Naia sat across from him, knees drawn up to her chest. The oil lamp between them flickered gently, casting uneven light on her bedroom walls.
Naia’s expression was unreadable. She didn’t speak, just watched him, really watched him, with an intensity that burned hotter than the oil lamp.
"I told you I’d give you answers," Kai said quietly, resting his forearms on his knees. "All of them."
Naia’s eyes narrowed, but she nodded once. No interruption. No snide remarks. Just silence, waiting.
So he began.
"I died," Kai said flatly. "In another world."
Naia flinched but didn’t stop him.
"What killed was my own inaction and stupidity. I rember the feeling. Cold blood. My mother’s disgust. And then... nothing."
He paused, eyes flicking to the rafters above.
"I woke up again. Screaming. A baby in this world, with no voice to explain anything. No language. Just instincts and mories that didn’t belong here. Sotis I wonder what Kai’s life might have been like if I never took over his body."
Naia’s breath caught, but she didn’t speak.
"I thought I was crazy for a while. That maybe it was a dream. But that didn’t last long. by the ti I was almost five, the necromantic aura manifested. I killed a bird by accident. Brought it back. I killed my dog and did the sa."
"I lost my first friend, my sister, because of this specialisation of mine. I touched her one day, and I didn’t understand then, but I was draining her life essence the mont I touched her. I will never forget the horror on her face. On Mari’s face."
Naia couldn’t hold back anymore.
"Mari? Our Mari? Your sister is Mari? Doesn’t she know? Why wouldn’t you tell her you are who you are?"
A bitter smile tugged at his lips. "That’s when everything changed. The villagers felt the change. And when the dog I reanimated broke free from my control, my entire family was looked upon with scrutiny. When magical assessnt ca, that’s when everything ended for . Or, perhaps, when it began..."
He ran a hand down his face.
"I’ll get to that. We’re not up to that point in the story yet. I have had death follow ever since waking up in this world."
He listed the nas of the dead, one by one. Each na a wound.
"My dog, Bert, followed everywhere. Until he died from what I thought was natural causes, but was probably draining the life from him whenever we’d play."
Naia covered her mouth.
"I couldn’t save him. Not properly. He ca back wrong. I thought I was healing him back then, but all I did was reanimate his corpse."
His voice grew thinner.
"Then ca the priests I killed after my assessnt. I tried to talk myself into believing that Shade, part of my shadow was the one that did it, but I was responsible."
Naia was now perched on the edge of her seat.
"When I fled, I t a group of orphans who took in. But because they did so, they all died. I watched powerlessly as they were butchered before my very eyes. I thought they were strong and brave, but children are still just children."
He looked at Naia finally. Her cheeks were already wet.
"I was chased, almost killed several tis, and was healed by soone in the forest of arcane creatures outside of Ylthara. They looked after until I was well enough to leave, and I owe them a great debt. But, when I headed ho, ho was not the sa."
Kai sighed. This was the part of the story he liked the least.
"What- what do you an?"
"Orrinsby was overrun by priestly influence, and the ho I grew up in was burnt to the ground."
"Oh no!"
"That’s not the worst of it, Naia... Outside my house were my parents. Staked, their corpses preserved magically as a lesson to those who would protect soone like . And the person that killed them?"
"Don’t tell ..."
"Mari did it. She was proud of her service to the gods. She blad for their deaths. For tainting them. And I will never, ever forgive her for that. And so, my parents were gone."
’Even though Lila and Garrett’s corpses are in my shadow space, but maybe that’s a bit too morbid for now.’
He stood slowly and paced the attic.
"After that, I tried to kill her. I failed and almost died again, but I t my ntor, and after a few years with him, headed to the academy to learn more about magic and the world. The rest... well, you know the rest."
He flexed his fingers absently, and for a mont Naia thought she saw a flicker of that green-blue aura around his hands.
"I’ve died again. Not physically, but in ways that matter. I’ve lost pieces of myself. Bit by bit. My humanity. My warmth. My ability to even feel skin without hurting soone."
