The aftermath of the alley fight left a lingering hum in Shin's marrow. He didn't wait for the city watch to arrive; he had already vanished into the labyrinth of Oakhaven's lower slums before the first whistle blew. The Captain of the Iron Guard was a message sent—a cold reminder to Baron Kaelen that the ghost of the Van Crofts had returned with teeth. But messages were secondary; the library of the Kaelen estate was the true objective.
Shin reached the perimeter of the estate just as the moon reached its zenith. The violet mana barrier he had analyzed earlier was pulsating with a slower, heavier frequency now—a sign of the midnight recharge cycle. To a normal mage, this was an impenetrable wall of incinerating energy. To Shin, it was a rhythmic pulse, like a heartbeat that could be mimicked.
「 The resonance is at 4.2 Hertz, 」 Shin whispered, his eyes narrowed as he calculated the vibrations in his mind. 「 The secondary layer is shifting every twelve seconds to prevent harmonic intrusion. If I sync my internal mana to this exact frequency, the barrier will perceive me as a glitch in the background noise, not an intruder. 」
[Hummmmm...]
He didn't use the Black Lightning to shatter the shield. Doing so would be a loud, amateur mistake that would alert every guard within miles. Instead, he touched the barrier with a single, steady finger. Black sparks flickered at the point of contact, but they didn't explode. They vibrated in perfect harmony with the violet light, mimicking its rhythm. It required an agonizing level of focus; one slip of his concentration, and the feedback would fry his nervous system from the inside out.
[Shhhhh—]
Shin slipped through the barrier like a needle through silk. Inside, the estate felt different—cold and heavy with the smell of old paper and expensive incense. He moved past the sleeping barracks, his footsteps making less sound than the scurrying of a rat. Every guard's patrol was a variable he had already factored into his path. He wasn't running; he was flowing through the gaps in their security.
He reached the library's heavy oak doors. They were locked with a biometric mana seal—a lock that required a specific soul-signature to open. Shin pulled out the silver thread he had obtained from the girl in the alley.
[Twang...]
The thread reacted instantly, coiling around the door handle like a living serpent. It glowed with a faint moonlight radiance, and the lock clicked open with a soft metallic sound. The girl hadn't just given him a tracker; she had given him a master key to the Baron's most guarded secrets.
Inside, the library was a cathedral of forbidden knowledge. Shin ignored the gold-bound histories and the tactical scrolls. He walked straight to the back, toward a section hidden behind a veil of artificial shadows—a place where the air felt thick with the weight of forgotten sins.
「 "The Van Croft Chronicles," 」 he muttered, his heart hammering against his ribs for the first time in years.
He pulled a dusty, leather-bound book from the shelf. This wasn't a public record; it was a private ledger, confiscated during the massacre ten years ago. As he opened it, a small piece of parchment fell out. It wasn't a spell or a map; it was a drawing of a young boy—himself—holding a wooden sword, with his father's handwriting at the bottom: 'For Shin, who will one day lead the lightning.'
[Drip...]
A single drop of rain from his cloak hit the page, blurring the ink. Shin's expression remained frozen, a mask of cold logic, but the air around him began to chill. He began to read the encrypted notes. His father hadn't just been a merchant or a minor noble. He had been a Warden of the "Void"—a lineage tasked with containing a power that the Crown wanted to weaponize. The Black Lightning wasn't just a family trait; it was a seal designed to keep something else inside.
「 "So that's why you died," 」 Shin whispered to the empty room. 「 "You weren't protecting the trade route. You were protecting me from becoming... this." 」
[Creak...]
The sound of a floorboard shifting behind him was almost imperceptible. Shin didn't turn around immediately. He slowly closed the book, his hand hovering near the hilt of his blade, his mind already mapping the exit routes.
「 "You read faster than I expected," 」 a familiar, melodic voice whispered. 「 "But reading about the Void is very different from surviving it." 」
Shin turned his head slightly to see the girl with the silver hair. She stood by a tall window, the moonlight turning her into a phantom. She wasn't holding a weapon; she was holding a mirror. And in the mirror, Shin didn't see his own reflection—he saw a creature made of pure shadow, with eyes like dying stars.
「 "Look closely, Shin Van Croft," 」 she said, her voice devoid of its earlier playfulness. 「 "Your lightning isn't a gift you mastered. It's a cage. Every time you use it, you break a bar of that cage. And I'm the only one who knows how to mend it before the thing inside eats you whole." 」
Shin's fingertips twitched. Black sparks began to leak from his skin, more violent and erratic than before. The logic he prided himself on was suddenly facing a variable that didn't fit any equation.
「 "Who are you?" 」 Shin demanded, his voice dropping to a dangerous register.
「 "A friend of the man your father used to be," 」 she replied, stepping into the shadows. 「 "And the only reason you aren't dead yet. The Baron is coming, Shin. And he isn't bringing guards this time. He's bringing the Key." 」