Shadow Song

  Cresthall Academy I

  E. Hereygers

  Shadow Song

  Cresthall Academy I

  Copyright © 2022 E. Hereygers

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

  Any resemblance to any real people is coincidental and unintentional.

  Shadow Song/Eline Hereygers – 1st edition.

  What are we?

  But flailing shadows anyway,

  dancing to an invisible flame.

  Dedicated to all of you,

  who ever slept between the silent chords of grief.

  Chapter Index

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  39

  40

  41

  42

  43

  44

  45

  46

  47

  48

  49

  50

  51

  52

  53

  54

  55

  56

  57

  58

  59

  60

  61

  62

  63

  64

  65

  66

  67

  68

  69

  70

  71

  72

  73

  74

  75

  76

  77

  78

  79

  80

  81

  82

  83

  84

  85

  86

  87

  88

  89

  90

  91

  92

  93

  94

  95

  96

  97

  98

  99

  100

  101

  102

  103

  104

  Acknowledgements

  1

  Moon

  Sometimes, the endless void of my Null Space howled from the shadowy depths it hid within. I felt it, like it was a second skin. Like it was a living, breathing thing inside of me. Always just out of range, but potently present. Screaming at me from afar, to come and claim it.

  Come and hone it.

  And always – always - the same insistent fear holding me back. Keeping me away from the magic force I was born with. The endless power I was destined to utilize in this maddening world.

  At Cresthall Academy, I was cut off from my Null Space for the first time in years - courtesy of the powerblocking golden cuffs they had every student wear. Even though my ill-fated powers had always been out of reach, not being able to feel them, had rendered me into a shell of my former self.

  Kalix – my best friend - had fixed my migraine yesterday, but he didn’t fix this pain. This hollow feeling. As if I was missing limbs, and the sudden silence was louder than the howling ever had been.

  I felt another panic attack lurking behind the corners of my mind. My first year of college was about to begin, and as with all things new, it made me infinitely terrified of jumping into these unknown waters. I hurried after my brave sisters through the Cresthall corridors.

  I could feel the air leaving from some people’s bodies as we walked past them in these ancient hallways - the brown and golden hues of the high-domed ceiling speaking of centuries of history and Supreme power frolicking between its gothic walls.

  It was our family curse of the Void, which caused the current disruption, the whispers, a burden so steep even the mention of our last name was enough to rattle someone’s bones.

  The Void.

  The Black Void.

  My one year-older sister – June - was walking first with the feline grace of a lion, her long red hair was untied and shimmering in the hallway light. She had her head held high, chin jutted out proudly, as she walked confidently through the hall. Ignoring everyone that stared at her. At us.

  She also possessed one of the two possible Void Magics, the notorious Devil Force. It was an entirely different beast than mine, but a beast nonetheless. Whereas mine, - my Null Space, - could undo, hers, could annihilate as she pulled from shadows and created the most vicious shadow animals with them.

  My twin sister Sookie walked beside me and was my opposite in every way. She looked exactly like our mother. She had long, light blonde hair, almost leaning towards the white end of the spectrum. Her eyes were more of a honey brown and had the lightest green circle around the outside of her retinas. She didn’t care people were staring. In fact, I was convinced she somehow found the attention pleasing.

  She was ‘blessed’ with a different branch of magic, and hadn’t inherited our Void curse, but a siren power made to seduce and manipulate.

  My sisters and I had previously gone to a private high school where powerblocking cuffs were prohibited. Still, any violation of using magic would have been punished with permanent suspension.

  There had been only one incident in the six years I had attended Santo Highschool. Tyler Oakes - a Fire Mage - had set the school on fire because my bratty twin sister had ended things with him. Her Siren power must have slipped out somehow, since he had been utterly obsessed with Sookie. He had wanted to make the world burn after losing her, and he had almost succeeded that faithful morning.

  Kalix and I had been at the gym when all the fire alarms had gone off, and all Water Mages were asked to join the fire department at the assembly hall.

  Fortunately for all of us, Tyler was an Eminent, still powerful but a third-tier magic user. If he had been a Supreme, there wouldn’t have been a school left after his tantrum since it would have ultimately taken other Supreme Water Mages to end that fire.

  There had been only two Supreme Water Mages in our city and school, and the other twin duo, San and Cho Seol, had not been at school that day. I knew, not only because Cho was Sookie’s best friend, but because I’d had a massive crush on her twin brother San for years. I kept track of the days they visited their father on the other side of the country, and it had been one of those weeks.

