Chapter 38: The Importance of a Shadow

Magna slowly came back to his senses. He felt like he had just taken a quick nap on his feet.

Azelith was still standing in front of him, one hand resting on his head, her eyes staring straight into his.

There was something different about her face now.

Her dark pupils had turned completely pale gray. Her face had been smiling and confident just a moment ago. Now it was frozen in sheer fear.

Magna didn’t stay still to study her face for long. As soon as he felt he could move his body again, he threw himself backward to put some distance between himself and the Witch.

Despite his sudden movement, Azelith didn’t move at all. It was as if she had turned to stone.

’What’s wrong with her?’ Magna felt how strange the situation was, but he wasn’t the type to stick around and figure it out. He started running again.

If he could, he wanted to escape the mansion completely and return to the forest.

At least out there, the worst he’d face were monsters and wild beasts. They were far more predictable than humans, whose intentions and logic were impossible to understand.

Of course, that wish was crushed almost right away.

Although Azelith remained still, her shadow, cast on the floor by the sunlight streaming through the window, trembled slightly.

Magna only caught it out of the corner of his eye before a sudden wave of dread washed over him. Still, he kept running. He was so close to the door now.

When he was just one step away from making it outside, he suddenly felt a choking force around his neck.

"Gack!"

A rope snapped tight around his neck, threw his body off balance, and slammed him hard onto the floor.

Before he could even process the impact, the dark rope jerked back with a force he couldn’t resist. It dragged him backward across the wooden floor like a slaughtered animal.

He came to a stop right in front of a pair of feet belonging to a man dressed entirely in black.

Magna clawed desperately at his throat, trying to loosen the rope just enough to draw a single breath while catching a glimpse of his attacker.

A pair of eyes beneath a featureless black mask stared back down at him.

"What have you done to her?"

His voice dripped with anger and resentment, as if he were the one lying on the floor, bound and choking like a pig being taken to slaughter.

He didn’t loosen the rope to let Magna answer. Instead, it pulled even tighter, straining against his throat.

Just as the pressure began to threaten the bones in his neck, with Magna thrashing helplessly on the floor, Azelith’s voice rose in the room.

"Malakor, stop. Now."

She seemed to have come back to her senses, standing there even though her eyes remained a pale, lifeless gray and her face was drained of color.

Though her behavior was far from normal, Malakor found it strange but obeyed the command.

The rope unwound itself, releasing its grip from Magna’s neck.

Finally able to draw air into his lungs, he broke into a fit of coughing. Each gasp sent a sharp spike of pain through his throat.

Even if no bones were broken, he was sure the attack had left a few painful cracks behind.

Malakor kept a wary eye on the boy, but he quickly rushed to his mistress’s side.

"You alright?"

It wasn’t the first time he had seen her weakened or shaken.

Over the past century at her side, they had survived countless life-or-death situations together. He had even watched half her body get blown away during her second attempt at her 12th trial.

Yet he had never seen an expression like this on her face before. It was not the cold dread of the fear of death.

Azelith ignored her Shadow’s concern completely. Staring blankly ahead with her sightless eyes, she asked in a panic, "What did you do? Is he alright?"

Malakor was caught off guard by the question, but he answered anyway. "He is still breathing."

A flicker of relief crossed Azelith’s pale face, though her voice still trembled as she spoke. "Get me out of here."

Malakor didn’t question her. He scooped her up into his arms and left the room with swift, silent steps.

Left alone on the floor in agony, Magna turned his head slightly to watch their dramatic retreating figures.

"W-What the hell was that...?"

He had nearly lost his life again, for reasons he couldn’t even begin to understand.

—

In the study, Celeste sat at her desk, lost in thought.

She knew Azelith was a Witch not known for kindness. She was known instead for being ruthless.

She was the kind of woman who would kill someone without hesitation, just for displeasing her.

"I really shouldn’t have asked Mother for help," she muttered with a sigh.

She was still troubled, even angry, that her daughter’s trial had become much harder, almost impossible, because of Seraphina.

Now Azelith’s arrival had made things worse. If she killed Magna in a sudden fit of rage, they would lose their only hope for Faye to pass the trial she would enter in one year.

Finding a Shadow was not an easy task, especially at such a young age.

There were only a few known families to their reach with the bloodline to raise strong Shadows.

Titus came from one of these families.

But even Titus’s family had only produced a handful of individuals who truly earned the right to a contract in the last hundred years.

No matter how strong the bloodline was, only one out of every ten children born had the right qualities.

With so few Shadows produced, the demand in Witch society was always high.

Every Witch family was always racing to find the best Shadow for their young daughters, paying with fortunes and rare resources just to secure one for their family.

There was even an auction in their circle where all kinds of Shadows were sold. Incredible fortunes and connections changed hands there, fortunes that even the Winterborne family could sometimes only dream of.

"Let’s be patient," Titus said, thinking about the matter. "Even she wouldn’t kill or harm a child, right?"

His question only drew a look from Celeste. That look was answer enough for him.

While the two of them waited nervously, unable to step into the matter of a 12th trial Witch, someone suddenly knocked on the door.

"Who could that be?" Titus muttered with a frown, looking surprised.

The maids in the mansion would never visit Celeste’s study room under any circumstance.

As for Faye, she wouldn’t even knock. She would just push the door open and walk in.

They hadn’t even thought about the possibility of it being Azelith.

But when Titus got up and saw who was there, he was stunned.

Celeste got up from her desk quickly as well to see for herself. She felt the same shock.

"Aunt Azelith?"

The Witch, who was said to be as powerful as Seraphina, the head of the Winterborne family, was now waiting at the door in the arms of her Shadow.

What was even more shocking was her lifeless eyes, which looked clearly blind. Her expression looked just as troubled.