The Awakened Shadow

Chapter 7 : The Weight of What She Knows

The room was quiet when Kain opened his eyes again quiet in the way a storm becomes quiet just before it destroys everything in its path. The dim lantern Aria placed on the floor flickered, throwing soft gold across her face. She sat with her back straight, but her hands… her hands wouldn’t stop trembling.

Kain noticed.

“You’ve been watching me,” he whispered.

Her eyes lifted slowly, and for a moment, she didn’t speak. She only stared at him as though studying every breath he took, every blink, every movement. As though afraid he would disappear if she looked away.

“I needed to make sure you were still breathing,” she responded, voice low.

Kain struggled to sit up. Pain shot through his shoulder, but it was nothing compared to the heaviness inside him questions piling in his chest like stones.

“Aria,” he said softly, “what aren’t you telling me?”

Silence.

The kind of silence that stretches and vibrates and dares the truth to break through.

She finally exhaled. “Kain… there are things I should’ve told you sooner. Things about your past and mine.”

He waited.

Aria looked away.

“When I first found you,” she began, “I didn’t choose to help you because you were being chased. I helped you because I recognized you.”

Kain’s blood chilled. “Recognized me? From where?”

Her throat bobbed as she swallowed hard. “From years ago. From… before everything changed.”

He blinked slowly. “Are you saying you knew me as a child?”

“I didn’t know you personally,” she said quickly. “But I saw you. Once. Only once. And that moment changed everything.”

Her voice shook Aria never shook.

“Your father brought you to the Dominion fortress when you were small. He asked for protection… for a meeting with the high council. I saw you then. Quiet. Curious. Innocent.”

Kain’s breath caught in his throat.

“My father… was with the Dominion?”

Aria shook her head. “Not with them. Against them. That’s why he came. He was trying to negotiate something offering something powerful in exchange for your safety.”

Kain leaned forward. “Offering what?”

“That…” She hesitated, eyes darkening. “That’s what I’m afraid to tell you.”

Kain tried to keep his emotions steady, but his voice cracked. “Aria, you promised. No more holding back.”

Her eyes softened guilt swimming in them like a shadow that never leaves.

“I’m not afraid of what you’ll think of me,” she whispered. “I’m afraid of what you’ll become when you know the truth.”

Kain’s heart pounded. “Tell me.”

Her lip trembled.

“Kain… your father traded something the Dominion desperately wanted…”

She looked directly into his eyes.

“He traded part of you.”

THE TRUTH CUTS DEEP 

Kain froze. The words hit him harder than the Dominion soldier’s blade.

“What do you mean part of me?” he demanded.

Aria closed her eyes, pain etched into her expression as though the memory itself burned.

“The Dominion believed you carried something inside you. Something ancient. Something powerful. They called it The Vein of Aether. It’s not magic it’s older than magic. They believed your father found it… and placed a piece of it in you before you were born.”

Kain’s mind spun. “That’s impossible. I’m just”

“You’re not just anything,” Aria said fiercely. “The reason you’re faster, stronger, the reason you survived the attack the other nights Kain, it’s inside you. And your father gave the Dominion access to study it… temporarily. Only temporarily. But he never returned to pick up their findings. The negotiation ended in disaster. He vanished, the research disappeared, and the Dominion has been hunting you ever since.”

Kain felt like the room tilted sideways.

“So you knew?” he whispered. “All this time. You knew what was inside me?”

Aria opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

Her silence was louder than any confession.

Kain looked down at his hands, suddenly foreign to him. “So I’m… what? Some kind of weapon?”

“No,” Aria said quickly. “You’re a target. A threat. A possibility. The Dominion doesn’t even fully understand what you are but they know they want it.”

“And you?” Kain asked bitterly. “Why help me? Out of guilt?”

Her eyes flashed hurt. “No. I helped you because it was the right thing. Because I couldn’t let them take you again.”

He stared at her. “Again?”

Aria stiffened.

And that was when Kain realized

There was more.

“Aria,” he said quietly, “what else aren’t you telling me?”

Her fingers twisted together. She looked like someone standing on the edge of a cliff, wind pushing her forward.

“Kain… I wasn’t just in the fortress when your father came.”

He waited.

“I was assigned to… to guard you.”

The world seemed to stop.

Guard him?

“You were one of them?” Kain whispered, voice hollow.

“I was part of the Dominion then,” Aria finally admitted, voice breaking. “But I wasn’t a soldier. I was a trainee obedient, naive, believing their lies. They told me your father was a traitor. They told me you were dangerous. And I believed them.”

