Shadows Over Arcadia Chapter 56: 55. A Cat's Eye View

Read chapter 56 of Shadows Over Arcadia by Zacheas on NovelPedia.

I am Willow, a 5,096 year old fae, currently contracted to protect and guide the young prince, Ren Drakemore. https://shadowsoverarcadia.com/api/storage/objects/uploads/e36e5201-b5f5-4e9c-bdf0-03b5ea1f4af9 The manor’s lamps are dark, its halls quiet. Ren and Maribel sleep soundly in their beds. He had clung to me earlier, and I watched over him until the peaceful embrace of sleep took him. But I cannot remain at his side through the night. There is something of dire importance that demands my attention. In the twenty-second hour of our first day in the manor, with the moon still high and bathing the world in pale blue light, I slip silently through the front door. A few paces from the threshold, I stop—coming level with the golem standing sentry at the edge of the patio. “Going out?” Shadow says as only his head slowly turns to regard me with a faint screech of metal on metal. Moonlight drapes his mithril mask in jagged shadows, casting hollow pits where eyes should be. “I won’t be long,” I respond simply, without returning his gaze. He lingers in silence, as if there’s more he wishes to say. But in the end, he simply turns his head back forward and resumes his silent vigil. I know the fragment of Ren that became Shadow still longs for the connection it once had with me. He wants to regain what it lost—so it can return to how things were. But that is out of the question. Not only because he’s become a detestable weapon, forged from a metal that can kill beings like me—More importantly, Ren must be allowed to fracture. His pieces must walk their own paths—must grow, must corrupt. Only by treating each fragment as its own individual can I ensure that divergence takes root. And in that corruption… lies the boy’s salvation. It may seem cruel. But it is necessary. Because in the end, that corruption will be what saves his life—and mine. It is the only way to fulfill the contract that binds us both. Without another word, I release the illusion of my human form, dissolving into a cloud of dark mist and rocketing off the manor’s patio into the night sky. The sensation of immaterial flight—soaring freely through moonlight and silence—is a welcome reprieve from the constraints of my mortal disguise. That body has its uses, of course. There are certain pleasures one can only experience in the flesh. A pleasing figure is a powerful tool, especially when coaxing men to betray their better judgment. But confinement to that vessel for too long… it begins to chafe. To suffocate. To feel more like a cell. I don’t fly far. Twisting midair, I dive into the wheat field just beyond the manor. I hit the ground as a silent black cloud, folding into the golden stalks without so much as disturbing the soil. My toes are the first to take shape, pressing into the dirt as my ethereal form condenses. Ebony skin, clawed hands, limbs half-formed and unraveling at the edges—somewhere between flesh and mist. I settle cross-legged upon the soft soil, teeming with the small but steady flow of botanical life force. The energy coursing through the plants around me and the roots below is faint—nothing like the rich, intoxicating essence that flows in mortal veins—but it will do. A beggar’s meal, meager and thin, yet still enough to aid in what I must do. It has been an arc since that fool Gavin set off for the capital—to decide whether I am the threat to Arcadia, or if I acted to shield Ren from the king’s murderous intent. One of the reasons we’ve retreated to Hyperion is to honor his request that we stay clear of the capital while he validates our claims. How troublesome, that we must place even a shred of faith in his judgment. It was a shockingly clever move on that bloated sack of lard Fobos’s part to manipulate Ren’s ally into confronting me. No doubt they hoped Gavin would destroy me… or that I would be forced to kill one of Ren’s most trusted companions. He never had a chance. But had I killed him, it would’ve shattered the valuable alliance Ren has with G