A Bargain with Shadows

Chapter 6: A Bargain with Shadows

Asher's hand was heavy with the dagger. The room was still, apart from the gentle breaths of the prisoners that encircled him. The low torches cast long shadows on the stone walls, flickering across the face of the man before him.

Rax cracked his knuckles. The scars on his arms flexed with the motion, a reminder of years of fighting to live. But tonight, he wasn't fighting to win.

Tonight, he was fighting for his final fight.

Leon's voice cut through the silence.

"Kill or be killed."

Rax grinned. "Don't look so uptight, kid. This is what I want."

Asher's fingers tightened on the hilt. "You're just going to throw yourself at me like a chicken to be slaughtered?"

Rax snorted. "Hell no. I've got enough fight left in me for one last round. So you'd best make it a good one."

And then he moved.

Faster than Asher had expected, Rax struck. His fist shot out like a blur in the dim light. Asher barely had time to avoid it, spinning out of the way as Rax's knuckles slammed into the stone wall behind him.

The air parted. Dust rained down.

Rax wasn't just letting himself be killed. He was making Asher earn it.

"Come on, kid," Rax growled, wiping the dust from his arm. "If you don't kill me, I'll kill you. You hesitate, you die. That's this world's law!"

Asher gritted his teeth. This wasn't what he wanted.

But Rax did not give him time to consider.

He attacked again. Asher had just enough time to defend before a knee slammed into his ribs, and he slid along the floor.

Pain exploded in his chest.

Rax wasn't holding back. Even on his deathbed and without his powers, he was still a monster.

Asher wiped blood from his lip and got his balance back. He knew he had to fight, but… could he really kill him?

"You're too soft, kid," Rax taunted, circling him like a predator. "That'll get you killed faster than anything."

Asher lunged forward, slashing with the knife. Rax parried the attack with his bare hand, twisting Asher's wrist and pushing him back.

"Sloppy."

A punch to the stomach sent Asher reeling.

"Slow."

A second blow a vicious elbow to the shoulder sent him crashing to his knees.

Rax stood over him. "And still hesitating."

Asher's breathing came in torn sobs. His eyes blurred. He needed to move. He needed to fight.

But his hands refused to listen.

"Pathetic."

The voice oozed through his mind like oil.

Cold, slashing, unavoidable.

A new weight pressed down on him, crushing his bones, insinuating into his very soul. His fingers twitched, his breath caught.

The darkness in him stirred.

"You hesitate over a dying man? Over a worm clinging to his last breath?"

Asher clenched his teeth. "Stay out of this, Khaelos."

"You do not command me, mortal."

A weighted pressure flowed through his limbs. His muscles tensed, locking up against his control.

Then, his body moved of its own accord.

Rax's smirk faltered as the air around Asher shifted.

Black tendrils seeped from his skin. The torches flickered. The shadows stretched, unnatural, suffocating.

Rax's eyes slit. "Tch. So that is your actual strength?"

The earth shuddered.

A blast of raw, crushing power erupted from Asher, sending dust and loose stones flying backward and his eyes turned pure black appearing like two black holes ready to suck anyone souls in. The prisoners flinched as the Divine runes attached to the prison wall glowed bright for a while before they dimmed. Some inhaled sharply. Others stiffened, instinctively terrified.

There was a low, unpleasant laugh in Asher's mind.

"Watch closely, boy. This is how you finish a fight."

His hand curled around the knife of its own accord.

His feet stepped forward, slow and purposeful.

Rax exhaled, shrugging his shoulders. "So that's how it is, huh?"

For the first time, a flicker of respect crossed his face.

"Good," he snarled. "At least I'll die fighting a decent monster."

He charged.

But Asher was faster.

Before Rax could even attack, Asher's knife was already swinging.

A dark shockwave ripped through the air as the knife slashed across Rax's throat.

The world slowed down.

Rax's inertia propelled him forward past Asher, past the blow until his body finally caught up with reality.

He staggered.

Blood gushed out of his neck.

He fell to one knee, one hand clamped over the wound. His breath came in short, shallow gulps.

And then, he laughed.

A weak, hoarse sound.

"You actually did it," Rax muttered, voice choked with blood. He shifted his head a little, his eyes locking with Asher's.

For an instant, something danced in those eyes. Satisfaction.

"Good…" Rax breathed. "This is how a warrior dies."

His body went limp.

He dropped.

The sound of the impact resounded in the chamber.

Silence.

The dark energy around Asher still clung to him, wrapping around his fingers like a mist. He breathed irregularly, his chest heaving.

He hadn't killed him.

Khaelos had.

"That," Khaelos whispered in his mind, "is how you kill someone."

