James Islington - The Shadow Of What Was Lost

“I hope you two have a very good explanation for this,” a deep voice said behind them. The words were spoken calmly, but there was restrained anger in them.

Davian tried to turn, but all of a sudden he felt exhausted, as though the strain of the last month was crashing down on him all at once. To his left, he could hear Wirr yawning, too.

The last thing he remembered was lying on the soft grass, and then a sharp white flash all around him before everything dimmed.

He slept.

Asha jerked at the door handle once again, despite knowing it was locked.

She frowned around at the black stone walls of her cell, trying in vain to deduce what was going on. She’d been still reeling from the shock of Jin’s murder when she’d fallen asleep - or passed out, as the case may have been - but that had been on a couch in Shana’s house, surrounded by concerned Shadows and with no indication that she was in any trouble. Shana herself had already verified the presence of the Watcher; after that, everyone had seemed to accept that she wasn’t responsible for what had happened. If anything, they had been more worried about her well-being than anything else.

Something had changed in the meantime, though, because when she’d woken she had found herself here. Alone. The solid door locked, with no-one apparently in earshot to hear her shouting.

Frustrated, she bashed on the door with the palm of her hand, the sound echoing in the passageway beyond.

"Hello? Is there anyone there?" she called.

As before, there was no response, no indication that there was anyone nearby to hear her. She returned to her bed with a sigh. The room contained only the bed, a couple of chairs, and a table - nothing she could use to get free. There seemed little else to do but wait.

She tried to distract herself while she lay there. Despite everything that had happened, she’d been impressed with the Sanctuary; the people living down here seemed like good, honest folk, and the efforts of the Shadraehin in creating the underground community were something she admired.

And yet, as hard as she tried to focus on something positive, she kept drifting back to the moment the Watcher had appeared. Wondering how he’d known her name, puzzling over what he’d said to her. And then each time, reliving Jin staring at her in terror as his life seeped away between his fingers.

Maybe an hour had passed when there were echoing footsteps in the hallway outside, and a key rattled in the lock.

Asha leapt to her feet as the door opened to admit a wiry-looking Shadow, a man with a thin face and a scruffy-looking beard. She stared at him in surprise. The oldest Shadows she’d ever seen were in their early thirties - those who had been amongst the first to fail their Trials after the war. The Treaty had a clause that amnestied any Gifted who had taken the tests prior to that… and yet the Shadow who stood opposite her was at least forty.

The man smiled slightly when he saw her expression. "Older than you expected?"

Asha flushed, caught off-guard, and the man waved away her embarrassment apologetically. "It’s okay. Everybody has that reaction the first time. Please, sit," he added, gesturing to one of the chairs. "We have much to discuss."

Asha remained standing. "Who are you?" She crossed her arms. "Why am I a prisoner here?"

The man raised an eyebrow, looking more amused than annoyed. "My name is Scyner, but everyone here calls me the Shadraehin. I suppose you could say I’m in charge of the Sanctuary. I’m the one whose responsibility it is to keep the people here safe." He paused, leaning forward, and suddenly his eyes were hard. "And when someone comes into the Sanctuary and lies about their name, it raises questions about their trustworthiness. Ashalia."

Asha stared at the cool certainty in his eyes for a moment, then slowly moved across to the chair and sat.

"Good. I’m glad we’re not wasting time with denials," said Scyner, his cheerful demeanour returning in an instant.

"How did you find out who I am?" she asked.

The Shadraehin scratched at his beard. "We thought you may have been a spy for Administration, at first," he admitted. "They’ve tried that before - offering Gifted who are about to become Shadows an opportunity, a better life. But Administration had no record of any Lissa from Nalean at all, which didn’t make sense. Why bother to change your name? Why lie about where you’re from?"

He reached into his pocket. "And then we put the pieces together. The timing. And we went through Administration’s records of the students from Caladel, and found the image of a young Gifted girl. Ashalia Chaedris." He produced a piece of paper and unfolded it, holding it up for her to see. The sketch was a couple of years old now, the last time one of Administration’s artists had come to Caladel, but it was still a good likeness.

Asha gave a brief nod as she took in the image, for a moment feeling a stab of pain as she thought of the school, remembered when she’d sat for that picture. She switched her gaze back to the Shadraehin.

"I was the only survivor," she said quietly, seeing no advantage to concealing the truth. "I don’t know anything about what happened, but the Council thought I might be important somehow. They hid me in the Tol and asked me to lie about my name, to make sure Administration couldn’t find me." She looked Scyner in the eye. "I didn’t mean you or your people any harm."

"And yet one of my good friends is dead." Emotion flashed across the Shadraehin’s face, gone in an instant. He took a deep breath. "We will get to your situation shortly. First, though, I would very much like to hear what happened with Aelrith."

"That was the man who….?" Asha trailed off.

"Yes," said the Shadraehin. "Though whatever else he may be, he’s not a man."

Asha shivered a little but nodded, unsurprised by the comment. She related what had happened, stopping a couple of times as the emotion of the memory got the better of her. Once she had finished the Shadraehin watched her for a few moments, considering.

"I believe you," he said eventually.

Asha inclined her head, relieved; the last thing she needed was someone challenging her version of events. "Did you catch Aelrith?"

"No. We didn’t even see him leave," admitted Scyner. "If it hadn’t been for Shana’s word, I’m not sure we would have believed he was even in her house."

Asha paled. "Then he’s gone? He’s free?"

The Shadraehin nodded. "He uses the catacombs to come and go - they run for miles, have exits everywhere from in the city to out past the mountains. But we don’t know our way around most of them, even if we wanted to go hunting someone as dangerous as Aelrith. We’ve sent people too deep in there before, and they haven’t come back." His tone softened as he saw her expression. "I wouldn’t worry. From what you said, I don’t think he’s a threat to you. If anything, it sounds like we may never see him again."

Asha acknowledged the statement with a nod, though it didn’t stop her stomach from churning as she thought of the black-hooded figure still out there.

"What do you think it all meant - what he said to me?"

Scyner shrugged. "It makes as little sense to me as it does to you, Ashalia," he admitted. "In all honesty, I’m not sure it meant anything. Whatever Aelrith may be, I don’t think he’s entirely sane." He grimaced. "In fact, after what he did to Jin, I’m quite certain of it."

Asha shuddered at the memory. "What do you think Aelrith is?"

The Shadraehin sighed. "I don’t know for sure. There were rumours after the war ended that Tol Athian had been experimenting on some of their people, trying to create soldiers that were immune to Traps and Shackles… if I had to guess, I’d say maybe he’s one of them. Whether the Council know he’s still down here, though, I have no idea."