He tried to think back on the past moments they’d shared, tried to remember something that would have given the Exonian away...but the memories were distant. Already fading, as if tugged away from him on a spectral wind.

Valen closed his eyes, trying to regain control of himself. He was in his mind, safe in his fortress. And yet the chill of the air was so deep that it stung with each breath he took. His head kept pounding, like the angry beat of a drum.

This was his domain. He could control it. Will it to obey him, for he was the creator. And once he got out, he would find Darai and solve this once and for all.

Nor is going to betray you, Darai had said.

Valen couldn’t let himself believe it. Not now.

He imagined the darkness lifting, the light of a burning torch as his guide.

There, to his left. A torch flickered into existence, the light a brilliant glow that chased the darkness away. He craned his neck as far around as it could go, trying to look behind him. Nothing but walls, endless and without an exit door or window.

He rocked back and forth, trying to loosen his bindings, but they remained as tight as ever. No matter what he did, the castle refused to bend any further to his will. The bonds refused to fall free. The obsidinite walls remained intact, neither crumbling when he imagined it, nor splitting apart to create a door to the other side when he begged it to do so.

Had he finally lost his power?

He began to wonder if Darai hadn’t been lying. If perhaps Valen was already trapped inside Nexus, and would spend forever inside his mind, locked in a castle of his own making.

Valen screamed, rage coursing through him. Panic took over. This was wrong, terribly wrong...

“LET ME OUT!”

He thought he was screaming to no one, until a figure made entirely of shadow stepped through the obsidinite walls and into the room.

“Valen, Valen,” it said. “When will you learn? There is so much more for you than this.”

The figure spread its arms wide, black coils of shadow undulating around it like chains.

“Darai?” Valen asked, the word forming clouds in the cold air.

Darai laughed, the shadows shaking and hissing.

“I tried, Valen. I truly did try to keep it a secret until the time was right. But it seems your foolish sister cannot make the choice she needs to.”

“Keep what a secret?” Valen asked.

Darai stepped closer, the cold intensifying as his hands touched Valen’s temples.

Valen screamed as his mind went black.

A ruined canvas, and a painter that did not belong.