"Those born with half a shadow… do not know if they are light or darkness."⸻The morning was pale.As if the sun had apologized for appearing and left the sky colorless.In the room, Luin sat on the edge of the bed, staring at his right palm.
The mark… no longer appeared.But he could feel it.Like an itch beneath the skin, a strange pulse not following his heartbeat.
He closed his eyes.And heard the voice again… the voice that did not come from outside:
"The First Seal was pain.""The Second… will be knowledge."⸻
He neither ate nor slept, nor spoke to anyone.But he went out.
As if the city itself had started breathing differently.The alleys were the same… yet they whispered.
And in every shadow… something watched.⸻
At the old book market,an old man stood, his eyes like decayed paper, wearing a necklace with an unreadable symbol.
He spoke without looking at him:
"What is stamped on the skin cannot be washed away… only forgotten."
Luin froze.
"What did you say?"
The man smiled, slipping a small booklet into his pocket.
"If the tattoo begins to pulse… read page seven."⸻
Luin wanted to ask him more, but he vanished.As if the man had only been an echo of his own fears.⸻
Later, in the alley leading to the artisan district,a priest in white church robes passed by.His face featureless, eyes on the ground, not looking up.
But the air changed.As if something in Luin's body moved… or recoiled.
Then… the voice came again, this time from outside his body:
"They can smell… and you've begun to emit."
He turned.
A small child stood there, clothes torn, hair wet.
"What did you say?"
But the child ran off laughing, as if sharing a dangerous secret… and disappeared.⸻
Luin stopped in front of an old shop window.His reflection blurry, but behind him… he saw a single black wing.
He blinked.
It vanished.
Yet the voice returned, from inside him:
"They gave you a seal… but you were born hollow."⸻
He returned to his room, sweating, breaths uneven.He opened the booklet he had received… and went straight to page seven.
It was blank.
Then… words appeared slowly, as if being written now:
"If you see the wing, you are no longer fully human.""And if you hear the silence, the calling has begun."
Then the page burned from the center.⸻
At night, despite exhaustion, he went out.The city was quieter, yet it did not sleep.
In a remote alley, he felt the ground tilt beneath him.He grabbed his head and fell to his knees.
Then…
There was nothing.⸻
He found himself in an inverted place.Stone pillars grew from the sky to the ground.Engravings resembled his seal, but larger… and older.
There was a voice. But it did not speak.It revealed the truth, directly into his mind:
"The Second Seal cannot be opened by pain.""But by confession."
Then… he saw himself in a black mirror.But it reflected more than him.
A face similar to his own… yet the eyes were dark, as if from another time.⸻
He awoke suddenly.
The city was quiet.But he was not the same.
He looked at his forearm.A new symbol… half complete… pulsing.
The air was heavier.As if an eye from the heavens had finally opened upon him.⸻
"Some mirrors do not reflect… they explode you."⸻
He looked at himself in the mirror.
But it was not his image.
The face was twisted, the skin torn on one side, the left eye bleeding unstoppable ink.A faint, crooked smile, belonging neither to him… nor to any human.⸻
He blinked.
Then it vanished.
The mirrors in the old market always reflect what cannot be seen.Or perhaps… what should not be seen.⸻
Luin stepped back, not touching them.Yet the feeling of the reflection clung to his back.
As if it was not a mirror, but a window into the inner self.⸻
His inner voice whispered throughout the night:"Something has changed.""You are not as you were.""The Seal… was not just a beginning, but a break in the wall."⸻
He wandered without direction.His feet refused to return home, to the tavern, or anywhere familiar.The world seemed to be reshaping itself around him… and within him.⸻
At a turn between two abandoned alleys,he saw a man in a dark ecclesiastical robe.Unlike the white-robed church monks who usually passed.
He stood still, watching the horizon.His face unclear, as if the shadow refused to release him.⸻
Luin stopped.
He felt time slow.
The air changed.
And everything… froze.⸻
The man turned slowly.And looked at him.
"Luin."
It was not a voice… but consciousness seeping into his skull.
"The mirrors have seen you.""The scar has begun to speak."⸻
He took a step forward.
With every step, Luin felt his heart tighten… as if a memory was being forced to the surface.
"Your pain opened the first door.""But the second door… opens only with betrayal."⸻
"Betrayal?" Luin whispered to himself.
"Who betrayed? Me? Or… someone else?"⸻
A moment…
The street vanished.
The sounds vanished.
Everything froze.
Even raindrops hung in the air… suspended like broken glass.⸻
The priest raised his hand.In the air appeared a mysterious symbol.Half a circle, half an eye… and a long line like an open wound.
"This… is the shadow of the Second Seal."
He stared at him sharply.
"It will come to you in a form… you will not expect.""And if you open the door… you will not return as you were."⸻
Then…
He vanished.
Simply.As if his existence had been an illusion.⸻
Time returned suddenly.The rain fell heavily.
And Luin?He could not move for a moment.⸻
Then another voice whispered in his mind.
Weaker… older.
As if a part of him long forgotten had come back to life:
"Did you ever know… who you truly are?"⸻
He looked around.
The city remained the same.But inside him… something stirred.Something still broken… yet it began to make a sound.⸻
The Second Seal had not opened.
But Luin felt it tremble in the depths.
Like a trapped being… beginning to awaken.⸻
End of Chapter Seven