Symphony of the Void
Novel – Chapter 1: The King of Shadows
Night had fallen upon the kingdom like a silent tide.
Doors slammed shut, torches flickered out, and children were rushed under their blankets while the elders whispered the same words they had for decades:
> "Don't go out after sunset... The King of Shadows is watching."
But no one knew who he truly was.
They said he appeared when the moon turned red,
That his gaze made trees tremble,
That his footsteps made no sound—
Yet hearts stopped beating in his wake.
And still, no one had seen him up close.
He was more rumor than flesh,
More fear than king.
At the top of the black castle rising on the hill,
Liam Wilfred, sovereign of these lands, gazed at stars that refused to shine.
His throne was of stone, his kingdom of silence,
And his curse older than the memory of his people.
For more than five hundred years, the poison of the Void had flowed through his veins.
A bite during a forgotten war,
A kiss of darkness that had torn him from the world of the living
And plunged him into eternal night.
Since then, each heartbeat was a painful reminder of all he had lost.
He was no longer a man.
He was a vampire.
And yet, he still kept watch.
Each night, when creatures of shadow crossed the borders of the realm,
It was he—and he alone—who hunted them down.
He killed them in silence, protecting those who cursed his name.
He sought neither recognition nor forgiveness.
He believed himself lost.
And that night, like so many others,
He descended into the inner gardens,
Where his eternal red roses still bloomed.
He watered them, brushed them gently with his fingers.
Only this gesture, repeated a thousand times,
Could still soothe his thirst for blood.
The moon—cold and crimson—hung above him like an accusing eye.
Meanwhile, in a border village at the edge of the forest, Aria was running.
Her bare feet bled on the stones,
Her tangled hair stuck to a face wet with tears.
The barbarians had invaded her land,
Killed her neighbors,
Burned the houses.
She had nothing left.
No family.
No home.
Only fear in her belly and the instinct to survive.
She ran until her legs gave out.
And it was there, in the brutal stillness of a moonlit clearing, that she saw him.
A silhouette.
Tall, motionless, upright.
A man cloaked in ink, with glowing crimson eyes.
A gaze that tore through the soul.
A face too beautiful to belong to this world.
She stood frozen.
He looked at her... for a long time.
Then he turned his eyes away.
With a single motion, he vanished into the darkness,
Leaving behind only the icy shiver of his presence.
She had just come face to face with the legend.
She had just seen the King of Shadows.
And nothing—
Absolutely nothing—
Would ever be the same again.