From the Shadows

Some voices you shouldn't answer.

The battle aboard the Eagle Parrot raged under the ghostly glow of the full moon. Mist creatures dissolved with every blast of Darius’s magic, every slash of Elara’s blade, but they kept coming endless and tireless.

Kale scrambled across the deck, trying to loosen the ropes at the mast as Rockford growled and darted between the crew’s legs, nipping at the attacking mist.

“We can’t hold them off forever!” Kale shouted.

“We don’t need forever!” Darius yelled back, sweat beading his brow from the effort of channeling so much magic at once. “We just need a path!”

Elara gritted her teeth as she severed another vine trying to entangle them. “Any brilliant ideas how to make one?”

Before Darius could respond, a voice slithered through the mist whispering, oily and cold.

“Darius Vale...” it hissed.

Everyone froze. Even the mist figures hesitated, their hollow smiles twitching as if waiting.

The voice came again, curling into Darius’s mind like smoke. “Answer us, child of two worlds...”

Darius’s hand faltered, just for a moment. He took a shaky breath, instinct screaming at him to respond; to demand answers, to understand what was calling to him from the shadows.

Elara stepped in front of him without hesitation, sword at the ready, eyes hard.
"Don’t answer that,” she said sharply.

Darius blinked, the trance breaking. His heart hammered against his ribs.
He nodded. “Right.”

The voice howled with rage as he resisted. The mist shapes lunged again, furious.

“Get the sails loose!” Darius shouted, regaining focus. “We’re leaving!”

Kale finally got the last rope free. The Eagle Parrot groaned as the wind caught the sails and ripped the ship away from the haunted bay.

As the cliffs shrank in the distance, Darius looked back once.

Whatever had called to him didn't feel finished.