The morning sky in Quinn's world never quite looked like day.
A perpetual red-glow hung low over the city.
Not sunrise.
Not dusk.
Something in-between.
Lyle stood in a silent courtyard built from onyx stone, rings of etched glyphs surrounding a raised circle in the center. The ring hummed gently on his finger.
The Codex remained closed at his side—but alert.
Juno leaned against a broken pillar nearby, watching quietly.
She hadn't said a word since the Hall.
She didn't need to.
---
A voice rose from the far side of the courtyard.
Cool. Measured.
And disturbingly familiar.
"You survived the first trial."
Lyle turned.
The figure that approached from the edge of the courtyard was tall, draped in layered robes stitched from what looked like smoke itself. No feet touched the ground. No breath misted in the cold air.
But Lyle recognized the shape.
It was the shadow that moved behind Quinn. The one that hadn't bowed when others did.
"I am your mentor," the figure said. "For the part of you that lives in between."
Lyle blinked. "In between what?"
The figure didn't answer. Instead, it held out one long, fingerless hand. The Codex flipped open on its own, pages turning until they stilled on a darkened glyph Lyle hadn't seen before.
> [Shadowstep – Initiation Phase]
Move through fractured threadlines in short bursts. Requires stillness of thought and clarity of intent.
"Step when you are silent," the figure said. "Step only when you don't wish to be seen."
Lyle looked at Juno. She nodded once. "Trust it."
He did.
He closed his eyes.
Slowed his breathing.
Felt the pull of the ring, and the faint pressure of the Codex coiling like smoke behind his ribs.
And then—
He stepped.
---
It wasn't movement.
It wasn't teleportation.
It was… displacement.
Like slipping through the blink between two heartbeats.
He reappeared six feet away, unharmed—
But changed.
The air recoiled from where he'd been.
The stone floor hissed where his shadow landed.
He gasped.
"Again," the figure said.
---
They trained for hours.
Lyle learned the tempo of the shadows.
The rules of moving where eyes weren't looking.
And the risk of slipping too far—where things with no name waited.
By the end of the day, he collapsed to one knee, body soaked in a cold sweat.
Juno came to his side, offering a flask.
He drank without speaking.
The figure stood in silence.
"You will not survive what comes unless you master this. Again, at dawn."
Then it vanished.
---
That night, back in their assigned chambers, Juno finally spoke.
"You looked like you disappeared."
"I think… I did."
He turned the ring in his fingers.
> [Shadowstep: Proficiency Level 3%]
Warning: You are now partially visible to entities between threads.
"Juno," he said quietly, "do you ever get the feeling… that something else made it through the gate with us?"
She stared at him for a long moment.
Then nodded.
"I haven't been able to sleep since we crossed."
---
Far from their chambers, high atop the city's edge—
A servant knelt before Quinn, trembling.
"My lord… the anchors pulse out of rhythm."
Quinn's brow furrowed. "Explain."
"There's… another echo. Not from the boy. Not from our world."
The air around Quinn sharpened.
> "Then someone else has crossed."
His shadow rippled across the floor like a living sea.
> "Find them. If they wear no ring, kill them quietly."