The shadow hall was lightless.

  Not dark—

  empty.

  Kaelen stood inside it, heart pounding, shadows crawling at the edges of his vision.

  Sera Noctyrr’s voice came from nowhere.

  “What is shadow, little prince?”

  Kaelen steadied himself. “Concealment. Stealth.”

  A laugh echoed.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “Wrong.”

  Sera stepped out of Kaelen’s own shadow.

  He barely had time to gasp before she struck—finger to throat, knee to stomach, elbow to spine. He hit the ground choking.

  “Shadow is not hiding,” Sera whispered, kneeling beside him.

  “Shadow is ownership.”

  She vanished again.

  Kaelen tried to spread his shadows.

  They slipped away from him.

  Every attempt to move ended with Sera appearing from impossible angles—correcting his posture with pain, punishing every instinct to flee.

  “You hesitate because you fear being seen,” she said.

  “But shadows favor those who choose to be unseen.”

  By the end, Kaelen was bleeding from dozens of shallow cuts.

  Sera finally stood above him.

  “You don’t belong in shadow yet,” she said coldly.

  “You’re still afraid of what you’ll become if you disappear.”

  She left him alone in the dark.