Gilded Ashes: When Shadows Reign

Professor Atman turned away from the training grounds, robe wavering around his boots, and Raizen following.

The hallway swallowed the sounds fast. The further they walked, the more the roar of beasts and shouts of instructors faded into a muffled, indistinguishable sound.

The wood underfoot was smoother here, polished by years of steps. Lanterns set into the walls glowed with a steady, softer light.

Raizen's chest still calmed down, finally. Now everything that remained was just a thin, nagging line under his ribs every time he breathed a bit too deep.

"Do you get many visitors from other cities?" Raizen asked, mostly to fill the quiet.

Atman's hands were folded behind his back. He didn't walk fast. Just steady, like he had never rushed anywhere in his life.

"Not as many as we used to" he answered. "Ukai's methods are considered a bit… Intense. Some Academies prefer cleaner work. Fewer claws in the halls."

"I can see why" Raizen muttered.

Atman chuckled quietly.

They reached a staircase. The steps wrapped around the trunk, following the curve of the wood. As they climbed, Raizen saw the first framed picture hanging on the wall.

He slowed without meaning to.

It was a photo of a woman standing on a dock, one hand resting on the head of something that rose out of the water beside her.

The beast was huge. It took Raizen a second to understand its shape. A narwhal, but... Better.

Its body was thicker, the skin rougher, and its horn was massive. Not just a long tusk, but a spiraled spear with ridges, thick enough that a normal person wouldn't have been able to wrap its arms around it.

The woman smiled like this was just a normal day.

Under the frame, a neat plaque read:

Maris Lent - Deep Current Summoner, Third Rank.

Raizen glanced back as they moved past it.

"Those are students?" he asked.

"Former ones" Atman replied. "Tamer graduates. We place them along the staircases by domain. But not all of them are directly from Ukai - they just graduated here. That woman, for example, is from Kelperion.

Raizen heard of Kelperion before. A city southwest from Neoshima... Or that's at least what the maps indicates.

"This first floor is marine creatures." Atman went on. "Creatures of deep water. Whales, serpents, things that could push a ship over without trying too hard."

They climbed past more frames.

A man standing waist deep in the ocean, a long, eel-like head curling around him, lifted out of the water. A woman perched on the back of something that looked like a giant stingray with jagged, wing-like fins.

Every plaque had a name. A rank. A title.

Raizen swallowed.

He had seen power before. In the Arena, in the Underworks, in the Heart's drills.

This felt different. Less controlled. Closer to the world's natural teeth.

They reached the next floor.

The photos changed.

Here, the beasts were not breaching out of water. They were coiled through tunnels, wedged in caverns, pressed up against rock.

One frame showed a young man sitting cross legged on a stone ledge, a serpent thicker than a transport car looped in the cave behind him.

Its head rested beside the youngster's shoulder. Its scales looked like plates of armor, dull black with thin, pale seams. One eye stared straight into the camera, like it could see through whoever had taken the picture.

Another showed a woman standing in front of what looked like a web made of metal wires. At her feet, a spider the size of a toy.

In another picture, another spider. But this time, each leg looked like a blade.

Raizen's throat felt a bit dry.

"Underground?" he asked.

"Yes" Atman said. "Burrowing beasts. Nesters. Things that like the dark and tight spaces. Very useful when dealing with Nyxes that prefer to hide."

Raizen kept walking.

The third floor looked more like what he expected from Ukai. But way more.

The beasts here walked on land.

Ground. Trees. Grass.

One frame showed a jaguar mid step, muscles bunched under spotted fur, three long tails fanned out behind it. Each tail ended in a sharp, speared tip. The man beside it grinned like he was introducing a friend.

Another frame showed something like a bear, but leaner, with plates of bone along its shoulders and spine. A girl with short hair stood with a hand on its neck, eyes bright.

There was even a wolf, though not like Raku's. This one had no saber fangs. Instead, its entire back was lined with sharp, angled needles that looked like they could be fired out, like a porcupine.

Raizen tilted his head back.

The staircase did not end here.

It went up, spaced evenly, turning and rising around the curve of the trunk. There were more frames above, but from here, he could not make out the shapes in them. Only wings. Blurs. Unclear silhouettes.

"And higher?" he asked. "What is above this?"

Atman's gaze followed his.

"The interesting ones" he said, sounding almost amused. "Sky beasts. Hybrids. Large frames. Things that need a lot of air and space."

"Flying beasts?" Raizen said quietly.

His mind, unhelpfully, supplied another word.

Dragons?

