"Light is not just bright… sometimes, it blinds."
---
Harith woke up in the dark.
He didn't know how long he had been falling, but now he was in a large hall lined with black mirrors, reflecting his face from a thousand angles.
But all the reflections… didn't follow his movements.
Each one looked back at him but with different eyes.
Some were angry.
Some were crying.
Some were bleeding from their eyes.
---
"Harith…"
The voice was low, but deep.
Harith turned and at the end of the hall, on a shadowy throne, stood a man in a gray robe, his hair long and half gray.
He recognized the face, even though it was only from an old picture his mother had kept.
"Father…?"
The man smiled faintly.
"I've been waiting for you to arrive for a long time, Harith."
Harith walked slowly.
"Mom said father is dead."
"Yes. In the human world, I am dead. But in this world… I am still paying for my sins."
---
Harith stood a few steps ahead.
"What sins?"
The man stepped down from the throne. His steps were uneven.
"I was the first person to try to separate the shadows from humans. I thought that if we cast away our dark side, the world would become pure."
"But I was wrong. When we cast away the darkness… even the light lost its direction."
---
The man opened his palm.
A white light appeared, but in the middle there was a pulsating black spot.
"This is the 'Cracked Light'. The origin of all the shadows in this world."
"And your blood, Harith… is the connection."
Harith was shocked.
"I am the heir to that thing?"
"You are not the heir."
"You are the result."
---
Suddenly the entire hall shook.
The mirror wall cracked, and from the cracks came human shadows screaming, crying, calling out Harith's name.
"They are all... victims of my experiment," his father said slowly.
"And when the next eclipse comes, this world will open up and all the shadows will seek their original masters."
Harith clenched his fist.
"In that case, I will stop all this. I will not let the world be destroyed."
"You don't understand, Harith!"
"Every time you use that power, you open a door between this world and the human world. You think you are saving people... but in reality you are calling them."
---
Harith fell silent.
His breathing was heavy. His father's voice trembled, full of regret.
"I created that power to save humans, but in the end I killed thousands of people. Don't repeat my mistake, Harith."
"Kill that power before it kills you."
Harith looked at his palms, which were glowing white and black, spinning like two opposing flames.
He realized... there were two lives within him, his and his shadow.
"If I kill this power, the shadow creature will escape to the real world."
"And if I don't kill it... I'm the one who's lost."
---
His father looked into Harith's eyes.
"There is no middle ground, my son. Light and shadow cannot live in the same body."
Harith smiled a little, a smile full of sadness.
"Maybe... that's why I exist. To find a way so that these two worlds don't have to wipe each other out."
---
The sky of the shadow world began to shake again.
The sound of a gong from afar echoed, indicating that the Second Eclipse was getting closer.
A red light emanated from the ceiling of the hall, showering the two of them.
"The eclipse has begun..." his father said.
"You have to go now."
Harith nodded.
"How do you get out?"
His father approached, placing his hand on Harith's chest.
"There is only one way out, the memory you can't bear to face the most."
"You have to relive the day your mother died."
---
Harith fell silent. His breath caught.
"Mom…?"
"Yes. She died because of me. Because of my attempt to control the power in our blood."
Harith tried to hold back his tears, but he couldn't.
"Why did you do this?"
His father smiled slowly.
"Because I believe that one day… my son will be born to fix everything."
He released his palm from Harith's chest.
Harith's body began to light up, half white, half black.
The light became too bright… until the entire shadow world began to shatter like glass.
"Go, Harith… before this world swallows you."
---
Harith fell down, penetrating the light.
Before it all went dark, he heard his father's last voice echoing in his head.
"Remember, Harith. You can't save the world... without making peace with your own shadow."