Walking with Shadows: Part II, Chapter Six
No wall is high enough. No lock is strong enough. As the Lord Senator waits alone inside Ythoriss’s highest tower, the impossible quietly steps into the room.
The Shadow in the Cell
Captain Meydoka lingered outside the tower cell longer than he intended.
Every instinct urged him to remain.
Every lesson he had ever learned as a soldier told him that danger announced itself. It climbed walls. Broke gates. Cut through men. It did not simply… appear.
He looked once more at the iron door.
Two guards stood watch outside.
Another waited at the head of the stair.
Every landing below was occupied.
No one entered.
No one left.
Satisfied that no room in Ythoriss could be made more secure, Meydoka descended the winding staircase to direct the city’s defense.
The iron door closed behind him.
The bolt slid into place.
Silence settled over the tower.
Lord Senator Zyglorium waited until the Captain’s footsteps had faded before allowing himself a weary sigh.
“This has become ridiculous,” he muttered.
The chamber was hardly a prison.
A fire crackled softly in the hearth.
Books lined one wall.
A broad window overlooked the mountain pass stretching toward the Grivanduur. Beyond it, the twin Harrow Moons hung over the dark forests of Cajynoor, their pale light spilling across the stone.
A comfortable room.
Locked from the outside.
Protected as though he were a frightened child.
He had spent four decades advising kings.
Tonight, he was being hidden from shadows.
The thought almost made him laugh.
Almost.
Something felt…
Different.
The room had grown strangely still.
Even the fire seemed quieter.
Zyglorium frowned.
He was certain he had been alone.
He turned toward the window.
A man stood there.
Not entering.
Not moving.
Simply…
There.
A long cloak fell motionless behind him.
His face remained hidden beneath impossible darkness, broken only by a pair of pale spectacles that caught the moonlight like polished ivory.
The Senator did not hear the door open.
He had heard no footsteps.
No voice.
Nothing.
The room had been empty.
He was certain of it.
“You should have listened to him,” the stranger said.
His voice was calm.
Almost gentle.
Zyglorium stared.
“…Who are you?”
The man did not answer.
Instead, he looked out across the mountains, as though admiring the view.
“The Captain believes walls can keep me out.”
Silence.
“He is an honorable man.”
The Senator’s pulse quickened.
“The guards…” he managed.
“…are still outside.”
“Yes.”
“And the door is locked.”
“Yes.”
Zyglorium looked toward it anyway.
The iron bolt remained in place.
The guards had made no sound.
No alarm had been raised.
Nothing had changed.
Except…
The room was no longer empty.
Slowly, almost against his own will, the Senator stepped backward.
“You cannot be here.”
The stranger tilted his head ever so slightly.
“No,” he agreed.
“I cannot.”
For the first time that night, Lord Senator Zyglorium understood fear.
Not the fear of death.
The fear that the world itself had stopped obeying the rules upon which he had built his life.
The old stories.
The forbidden magic.
The impossible.
They had never disappeared.
They had simply been waiting.
The Shagal finally turned to face him.
“Shall we talk?”
Next: Read Part II, Chapter Seven
