Where Shadows Walk

Elias led them through long, winding corridors, the blue crystals casting long shadows on the stone walls. The air grew colder as they descended deeper into the cathedral.

"The way back to your world lies beneath," Elias explained, stopping before a stone archway. "This passage opens to the deep paths once every seven days. When it closes..." He paused, his eyes fixed on Leo. "Well, as you know, time moves strangely here. It could be days or years in your world before it opens again."

"Convenient timing," Neo said, crossing her arms. "We just happen to arrive when this magic door is about to open?"

"There are no coincidences in the Shadow Realm," Elias replied. His calm smile never wavered. "Everything happens according to a pattern. Including your arrival, Leo Voss."

Leo studied the archway. "You keep hinting at knowing something about me, about these powers. Why not just tell us what you know?"

"Some truths must be discovered, not told." Elias gestured to the other Watchers, who formed a semicircle around them. "You have until dawn to decide. As your people say it, the path will open with the first light, but it won't stay open long."

"And if we choose not to take your mystery path?" Kaori asked.

"Then you're welcome to try surviving out there, with The Hunter and worse things that roam the darkness." Elias's expression remained neutral, but there was a change in his voice. "We offer guidance, not commands."

The Watchers led them to separate rooms for the night. Leo's chamber was small but comfortable, with a bed and more of those blue crystals providing light. As he lay down, his mind raced with questions about the Watchers, their knowledge of his powers, and that marking on his arm.

For Leo, sleep came unexpectedly, and with it, a very strange life-like dream.

He found himself standing in a massive cavern, far larger than any natural structure he had seen on Earth or Mars.

The space stretched up into darkness, its walls lined with the same glowing crystals as the cathedral. But these shone with a stronger light, casting their blue glow on something massive in the center of the cavern.

Chains thick as tree trunks crisscrossed the space, all meeting up at a single point. There, bound by these thick restraints, stood a creature that made The Hunter look like a house pet.

The creature towered at three times Leo's height, its muscular blue-skinned body had a humanoid figure but was the furthest thing from human. White, bony ribs extended out through exposed flesh on its chest. Short, lightly glowing antlers crowned its head, but it was the milky white eyes locked onto Leo that froze him in terror.

"Leo Voss," it spoke, its voice like grinding stone. "The vessel awakens at last."

Leo tried to step back, but his feet wouldn't move. "Wha- What are you?"

"I am the Warden," the creature replied. "The first to be bound, the last to be freed." Its chains rattled with every movement it made. "They fear what you will become, little shadow. As they should."

"Who fears me? The Watchers?"

The Warden laughed, a laugh that shook dust from the cavern ceiling. "The Watchers are not what they seem. They—"

Leo jerked awake, his heart pounding. The room felt colder, and he sensed someone watching him. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he saw a figure standing at the foot of his bed.

One of the Watchers stood perfectly still, staring at him with unblinking eyes. Slowly, the figure's lips curled into a smile that made Leo's blood run cold. There was nothing human in that expression – it was like watching a mask try to imitate joy.

Without a word, the Watcher turned and walked away, disappearing into the darkness. Leo sat up, his hands shaking. The marking on his arm burned fiercer than ever.

He found Neo and Kaori already awake in the cathedral's main hall. The blue crystals barely light up the dark area.

"Something's wrong here," Neo said as soon as he approached. "These Watchers, they're not—"

"Human?" Leo finished. "I know. I had a vision, or maybe it was real. There's something huge chained up under this city. It called itself the Warden."

He described some of what had happened in his vision and the unsettling encounter with the Watcher afterward. As he spoke, he noticed the other Watchers gathering silently around the edges of the hall, watching them with their unnaturally neutral expressions.

"The path will open soon," Elias announced, appearing from the shadows. "Have you made your decision?"

Leo looked at the others. Neo's face showed clear distrust, while Kaori seemed to be calculating their options. The Watchers waited in absolute stillness, their patience more threatening than any show of force.

"I feel something pulling me toward that path," Leo admitted. "The same feeling I had when my powers first manifested. Whatever answers we're looking for, they're down there."

"It could be a trap," Neo warned.

"Everything about this place is a trap," Kaori replied. "At least this way we're choosing which one to spring."

A dark passage appeared beyond the archway, leading down into the ground.

Elias and the other Watchers formed two lines leading to the arch, their faces now bearing those same empty smiles. "The path is open," Elias announced. "Choose quickly. Some doors, once closed, may never open again."

Leo stared into the darkness beyond the arch. The Warden's words repeated in his mind: "They fear what you will become." Whatever lay ahead, whatever truth the Watchers were hiding, he knew they had to find out but of course, he had to be cautious.

"We go together," he said firmly. "It's like you said when we first arrived here. Whatever's down there, we face it as a team."

Neo nodded grimly. "Better the devil we're walking toward than the ones standing behind us."

They approached the archway together with Kaori walk slightly ahead, the Watchers' unblinking eyes following their every move. Just before they stepped through, Leo glanced back at Elias. The Watcher's leader was still smiling, but now there was something else in his expression – anticipation.

"The vessel awakens," Elias whispered. "The hunt begins anew."

As they passed through the arch, Leo couldn't shake the feeling that they were walking into exactly the situation the Watchers had planned for, of course they were.

But with The Hunter still prowling the ruins above and these inhuman observers at their backs, there was nowhere to go but down, down into the darkness where secrets and chained monsters waited.

After Elias and two other watches entered, the path sealed behind them with a sound like a tomb closing, leaving them in the dark with nothing but their doubts and the growing certainty that the real dangers of this realm were only beginning to reveal themselves.