Prince of The Abyss-Chapter 255: One With the Shadows

His body felt light, unusually light, as if he didn't have half of his body, but it was there; he could move his arms and legs. Maybe he had just lost some weight. The Sun was bright in the sky, like a reminder to everyone that they were alive, to feel its warm touch on their skin... well, maybe it wasn't that warm.

Since he didn't feel it.

It was going to be a new day, one where they were probably going to have to continue their travel...

Yet looking around his, to see if he had left something behind, he saw someone. Someone he didn't recognize... yet felt a strong connection to.

By his stature, he seemed to be a teenage boy, yet he couldn't make up his face. Almost as if he wasn't allowed to see it, something was trying to keep him away from looking into his eyes; a weird black bar covering his eyes.

The boy awakened, stretching his body from a long nap; he must have been stiff, which made him wonder where he had come from.

The boy looked at the sun, he seemed fresh, ready to begin his journey... and for some reason, he was... compelled to follow him.

But why. He didn't know the boy; he couldn't even see his face. What reason would he have to follow him? He had better things to do.

And yet... as the boy left, he couldn't stop his feet from following him.

It was that strong connection from earlier, like his soul was speaking to him, like it was attached to him. And he didn't seem to be mistaken, as the shadows around them also seemed intrigued by the boy.

But weirdly... something that made him question who or what the boy was.

He didn't have a shadow.

'A human without a shadow... is that... possible?" He hasn't seen something like it before, after all, everything had a shadow... why was this boy so special?

Who was he? And where had he come from?

If he were to compare how his soul looked and felt to other people in the book, it was very different... almost as if he wasn't from this world.

...

He was curious.

...

Continuing to follow him, Aether continued to get closer, to the point he was standing right behind him.

Something kept driving him to follow him, even if that was not what his mind wanted, and he felt weirdly attached to him.

It distraced his from how weird his body felt... well, actually, that was the thing, he didn't really feel anything.

He couldn't smell anything, and it had been weirdly quiet for a while.

It even made him wonder if he was even seeing with his mind, or if he was blind and this was only his imagination.

...

Where was he? Why was he in the city? Wasn't he just in the mountains with Kade? Why had he awakened on the street of a random city, and why was the only person here...

Him?

The boy continued to move until he reached a black statue.

Aether eyes looked up to gaze at it. It was made out of black so pure that it absorbed your eyes, driving your foward, like a black hole trying to suck you in. It looked to be a human, but with weird wings and a blade in its hand.

...

But why had the boy led him here?

...

And why did he feel like he had seen him before?

Aether looked down at his hands...

But something was horribly wrong; his arms were pure black, his whole body was...

He put his hand over his mouth... but he couldn't seem to find it; it was as if it had never existed.

Something... was terribly wrong.

...

...

The boy turned away, and this time he could finally see his face.

He had two eyes.

One had the color of a lapis sea, yet without any light behind it, almost as if he had lost all his spark.

And the other was pure black.

Contrasting his light blond hair. It was almost like an eclipse, the sun, the moon, and a sea that had stopped reflecting the sun thanks to the moon.

...

...

'What?'

It was him. But... how? How was he standing in front of him... it didn't seem to be the Abyss, he could have told by the soul, and it wasn't Voidpiercer... so then who was he?

And who was he?

...

...

...

Aether staggered up, panting heavily, which scared Kade.

The boy clenched his chest.

"What is wrong with you! You could have given me a heart attack."

But Aether didn't respond; he hadn't even probably heard him.

He looked at his hands, seeing that they were black to normal, he patted his body, and everything was where it was supposed to be. He pinched himself, he felt it...

But what had happened? Was it a dream, but if it had been... what was it supposed to mean?

He rested his head in his palm for a while before calming himself down and standing up.

"What time is it?" He asked Kade?

The boy looked at him like he was stupid. "How am I supposed to know? I don't have a clock, but it's morning, that I know?"

...

"Come on, were leaving. We have to get to the city." Kade had wanted to talk back, after all, it was still early, and he probably had to keep watch and be sure nothing happened to him while he was sleeping. So he must be really tired, but... at this time, he couldn't care less, so he stopped his before he could start, and started leaving. Making the boy follow quietly behind him.

"You seem to be in a bad mood today."

He didn't respond, but rather continued to walk through the mountains. They had to at least leave this area today.

Looking at his arm, he took off the cloth. It didn't seem to have healed, but that was to be expected. But at least the bleeding had stopped.

He took the pin and put it back in his hair, making a small bun with the extra hair he had grown since the last time he had put it on.

He had learned many tricks from his sister when he was young, and making a bun was one of them.

"You should cut your hair, it is not very masculine, you know?"

Aether raised his eyebrow.

"Since when does hair determine if one's masculine. I think there are other things that do a better job at that, like acting mature... but I guess I haven't been the most mature person lately. So maybe I'm not masculine at all. Not that I care if I am or not."

At this time, all he cared about was figuring out what his dream had been about.

What did it mean... why was he there, why couldn't he see his own face?

But... if the one in his dream had been himself... then, did his soul really feel like that? He thought he had a good idea of how his soul looked due to Eden, but he had never compared it to any other. The reason must be that he was a Reader; that was why his soul was so different.

And yet that still didn't explain anything; if he had to say that was probably the least important thing from that dream. It was something that actually made sense. There were better questions, like why his body was that, why he fell so compelled to follow himself, and why he didn't have a shadow?

None of them made any sense; as much as he tried to figure them out, he couldn't; he even tried thinking of them as one mystery instead of three different ones, but he had yet to find an answer.

He stopped, looking behind him. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

...

His shadow was there, like usual, following him, his every step, moving where he went, walking where he walked... just behind him.

...

Aether's eyes suddenly widened, as his mind fell into a bigger mess, with him finally figuring it out.

...

He was wrong. In his dream, he did have a shadow; he had not noticed it before... because the shadow was him.

He was the shadow.

...

He couldn't talk because shadows can't talk.

He couldn't hear because shadows can't hear

He felt as if he was blind, because he was; shadows can't see, they use Eden, so that was why he could see around him without using his eyes.

He didn't feel the sun, because shadows aren't physical beings...

And he felt compelled to follow himself because he was his own shadow.

But then... what was that damn statue that he had seen, and why did he feel as if he knew the person inside of it? It was in his dream, so normally he would say that he had to have seen him in his life, and he had seen many people that maybe he forgot about... but from everything that has happened, he didn't know anymore.

And more importantly.

Why had he led him to it?