Shadow’s Veil – Part 2

Darkness surged forward like a living thing. Vaelin moved on instinct, twin daggers flashing as he twisted to dodge the creeping tendrils that lashed toward them. His blade cut through nothing but air—no resistance, no flesh, nothing to kill.

“Elira!” he barked, muscles coiling as he pivoted to face her.

She stood rigid, eyes wide, the flickering magic in her hands sputtering like a dying flame. The unnatural black mist slithered over her boots, wrapping around her ankles.

“Elira!” he yelled again, reaching for her—

And the world ripped apart.

They fell.

The sensation was neither fast nor slow, neither real nor imagined. The laws of reality had unraveled, leaving them suspended in a void where time stretched and coiled upon itself like an unseen predator.

Vaelin felt the cold before he felt the impact.

His body slammed against something hard and unyielding, the breath ripped from his lungs. His vision swam as he rolled onto his side, instincts demanding he reach for his daggers even before he could process where he was.

Black mist curled around the ground in shifting patterns, moving like ink spilled across a dark canvas. The air was thick, pressing against his skin, heavy with the scent of damp stone and something bitter—something ancient.

A soft groan came from nearby.

“Elira?” He pushed himself up, his head pounding.

She lay sprawled on the uneven terrain, her auburn hair tangled, her robes stained with the remnants of whatever darkness had dragged them here. Her staff lay just out of reach, the crystal embedded at its tip dim, barely pulsing with light.

He scrambled over to her, shaking her shoulder. “Elira. Wake up.”

She stirred, eyelids fluttering, and exhaled sharply. “Oh… that was unpleasant.”

“You don’t say.” Vaelin sat back on his heels, scanning their surroundings. “Where the hell are we?”

Elira pushed herself upright with a wince, rubbing her temple. “If I had to guess… somewhere between ‘very bad’ and ‘completely doomed.’”

Vaelin let out a slow breath. “Great. I love those places.”

Now that his vision had fully adjusted, he could make out more details of their surroundings—or rather, the lack of them.

The landscape stretched endlessly, a warped version of the world they knew. Jagged spires of blackened stone jutted from the ground at unnatural angles, towering overhead like the ribs of some long-dead beast. The ground beneath them was neither soil nor rock, but something smooth, too perfect, as if it had never been touched by time or nature.

Above them, there was no sky—just an expanse of endless nothing, an abyss so deep that looking at it too long made his stomach twist.

Vaelin exhaled through his nose. “So. Shadow Realm, then?”

Elira nodded grimly. “Shadow Realm.”

“Fantastic.”

A distant shifting sound made them both go still.

Vaelin’s grip on his daggers tightened.

Something was moving in the mist.

Shapes flickered at the edges of his vision, but whenever he turned his head, they were gone—mere smudges in the darkness.

Elira cursed under her breath, pressing her fingers to her temples. “Magic feels… wrong here. I can barely hold onto it.”

That was concerning. The thought of being trapped here without Elira’s magic made Vaelin’s stomach clench in ways he didn’t care to analyze.

“Well,” he said, voice kept low. “Let’s not stay long, then.”

Elira retrieved her staff and rose unsteadily to her feet. “Agreed. But we need to figure out what’s keeping us here first.”

Vaelin turned in a slow circle, surveying the landscape. His sharp eyes picked up on something in the distance—a faint glow, pulsing irregularly like a dying ember.

“There.” He gestured. “Light means something.”

Elira followed his gaze and frowned. “Or someone.”

“Either way,” he said, “it’s better than standing around waiting to be eaten by whatever lives here.”

They started forward, moving cautiously.

The mist at their feet twisted and writhed, parting just enough to reveal what lay beneath.

Vaelin wished it hadn’t.

The surface beneath them wasn’t rock. It was glass—or something close to it. And beneath that glass… shadows moved.

Not reflections. People.

Elira inhaled sharply, stepping back. “Gods…”

Darkened figures twisted beneath their feet, mouths open in silent screams, hands pressed against the underside of the glass. Some clawed frantically, others simply watched.

Vaelin swallowed the sick feeling rising in his throat. “Are they…?”

“They’re trapped,” Elira whispered.

He wasn’t sure which was worse—their silent desperation or the fact that some of them weren’t moving at all.

Elira closed her eyes briefly before shaking herself and gripping her staff. “Let’s keep going.”

Vaelin said nothing, but he moved a little quicker.

The glow became clearer as they neared.

It was not fire, nor magic, but something else—a pulsing, shifting tear in the fabric of reality, hovering just above the ground.

Elira reached toward it, her fingers stopping just short of the swirling energy. “This isn’t natural.”

Vaelin snorted. “You think?”

She shot him a look but didn’t argue. “I think someone opened a rift between our world and the Shadow Realm. But they didn’t close it properly.”

Vaelin rubbed his jaw. “So what? The village got sucked in?”

“Or something from here came there,” she murmured.

The thought sent a chill down his spine.

Before he could respond, the mist around them thickened. The world shuddered, and a voice—low, rasping—laughed from the darkness.

Elira and Vaelin turned sharply, backs pressed together.

The shadows shifted.

A figure stepped forward.

Not a monster. A man.

Or something that had once been one.

His form was wrapped in tattered robes, his face obscured by a hood. Shadows slithered around his limbs, as if he were made of the same darkness that filled this realm.

“You should not have come,” the figure rasped.

Vaelin tilted his head. “Yeah, well. We were sort of dragged in against our will, so excuse the lack of hospitality.”

Elira tensed. “Who are you?”

The figure exhaled, his voice like rust scraping against stone.

“I am the Keeper of the Rift. And you… are already too late.”

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All Parts of this Series

• Shadow's Veil Part 1
• Shadow's Veil Part 2
• Shadow's Veil Part 3
• Shadow's Veil Part 4
• Shadow's Veil Part 5