The prisoners stared. Not in anger. Not in disgust.

In fear.

Even Leon who always smug, always impassive, looked at him differently now.

"Welcome to the real world, kid," he said finally.

Asher rose to his feet, his gaze locked on Rax's lifeless form. His hand trembled on the knife.

He had done it. He had passed the test.

Had he lost himself in the process?

The dagger fell from Asher's hand.

He barely registered the metallic clink of it as it struck the stone floor.

His breathing was a series of short, gasping breaths. His fingers continued to shake, smeared with the residue of that suffocating blackness. It clung to him, spreading across his skin like a second darkness, refusing to release him.

The other prisoners were still, staring at him as if he were something monstrous.

Not one of them.

Not human.

Not normal.

Even Leon, always calm, always in charge, had a new glint in his eye as he looked at Asher. Something like amusement and calculation.

It sickened Asher's stomach.

But it was the whispers, low and tentative, terrified that made him feel something much, much worse.

"What the hell was that?"

"I thought he was just some kid…"

"No… that wasn't a kid."

"That was a monster."

The words cut Asher's chest, cold and piercing angering him.

This wasn't what he had wanted.

He had wanted power. Not fear.

He had wanted control. Not… this.

A gagging laugh echoed in his mind.

"You wanted power, didn't you?"* Khaelos' voice dripped through his mind, heavy with amusement. "This is what true power brings, boy. Enjoy it."

Asher gritted his teeth.

Enjoy it?

He had felt nothing.

Nothing but the cold grip of something else driving him. The sensation of his body acting against his will. The moment the blade sliced across Rax's throat, it hadn't been his decision.

It had been Khaelos'.

And here he stood before a room full of thieves and hardened men who'd seen death a thousand times and they looked at him as if he were dung lower than they all combined.

Leon crouched beside Rax's dead body, cocking his head, looking as though he'd examined his work. "Lovely kill," he grunted, wiping bloody tips from his fingers. "But it could still be worked kn."

He looked up, sneering.

"Tell me, Asher. How did it feel?"

Asher's fingers curled into a fist.

"Answer wisely, kid"* Khaelos murmured in his mind. "They are all watching and no kid says he feels nothing from that."

Did it matter how it felt?

It hadn't been his choice.

And yet…

Somewhere deep inside, a whisper clawed at him.

That moment when his strength had ridden high, when the torches burned low, when the air itself had trembled at his presence had been. intoxicating.

He shook the thought away. "It doesn't matter."

Leon raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't it?"

Asher clenched his teeth and held his eyes. "He wanted a warrior's death. I gave it to him."

Leon studied him for a long moment, before chuckling and standing up. "Hah. Good answer."

He turned to the rest of the prisoners, clapping his hands together. "Alright, show's over. Back to your miserable lives."

The group hesitated.

Some still stared at Asher, hesitant, measuring.

Then, one of them spat to the side. "Tch. We're following that old guy now?"

Leon's eyes flashed to him. His smirk increased.

"Unless you want to take Rax's place, I believe you'd do well to get used to it."

The man bristled. A heavy, awkward tension filled the air before he whirled and strode away. The others followed behind, some glancing back at Asher again, others going out of their way not to glance at him at all.

He stood alone.

Even in the midst of the crowd in one room.

The moment they were gone, the pressure squeezing against Asher's chest finally stopped. He scowled at his hands.

They no longer trembled.

Had he lost a part of himself?

Or had he earned something worse?

A harsh expulsion of breath escaped him, tension draining from his body. But the instant he took a step to leave

Something had changed.

The air.

It became thick.

Heavy.

Unnatural.

The torches lost their light, not due to his power this time.

A prickle spread along his spine. The feeling of being watched.

Leon froze, mid-step. His face flared only for a moment before the familiar smirk replaced it.

But he could feel it too.

The other prisoners, already halfway to the door, stopped in their tracks.

Then, a voice slithered through the darkness.

"Interesting."

It wasn't Khaelos.

Asher stiffened.

The torches flickered erratically. The shadows on the walls stretched unnaturally, curling in ways they shouldn't.

And then—

The laughter started.

Soft at first.

Then, deeper.

Twisted.

Ancient.

The temperature dropped sharply. The breath in Asher's lungs turned to ice.

Leon's smirk had vanished. His eyes flickered toward the farthest, darkest corner of the room.

A shape began to form there.

Something big and gigantic

Something watching.

Asher's heartbeat pounded against his ribs.

Then—

The torches went out.

Complete, utter darkness swallowed the room.

And in that blackness—

The voice whispered one final thing:

"Let's see how far you'll fall, child."