Time crawled forwards. He couldn’t be certain, but Casek was sure that night at least had passed without event. The Drau hadn’t been back, and even the shades had grown bored with their dancing and parading around him, melting back into the shadows to search for some other hapless victim.

  Casek was, at last, truly alone with his thoughts. He’d had to fight to get past the sheer despair and helplessness that, even now, lurked at the back of his mind, threatening to overwhelm him should he allow it. Once he had, however, he’d moved on to other things.

  At the very least, he was certain he wasn’t dying. When he had felt the drain on his magic, he was concerned that the Shadow creatures would empty him. Leave him a hollowed out husk. Tauph could not speak and confirm his suspicions, but Casek was positive that running out of magic would mean the end of his life.

  Instead, it seemed they were intentionally keeping him alive. Feasting until he was at his limit, before easing off and allowing time for his reserves to recover naturally. He couldn’t help but wonder if this was the fate of the rest of humanity. Were there any people left at all, or where they all encased in crystal, perpetually slaking the hunger of the Shadow, unwillingly fuelling their desolation of the world?

  Then, he turned to more useful endeavours. The crystal prison was clearly magical and despite all of his restraints, his own magic as it was being siphoned away from him was one of the few things he could still clearly feel.

  Casek waited until he felt one of the Shadow draw upon his magic again, and he followed the sensation. He imagined it like rowing a boat down a stream within his own subconscious, following the flow of power away from him until he found its source.

  Tauph’s analogy of a well had been a good one. A decent amount of time, and an ungodly amount of focus later, he could feel it clearly, a well whose water-level wavered violently as it was drawn from and simultaneously attempted to replenish itself.

  Peculiarly, however, that was not all that Casek could feel within himself. There was another presence there, more turbulent, more wild than his own power. Initially, Casek wondered if he had discovered Tauph’s magic, bound to him just as the voice had said. He discarded the thought. He had felt Tauph’s power, his presence, during their argument earlier.

  This was different—darker, somehow—and, concerningly, this was his. The bottomlessness of it took his breath, the sheer vastness of it frightening him more than even the prospect of being stuck here for another thousand years.

  Casek hesitantly attempted to reach out for this power, just as he had with his own, but found this to be a far harder exercise. This well of strength was volatile—explosive, even—and it fought every single thing Casek attempted to do with it.

  Eventually, Casek got fed up. A hot wave of frustration flooding through him, he reached out for his own magic and directed it towards the new cache of more volatile power. He used his existing magic as rope, wrapping its more volatile brother and attempting to drag it out for his use.

  But, as the two merged, something entirely unexpected happened. The threads of his own magic intertwined with the newer power, merging into something new. This, he discovered, he could touch. It was not like the originals. Gentle guidance did not work, but it no longer battled and fought against him.

  Instead, he pushed. Forced was not quite right, but there was absolutely a resistance in this new creation to be directed and used, an independence that Casek needed to fight through.

  He directed the power first to his mouth and throat, feeling for where the oily coating and crystal growths covered his eyes, and the insides of his throat. The moment the power reached the surface of his skin, touching the crystals trapping him, he felt the spark of a connection, of the two interacting with each other.

  Casek did not know how he knew it, but they were the same, the crystal and this new power of his.

  He kept pushing, forcing the power to the very edge of his skin and outwards towards the crystal surrounding him. Where the power and it touched, his prison retreated and faded to dust; first freeing his throat and lungs, and allowing him to take the first breath he had managed for hours before freeing his eyes.

  A grin blossomed on his face and continued pushing back against the crystal until he could move freely again, and, eventually, he could step out from his prison, a free man once more.

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  The shades hadn’t gone far, and Casek barely had time to collect his thoughts before they were upon him. His sword flickered too-weakly to life, using every ounce of power available to keep it corporal long enough to cleave the trio that rushed him apart.

  The new power, it seemed, was no good for working with the foci. Fortunately, he had absorbed just enough from destroying the shades that he could still fight in an emergency.

  Casek stood up straight and called out to his companion. “Tauph, you still there?”

  I am. How did you do that?

  “What?”

  Push back the stasis net. No human should be able to do that. Never.

  “I don’t know. I have some kind of other power in me. Something different from my other magic. I used that.”

  I… see.

