Chapter Ten: After the Last Echo
When everything settled after the explosion of light, it felt as if the entire city had been trapped inside a single stretched moment—
a moment without time.
The air no longer moved.
The light that once trembled inside the stones shrank until it became a pale thread twisting through the alleys, then vanished.
I could hear my heartbeat as if it were coming from somewhere else—from deep beneath the ground, or perhaps from inside the void Lorasine left behind.
There was no echo.
And the city—
the City of Shadows, which had never once fallen silent—
felt as if it had lost its voice.
I stood in the center of the square whose edges had been shattered by the wave of light. Dust hung in the air but would not fall. I followed the trace of the shadow that had stood before me seconds ago and saw thin strands of fading light spiraling in its place, as if its shape had evaporated.
But stranger than all of this…
I did not feel lighter.
I expected a heavy part of me to disappear with him, to feel something break free or collapse or fall away.
But instead, something else was growing inside me—
something I did not yet understand.
I raised the dagger.
It was no longer hot as it had been when I merged with it, nor alive as it seemed the first time I touched it.
Now it felt like an empty object, an artifact stripped of purpose.
But as I turned it between my fingers, a faint shimmer still refused to die on its surface.
It had not vanished completely…
just as my shadow had not fully disappeared.
---
I walked through the alleys that were changing shape again—
not like the shifting of shadows as before,
but more like the city was rebuilding itself.
The walls hardened, cracked, then fused in unnatural speed.
The ground rose and dipped as if something beneath it was moving, breathing, or preparing to emerge.
And with every step…
I heard faint whispers rising from the recently destroyed places.
His sister…
He returned…
It's not over…
The words were short and torn, as if coming from throats without bodies.
Then something appeared that made my heart freeze for two seconds.
There were footprints—
not mine—
prints of someone running.
Deep prints, as if the person was fleeing or surviving something.
I followed the steps until they ended at a low stone wall.
When I leaned closer, I noticed a narrow crack torn open in the wall, shaped in a way no human tool could make, as if someone had ripped it apart with bare hands.
And from the darkness inside the crack…
came the same voice I heard in the square:
"It's not over."
---
I entered.
The passages inside the wall looked like living fissures.
The walls twisted, the ceiling hung low, and the air smelled of soil mixed with something else—
something like ash.
But what struck me most…
was the sound of footsteps—
not mine.
There was someone else inside.
Someone moving lightly, navigating the passages as if familiar with them.
I tried lifting the dagger to use it as a light, but it did not glow.
It stayed cold, dormant.
I didn't need light for long; the human eye adapts when it has no choice.
The footsteps suddenly turned, and I heard a gasp—
then silence.
I moved carefully, measuring each step.
When I reached a small chamber, I saw him.
His back was to me.
Black hair, thick and damp with sweat sticking to his neck.
His clothes were torn at the edges, as if he had just escaped a battle.
But he was not standing—
he was kneeling before a strange circle carved into the stone floor, glowing with a faint red light unlike anything in the city.
I stepped closer.
He heard me.
He turned.
I gasped.
And so did he.
I was staring…
at myself.
But not the shadow I had known.
Not some distorted or dark version.
He looked exactly like me—
the real me—
with the same details, the same hair, the same tiny scar beneath my eye I had forgotten years ago.
But he was weaker, thinner, his eyes sunken with exhaustion.
"I knew you would come," he said in a voice like mine, but deeper, weighted with something unseen.
I whispered,
"Who are you?"
He gave a pained smile.
"I am you. But I'm not the shadow. And you… you are not the person you think you are."
He stepped closer.
"Lorasine wasn't your shadow. He was something else entirely…
But I—"
He touched his chest.
"—I am the original."
I froze.
I didn't understand.
"The original of what?"
He lifted his gaze to the dark ceiling.
"The original curse. The original city. The original beginning… long before you were born."
Then he pointed to the glowing circle.
"This isn't a circle for summoning the shadow.
It's a circle for dividing the light.
We are one being.
But the city—
the City of Shadows—
split us years ago.
You took the light…
and I took what was left."
He stepped forward, eyes filled with hatred and sorrow at once.
"And you killed Lorasine before you knew the truth."
---
My chest tightened.
I wanted to shout, deny him, strike him—
but something inside me believed him.
Something broke inside me each time I heard his voice.
"Why… why did you appear now?"
He didn't blink when he answered:
"Because you broke the balance.
When you merged the light with the dagger…
when you tried to destroy the shadow…
you emptied my place."
"There is no guardian for the city now.
And the city—
on its own—
has started to move."
A shiver ran through my body.
"Before everything collapses, I had to come out."
Then he stepped closer.
"And because you need the truth… before you disappear completely."
---
I asked in a trembling voice:
"What truth?"
He inhaled deeply, gathering whatever strength remained.
"The truth Lorasine never dared to tell you.
The truth your shadow hid because you weren't ready."
He turned and struck the wall lightly.
The wall opened instantly, as if the city obeyed him.
A long corridor appeared, glowing with drifting gray light that moved like smoke.
He said:
"Come.
It's time."
I didn't move.
I felt terror, confusion, doubt.
But something else too—
a burning curiosity pulling me forward.
I took a step.
Before I crossed the glowing circle, he grabbed my wrist tightly and whispered, as if speaking from inside my soul:
"Ameen… before we continue… you must know something."
I froze.
"Lorasine was not the real danger."
His voice dimmed further.
"The real danger… has been following you since the moment you arrived in the city."
Then he whispered:
"It's not a shadow…
It's a human."
---
I was about to ask who that human was, but before I could speak, the corridor emitted a strange sound—
a deep breathing, not from a person or from stone, but from something larger.
The ground trembled beneath me.
The red circle widened.
He looked at me sharply.
"We don't have time.
If we don't enter now… the city will shut itself forever."
Then he ran inside.
I stood at the entrance, the dagger cold in my hand, refusing to ignite since Lorasine's disappearance.
I hesitated for one second—
only one.
Then I followed my other self into the corridor, feeling for the first time…
that I was not just part of the city's story.
But that the city itself…
was waiting for me.