Shard Of The Black Sun

Rain-slick streets reflected the sickly glow of neon signs as the iron gates of Black Hollow Penitentiary groaned open.

Kaelen Veyr stepped out into the night, breathing in freedom like a drowning man breaking the surface. Three years locked away three years of rotting walls, whispers in the dark, and the one name that kept him alive.

Seris Wynne.

She wasn’t just the woman he couldn’t forget she was tangled in the reason he was in here.

His fingers tightened around a small, black shard on a leather cord. It pulsed faintly against his skin, a slow, unnatural rhythm, like a heartbeat that didn’t belong to him. The shard wasn’t from this world.

Neither was the man who’d given it to him, a pale, silver-eyed inmate named Ashryn Vale. Everyone thought Ashryn was insane. Kaelen had thought so too… until the night Ashryn bled silver and healed before his eyes.

On the day of Kaelen’s release, Ashryn had pressed the shard into his hand.

“July’s eclipse. Midtown’s tallest tower. Flash the shard they’ll come for you. And then… you’ll see the truth you’ve been living in.”

Kaelen didn’t know whether to call it a promise or a threat. But after what the shard had already shown him shadows that moved without light, whispers in his dreams he wasn’t going to ignore it.

Midtown wasn’t the home he remembered.

The city skyline was sharper, the streets more dangerous, and the people moved like they were running from something invisible. He walked the cracked pavement toward his old block, hood up, scanning faces.

When he finally turned the corner to his street, his stomach sank. The building he once called home was a hollowed-out husk, windows shattered, front door hanging loose.

This isn’t just neglect. Someone wanted it destroyed.

He climbed the warped steps and knocked. The sound echoed too long in the empty hall before the door creaked open.

A woman stood there, leaning on the frame. Slim, graceful, with eyes that could have been carved from storm clouds. Her hair spilled over her shoulders in dark waves, but her left wrist bore a faint, glowing brand, a circle bisected by a jagged line.

Kaelen froze. He’d never seen her like this, but his heartbeat kicked hard, as if his body knew her before his mind did.

“Looking for someone?” she asked, voice low, almost wary.

“I used to live here,” he replied, glancing past her. “My parents ”

“They’re gone,” she cut in. “And if you’ve got any sense, you’ll be gone too before they come back.”

“They?”

Her gaze flicked to the shard at his neck, and for a split second, something like recognition and fear crossed her face.

“I shouldn’t be talking to you,” she said, stepping back.

He caught the door before it could close. “Who are you?”

Her lips pressed into a thin line. “…Seris.”

The name hit him like a punch.

The woman he remembered from the Lantern Room had sharp wit, dangerous beauty, and a smile that could slice a man in two. This Seris looked harder, colder but her voice… her voice was exactly the same.

“How ” he began, but she grabbed his wrist, pulling him inside so fast he barely had time to react.

“Shut up and stay away from the windows,” she hissed. “They can smell the shard.”

Before he could ask what she meant, something outside howled low, inhuman, and too close. The glass rattled. Shadows bled up the walls like oil, stretching into clawed shapes.

Seris’s eyes locked on his. “You should have stayed in prison, Kaelen. Now you’ve brought the Black Sun right to my door.”

The front door exploded inward.

The splintered door skidded across the warped floorboards. Cold wind punched through the room, carrying with it the metallic tang of blood fresh.

Kaelen’s instincts screamed before his mind caught up. He shoved Seris behind the cracked wall and pivoted toward the intruders.

Three figures stepped in, clad in black armor laced with crimson light. Their faces were hidden behind segmented masks, each etched with the same jagged circle brand on Seris’s wrist.

The one in front carried a long, curved blade that seemed to drink the light around it. His voice was distorted through the mask, but the contempt was unmistakable.

“Kaelen Veyr. The Shardless Hunter. You’ve made our Patriarch very… curious.”

Kaelen’s hand drifted toward the shard at his chest. “If he’s curious, he can come ask himself.”

The leader tilted his head. “That’s the plan. Alive, if possible.”

Seris gripped his arm, whispering fiercely, “Don’t fight them here. The shard will ”

Too late.

The shard pulsed violently, and every shadow in the room twisted toward him like iron filings to a magnet. The masked men froze for a fraction of a second, their crimson armor flaring brighter in response.

Kaelen didn’t waste it.

