Kaelen woke to a strange stillness. Not the kind that came from sleep, but something heavier, unnatural. His body didn't feel right. It was heavier, as if something had settled into it while he wasn't aware.
He didn't move. There was no need.
The room felt too empty with just a bed, a wooden chair beside it with closets, and two closed windows covered by curtains.
Someone else was in the room, sitting on a chair beside the bed he was lying on. Aurelion was there; he seemed different at first because of the change in color of his hair.
Kaelen froze the moment he saw him. Everything came back at once. He moved without thinking, pulling himself toward the edge of the bed, gripping the sheets tightly. He turned away slightly and curled in on himself, trying to put some distance between them. Still, the distance between them wasn't enough.
He didn't say anything. He didn't look again.
Even sitting still, Aurelion felt too close.
"Are you going to keep acting like this? I saved you," Aurelion said, in a voice that pushed for an answer.
Aurelion leaned forward in his chair, his eyes staring into Kaelen.
Kaelen fought to steady himself, forcing his thoughts into order, his breath under control. He had saved him, but he had beaten him at the theater too.
"What changed?" he asked, his voice louder than it should have been. "Is my life supposed to get better now? Do you consider me anything more than a tool you chose to keep?"
"I can't guarantee anything. You're alive. What happens next depends on you."
"What would you know? It's easy for you to say when you weren't the one to go through it."
"Listen to me. The only way for you to live is by following me."
The room went quiet once again. Kaelen took his time before saying anything. His grip on the bedsheets loosened.
"What if I don't?"
"You already know how it would end up that way."
"So my only choice is to keep following you for my whole life?"
"No."
Aurelion didn't respond immediately.
"You can decide what you do next, but choose whom you trust carefully."
"If I am going to be with you for now, wouldn't it be better to tell me what happened?"
"You were dragged into something you shouldn't have been. Suspicion was enough for them. You were more fortunate than you realize. Otherwise, I wouldn't have saved you."
Kaelen finally felt relieved after hours of that hell; he got to relax for a while. His body was in his control after so long.
"So what now?"
"Let's introduce you to people you will work with."
Aurelion stood up; Kaelen hesitated for a few seconds, then followed.
Kaelen resisted his urge to ask questions about them.
The room felt like a hideout designed to pretend normal life was possible inside it. It was bigger than Kaelen's room but had fewer decorations.
Aurelion opened the door for them, leading to a dining room with a kitchen attached to it. There was a door probably leading to an exit.
Kaelen followed Aurelion into the room.
People were arguing over something. Much of it didn't make sense to him. But it would in the near future.
They sat at the dining table. None of them eating the food in front of them.
Every one of them was unfazed by the creepy shadowy creature in the corner, staring at Kaelen.
"Silas, when will you understand we have to work together to win. And Lyne and Nyx, you two have to learn to respect others." Shouted a girl while pointing out the members.
Kaelen was shocked to see kids in there: Lyne and Nyx. And an old man, Silas.
Nyx stood up. "You just got here a few months ago. You know nothing," Aurelion cut her off signaling her to stop with his hand.
Suddenly everyone's gaze was stuck at Kaelen.
Their gazes were strange and long. They expected more, but were also ready for the shock. Impressed too, though he had no idea what he'd done to earn that. Something Kaelen hadn't felt before.
He focused on keeping a straight face. He failed miserably. His face sunk harder than his mood after seeing Aurelion in his bed just after waking up. It shouldn't have been like that, but his loneliness made getting into an already formed friend group hard.
The next second, the food was the next hot topic.
"Why is there so much salt in this?" a man complained. He looked close to thirty, looked very similar to Aurelion. The same clothes and physique.
"Only if Nevyziel knew how to cook, we would eat human food." Nyx added to the man.
"It's the best you will have, Caeran." Nevyziel said to him, ignoring Nyx completely.
Something told Kaelen this wasn't the best time for introductions. He took a step back and reached for the door handle back to his room.
The meanest look he had ever gotten was surely Aurelion's.
He took his hand back and took a seat at the table.
The figure in the corner moved, "You look no different from those who gave their lives for them."
Nevyziel gave a strange look at Kaelen, slightly tilting her head in confusion.
