The shadows in House Gorrim didn't move naturally that night.
The flickering of candlelight didn't cause them. The moon through stained glass didn't touch them. They moved with a rhythm that didn't belong to anything human—like breath drawn in places no lungs could reach.
Lyrix slept uneasily in his chambers. If you could even call it sleep. More like a restless crawl through fractured memories and looping thoughts. His body lay under fine velvet sheets, but his mind was still pacing, still grinding against itself like two dull blades.
And in the corner of the ceiling, behind the ornate chandelier carved from wyvern teeth, something was watching.
The Spiral.
A shimmer where the angles didn't quite add up. Like the room had one too many walls.
It watched the boy twitch. It listened to his breath stutter.
It had seen thousands like him before.
But this one… this one could be useful.
"Joshua…" Lyrix whispered in his sleep, brow twitching. His voice cracked.