He lunged, grabbing the nearest attacker’s forearm and slamming him into the wall so hard the plaster exploded. The man’s mask cracked, revealing a glint of cybernetic implants beneath pale skin.

The other two moved in perfect sync, blades whistling through the air. Kaelen ducked one swing, twisting his body to drive his elbow into the second man’s ribs and felt the armor dent under the impact.

The leader didn’t move. He watched, studying Kaelen’s every step like he was memorizing a blueprint.

Seris’s voice cut through the chaos. “Kaelen, move!”

He glanced toward her and that’s when the leader struck. The curved blade hummed, carving the air with deadly precision. Kaelen barely caught it on his forearm; the edge nicked skin, and the shard flared so hot he swore it burned him from the inside.

The shadows in the room screamed.

Seris grabbed his wrist and yanked him toward the kitchen. “Back exit!”

They sprinted, smashing through a side door into an alley slick with rain. Somewhere above, a single red drone light flickered in the fog, tracking them.

“Who the hell were they?” Kaelen demanded as they ran.

Seris shot him a sharp look. “Black Sun Hunters. And if they’re here, it means the Patriarch knows you’re out.”

Kaelen didn’t slow. “Good. Saves me the trouble of finding him.”

“You don’t get it,” she said, breathless. “He’s not hunting you because of what you’ve done. He’s hunting you because of what you are.”

A metallic clang echoed behind them the sound of boots landing on wet metal.

Seris’s eyes went wide. “We’re out of time ”

The leader dropped from the roof ahead of them, blocking the alley.

Rain hissed off his blade.

“You’re coming with me, Veyr,” he said. “One way or another.”

Kaelen slowed, planting himself between Seris and the man in the mask. The rain pooled in slick reflections around them, neon from the distant streetlights bending in the water.

“Last chance,” the leader said, voice flat. “Walk, and you live.”

Kaelen’s eyes locked on the blade. “You came into my city. You drew that thing on me. I’m not the one who needs a last chance.”

The leader’s blade hummed, the sound vibrating in Kaelen’s teeth. “You still don’t understand, Veyr. You carry something the world forgot ”

“Not forgot,” Kaelen cut in. “Buried.”

The man tilted his head like an animal scenting prey. “And we’re the ones digging it up.”

Without warning, he moved fast, impossibly fast closing the gap in two strides. Kaelen met him halfway, catching the curve of the blade on his forearm guard, the impact ringing through his bones.

Seris’s voice sliced through the clash. “Kaelen, don’t let it wake! The shard ”

Too late again.

The relic at his chest pulsed once, and the whole alley bent unnaturally, the air thick, the shadows stretching long and sharp like claws.

The leader’s eyes widened behind the mask. “It’s resonating already?”

Kaelen grabbed the man’s wrist, twisted hard, and forced the blade sideways. The neon above them flickered wildly.

From the corner of his eye, he saw movement of the other two Hunters dropping into the alley from opposite sides, sealing them in.

Seris’s hand brushed his. “We can’t win this fight. Trust me.”

He smirked despite the blood running down his knuckles. “I don’t do trust.”

Her eyes flashed. “Then do survival.”

She tossed something small to the ground, a silver disk that beeped twice before erupting in a bloom of white light so bright Kaelen’s vision went black at the edges.

When the light faded, they were already moving. Seris pulled him down a side passage barely wide enough for one person, her heels splashing through puddles.

Shouts echoed behind them. The Hunters weren’t far.

Kaelen kept pace. “You’re going to explain all this ”

“I’ll explain when we’re somewhere that isn’t about to become a corpse pile,” she snapped.

They turned sharply into another street, this one almost deserted. Towering holo-ads flickered overhead, hawking products no one could afford, their colors washing the wet asphalt in crimson and gold.

The shard against his chest thrummed again, and for the briefest moment, Kaelen saw something not the street, not the city but a jagged tower under a blood-red sky, and a shadowed figure standing at its peak.

Then it was gone.

He stumbled, just for a heartbeat.

Seris noticed. “What did you see?”

Kaelen shook his head. “Nothing.”

But his voice said otherwise.

Somewhere behind them, the metallic echo of boots drew closer.

And up ahead, a new silhouette stepped into the neon light, a tall figure with a curved blade on one hip and silver glinting where an eye should have been.

She smiled like a ghost from his past.

“Hello, Kaelen. Miss me?”