Everyone's eyes drifted toward the corner and slid past it, catching on nothing. Their faces stayed blank, untouched by whatever wasn't there for them to see.
"Nothing," Kaelen said. Kaelen couldn't think of a way to explain them. Nevyziel's confusion didn't fade, if anything it sharpened, her eyes staying on him a moment too long before she let it go. He looked down expecting a plate. There was none.
"So, has Aurelion told you about your assignment?" Nevyziel said, leaning towards him. She made it sound like a question. Even though she seemed confident that Aurelion hadn't.
He hadn't gotten a clean look at her before now. He was getting one now, and it was doing something to his ability to think about the question. It's the feeling most people carry for their dream woman, someone they picture but never actually meet, so the brain borrows pieces of her from everyone else instead.
That feeling inside Kaelen was fulfilled.
Nevyziel snapped her fingers in front of Kaelen.
Kaelen shook his head and looked at Aurelion.
"You will be going on assignment." he paused. "To kill a man possibly many." Aurelion said.
"Assignment? To kill a man? Is that what I get for joining you?" Said Kaelen.
"That's all you need."
"That's all I need to die. Yeah, I agree," Kaelen nodded at him.
Everyone switched their attention to him.
That's when the figure talked again. "We are already dead. Better to die seeking justice. Isn't that what you would always agree with?"
That last line got stuck inside Kaelen. He agreed with it. But he also believed Aurelion wasn't going to let him die. After all he knew more about Aurelion than Aurelion did. Though only for a few minutes. When he laid unconscious in the statue room experiencing Aurelion's life. Not the memories themselves, but their weight, the years of slavery Aurelion had endured, left behind in Kaelen as instinct, reactions with no memories to explain them. It was a painful feeling, worn in by years he hadn't lived through, and it was strong enough that he couldn't shake it even without understanding where it came from. His brain stopped being his and the feeling of it was stamped onto his brain. And they were enough to gain Kaelen's trust over the shadow.
Upon realizing this, Kaelen ignored the creature. Something in him shifted, quick and certain, more instinct than choice. His mood had brightened up and body had regained its heat.
Aurelion scratched his head, his face went pale, and his voice tired. "There's an entrepreneur funding a ritual. We still don't know which god. He funded the one you got into as well."
Aurelion searched for something in his pocket. A small photo came out. He flipped it. It looked familiar until Kaelen realized it was Ravus Corax.
Kaelen called him the owner of the world. Recently, he wasn't very popular. He seemed to hate the spotlight, even though he was always in the middle of the world's biggest shifts.
Kaelen had researched his life to where he knew what Ravus was going to wear before Ravus did. He didn't have any significant achievement till he did many at the same time. As if he had appeared at the top of the world one day. Having seen what he now had, Kaelen wondered if the gods had sent him after all.
His rise had been sudden, nothing like something rooted deep in the system, built up over years. If he had truly been part of the government's own machinery, he wouldn't have turned against it and caused the biggest government crash in memory. He understood the beliefs of humans better than anyone else.
And now Kaelen knew. Ravus's power came from belief. The more people believed in him, the stronger he became. But where that belief had started was something Kaelen had never been able to explain.
"That's him. You will have to kill him. We have inserted an identity inside you; it will take over whenever you are given a work."
Kaelen's heart stopped, his eyes drifting to something that wasn't there. Another person living inside him.
Aurelion put his hands on Kaelen's shoulder. It gave Kaelen a strange warmth, steadying him against what he had to face. "It can't take over when you don't allow it to. Think of it as a partner. You won't survive without them. Not for long. And you won't have to spend a lot of time working. He was Ravus's friend and barely worked. So you won't lose much."
"How can I kill someone like him?" Kaelen asked, sweating, his arms shivering.
"Your choice, even if you make a mess. Just come here alive." Aurelion paused.
"But you would need to understand something else first."
Kaelen stared at him, having forgotten to breathe, his eyes stopped blinking.
"You can't kill a dead man. Ravus has died. Only an imposter wearing his identity remains."
Kaelen stared at him, the words refusing to settle. "Then who." His voice caught, the question collapsing before he could finish it.