Novels by Yakali

Mamadou fell through the fractured earth as if reality itself were rejecting his existence. The sensation was not like dropping into a hole. It was like being pulled through a needle eye while his consciousness was shredded into ribbons. He hit the bottom of the fissure with a bone-jarring thud, his lungs emptying in a desperate, wheezing gasp. Dust and pulverized stone filled the air, blinding and suffocating him. He coughed, his hands clawing at the loose, jagged rock beneath him. He was alive, but the weight of the dark void pressing against his skin was heavier than before."Oumy!" he screamed into the blackness. His voice didn't echo. It was swallowed, muffled by the sheer, absolute density of the darkness.He scrambled to his feet, his balance failing him as the ground beneath him began to liquefy. He was back in the city, or at least a distorted, nightmare reflection of it. The skyscrapers of Aethelgard loomed above him, but they were bent like rusted scrap metal, their biolumi

Mamadou clawed at the air as the bottomless pit swallowed him whole. The entity with his face did not let go. It held his throat with a grip like rusted iron, its thumb pressing into his windpipe with cold, methodical precision. Mamadou kicked out, his boots hitting nothing but swirling, oily shadows. He could not breathe. He could not phase. The entity was not just holding him. It was anchoring him."You look so surprised," the doppelganger rasped, its voice a perfect, distorted echo of Mamadou's own. It tilted its head, a sickening grin stretching across its features. "Did you really think you were the first delivery boy to fall through a crack in the pavement? You are just the latest version of a very old, very tired machine."Mamadou tried to form a word, but only a wet rattle escaped his lips. He slammed his fist into the creature’s chest. His hand passed through, but instead of empty air, he felt like he was punching into a furnace. A searing, white-hot feedback loop slammed int

The echo of that doorbell died as quickly as it had arrived, replaced by the suffocating weight of tons of pulverized stone. Mamadou lay pressed into the dirt, his lungs burning as he gasped for air that was thick with grit. He could not move his legs. The obsidian slab pinned him, but the void energy still coursed through him, acting as a frantic, flickering shield that kept the stone from crushing him to a fine paste. He was buried deep, a heartbeat away from being nothing more than a historical footnote in the university's logbooks.He heard a rhythmic thumping above the rubble. It was the sound of someone frantically digging."Mamadou!" The voice was muffled but unmistakable. It was Oumy. She was alive."I am here!" he croaked, though his voice was barely a whisper. He tried to shift his arm, but the movement sent a jolt of pure, white-hot pain shooting through his shoulder. "Don't come closer! The whole section is unstable!""Like I care about stability right now!" Oumy yelled ba

The darkness did not last long. Mamadou and Oumy slammed into a heap of discarded cooling coils and shattered glass, their breath knocked out of them in a singular, violent gasp. The room they landed in was a subterranean disposal unit, a graveyard for the school’s broken magical experiments. Sparks flickered from a ruptured power line, casting long, erratic shadows that danced across the piles of junk. Mamadou groaned, his body feeling as though it had been put through a meat grinder. He pushed himself up, his hands scraping against jagged metal. Beside him, Oumy was already moving, her eyes scanning the gloom with a frantic intensity."Are you still in one piece?" she hissed, her voice sharp with adrenaline. She reached out, grabbing his arm to pull him upright. Her touch was a branding iron against his cold skin, but it was the only thing that kept him from sliding back into the shock-induced haze."I think so," Mamadou replied, wincing as he shifted his weight. "My ribs feel like

Mamadou felt the world compress. The pressure from the man’s fist was like a hydraulic press squeezing his lungs. Oumy screamed, a raw sound of defiance, as she flung a torrent of white flames toward the High Council member. The fire hit an invisible barrier, splashing harmlessly like water against glass. Mamadou gasped, his vision swimming with dark spots. The man didn't even turn his head to look at Oumy. He just waved his other hand, and a gust of force slammed her against the arena wall, pinning her there. She struggled, her limbs straining against the unseen binding. Mamadou saw her face reddening, her eyes wide with terror as she realized they were completely outmatched. He needed to move, but his muscles felt like they were filled with lead."I said, threats must be erased," the man repeated. His voice was smooth, devoid of any anger. It was the tone of a gardener plucking a weed.Mamadou didn't have time to process the fear. He felt the hum in his chest, that oily, dark resona

"Did you really think," the Headmistress whispered, stepping through the ruin without a scratch on her, "that you could hide from the architect of your own chains?"Mamadou coughed, the taste of brick dust and ozone coating his tongue. He scrambled backward, dragging Oumy with him. The debris of the library ceiling groaned as it settled around them. Oumy was breathing hard, her clothes singed and her hair wild. She stood up, shielding Mamadou with her own body."We aren't your property," Oumy snarled. Her hands were still glowing with flickering, orange embers. "We are students. Not your personal batteries."The Headmistress chuckled. It was a dry, chilling sound. She swiped her hand through the air, and the swirling debris froze in place, suspended by a massive, invisible field of gravity. "Students are merely resources in training, Oumy. And you, Mamadou, are the most precious resource we have found in a century."Mamadou pushed himself to his feet. His skin was still rippling with