The shadow did not crawl so much as it bled through the masonry, a thin streak of obsidian ichor staining the mortar between the cathedral stones. It lacked the complexity of Valerius’s malice and the sheer scale of the hive-swarm.
It was a hungry, vestigial thing, a leftover scrap of the void that had been forgotten in the sealing of the sky. As the city hummed with the newfound, chaotic rhythm of self-governance, the shadow felt only the warmth of the blacksmith’s heartbeat, a beacon in the cool, uncaring morning.
Inside the council chambers, the air was thick with the scent of stale wine and damp parchment. The councilmen argued in hushed, jagged tones, their shadows flickering against the high vaulted ceiling.
"If we do not announce an heir by noon, the guilds will riot," one counc
