her white dress shone more intensely for a mont, contrasting almost aggressively against the world around her. It was as if two realities were overlapping.
She walked.
A single step.
And the tower floor... reacted.
Shadows receded beneath her feet.
As if yielding space.
"How long?" she asked.
Lyra was the first to answer.
"Ti... doesn’t work here like it does outside."
Umbra narrowed her eyes.
"Answer."
Seryth tilted her head.
"Long enough for your absence to be... felt."
A pause.
"Long enough for the throne to remain empty."
Another.
"Long enough for things... to begin moving without permission."
Silence.
Umbra watched the two.
And then...
"I didn’t leave of my own free will."
The statent changed the atmosphere.
The shadows vibrated.
Slightly.
Lyra frowned.
"Pulled...?"
Umbra nodded.
"Sealed."
They both reacted at the sa ti.
Not with fear.
But with sothing very close to it.
Indignation.
The kind that arises from a natural order being violated.
"Sealed...?" Seryth repeated, her voice now lower, more dangerous.
"In a vessel... soon after..." Umbra looked at her own hand... Opening and closing her fingers slowly. "In a human."
Lyra took a step forward, her form undulating more unstablely.
"That’s impossible."
Umbra smiled. This ti... without any gentleness. "No."
She raised her gaze... Her eyes now... completely different... Darker... Deeper.
As if the Umbral itself were looking through them. "I’m sorry but... I can’t stay here. I need to go back to my husband."
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