IV. The Shadow-Twin

I walk the path, but not alone,

a softer step echoes my own.

In every pause, in every turn,

a presence waits, a truth to learn.

Its shape is mine, but darkly cast,

a mirror self, a silent past.

It wears the cloak I will not show,

it speaks the words I will not know.

Yet in its gaze, I find no foe—

a hidden twin, a depth below.

It holds my fears, my unspilled tears,

the part of me that disappears.

And when the light begins to fade,

its outline sharpens in the shade.

Not enemy, not stranger’s kin,

but marrow-deep: my shadow-twin.

It whispers soft: we are the same—

mask and fire, echo and flame.