The Dual Summoner and the Darkling

Shadowed Chains and birth of the 2nd baby

The air in the lower cells was damp, the chill of the stone walls pressing in around me as I descended into the darkness. I could hear faint echoes of movement—restless, violent, the unmistakable sounds of a battle taking place inside one man's mind. Nikolai.

I hadn't visited him in days, not since Aleksander and I had spoken about the consequences of what had been done to him. Now, as I approached his cell, the reality of the situation settled heavily on my shoulders. Nikolai wasn't just a man anymore. He was something else—something haunted by the shadows Aleksander had embedded within him.

When I reached his cell, I could see him, pacing like a caged animal. His usually bright eyes were dark, hollowed by the struggle to control whatever was inside him. His body trembled, his muscles tense with barely-contained rage. Shadow veins crawled across his skin, slithering up his arms and over his neck, spreading like a virus he couldn't escape.

"Nikolai," I called softly, my voice steady but laced with concern.

He stopped in his tracks, his head snapping toward me with a wild look in his eyes. For a moment, he didn't recognize me. His hands gripped the iron bars of the cell so hard I thought they might snap, his chest heaving as the shadows pulsed under his skin.

"Amira," he growled, his voice rough and strained. "I... I can't... it's inside me."

I could see the panic in his eyes, the desperation as he fought against whatever monstrous thing lurked beneath his surface. The shadows were trying to claim him, turning him into something twisted and unrecognizable. Before I could say anything more, the veins darkened, spreading quickly across his chest and up his face, twisting his features into something almost monstrous.

With a strangled cry, Nikolai lunged at the bars, the shadows inside him taking over. His body slammed into the cell with a force that sent a shudder through the floor, his hands reaching out as if to grab me, to pull me into the darkness that was devouring him.

Reacting on instinct, I raised my hand and called upon my light. A blast of sunlight shot from my palm, striking him square in the chest and sending him crashing back into the far wall of the cell. The shadows recoiled instantly, retreating from his skin like a snake burned by fire.

Nikolai slumped to the ground, gasping for breath, the shadows slipping away as the veins faded from his body. Slowly, the familiar Nikolai returned—the man behind the monster. His eyes cleared, his chest rising and falling with deep, ragged breaths. He stared up at me, the realization dawning in his eyes.

"Your sunlight," he rasped, still catching his breath. "It pushes it back."

I nodded, stepping closer to the bars but keeping a safe distance. "Yes, it seems to have that effect. It doesn't banish it completely, but... it holds it at bay. At least for a little while."

He let out a bitter laugh, sitting up and running a hand through his sweat-dampened hair. "A little while. That's better than nothing."

For a moment, neither of us spoke. I could see the exhaustion in his face, the toll this battle was taking on him. The shadows weren't just consuming his body—they were consuming his soul.

"Does it hurt?" I asked quietly, not knowing what else to say.

Nikolai's lips twitched into a half-smile, but there was no humor in it. "It's not just pain. It's... it's like something is crawling inside me, trying to get out. I can feel it clawing at my mind, trying to take control. And when it does... I'm not me anymore."

I swallowed hard, feeling a pang of guilt settle in my chest. This wasn't his fault. He hadn't asked for this, and yet here he was—another victim of the darkness that Aleksander had unleashed.