Isaros

Chapter 10 (Shadowbound)

A/N
Above is my new cover!! Little cool thing that I discovered when I made it, if you shake the screen, the lines in the background should move! Ontop of that, I find the prologue doesn't fit in with the story so I will be getting rid of it entirely. Alright, back to the story!
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For every district in Izanami, there is a major family house. Each house has a different job and are marked by a tattoo-like birthmark, called a clan tattoo. The more faded a tattoo is, the further away your ancestral line is from that house. The most well known house is the Royal family itself.

My grin widened as my cousin gave me the 5 pik note, feeling as my body shifted, melting into the shadows underneath her desk. I was lucky that I had enough energy to melt one last time, it meant I could quickly escape this classroom, away from the fearful eyes of the students. I zipped across the room, towards the closest window, squeezing myself between the glass. If I wasn't in this form, I would of fallen off the building by now. Who's idea was it to put a damn classroom, four floors up?
Gliding down the tower and across the roads, I began to get tired. I knew that there was a donut shop around the corner and I should be able to get there in time, before I pass out from exhaustion. Escaping jail was too much effort.

Slipping under the door, I began searching for the nearest shadow in the well lit room. I passed behind the counter to where a young man sat on a stool, arms propped up on the counter, bored. His shadow trailed out behind him, giving me a spot to emerge. I rose out of the floorboards, feeling as my cells reconnected with each other, sending a familiar chill up my spine. The boards creaked under the sudden weight, causing the man to flinch. I sighed, reaching over him to place down the note before grunting "two cinnamon and one jam donut please,"
The man whipped around, eyes bulging as he screamed in my face before teleporting to the back room to call the police. "What a nice guy," I mumbled sarcastically to myself, serving myself and leaving the money and a note, saying to keep the change.

Taking a bite out of one of the donuts, I grabbed the receipt before leaving the shop, feeling as my energy began to regenerate. I waved my receipt at the news drone, shadow melting away as soon as it turned around, making my way to an old house on the outskirts of Carah. Finding my way inside, I spot her, sitting in an old, dusty chair in the empty living room, knitting needles in hand. I rose once again, leaning up against a wall, shrouded in shadows, finishing off my second donut. The lady looked up from her knitting, her features now visible. Her grey hair, thinning and wirey, was pulled back in a tight bun and her long, claw-like hands looked like spindly bones in the dark house. Her icy blue eyes seemed to stare straight into my soul, especially with those soulless black pupils in the midst of them. "Mrs Nigel," I acknowledge her presence with a slight nod of the head. Her mouth thinned and pulled up into a smile. "Lieko Hatira," came Nigel's rasping voice. "The deed has been done?"
"Your son is as good as dead, left him in the alleyways to rot,"
Her smile grew wider, her yellow teeth showing as she began to chuckle, shaking her head and looking back down to her knitting. "Boy, you should know by now, that man was always dead to me. And what about my grandkids? Are they safe?"
My breath hitched in my throat, remembering their empty room. "I'm sorry Mrs Nigel but, I could not find Resyne and Talyne Loraj. There is no evidence that they're dead, just gone,"
Nigel's knitting came to an abrupt stop and her head snapped up to me, fury dancing in her cold eyes. Her gaze softened before it dropped. "Is there anything else I should know about their... disappearance?" Her rasping voice sounded frail and weak, more than normal. Mrs Nigel had sent me to kill her son, Harris Loraj, an abusive and powerful man, to protect her grandchildren, only now to find out that they've gone missing. The woman is beginning to lose hope. All of this effort seemed to be for nothing.
"I spoke to the mother when I went to check on the twins," I started, watching as Nigel perked up slightly, her old eyes holding the smallest spark of hope. "She was equally as upset. Said that they had gone missing the same day your son struck out and punched Talyne. They just went to school that day, one with a black eye, and never returned,"