  “Don’t sound too thrilled we’re free. We might live for another few hours yet,” Casek grumbled back.

  I’m sorry. That really was spectacular. It was just unexpected, Casek. We learned once not to trust the unexpected.

  “You’re lying again.”

  Yes.

  Casek sighed but said nothing else, instead turning back towards the exit and heading directly for the door. The Drau had wandered deeper into the building, but there was no telling how long that would last for. If he was going to die, he wanted to at least do so beneath the open sky.

  The receiving room was empty save for a handful of shades the scrambled away as soon as he entered, unwilling to attack prey so obviously capable of defending itself. He paid them no mind, striding in between crumbling chairs and sofas, and sidestepping the scattered debris until he finally reached the doors to the outside.

  The Drau had left them in a sorry state, with what was left of the rightmost door hanging loose on its hinges, and the other shattered entirely, giving him a clear view of the outside world.

  Behind him, somewhere in the depths of the building, the Drau shrieked, cold and piercing, as though it knew its prey was on the verge of escaping.

  He didn’t stop to admire the scenery. He launched himself out into the cool morning air at a run. Shafts of light streamed between the treetops, penetrating straight to the forest floor. The forest had grown up and around the building, tree roots and vines almost swallowing it entirely, as though seeking to reclaim the land itself.

  Casek darted off between the trees, skipping over thick shrubbery and loose roots, working his legs to put as much distance between him and the building where he had slept as possible. With any luck, he wouldn’t ever have to see it again.

  He was just beginning to think about the places he might seek his first drink in over a thousand years when a wave of nausea so strong swept over him that he stumbled and fell, the earth beneath him lurching and spinning violently.

  Tauph’s presence vibrated in the back of his mind, paralysing terror freezing both of them in place, unable to speak.

  He turned back towards the building, toward the source of the overwhelming presence that filled his consciousness entirely.

  A gargantuan black shape parted the arcing boughs of green that leant over the black stone roof, its mere presence blowing aside branches as thick as a full-grown man, ripping them from the trunks like fresh-sprouted twigs on a sapling.

  It descended atop the building’s roof, the stone and tiles splintering and cracking beneath its feet. The being was vaguely humanoid with obsidian skin, but at least three times the size of a man, and eyes of burning orange and red. The sheer power it radiated stole the breath from him, and its leathery black wings spread so far outwards they practically blotted out the sun.

  The being turned its head back and forth slowly, scanning the surrounding forest, before turning his attention to the building beneath him. It frowned and thumbed its nose.

  A gasp slipped from Casek’s throat. Something about that gesture had stirred something in him, something locked away, deep in the back of his mind, and tears sprung to his eyes. Just what that was, however, continued to elude him.

  He continued to watch, transfixed, as the being rose with the slightest movement of those great wings, hovering just above the building. It rose a single arm, palm raised towards the sun, and a crackling crimson orb sprung into life in the space just above its raised hand.

  Even from here, Casek could feel the sheer, overwhelming force of that orb. Then, without a moment’s hesitation, the being hurled the orb towards the building, and it exploded in a burst of blinding light the moment it made contact, the heat of the explosion washing over him. If he had been any closer, it would have been utterly unbearable. Even at this distance, Casek huddled into the ground, covering his head with his arms and shielding himself from the worst of things.

  Then, the heat was gone. Casek dared to raise his head and look in the building's direction, and his jaw opened, working silently as he tried to find the words to describe what he was witnessing.

  The building, and the surrounding forest close by, was gone. In their place, an enormous crater stood smouldering, black smoke trailing into the sky from the charred remains of what few trees that had survived being entirely burned to ash.

  Above it all, the winged creature hovered gracefully, a scornful scowl marring its face. It hung there for a few more moments, its eyes fixated on the spot where the building had been. Then, with a mighty beat of its wings, it disappeared so fast that Casek had trouble keeping his eyes focused on it as it vanished into the horizon.

  “What the fuck was that?” he rasped, finally finding the words and the ability to breathe once more.

  That, Tauph gasped, was an archdemon. The being that rules this place. The most powerful of the Shadow you’re likely to come across without crossing the ocean.

  “Gods, it looked so… human.”

  He could feel Tauph’s discomfort swell. That’s because it once was. More specifically, this particular archdemon is part of what became of your brother’s mortal body.

  A note from Dylan King

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