Familiars in the Night

The academy, usually a beacon of hushed learning and the occasional, controlled roar of a creature, fell into a different kind of silence as the moon climbed high. It was a pregnant silence, heavy with the scent of ozone and the prickle of unease that had been growing for days. Kale, huddled in his bed, felt it in his bones, a cold dread that had nothing to do with the chill seeping from the stone walls. The whispers of Umbrals, those creeping voids of shadow, had grown from unsettling rumors to palpable threats.

He’d seen them, or rather, felt their chilling presence. A flicker at the edge of his vision, a sudden drop in temperature that stole the breath from his lungs, a whisper of movement in the periphery that vanished when he turned his head. Rowan had confirmed it, his brow furrowed with concern after a scouting mission with his Crystal Projection Necklace. “Something’s moving near the vault, Kale,” he’d said, his voice low. “Shadows. Too organized to be natural.”

Now, it seemed, the shadows were no longer content to merely skulk.