Dear Apex,
I woke up to noise.
Not the kind that belongs in hospitals—soft footsteps, whispered prayers, machines humming like tired insects. This was shouting. Boots. Metal on stone. Panic trying to sound organized.
Pain greeted me before memory did.
My leg screamed when I swung it off the bed. Someone had wrapped it well—too well. Naya's work. I knew the precision immediately. Clean pressure. Correct angles. She never over-tightened. She respected circulation.
That thought was still forming when I limped into the corridor.
One of the kids froze when he saw me. Too young to hide fear. Too honest to lie well.
"Oma," he said, breathless. "Someone… Some crazy guy kidnapped Naya."
The world narrowed.
"What?" My voice didn't sound like mine.
He rushed on, words tripping over each other. "Lord Zefar knows who did it. A True Slayer. They call him Trance. Mind control—just by talking. He controlled two Summoned to take her. They're alive, but—" The boy swallowed. "She fought hard but was still taken."
Of course she did.
I didn't wait for permission. I followed the noise until the corridor opened into the command hall.
Victor Zefar stood at the center of it all.
He wore a new Veil of Glass.
Not the old one. But it was still familiar. The mask announced the return of Babel's Devil.
He looked ready to remind everyone, why he was feared in the first place.
Around him stood a thousand Summoned Slayers, each wearing an identical Veil.
An army of mirrors.
Adreya had gone silent.
Zefar's voice carried without effort. "The Veils will shield you from Trance's influence. Through them, I will see what you see. Hear what you hear. If he speaks, I will speak louder."
Someone asked the obvious question.
"Will we kill him, my lord?"
Zefar didn't hesitate. "No. Trance is to be captured."
My hands clenched.
Naya was missing. Hurt. Alone with a psychopath who had already violated two of his own soldiers—and Zefar wanted him alive.
I stepped forward before I could stop myself.
"I'll help find her."
The room went quiet again.
Zefar turned his masked face toward me slowly, like a predator acknowledging something beneath its notice.
"No," he said flatly.
I laughed. It came out wrong. "You don't get to decide that."
"I do," he replied. "And I just did. Trance is a True Slayer. He's dangerous. You wouldn't last a minute against him."
There it was.
Underestimation, wrapped in concern and authority. It disgusted me. I wasn't one of his kids and I would prove it.
I saw Ruse across the room, pale and shaking, surrounded by mechanical horrors that buzzed like metal insects. He called them Phones—flying machines tuned to sound. He was deploying them already.
"I'll find her," Ruse said hoarsely. "If I can hear her breathing. I will know her exact location."
Zefar didn't stop him.
Hunter found me outside.
He didn't shout. Didn't command. He just stood beside me, arms crossed, eyes sharp.
"You know what they're missing?" he asked quietly.
I didn't answer.
"They're searching the city," Hunter continued. "Noise. Footprints. But Trance never leaves a trace."
I looked at him confused.
"Your shadow," he said. "You don't just disappear into darkness. You merge with it, right?
I corrected him, " Its called Shadow blending and I can't do it while the sun shines."
Hunter suddenly pointed out,"Shadows exist everywhere—even in daylight."
He leaned closer. "No man runs from his shadow, Oma. Use it to find her."
I was about to tell him how delusional he was but he cut me off,
"How did you find Zefar? Was it your rage?
Don't you like Naya?"
I was speechless asking myself: why all these questions.
Then something clicked.
Anger helped me find Zefar.
Care and concern could help me find Naya.
I didn't tell anyone I was leaving.
I fell into my own shadow —and vanished.
The world inverted.
Light bent. Depth collapsed. Every shadow in Adreya stretched, connected, whispered. I followed hers. Not her footsteps—her absence.
I could see the place her shadow formed. The light came from a cabin window. The view outside was nothing but trees.
Trees I had seen before...
I appeared somewhere no one had searched: the woods near the castle.
An old cabin. Rotting wood. Quiet woods. Close enough to Victor's Castle and den of Trance.
I found them.
Naya lay on the floor, skin pale, breath shallow. Frost clung to her fingers. Alive—but trapped inside her own body.
Trance stood over her, whistling.
He smiled when he saw me.
"Oh," he said pleasantly. "Another one. Good. I was getting lonely."
His voice pressed against my mind like oil. Slippery. Insistent.
"Kneel."
Another voice slammed in from the other side.
"Oma, get out of there now!"
It was Zefar.
Pain exploded behind my eyes.
Trance laughed. "Ah. Family drama."
"Everyone," I snarled, closing my eyes, "shut up."
Silence.
The pressure vanished.
Trance blinked. Confused. For the first time.
"Interesting," he murmured. "You're like me."
"No," I said. "I'm worse."
He tried again. Command layered over command.
Nothing.
Turned out, Trueslayers couldn't override each other's will.
Hunter's lesson echoed in my mind.
"No man runs from his shadow."
I fell into mine once more and emerged out of Trance's shadow.
He screamed when my blade found him. I didn't hesitate. I didn't enjoy it.
I cut deep,slicing him at every turn. His knees soon fell.
Zefar's voice roared in my head once more. "You've done enough. Grab Naya and run."
I looked at Naya. At the frost crawling up her neck. At the man who did this.
Suddenly Trance began to laugh. He declared," Naya's torment won't end until I'm dead.
Tell me Dark Prince, can you take a life?"
I thought of Naya.
Of how many times I was asked that stupid question.
Of mercy given to monsters.
I slipped behind Trance coming out of his shadow one last time.
Without hesitation, I slit his throat.
As his body fell, Naya's cold vanished.
She gasped trembling heavily. I scopped her in my arms and we merged with my shadow.
Back in Victors Castle, everyone was thrilled to see Naya again. She was taken in for treatment. Everyone was eager to help her,
just as she did for them countless times.
Zefar looked displeased though. He whispered to me, "Do you have any idea what you've done."
Confused by his displeasure, I ignored him and walked away.
It was strange: this was my first kill but I had no regrets.