He had never seen one. But fairy tales were full of them.

Did they exist? Or were they something people made up to explain beasts like the ones Ukai showed pictures of?

They stopped at a simple door. The wood was darker, etched with faint patterns that looked like branches and waves overlapping.

A small brass plate beside the frame read:

Prof. E. Atman.

Raizen blinked.

"This is your office?" he asked.

"At the moment" Atman said. "I find it efficient to work near the records. It makes things easier to compare."

Raizen had expected a lab. Maybe a room full of machines and wires. A test chamber with glowing sensors. Instead, the door in front of him looked ordinary.

Atman opened it with a light push.

"Please" he said. "Come in."

Raizen stepped past him.

The air in the office felt different from the halls. It was cooler, and the smell of ink, paper and books was stronger.

Shelves lined two of the walls, packed with neatly arranged binders and thick manuals. A wide desk sat near a large window carved into the trunk, light filtering through leaves outside. Papers lay on the desk in controlled piles.

The rest of the space was full of proof.

Diplomas in clean frames. Awards with polished metal plates. Small trophies shaped like beasts or stylized claws.

Photos. A lot of photos.

Most showed Atman.

In one, he shook hands with an older man in a Neoshiman Council robe Raizen recognized.

In another, he stood beside a beast Raizen had just seen in a stairwell portrait, the jaguar and the three tails. They both looked younger in the picture.

The walls were covered by such portraits, medals and diplomas.

Raizen let out a low whistle.

"You have… A lot of experience" he said.

"I have been at this for some time" Atman answered, stepping in behind him.

The door clicked shut.

Raizen did not turn right away.

"You trained them?" Raizen asked, nodding at the nearest photo. "All of them?"

"Taught, supervised, calibrated" Atman said. "Some for a few months. Some for years. Some were… Brief collaborations. But yes. I have had the privilege of watching many Eon beasts and their partners grow."

He spoke like he was talking about plants he had helped water.

Raizen's eyes drifted to a smaller frame near the desk.

Atman stood beside a boy around Raizen's age, maybe a bit younger. The boy was holding a slate in one hand and grinning wide, shoulders a bit hunched like he was not used to pictures. There was no beast in this one. Just them.

The plaque under it simply said:

Eiden.

Raizen's chest tightened for a reason that had nothing to do with fractures.

Was that… Professor Eiden? Younger. Before his hair turned the way it was now. Before the weight in his eyes.

"I see you know him" Atman said, noticing where Raizen was looking. His voice stayed smooth. "He was one of my brightest students. Our paths separated after… Certain disagreements. But his work was always impressive. He loved researching Eon..."

That did not make Raizen feel better.

He turned back toward Atman fully.

"So" he said. "How does this work? This reading you wanted. Is there some machine?"

"No machines" Atman said. "Not yet. I wanted to speak with you first. Understand your frame of mind. Your history with your weapon. Devices will come later, if needed."

He moved behind the desk, fingers brushing a stack of papers into a slightly neater line. The robe did not rustle much when he walked. He did not make idle movements.

Raizen nodded slowly.

He could feel the quiet more clearly now. No sounds of students, no distant roars. The office might as well have been in a different world.

Raizen stood a few steps away from the desk, between it and the door.

"What exactly will you be testing?" Raizen asked.

"Your resonance with the blade" Atman answered. "Nothing more. Nothing dangerous. Think of it as… Repeating a question, this time with the right tool watching."

"Right tool?" Raizen echoed.

Atman smiled.

"Me" he explained.

The ghost-blue Chasmis eye pulsed, very faintly.

The skin at the back of Raizen's neck prickled.

Atman left the desk.

Raizen heard his steps, light but steady, circling to the side. Then they stopped behind him.

He turned his head to track him, just a little.

"Relax" Atman said. "You are safe."

The words floated into his mind for a second.

Raizen did not believe them.

Right then, he heard another sound.

A soft metallic slide. Not loud. Not dramatic.

Like metal brushing cloth.

Raizen's heart stuttered once.

He threw a sneaky look back.

Professor Atman was no longer empty handed.

A knife had in his grip. Thin, narrow, sharp. His hand wrapped around the hilt with practiced ease.

The calm, polite smile had not moved from his mouth.

His eyes had.

The yellow one narrowed.

The ghost-blue Chasmis flared brighter, veins of pale light threading through the iris.

The knife moved.

Inhumanly fast.

One moment, it rested at his side.

The next, the arm blurred, the blade already cutting a line through the air straight toward Raizen's throat.