The library was cold and silent in the dead of night. It had been two days since his conversation with Lilith at the student council office, and Damon could feel his irritation bubbling over. He balled his fists, feeling the tension in his body mount. With a sharp exhale, he slammed his knuckles against the wall. A faint crack spread across the surface. He ignored the mild pain, his frustration drowning out everything else. "Why am I letting this bother me so much…?" It was Sylvia. She was getting worse with each passing day. At first, she had just been withdrawn. Then, she started shutting people out completely. She brooded constantly, barely spoke unless necessary, and when she did, she was either curt or outright dismissive. She avoided company, preferring to sit alone. She was starting to remind him of himself. And it was annoying. "Is this how I treat people…?" He hadn’t even realized it—hadn’t noticed just how unbearable it was—until Leona pointed it out. She knew him better than anyone, after all. She was the one who had forced her way past his walls, the one who refused to let him push her away. Damon had tried to fix it. He really had. But he didn’t even know how he had hurt Sylvia in the first place. Evangeline had long since given up trying to talk to him about it. She barely mentioned Sylvia anymore, as if she had already accepted that nothing could be done. Not that it mattered—Sylvia didn’t talk to Evangeline either. She barely acknowledged anyone. All she did was sit alone, reading, even when her friends were around. It was like the world around her didn’t exist. "Worst of all… she’s becoming me." Damon clenched his fists again, his frustration mounting. He stalked down the dimly lit halls, his steps barely making a sound. He was looking for Sylvia. He had gone to her room first—nothing. She wasn’t there. No trace of her. Just stacks of books, neatly arranged as if she had left them behind on purpose. Lately, he had developed the bad habit of sneaking into Sylvia’s room at night. She never reacted to his presence. Never looked up. Never acknowledged him. She would just sit there, reading. At first, he had tried talking. Tried to get her to open up. She never answered. Eventually, he stopped talking too. And they just sat there, in silence, reading together. Tonight, when he went to her room, she was gone. That was why he had snuck out of the dorms without anyone noticing. He was sure she would be here. The only problem was that the library was massive. She usually stuck to the outer sections, but as time passed, she started reading books from deeper inside. It was almost like she had an obsession with reading everything. Damon exhaled and closed his eyes, spreading his shadow perception through the library. The darkness slithered through the aisles, stretching as far as the barriers would allow. Some areas were protected by magic, preventing his shadows from reaching them. He sensed nothing. No movement. No living shadows. He sighed, glancing down at his own shadow. "Go find her. If you see her, report back immediately." His shadow gave him a crisp, military-style salute before gliding away, vanishing into the pale glow of the library’s dim magic lanterns. Today was an odd day. The library was quiet—too quiet. By now, he should have sensed at least one or two people in different sections, even with the curfew in place. But tonight, there was nothing. It was almost as if he had stepped into another realm altogether. The feeling unsettled him. It reminded him of the way the world seemed to vanish whenever Lilith used her void magic to isolate space. Damon scratched the back of his head, trying to shake off the unease creeping over him. His skin prickled, a deep discomfort settling in his bones. His shadow slithered through the halls at high speed, darting between shelves, its perception feeding him a vision of every corner it passed. He walked in the opposite direction. He could have called out Sylvia’s name, but with the academy’s new curfew, that would have been reckless. If a patrol professor caught him sneaking around at this hour, he’d be in trouble. He had already almost run into Professor Kael on the way here. "If he had caught me, it would’ve been annoying." He moved carefully, staying in the shadows where possible. Then—he stopped. A faint sound rippled through his shadow’s perception, reaching him from the far edges of the library. Damon turned sharply, shifting his shadow to the side, and caught a glimpse of white hair disappearing around a corner between the shelves. "Sylvia." Without hesitation, he dashed forward, vaulting over desks and tables as he crossed the open space of the library. His instincts urged him to send his shadow ahead, but at the last second, he stopped himself. He couldn’t let Sylvia see his shadow moving on its own. Grinding his teeth, he called it back. His shadow slipped through the aisles and reattached itself to him just as he reached the shelves where Sylvia had disappeared. He slowed his pace slightly, spreading his perception out fully, searching for any trace of her. Nothing. The eerie silence of the library pressed in on him. He was certain he had seen her. Just as he was about to move forward, he caught another flicker of white in his peripheral vision. He snapped his head toward it. "Sylvia, wait—!" He took a sharp turn, running after her— Flash. A sudden burst of blinding white light engulfed the entire library. His vision exploded with brightness, erasing every shadow, erasing his shadow— Damon barely had time to process what was happening before a searing heat bloomed in his gut. Then— The unmistakable sensation of liquid spilling from his body. Blood. His own. Before he could react, something hard slammed into his head. His neck jolted back, his balance broke— His body collapsed to the ground. Blood pooled beneath him. His consciousness slipped. As the suffocating white light grew, a figure remained. A white figure, holding a glowing white orb—one that greedily absorbed the blood seeping from the ground. Then, just as quickly as it had appeared, the light vanished— Taking the figure with it. Damon lay unmoving in a crimson pool, his body limp, breath shallow. The library was silent once more. Then— His shadow stirred. It circled around him, moving anxiously, writhing as if in distress. And then, without hesitation— It fled, gliding swiftly through the darkened halls, searching for help.