The darkness didn't feel like sleep.
It felt like drowning without water—thoughts muffled, body unresponsive, awareness drifting in and out like a candle flame buffeted by wind. Voices thumped through the silence as if spoken through a wall of cloth.
"…breach confirmed…"
"…secondary unit inbound…"
"…terminate before the remnants solidify…"
Terminate.
Evin's mind clawed upward, grasping at consciousness with bleeding fingers. He felt the Veil press against him, urging him to stay still—survive by silence, not struggle. But something pierced through the pressure like a flare in fog.
"EVIN!"
Rell's voice.
Real. Raw. Terrified.
Evin's eyes snapped open.
He tried to move—nothing. His limbs were dead weight. His chest burned, breath ragged and shallow. Cold sweat covered his skin. The Veil tried to steady him, pushing back the worst of the collapse, but the strain from the shattered Binding Lattice had ripped open something fragile inside him.
He wasn't stable.
Not even close.
Rell's footsteps echoed down the corridor. Fast. Reckless. Wrong.
"Damn it, Rell…" Evin slurred. "Don't…"
But Rell didn't hear him.
The chamber door rattled—once, twice—then burst inward in a violent crash as Rell barreled through it, half-tackled by a handler clinging to his back. Rell slammed the man against the stone wall with a ferocity Evin had never seen in him.
"Get off!" Rell hissed, ripping himself free.
The handler crumpled to the floor, dazed.
Rell staggered into the room, chest heaving, eyes frantic until they locked onto Evin.
"Oh thank the—Evin!"
He dropped to his side instantly, grabbing his shoulders. "Stay with me—hey, look at me!"
Evin's head lolled. "You idiot…"
Rell shook him harder. "Don't call me that right now."
"You shouldn't be here," Evin murmured. "They'll kill you too."
Rell clenched his jaw. "They'll kill us both anyway."
Shouting echoed from the corridor—multiple voices, running feet.
Rell's eyes widened. "They're coming."
He grabbed at Evin's arm, trying to pull him upright, gritting his teeth as he strained against dead weight.
But Evin's body didn't cooperate. His legs shook violently, barely lifting off the ground.
Rell cursed under his breath. "Come on—come on!"
The shadows reacted first.
They pooled beneath Evin, gathering like thick oil, lifting him just enough for Rell to pull him up onto his feet. Evin sagged heavily against him.
Rell froze.
The room grew colder.
"What—what is that?" Rell whispered, voice trembling as the shadows coiled around Evin like smoke.
Evin swallowed. "The only reason I'm still breathing."
Boots pounded closer.
Rell turned toward the door, raw panic in his voice. "We need to go—now!"
"We can't," Evin rasped. "I can't walk."
"Then I'll drag you!"
"No—Rell—listen—"
Too late.
Three armored figures stormed the threshold—knights this time, not handlers. Their armor gleamed with inscribed scripture. Their faces were grim, resolute. They were not here to restrain.
They were here to finish it.
"Stand down," the lead knight ordered. "By decree of the Sanctifiers, the anomaly is to be eliminated."
Rell shifted in front of Evin, positioning his body as a shield. "You'll have to go through me."
The knight didn't hesitate. "Very well."
He stepped forward.
Rell didn't move.
Not away.
Forward.
He charged.
It was suicide.
But he still did it.
His shoulder slammed into the knight's chestplate. The knight barely staggered—then backhanded Rell with a gauntleted fist. Rell flew backward, crashing into the far wall with a sickening crack.
"Rell!" Evin's voice tore out of him, raw and desperate.
Rell gasped, struggling to rise, blood streaming down his face from a split brow.
The Veil recoiled in Evin's chest—then surged outward like a rippling breath:
Enough.
The shadows snapped upright.
The temperature plummeted.
The knights froze mid-step, staring as the darkness behind Evin thickened into a single, massive silhouette—a towering shape that flickered with dozens of faint outlines layered together.
Not one remnant.
All of them.
A pressure filled the room like a second heartbeat—slow, deliberate, steady.
The lead knight swallowed. "This—this is impossible…"
Evin straightened—not on his own strength, but supported by the remnants drifting at his back like unseen hands.
His voice was barely a whisper:
"You didn't burn people."
He lifted his head, eyes hollow and furious.
"You made witnesses."
The shadows surged forward, not with violence, but with presence—the raw imprint of lives extinguished too early, too brutally. The air itself recoiled, scripture marks flickering as if unsure they still meant anything.
The knights broke.
They stepped back, weapons trembling.
The lead knight barked, "Regroup! Reg—"
He didn't finish.
A blast of pressure—silent, invisible—slammed into the knights like a collapsing wave. Not enough to kill. Enough to stop.
Armor hit stone.
Breaths choked.
Helmets cracked.
The remnants retreated the moment the knights hit the ground, dissolving back into the shadows like a tide pulling away from shore.
Evin collapsed to his knees.
The Veil steadied him again, but he felt the cost—sudden and crushing. His vision flashed white. His pulse stuttered. His lungs refused to draw more than shallow, shaking breaths.
He'd pushed too far.
The Veil had too.
They could not keep doing this.
Rell crawled to his side, grabbed his shoulder, and pulled him upright again. "Evin—look at me. Hey—look at me. You're still here. Stay with me."
Evin blinked slowly, eyes unfocused.
"We have to move," Rell continued, voice cracking. "More will come."
Shouts echoed again, this time from multiple directions. Heavy reinforcements. Not Sanctifiers. Not handlers.
Inquisitors.
More than one.
Rell's face twisted with fear. "Evin—we're out of time."
Evin swallowed, throat burning.
He forced his eyes open.
"…I know."
The Veil pressed close, bracing him, waiting for his choice.
Not taking.
Not leading.
Waiting.
And for the first time, Evin realized something:
The Church wasn't afraid of what he could do.
It was afraid of what he might choose to do.
He tightened his trembling grip on Rell's arm.
"Then we run," Evin whispered.
The shadows opened behind them like a curtain.
And the two boys stepped into the dark.