The First Step into Shadow

The deeper they walked into Quinn's world,

The more unreal it became.

Buildings that bent with no seams.

Hallways that changed direction without turning.

And skies that shifted between dusk and void.

Lyle felt the Codex twitch in his satchel—

Its glyphs whispering warnings it couldn't put into words.

Juno stayed close, hand near her blade.

But even she knew—here, steel meant nothing.

Only will mattered.

---

The Hall of Shadows stood like a scar in the center of the city.

No doors.

No windows.

Just a jagged, obsidian spire with veins of bloodlight pulsing through it like a heartbeat.

Quinn stopped at the base.

"This is where you prove yourself."

Lyle looked up. "And if I fail?"

"You don't come back."

Quinn turned.

And smiled.

"But you won't."

---

The spire opened to them.

No movement.

No mechanisms.

Just acceptance.

Lyle stepped forward—

And the world changed.

---

Inside the Hall, there was no floor.

No walls.

Just darkness.

Endless.

Thick.

Alive.

And a single platform suspended in nothing, where Quinn waited with his arms folded.

Juno stood behind him, her figure blurred by the hall's warping air.

"Here," Quinn said, "we test truth."

Lyle stepped onto the platform. "How?"

"You bleed."

---

Quinn raised his hand. Shadows rippled from his palm.

But they didn't strike.

They wrapped around Lyle's chest, threading through his heart, his blood, his very thoughts.

And then—

Memories began to spill from him.

His mother's voice.

His father's hand.

The day the book first wept with his tears.

---

> "Shadow is memory," Quinn said. "Shadow is truth you hide."

> "If you can't face it, it will consume you."

The Codex snapped open.

Pages flipped wildly.

> [Shadow Trial Initiated]

WARNING: Mental constructs unstable. Psychological hazards active.

Prepare.

---

And then Lyle was no longer in the Hall.

He stood in a ruined version of the Academy—

Its towers crumbled, blood running through the courtyards, and every student staring at him with empty eyes.

"You killed us," one said.

"You opened the gate," said another.

"We trusted you."

He turned—

And saw himself standing in the center of the courtyard.

Older. Cold. Wearing blood armor.

Eyes glowing red.

"I didn't want this," Lyle said.

> "Doesn't matter," said his future self. "You did."

---

Shadow rushed in—

And the trial began.