**CHAPTER 32: THE TOWER'S WHISPER**
*(Or How the Shadows Started Talking Back)*
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### **I. The Marked Prince**
Nolan's arm bled gold.
The self-carved limiter pulsed beneath his skin, its jagged lines glowing white-hot as another vision fought to break free. His teeth ground together, muscles trembling with the effort to contain rather than suppress—Ryulga's newest lesson in control.
*"Don't dam the river,"* the bastard had said. *"Redirect it."*
A shadow fell across him. Shen stood holding two dead rabbits, his armor reduced to just the gauntlets today—a deliberate choice after last battle's close call.
**"You're still resisting."**
Nolan glared up through sweat-soaked bangs. **"Got a better idea?"**
Shen dropped the rabbits and **slapped the limiter sigil**.
Gold light exploded—
—and instead of visions, Nolan **remembered things that never happened to him**.
*Shen skinning his first kill at twelve with shaking hands.
Shen weeping over an unmarked grave at sixteen.
Shen now, standing at the edge of an abyss only he could see.*
The connection shattered.
Nolan retched bile onto the moss.
**"What the hell was that?"**
Shen's shadows curled around his fingers, skinning the rabbits with brutal efficiency. **"You wanted to control the visions? First you have to understand what they *are*."** He pointed to Nolan's arm. **"That's not a limiter. It's a *conduit*."**
Ryulga's laughter rolled through the trees. **"Took you long enough to notice!"**
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### **II. The Armor's Voice**
Shen's shadows moved before he did.
Mid-swing against a training dummy, his armored fist **froze**—then pivoted to block an attack that wasn't coming.
*Not yet.*
The voice came from inside his own bones.
**"What are you—"**
The dummy's wooden sword burst into golden flames—*exactly* like Veyl's energy—and would have taken Shen's head off if not for the armor's intervention.
Ryulga leaned against a petrified tree, grinning. **"Your shadows learn faster than you do."**
Shen tore the gauntlet off. The darkness **hissed** as it hit the ground, reforming into a crude mouth.
**"Stubborn,"** it whispered in Shen's own voice. **"Like father."**
Shen's boot came down hard.
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### **III. The First Whisper**
The Tower appeared in Nolan's dreams.
Not a vision—a *presence*.
Seven stories of black stone, its doors carved with faces he almost recognized. The air smelled like burnt hair and wet soil.
*"You're late,"* said the man sitting atop the gate.
Not a man.
**Veyl.**
But younger. Whole. Both eyes intact.
Nolan reached for a weapon he didn't have. **"What is this place?"**
Veyl smiled, tapping the hourglass pupil in his right eye. **"Where all paths converge. Where *he* waits."**
A shadow moved behind the Tower's gates.
Taller than mountains.
Older than death.
Nolan woke screaming, his limiter sigil **burned black**.
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### **IV. The Breaking Point**
Ryulga found them at dawn—Shen sharpening his blade with violent strokes, Nolan carving new sigils into his thighs.
**"We're going to the Tower,"** Shen said.
Not a request.
A declaration.
Ryulga's smile didn't reach his eyes. **"Took you long enough."**
Behind them, the shadows whispered secrets neither was ready to hear.
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**TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 34: *THE SEVEN DOORS***