The hunger of the abyss was no longer a metaphor but a living monster with his own face. Kaelen watched the winged reflection step forward while the black ink on the floor began to boil and bubble.
"I am the part of you that still wants to be a hero and that is why you hate me," the winged entity said with a voice like silk.
The creature spread its feathers of white light and the brightness felt like needles stabbing into Kaelen's purple eyes. Kaelen gripped his sword so hard that the leather on the hilt began to creak and groan.
"You are nothing but a ghost of a dead man who was too weak to save his own family," Kaelen spat while the shadow dragon hissed.
The winged reflection raised a hand and a spear of pure starlight materialized in its palm. It moved with a speed that Kaelen could barely track while leaving a trail of white sparks in the cold library air.
"Weakness is pretending that you do not miss the sun while you drown in the mud," the reflection whispered while thrusting the spear.
Kaelen parried the strike and the shock caused the black books on the shelves to fly into the air like frightened birds. The collision of light and shadow created a vacuum that pulled the gray fog into a spinning vortex.
"Master, do not let its light touch your core or you will become a hollow shell for the empire to fill!" Elian warned from the entrance.
Kaelen felt the truth of Elian's words as the heat from the starlight began to melt the shadow armor on his chest. He realized that this fight was not about physical strength but about who owned the throne of his mind.
"I would rather be a monster with a soul than a god with a collar around my neck," Kaelen growled while summoning a wall of darkness.
The winged monster laughed and the sound caused the gray marble lips on the gate to bleed even more. It dived through the wall of darkness as if the shadows were nothing more than thin and useless curtains.
"Then let us see how much of your soul is left after I burn away the filth!" the reflection shouted with a manic joy.
The spear of light pierced Kaelen's shoulder and the pain was unlike anything he had ever felt in his mortal life. It did not bleed but instead turned his blood into white steam that hissed out of the open wound.
Kaelen looked at Lyra who was watching the battle with an expression of calm and terrifying indifference. She was holding a quill made of shadow and writing on a scroll that seemed to have no end.
"Is my death part of the history you are writing or just a footnote in your library?" Kaelen asked while gasping for air.
Lyra looked up from her scroll and her eyes were filled with the cold wisdom of a thousand dead civilizations. She tapped her bone staff and the floor between the two Kaelens began to crack open into an endless pit.
"The abyss does not care about your history and it only cares about who is hungry enough to survive," Lyra replied.
Kaelen felt the pull of the abyss from below and saw the winged reflection beginning to flicker and lose its shape. The light was being sucked into the dark hole while the winged entity shrieked in a voice that was finally human.
"Help me Kaelen because I am the only part of you that can still love!" the reflection cried out while reaching for his hand.
Kaelen looked at the hand and then at his own blackened fingers that were covered in the dust of his dead brothers. He stepped back and let the shadow dragon swallow the winged light whole before it could pull him down.
"Love is a luxury for the living and I have already signed my name in the book of the dead," Kaelen said with a hollow voice.
The winged reflection vanished into the darkness and the library became silent once again except for the sound of Lyra's quill. Kaelen felt a new type of strength entering his veins that was colder and heavier than before.
"You have passed the first trial but the first ally you meet will not be as kind as a ghost," Lyra told him while pointing toward the exit.
Kaelen walked through the library and found a small wooden door at the end of a hallway that was lined with broken mirrors. He pushed the door open and felt the heat of a desert sun hitting his face with a sudden and violent force.
"Where does this door lead and who is waiting for us on the other side?" Kaelen asked while Elian followed close behind.
Elian looked at the golden sand and the ruins of a city that looked like it had been built by giants. He pointed toward a figure sitting on a throne made of salt and bleached bones in the middle of the dunes.
"Meeting the first ally is a task that usually ends in a feast of blood," Elian whispered with a pale face.
The man on the salt throne raised a hand and the desert began to move toward them like a tidal wave.