The Iron Citadel was a monument to flawless engineering. Kael appreciated it with the analytical part of his mind—the part that had been Elias, the part that loved precision. Every pipe was angled correctly, every load-bearing wall was over-engineered, and every door sealed with biometric security that guaranteed privacy and, more importantly, order.
The irony was that Kael, the disciplined soldier, now depended on creating chaos. He needed to be assigned to the Sky-Bridge Guard detail, a post restricted to high-ranking Sentinels. His current rank of Apprentice, Novice (L2.I) made it impossible through legitimate channels.
He was deep in the Citadel's Archives wing, supposedly retrieving old disciplinary records. His actual target was the Assignment Terminal, secured behind a heavy steel door locked by a retina scanner.
He took a slow, deep breath, trying to anchor himself in the cold, solid reality of the stone floor. He hated the Shadow. Every time he even thought of engaging the Shadow Tether, the memory of the fiery crash—the chaos that took Lena—returned with paralyzing clarity.
Discipline. The soldier's mantra kicked in. It is a tool. A lock-pick. Not a ruin.
He focused his intent, not on Lena, but on the geometry of the steel door. He needed to see the flow of the electrical current, the sequence of the locking pistons—the structural weakness.
Kael deliberately channeled a fraction of his Shadow power into his right index finger, maintaining the most delicate connection possible. The physical effort of controlling the chaotic energy at L2.I was like trying to hold a gallon of water in cupped hands. His muscles immediately began to shake.
A sliver of pure, inky blackness, no bigger than a sewing needle, appeared at his fingertip. He pressed it gently against the door's surface, right next to the retina scanner.
The Shadow immediately seeped in, and Kael's Insight (The Sight) flooded his mind.
The world changed. The solid door dissolved into a complex, beautiful tapestry of information:
Blue Lines: The positive flow of the electrical current from the internal battery.
Red Fissures: Microscopic flaws in the magnetic field holding the lock.
Green Glyphs: The cascading, structural code sequence of the retina scanner's authentication protocol.
The Shadow was providing him with absolute, perfect tactical information.
He saw the tiny, one-millisecond window between the electrical pulse and the retinal scan comparison—a flaw in the design created by the current Commander's cost-cutting measures.
I need to slow the pulse by 0.5 milliseconds.
He carefully pressed the Shadow deeper, aiming the chaotic energy not at the electrical current, but at the magnetic field's structure. His goal was not to destroy the door, but to introduce a moment of absolute non-existence, a tiny temporal lag, into the sequence.
The effort nearly brought him to his knees. His forehead was slick with cold sweat, and a dull, throbbing pain bloomed behind his eyes. He was pushing the absolute limit of his L2.I power just to sustain this fleeting Insight.
"Hold, damn it, hold," he muttered under his breath, focusing on the green glyphs of the code sequence.
Lag introduced.
Kael instantly yanked the Shadow back, cutting the connection violently. The Shadow obeyed, receding completely and vanishing, leaving behind only the crushing weight of exhaustion. He leaned against the door, fighting the urge to vomit.
He quickly pulled out a small data slate, inputting a generic, high-ranking officer's retinal scan he had memorized (a routine Citadel practice).
The retina scanner flashed red, then green. Scan accepted.
The magnetic lock released with a clean, low thud. He hadn't destroyed the door; he had simply slowed its reality just enough for the false data to be accepted.
Kael slipped inside the records room, his heart pounding not from fear of Voren, but from the fear of the Shadow within him. He quickly located his assignment file and altered his posting to the Sky-Bridge Guard.
As he closed the heavy door, locking it again, the memory of Lena flashed into his mind—a warm, bright image against the cold, tactical darkness.
I am coming for you, Lena.
He accepted the pain and the exhaustion. He was a soldier using a weapon. He would master the Shadow, not let it master him, and he would use its chaotic Insight to break the structures of this world until he was reunited with his light. He knew his advancement to L3.I (Initiate, Novice) was close, but the cost was going to be constant, agonizing control.