The East Library stood in eerie silence.
Moonlight spilled through stained glass windows, casting fragments of blue and violet across ancient tomes and marble floors. Rows of towering bookshelves stretched endlessly into shadow, each a monument to forgotten knowledge.
Kael stepped lightly, the silver wine tray balanced in one hand.
His cloak fluttered behind him like mist. He wore the mask of a servant, but behind his eyes, a tactician moved.
> [Current Quest: Begin Your First Intervention]
Objective: Deliver falsified intel to Lady Syrene.
Reward: +100 Shadow Points
Bonus: Unlock Hidden Shadow Skill
Status: In Progress
He stopped before a reading table near the center.
There, bathed in candlelight, sat Lady Syrene.
She looked young, but Kael knew she was older than she seemed—half-elf blood, brilliant mind, dangerously loyal to the realm… and the last voice of reason Aserion ever listened to.
She was the last thread of sanity he'd had.
"Wine, my Lady," Kael said softly, bowing as he set the tray before her.
Syrene didn't look up from her parchment.
"Leave it," she said curtly, voice calm but sharp. "I've no time for distractions tonight."
Kael's fingers brushed the base of the goblet.
> [System: Shadow Trick Active]
Skill Used: Echo of Ink
– Slightly alters written material upon contact
– Effect Duration: 1 hour
– Detection Chance: 8%
He stepped back.
The scroll on her table—a troop deployment analysis—now held a single forged phrase embedded in a paragraph:
"High Chancellor Merik is negotiating with foreign clans in secret."
A lie.
But one close enough to the truth to plant doubt.
Syrene glanced down again, eyes narrowing.
"...Strange," she murmured. "This wasn't in the last report."
Kael didn't speak. He turned and walked away as instructed—servants were not to linger. But inside, his system flared.
> [Quest Complete: First Intervention]
Reward: +100 Shadow Points
Hidden Skill Unlocked: Whisper in the Thread
— Allows minor influence over decisions made by those within 10m for the next hour
Cooldown: 24 hours
A whisper brushed his mind like silk.
"Pull one string… and watch the fabric unravel."
Kael returned to the lower servant quarters unnoticed, shadow among shadows.
He sat in his cot, expression blank.
But inside, he was shaking—not with fear, but power. The tiniest push... and the future had already begun to shift.
---
Meanwhile, in the East Library...
Syrene sat motionless.
The line on the scroll pulsed in her thoughts.
> "Merik… dealing with foreign clans? Behind our back?"
She stood, suddenly uneasy.
What if that was why their scouts at the southern border were vanishing? What if Merik was intentionally sabotaging them?
She rolled up the scroll, lips pressed tight. "I must speak to Aserion… tonight."
She left the library.
And the first domino fell.
---
Back in the shadows...
Kael opened his status.
> Name: [REDACTED]
True Name: Kael Valen
Title: The Villain's Shadow
Shadow Points: 210
Unlocked Skills:
– Breathless Presence
– Echo of Ink
– Whisper in the Thread
Next Evolution Threshold: 500 SP
500...
That was the cost to unlock his first shadow form.
Kael clenched his fists.
He wouldn't just survive this time.
He would reshape fate itself.
And he'd do it from the darkest place in the empire—
The villain's own shadow.
---