The shadows embraced Kael like a familiar cloak, his presence merged with the living darkness that slithered through the forgotten corners of the Academy. The three boys hurried along, constantly glancing over their shoulders, descending through ancient corridors and maintenance tunnels that most students didn't even know existed.
Kael hunted them like mist woven into the floor itself.
The flickering light of magical torches on the walls barely touched his form, and even the detection spells active in the passages failed to reach him. Umbra, silent, glided like smoke beneath him, feeding the fusion with the shadows. This wasn't a trick — it was his nature.
The three students slipped into a narrow passage behind the South Wing, a spiral stone staircase that led to a forgotten subterranean level. Down there, moss and roots covered the walls, and the remnants of an ancient wall suggested the area had once been a temple or fortress before being absorbed into the Academy's structure.
