The lumen-bell tolled evensong. It resonated across the academy's iron bones. The note lingered long after fading. A deep thrum vibrated through bulkheads. It set the air quivering. As if forges below stirred in eternal slumber. In the dormitory warrens. Deep in the undercroft. Rain's muffled sob seeped through rust-wept seams. That toll marked day's turn to night's embrace. Reluctant. Whelps shuffled to bunks. Like penitents to cells. Bodies heavy with drill aches. Sour pottage weight in bellies. Lights dimmed gradual along ceiling strips. From harsh white to sullen orange flicker. Shadows stretched long across grated floors. Like fingers of some vast hand. Groping for purchase in gloom. Air grew thicker. Laced with two-score souls' exhalations. Crammed in space for half. Breaths mingled in humid fog. Sweat and synth-meat regret. Undercut by illicit lumen-dust sparkle. Pinched from mess-hall stores. Vesperion inhaled the haze. It clung like old smoke. A veil for secrets. He let it settle. Eyes half-lidded. Listening to the hush build.
Vesperion Blackthorn lay upon his bunk. Cloaked in Kairos Vale's frail vessel. In the hall's shadowed flank. Straw pallet sagged beneath him. Like hide of some long-slain beast. Left to molder. Blanket threadbare as beggar's vow. He drew it close. Against chill clawing borrowed bones. A void-echo no meager vitae banished. Whispering of fifteen hundred years. Hurled into lightless maw. Black eyes unblinking. As depths of eclipsed suns. Traced chamber's contours in dying light. Bunks stacked three high. Like graves in hasty barrow. Chains creaked soft. As sighs of the damned. Iron walls scarred by gouges. Frustrated fists or flux-sparks tested mettle. Whelps settled to fitful repose. Forms a tapestry of academy dregs. Aetherborn sprawled limbs akimbo. Inner glows pulsed faint through skin. Like embers banked against night. Murmurs of tomorrow's crucibles faded. To snores rough as gravel under heels. Vesperion watched one pup twitch. Flux-veins flickering. A brief spark. Then dark. Such power. Raw. Untamed. He could twist it. Bend it to shadow. In time. The thought coiled. Pleasant.
Holy whelps curled fetal. Around amulets clutched like talismans. Lips moved in silent litanies. Dark devoured them whole. Silver sigils caught lumen-flicker. In fleeting glimmers of false dawn. Their faith hung thin. Vesperion scented the fear beneath. Gods who turned away. Prayers to empty voids. He almost envied the delusion. Almost. It bound them tight. Easier to unravel. Faded huddled in corners. His shadowed kin. Like wolves driven from pack. Eyes gleamed cat-sly in gloom. Fangs pricked lips pale as moonlit milk. Nursed vials of synth-blood. Pilfered from shadowed alcoves. One gaunt lad. Veins like blue rivers under translucent skin. Snorted lumen-dust from palm. Powder ignited brief in nostrils. Sparkle like falling stars drowned in ash. Eyes rolled back. Whites veined red as rift-wounds. Body arched in spasm. Borrowed fire. Whispers spilled. In tongues half-remembered. Rivers of red. Cold as void's tit. Vesperion marked him. Without pity. Or kinship. These beggars at eternity's feast. Hungers dulled to dribbles. By time's jest. Veil's creeping rot. Once in Ebonreach's thunderous halls. Torches burned with blood-oaths. He drank deep from such whelps' sires. Empires bent to Eclipse Sovereign's thirst. Now he lay still. As death's sentinel. Hemocodex uncoiled subtle in blood. Runes etched paths through whelp's frail shell. Blended ancient sorceries. With crude fluxes pulsing in air. Like wounded god's heartbeat. The weave hummed. Faint. He flexed fingers under blanket. Tested it. Shadows stirred. Responsive. This body learned slow. But it learned.
Dormitory clamor ebbed to ragged hush. Broken by rain's distant drum. Occasional chain creak. Sleeper shifted uneasy. Lumen-dust flicker danced walls. Illicit motes winked in dust-takers' breaths. Cast phantoms twisting. Capering like shades of old betrayals. Lirien's dagger glinted copper-bright. Thorne's axe sang through ranks. Elowen's false kiss lingered. Sweet as poison on rim. Vesperion closed eyes against them. Or sought to. Void's memories pressed insistent. Tide of shadows lapped sleep's edges. Promised storms yet to break. Power a web. Spun inch by bloody inch. From patience. Peril. This academy its loom. Alliances shifting like sand in storm. Instructors' eyes sharp as flayer's hooks. Church puritan hounds sniffed heresy. In steam-pipes. He would weave it taut. Draw in sly fox Mirael. Brittle flame Elara. Cracked-faith Harlan. Until snap claimed all. The plan unfolded in mind. Threads clear. He traced them silent. Each whelp a knot. To tighten. Or sever. The night deepened. Ripe for first pulls.
In that fragile interlude. Between evensong and true dark. She came. Mirael Thorne. Slipping from upper bunk. Like smoke through cracked grate. Descent silent. As ash from pyre's lip. Moved with bloodline's fluid grace. Ancient Thorne-spite tempered to sly elegance. Slender form a whisper against gloom. Bare feet found purchase on cold iron. No sound betrayed her. Illusions danced at fingertips. As she approached. Faint veils of phantasmal silk. Blurred her edges. Turned rain's seep through seams. To cascade of phantom petals. Soft. Illusory. Brushed Vesperion's cheek. Like breath of lover long dust. Hair dark as raven's wing. Streaked silver of vitae-starved strands. Fell loose to shoulders. Framed face sharp as fox in moonlight. High cheekbones etched with hunger's hollows. Lips full. Curved in perpetual jest. Eyes sly. Knowing. Color of storm-clouds bruised purple. By lightning's kiss. Wore naught but shift of lumen-weave. Thin as spider-silk. Clinging damp from hall's humid breath. Fabric translucent in dust-flicker. Revealed blue rivers of veins. Pulsed faint. With dribble passing for Faded power. Vesperion inhaled her scent. Ozone. Copper promise. Spilled blood. Tempting. He lay still. Let her come. Predator to predator. The air charged. Electric.
Vesperion sensed her before bunk's edge. Air thickened with her arts' subtle charge. Tang like ozone. Laced with copper of spilled blood. Eyes opened slow. Black as lightless heart of dying suns. Fixed upon her. Without surprise. Hemocodex stirred in veins. Like serpent roused by prey's scent. She paused. One hand trailed light along chain suspending pallet. Illusions coiled from fingers. Wove veil around them both. Bunk's corner shrouded in shadowed mist dome. Muffled snores. Dust-whispers of hall. Turned nook to sanctum. Stolen from night. "Lights dim. Rats come creeping." She murmured. Voice smoke-laced trill. Pitched low as conspirator's vow. Laced with synth-blood's sweet undernote. Warming on breath. Swung leg over bunk's low rail. Slipped into narrow space beside him. Ease of one accustomed to intimacies. Body pressed close in pallet's confines. Cool as winter iron. Against whelp's fevered skin. Blanket tented slight over them. Frail barrier against prying lumen-flicker. Illusions deepened shroud. Conjuring phantom stars. Wheeled faint overhead. Mockery of heavens choked beyond spires. Her weight settled. Hip to hip. Breath mingled with his. Vesperion turned head slight. Met her gaze. Storm-eyes held secrets. He saw the hunger there. Mirrored his own. "Rats bite." He whispered. Voice silk over fangs. "Or they bleed." She smiled. Sharp. The veil held. Night closed in. Their web began to spin.