  Tyler had been arrested for the incident, and I heard he had been sent to The Manor. His mind fractured beyond repair. I had never gotten a clear answer from Sookie about what exactly happened that day he almost burned the school down, but something told me there was more to this story than she would ever admit to me.

  I watched June pretend not to be bothered by all the angry stares aimed at us. We were still the talk of the town and would remain to be for a long time to come. Especially when our dad’s trial would begin in the summer. I was already dreading every bit of it. Our entire lives would be smeared over the tabloid and gossip magazines once again and even more than before. I had barely survived the last time.

  I heard the other students whispering in the wind, behind their hands, in each other’s ears.

  “The daughters of the Black Void.”

  Some of the student’s eyes were wide with fear. Others even had a ripple of disgust floating to the surface. As if our presence was revolting them beyond reason.

  “The assassin’s daughters. Odrick Quasar’s daughters.”

  My phone pinged, the lock screen showed me and Kalix hugging each other at the carnival a few weeks ago. My jet-black hair had been wavier than it usually was, it almost reached my waist. My slanted, light-almond eyes were crinkling with joy as I hugged my blonde-haired bestie. His freckles stood out starkly in this picture.

  My sisters and I had just survived a course of Economics, and my best friend was clearly worried the class would have drained me even more than the cuffs. Kalix tends to worry too much about me. I regretted admitting to him how much I was suffering. The cuffs were gold and tight around my wrists, as I read his message.

  I sighed and quickly typed back a reply that I was alright.

  The lie came easy.

  2

  June

  The first person we bumped into was Sookie’s ex-boyfriend, Han Gineul.

  Han had always been the class clown, funny, eccentric, loud, and insanely talented. There was nothing he couldn’t do. From athleticism to intellect, he excelled in everything, always.

  He was a Supreme Aerial Mage. He could control wind and air, ranging from telekinetic movement to cutting your oxygen off.

  The golden cuff on his wrist indicated his Supreme power and that he was also constrained on academic grounds for everyone’s safety.

  He had been a good boyfriend to Sookie, and, till this day, had been the longest relationship my little sister has ever had.

  He was one of the few not bothered by our association with the Black Void. Probably because his own parents were notorious, they ran the Magic Inquiline Ltd. The company that manufactured the cuff system for workplaces, academies, and prisons. They were loaded and very dangerous Aerial Supremes.

  Sookie still cared about him, even though she would never admit it.

  Han was wearing a bright yellow shirt. In big white letters; Supreme was written on the back. He was never subtle with anything. He was rocking baggy black cargo pants, sunglasses with orange glasses on top of his light brown head of wild hair. His white earphones were around his neck, and he was wearing a shitload of silver jewelry on his hands. I spotted some tattoos of all kinds of instruments and random doodles scattered around his arms. His big brown puppy eyes lit up as he spotted Sookie behind me.

  I sighed. Here we go.

  “Cheonsa!” Angel.

  He smiled widely, with his arms stretched out for a hug. “I thought I could feel the temperature rise a few degrees in this hallway!” He joked. “Welcome to Cresthall. The place where all dreams come to die, don’t believe the sales pitch they give you. I’ve been here for a full day for orientation, and it’s a whole ass mess.”

  I gave him a quick hug first before Sookie jumped in. “Good to see you, Han.”

  “Where you heading?” He waved at Moon and she gave him a feeble nod. He was oblivious to the menacing stares the other students were giving us or he just didn’t give a fuck.

  “Ah, the Advanced Class, of course…” He scratched above his brow. “I’m in that course too. It’s in the biggest auditorium on campus.”

  The first year Supremes – the most powerful magic users in the world - would make up the Advanced Class of Cresthall Academy and would train together for the next three years. Supremes made up about one percent of the magic population of the world.

  We were very deadly. When not trained right, we could literally level cities, start revolutions, and end the world as we knew it. Therefore, all Magic Academies offered separate programs for our kind. Our line of work usually ended up somewhere high, where our powers would be used ‘for good.’ Yet, we knew now we sometimes were used by the forces to be for some very dark things.

  It’s all about the power balance.

  Always.

  Supremes were used to their magic being all-consuming. The use of the golden cuffs made it impossible to release steam. We had to wear them at all times, even on the weekends on Academy grounds.

  In these separate Advanced Class trainings, we got to remove the cuffs and be free from them. Despite the depths it resided at, I was looking forward to welcoming my wayward magic home. I wanted it so much I could cry.

  He turned towards the end of the hallway. “I’ll walk you. Follow me.” Sookie looked over her shoulder and made eye contact with me. She needed to be saved from Han or she would tumble down the abyss that got her in love with him in the first place. She still liked him too much after all these months apart.