Her breath hitched.

“Until I saw you. A little boy hiding behind your father’s cloak, terrified. That’s when I realized the Dominion wasn’t about justice. It was about power. About control. And they were willing to destroy a child to get it.”

Kain swallowed. “So you left.”

“I tried,” she whispered. “But no one leaves the Dominion easily. I barely escaped with my life. But I swore if you ever reappeared, I would protect you. No matter what.”

Kain stared at her, emotions crashing like waves inside him anger, confusion, gratitude, betrayal.

“You should have told me,” he said quietly.

She nodded, eyes misty. “I know. And I’m sorry.”

He wanted to stay angry.

But he couldn’t.

Not when she looked like that.

Not when she risked everything to save him.

Before he could respond, the lantern flickered.

Then went out.

Aria shot to her feet. “Get down.”

Kain dropped as a blast of cold air swept through the room.

Not wind.

Presence.

A heavy, suffocating energy pressed against his skin.

Aria’s voice dropped to a whisper. “They found us.”

A shadow shifted outside the broken window silent, slow, deliberate.

Dominion trackers.

Three of them.

Kain’s heart raced. “How? You said we were covered.”

“We were,” Aria hissed. “Someone must’ve reported movement. Or…”

Her eyes widened.

“Or they sensed you.”

Kain’s stomach dropped. “Because of what’s inside me?”

She didn’t answer.

She didn’t need to.

One of the shadows stepped closer. Kain’s blood chilled as bright blue symbols lit across its armor Dominion elite hunters.

Aria grabbed her blade, her hair whipping around her face.

“Kain,” she said, voice sharp and trembling at once, “listen to me.”

He looked up.

“You can’t fight them yet,” she said. “Not like this. You don’t know how to use what’s inside you.”

“Then teach me,” he said through clenched teeth.

She stared at him with something close to heartbreak.

“I can’t,” she said. “Not here. Not now.”

The hunters moved closer silent, coordinated, deadly.

Aria stepped in front of him, stance low, shoulders squared. “When I say run, you run. Don’t look back. Don’t slow down.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Kain snapped.

“You have to,” she said, voice cracking. “Kain… the Dominion wants you alive. They want me dead. I’ll only slow you down.”

“No,” he said fiercely. “I’m not losing another person who protected me.”

Another person.

His father.

Aria’s eyes softened, pain flickering through them. “Your father told me something before he disappeared.”

Kain froze. “What?”

She leaned close, whispering fast as the hunters reached the door.

“He said one day you would awaken. And when that day came, I should tell you this”

The door crashed inward.

Aria’s blade met the first hunter’s strike.

Steel clashed. Sparks flew. The floor shook.

Aria shouted over the chaos:

“Kain  RUN!”

But Kain didn’t move.

Couldn’t move.

Because he needed to know

“What did my father say?!”

Aria spun, blocking a second blade, her hair whipping wildly.

“He said”

A third hunter lunged at her.

Aria kicked him back, rolled, and slashed his leg.

“KAIN GO!”

“WHAT DID HE SAY?!”

She looked at him eyes full of fear, love, guilt, and something deeper.

“He said”

A blade sliced the air toward her.

Aria turned too slow.

Kain screamed.

“ARIA!!!”

The world exploded into white light.

A pulse ripped through the room raw, ancient power surging out of Kain like a storm breaking free.

The hunters were thrown backward.

Aria crashed against the wall, eyes wide with shock and awe.

“Kain…” she whispered.

He stared at his hands glowing, trembling with energy he didn’t understand.

“What’s happening to me?” His voice shook.

Aria’s face softened.

“Your father was right,” she whispered.

Kain looked up sharply. “Right about what?”

She stepped closer, breathless, eyes shimmering with something like fear… or wonder.

“He said one day you would awaken.”

Her voice dropped to a trembling whisper.

“And when you did… nothing could stop you.”

Kain’s breath stilled.

Aria looked at him with aching certainty.

“Kain… your power has awakened.”

The remaining hunter rose, armor crackling with electricity.

Aria grabbed his hand.

“Run,” she said urgently. “Now. Before they call reinforcements.”

Kain hesitated his heart pulling toward her, his power pulling toward something else entirely.

Aria squeezed his hand.

“Kain… if they take you now, everything your father died for will be wasted.”

His heart clenched.

Something inside him snapped into place.

He nodded once.

Aria tightened her grip.

Together they ran.

Into the night.

Into the unknown.

Into destiny.