Naia was sobbing quietly now. She tried to wipe her eyes, but the tears kept falling.
"I wanted to save people, Naia. But saving anyone with necromancy ans doing sothing ugly. Making trade-offs. I saved Kleo. I saved Firra. But I killed many to get there, it won’t stop. I’m not sure I can stop."
He sat back down.
"That’s who I am. That’s what I’ve beco. I am so much older than I appear."
She stared at him for a long mont, breathing unsteadily. Then, as if drawn by sothing unspoken, she crawled across the attic floor and wrapped her arms around him.
Carefully.
Tenderly.
As though afraid he might fall apart.
"You lost your parents. You lost everything. But you’re still trying. And that ans sothing. Old or not. Necromancer or not. I still love you."
He didn’t hug her back at first.
Not because he didn’t want to.
But because he didn’t feel anything.
His chest was hollow. Like the inside of a rotten tree stump. Like silence.
Maybe necromancy had numbed him too much. Maybe the Mortality Deviance from his status was finally catching up.
He considered breaking all of the promises he’d made to the living and the dead, and just going to so secluded part of the world until he died, but that wasn’t the answer.
And even if he couldn’t feel the need to fulfill the promises, he still knew a promise was a promise.
A door slamd sowhere outside and broke the mood.
Then there was shouting.
Naia pulled away as Kai’s head snapped toward the hall. He stood, rushed upstairs to the attic, crossed the creaking floor, and pushed open the attic window. Cool night air rushed in.
Knights.
Dozens of them.
They surrounded a nearby manor house, torches raised, swords drawn, their steel glinting in the light of the moons. Civilians shouted inside. A child scread. A nobleman stood in the doorway, pale and furious.
"This is a violation of the Noble Accord!"
"By order of the Prince Arion," a knight barked, "you are required to submit to inspection. A criminal is at large. One who attacked the Crown directly. Your station does not grant you immunity."
"You can’t just-"
"Failure to comply," the knight interrupted, "is treason. And the punishnt is death."
Another slamd a gauntleted fist into the doorfra. "Search everything. Basents, crawlspaces, attics. Especially attics."
The noble stepped aside, trembling.
A few minutes passed. Kai’s breath held.
Then: "Clear!"
The lead knight growled. "Next. The Eldridge estate."
Kai’s blood froze.
---
Kleo was still asleep in the chair, her hand gently clutching Firra’s limp fingers. Firra hadn’t stirred once. Not even when the shouting started.
Naia was probably downstairs.
There was no ti for goodbyes. No ti to explain.
Kai crossed to the window, climbed onto the shingles, and pulled the fra closed behind him. The mont his boots hit the rooftop, he was already donning his Umbral Mantle and concealing himself with shadow.
And then he vanished into the city.
---
The noble quarter was a maze of fences, marble walkways, and wrought-iron lamps. But he knew how to move through it. He kept low, avoided direct light, ducked through servant alleys and over garden walls.
Beside him, a gate opened to the garden he currently occupied.
A knight’s voice echoed: "Search everything."
Kai shrunk away from their torchlight, vaulted the wall, and didn’t look back.
He moved like a shadow, slipping past guards who had grown paranoid. He watched as two knights berated a rchant who hadn’t closed his stall properly. Watched as a noblewoman was dragged into the street, her husband protesting.
This wasn’t justice. This was a witch hunt.
The king was dead.
He had to be.
And the prince, young, hungry, and ruthless, was claiming what power remained.
By the ti Kai reached the outskirts of the academy, his pulse had slowed. His cloak was torn. His boots muddy. He passed under the sigil warding at the edge of the ruined shack, a forgotten faculty storehouse half-consud by ivy.
He keyed the barrier shut behind him and slid down the inside wall. Finally alone.
Safe.
For now.
In a few days, he would see Mari. To the Arcane Forest. To find Vepice. He would use her to heal Vepice, and then he would kill her.
After that, there would be so rot to cut at the root, and a tournant to fight in, but then he’d head to Sala.
And if he died achieving his goals, then so be it.
But not before he kept every promise.
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