  Yet, having someone as powerful as Han, in this hostile Academy on our side wasn’t bad. Han having suppressed superpowers or not. You could never wholly snuff out someone’s power with the cuffs. It was dormant but not completely unusable. It was flattened and meek, yet still there. To take complete control away from us was to kill us.

  I had been entirely alone last year at Darkwood Academy, and it had been a scary experience. I had known about Rowan’s plans to attend Cresthall’s Advanced Class after he would spend his year at the Psychokinetics Program every one of those magical users would partake in. It’s a year of intense mind training, an extra year after High School, and not all Magic branches offer these things.

  I did not want to attend an Advanced Academy with him, but after being alone at a strange foreign one for an entire year - knowing the dangers we were in as the Black Void’s Daughters - I had to change course, and protect my sisters. I had almost died when my roommate tried to kill me in my sleep. This was the right call. Even with that traitorous ex-best friend of mine roaming these halls.

  We had unfortunately skipped orientation yesterday, Moon had a panic attack, and we had to stay in our dorms to help her out.

  So, we followed Han and Sookie through the hallways, grateful to have a guide in this giant place. Han was extra loud and pointed out all the valuable things to us.

  Moon was still quiet. I turned towards her. She walked beside me with her head down, arms crossed. Her phone pinged, and I already knew it was Kalix.

  Her best friend knew about the panic attack and had stayed in our dorm yesterday to help ease the pain. She always got migraines after, and Kalix’s powers as a Regenerant made it so he could heal.

  “Are you alright?” I asked quietly. I ignored someone who shouldered me in passing. He also added something vile under his breath. It was fun being shunned.

  The Black Void, in service of the Board of Dunn, had killed and eliminated a lot of people over the years. A few of them had been famous and loved, but dangerous to our society. Many were criminals. Yet, it was highly likely these hallways were filled with relatives or acquaintances of all the people my father had killed along the years.

  Moon nodded, but I knew she was feeling the hate with her eyes empty of all emotion. She was the worst of the three of us in shielding her feelings.

  Sookie just didn’t give a fuck. She was who she was, and she loved every part of it. Good or bad.

  People saw me as cold and sure of myself. I had received some tips from Row about that. Having a Supreme Empath as my former best friend did have some perks.

  My heart panged in hurt over him again. Over missing him still. I quickly turned those thoughts away.

  We walked on, listening to Han’s extensive chattering and Sookie’s bouldering laugh whenever he made a joke. A student tried to run her down, yet she pushed him to the side and ignored him.

  No one could rattle her cage. She was the whole damn cage itself.

  Moon cringed as the guy fell hard against the lockers. We all had power behind our slender figures, courtesy of our father, who perhaps had known a day would come he wouldn’t be there to protect us.

  “Void Bitch!” the guy yelled after her. Han casually flipped him off behind his shoulder before wrapping his arm around Sookie’s back again. I sighed once more.

  This was going to be one hell of a long day.

  3

  Moon

  The training room my sisters and I walked into was huge. It was a domed football field, named the Auditorium.

  I could tell the structure was made element-proof, and I was sure there were other contingency plans to keep everyone as safe as possible.

  We entered the hall, our feet touching some gray floors, which looked sturdy but not too hard to fall on.

  Behind us, I heard some footsteps following. There were about thirty students here, which according to June’s calculations, would be about the right number. There were only three thousand students at Cresthall, it being rather exclusive, and only for anyone who possessed magic. We would have about thirty Supreme students in the Advanced Class in this first year, with that amount surely dwindling as each of the three years would see several students fail.

  I spotted Kalix on the right side of the hall, talking in hushed tones to Han who had made a beeline towards him upon entering. They knew each other from class and from Sookie dating him for a relatively long time for her standards. Kalix was at our house almost every night after school and on weekends, so we often did activities with just the four of us. Rowan – my sister’s former best friend - and June never could be bothered with us, unless they were forced on holiday.

  Of course, my trained stalker eye would spot San immediately. He had hair like midnight, cropped short around his angular face and his deep-brown eyes were slanted and always had a twitch of something dark in them. He was surrounded by a group of others, but he always stood out to me. His aura was just that intense.

  Our eyes met briefly, and he nodded a hello. I flushed red, and I hoped it wasn’t too noticeable. His twin sister Cho was standing close to him, she shared her brother’s aesthetic and her long, straight, raven hair was styled in a low ponytail. She chatted to an eccentric, beautiful boy with black and white wavy hair. Sookie made a beeline for that group, and I tried my best not to freak out.

  What was she doing?

  “Hey, guys!” Sookie cheerfully added, as if she was not outcasted from society at all.

 

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