UMBRA-TE

  Chapter 1: The Hunt in the Sea of Shadows

  The world ended — but no one told the monsters.

  Kaelen ran.

  His worn boots pounded against uneven stone, kicking up gray dust that blended into the thick mist. Behind him, the sound was unmistakable: a heavy dragging, like chains being pulled across gravestones.

  He didn't look back.

  He didn't need to.

  He knew that sound.

  A Crawler.

  One of the worst.

  The fog of the Sea of Shadows swallowed the landscape, turning the ruins of the ancient city into ghostly silhouettes. Twisted buildings clawed toward a permanently violet sky where two moons floated like the eyes of a dead god. One of them was cracked, bleeding a sickly silver light.

  Kaelen dodged a rusted beam and leapt over a crater. His heart pounded, but his breathing remained controlled.

  Seven years in the Sea of Shadows had taught him one rule:

  Desperation attracts worse things.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  The dragging behind him sped up.

  "Damn," he whispered.

  He forced himself to move faster. His legs burned. Beneath his dirty shirt, the Mark of the Eclipse pulsed with a dull ache, as it always did when creatures came too close.

  Turn left. Stay low. Use the column's shadow.

  His mind worked like a map. He knew these ruins the way he knew the scars on his hands.

  They were the only home he had left.

  The Crawler was fast.

  But it wasn't clever.

  Kaelen dove beneath a partially collapsed stone arch, rolled across the floor, and stopped inside what had once been a shop. The caved-in roof created a crude shelter. He pressed himself against the wall and held his breath.

  The dragging sound stopped.

  Silence.

  Not ordinary silence.

  The thick, suffocating silence that comes just before a predator strikes.

  Kaelen closed his eyes briefly, focusing.

  Shadow, if you have something to say, now would be a good time.

  Nothing.

  Of course.

  It was never easy.

  Then he felt it.

  The temperature dropped. The faint light filtering through the cracks began to flicker. Slowly, Kaelen opened his eyes and looked at the ground.

  His shadow was moving.

  But he wasn't.

  The dark silhouette stretched on its own, creeping toward the shop entrance as if searching for something. Its edges trembled, and for a moment, Kaelen swore he saw fingers — long, thin, clawed — forming at its tip.

  The Mark burned hotter.

  Outside, the Crawler made a sound.

  Not a growl.

  Not a roar.

  Something between a moan and a whisper, like a broken imitation of a human voice.

  "Come..."

  Kaelen held his breath.

  "The flame... where is the flame..."

  The thing mimicked the voices of those it had devoured.

  That was how it lured the foolish.

  But Kaelen was not foolish.

  He stared at his shadow, which no longer resembled him at all. It was taller, thinner.

  And at the tips of its shadowy fingers, two faint purple points flickered.

  Eyes.

  His shadow was looking at him.

  The Crawler dragged itself away.

  Kaelen did not move a muscle. He had seen this before. Creatures of the Sea of Shadows preyed on souls — but even predators feared something older than themselves.

  Minutes passed.

  Or hours.

  In the Sea of Shadows, time was a cruel joke.

  At last, when the mist began to thin, Kaelen rose. His legs ached. His back ached. His soul ached.

  He looked down.

  His shadow was just a shadow again.

  "One day," he murmured quietly, "you're going to explain what you are."

  No one answered.

  He left his hiding place and walked toward the only light in the distance — the towering pillars of the fortress city of Myridian, the last refuge of humanity in those lands.

  There, he was just another cursed soul.

  A survivor.

  Someone the guards watched with suspicion but tolerated, because the Sea of Shadows always needed its scapegoats.

  There, no one knew his shadow had eyes.

  And Kaelen intended to keep it that way.

  End of Chapter 1