Part One – The Veil of Shadows
I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish’d, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went—and came, and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this their desolation; and all hearts
Were chill’d into a selfish prayer for light.
– Darkness , Lord Byron
They said the Shadow Bringer still lived.
I grew up under his wicked curse, taught to hate the monster so cold and so cruel that he forgot what it was like to be anything else. They said he was as hideous as he was horrible, a bloodstained monster lurking in the shadows of every dream.
But I, either bravely or stupidly, found it difficult to fear what I couldn’t see. He was a phantom. A shadow. A ghost. A monster who haunted others but couldn’t hurt me.
Until my sister died.
Eden wasn’t buried with flowers in her hair. They did not clothe her in white, did not try to conceal the shadows under her eyes. Her coffin was a crude box of splintered wood, her burial clothes dirty and torn. There was blood in places I did not understand—under her nails, seeping from the corners of her mouth, lining the edges of her bare feet.
Corrupt , they whispered.
Corrupt , they damned.
Mother tightened her fist in my cloak. One hand was on my shoulder, the other clenched around my wide-eyed brother clinging to her chest. Her tears had dried hours ago; my father’s had not. He sank to his knees by Eden’s coffin, head bowed and arms trembling.
The Light Legion circled us, asking questions and demanding answers we didn’t have.
When did the shadows first appear?
What crimes did she commit in Norhavellis?
Was it greed?
Envy?
Gluttony, wrath?
And other, more troublesome questions. Questions my mother and father stumbled over.
You’re Absolvers—why wasn’t she given the elixir?
Did you value your youngest children over her?
The Light Bringer cannot bring her to Istralla and cleanse her soul—do you understand?
As the legionnaires questioned us, their golden armor became dim and dull by an approaching storm. They had frightened me at first, intimidating me with their masks and arrogant way of speaking. But that fear had ebbed into something else. Something angry and foul.
Corruption wasn’t supposed to happen to Eden. It was supposed to happen to strangers. To people who were nothing more than names in a story.
Rain began to fall.
My brother began to cry.
And Eden was lowered to the earth in her box of splintered wood.
