Today was the day.

Sebastian knew his life would never be the same after it was done.

His distorted reflection stared back at him as he stared at the polished mask in his hands. The glossy silver felt heavy in his grip, despite weighing almost nothing. The black robes covering his clothes felt like a straitjacket; the dark fabric practically covered every inch of him.

He stood in his bedroom within Castle Braexus, his home for the last three years and the headquarters for the Order hidden deep in the forests of northeast Romania. If you asked any other magician from his house, the castle didn't exist. No maps portrayed its location and only a select few knew of its whereabouts.

The Shades made sure to keep their hideout hidden. No one could know what they were scheming beyond the basalt walls surrounding the dark fortress.

Not yet.

Sebastian pulled his black hair into a short ponytail for the night's mission, insuring not a single hair was out of place. The black nail polish coating his fingernails had been recently reapplied. He spent the last hour pacing his room while shining his new mask, making sure there were no smudges in the silver.

Everything had to be perfect. Perfect for him.

Today was the day.

The day he finally completed his initiation and became a full-fledged Shade. The day he finally joined the Order. The day he would finally earn his father's respect. He had been dreaming about this day ever since Thorian revealed he was the true leader of the Order of the Black Lotus. That was his sixteenth birthday. Now freshly nineteen, Sebastian was ready to take the next step in his journey as a Shade and shadoweaver—a controller of shadows and dark magic.

Despite only beginning his Shade training for three years, he felt like he had been preparing for this moment for his whole life.

This is it. No mistakes.

For a decade, his father had been using the Shades to carry out his wishes in the shadows. His quest for the Eldenarian Artifacts was well underway. The first on his list was the Illumio—currently in the hands of the last living members of House Lumai.

The Shades were preparing to retrieve it. Earlier that week, they received intel on Lumaian magicians living amongst Ordinaires somewhere in Canada. The Redfangs returned with information on what Thorian Tedorof had been seeking for what seemed like ages.

Sebastian had never seen his father that happy. The man rarely smiled. The only emotions he expressed regularly were anger and disgust.

He glanced at the scar creeping down his wrist. A cut from his father's scythe during training. It had just started to heal, even with the help of the castle's healer. Something about the blade of his father's vayrir made it hard for wounds to close.

A knock sounded on his door. Stiffening, he turned around, preparing to see the pale face of his father. His shoulders dropped.

"Oh, it's just you."

"Don't sound so delighted," Amora said with a roll of her dark eyes. Her high-pitched voice grated his ears.

"Where's Father?"

"Preparing."

He nodded.

Today was Amora's first mission too. The pair were twins, albeit fraternal. One could've sworn they were identical, though. They both had long, stretching legs and wiry frames. Silky, black hair cascaded down her back while he kept his shoulder length. Their eyes, so dark they almost looked black, hid a similar pain and anguish behind them.

That's where the similarities between the twins ended.

She twirled around, showcasing her Shade robes. The dark purple thread outlining the garments caught the light of the torches burning on the wall. Her silver mask rested in her hand. Her long, black hair had been styled into an intricate braid down her back.

"Why aren't you excited. Today is the day we finally get to join the Order."

"I am."

"Could've fooled me."

He ran his tongue over his teeth, trying to find the words jumbled about in his brain. "Excited isn't the word I'd use. More like...relieved."

"We earned this." Amora's tone was adamant. Entitled. Just like it always was. "We've trained for hours and hours every day to get to this point. We've bled, tortured, and killed for this." Sebastian clenched his jaw as memories of their training regime flashed through his psyche. His sister continued her speech. "Becoming Shades is the least we deserve. Soon, we'll become one of Father's knights. Then no one will be able to stop us."

He kept quiet. A dark glint had filled her eyes, one he had seen far too many times.

Her words echoed in his head.

"Soon, we'll become one of Father's knights..."

The twelve knights of the Order—the most prestigious members of the secret sect of dark magicians ruled by Thorian Tedorof. While the whole world wondered who sanctioned the attacks carried out by the Shades and their allies, Sebastian spent every waking hour trying to impress the man the world feared.

During the day, he was simply Thorian—head of the Eldenarian Council and House Tenebris. But at night, he was the Black Lotus. The harbinger of death. The Dark Jackal, his moniker from his younger days.

When he first found out who his father truly was, his world shattered like glass. The Shades had caused so much death and destruction across the magician community over the last decade. House Vaya went into hiding while House Lumai was purged, afraid they would be next. House Brynjir closed their doors, their villages cut off from the other houses. The other four remained a part of the council, albeit reluctantly.

Thorian wasn't Pierre Moreau, the previous head of the council. He ruled with an iron grip. Under his command, magicians weren't the docile people they had been before. They would become fighters. Conquerors.

Under his command, they would become gods.

"Anyways," Amora continued, her shrill voice yanking Sebastian out his thoughts, "Father told me to fetch you."

He gulped. A bead of sweat formed on his temple. Steadying himself, he kept his expression neutral. Shades didn't show fear.

"What does he want?"

"Hell if I know. You know he doesn't like to be questioned."

"Right."

Nodding, he moved for the door. She grabbed his arm. He arched an eyebrow at her.

"Don't let him know you're nervous," she told him. He rolled his eyes. "I'm serious, Seb. He won't let you go with us if he can't trust you."

He ripped his arm from her grasp and scowled. "He can trust me, alright? You don't have to worry about me."

"Just take my advice. Please."

He squinted at her. It wasn't like his sister to look out for him.

"Yeah, whatever."

While most siblings had a rivalry, the two of them often went to war for their father's approval. Oftentimes, she won. Amora was Thorian's favorite. The two of them were like peas in a pod; they possessed similar personalities and a lack of a conscious.

Shades were cold. Sinister. Some of the world's most vile and deranged casters made up their ranks. Amora belonged with the Shades.

Sebastian wasn't so sure if he did.

Sure, he did a decent job at pretending to be one of them. He practiced their dark magic and laughed at their crude jokes. But deep down he knew he wasn't like them. Not really.

His father always told him how much he was like his mother.

It always sounded like an insult.

Memories of his father berating him during their training sessions filled his head. He grit his teeth as he felt the man's scythe ripping through the flesh of his forearm again. That had been weeks ago. He had been too slow to dodge the man's attack. He still remembered watching his blood spill to the black-tiled floor of their training room as he screamed in agony.

His father didn't console him. He didn't send for a healer.

He simply stood there with those condescending eyes of his.

That look hurt more than the bleeding gash in his arm.

But he knew it was tough love. It would make him stronger, make him a better magician. A better assassin. A better Shade. That was all that mattered in the end. His father did it because he loved him.

Right?

"I'll see you later, Seb," Amora said. She equipped her mask, which was the face of a viper. "Remember what I said."

He nodded.

She left the room, her footsteps echoing down the hall.

He glanced down at his mask. A raven's face. Sighing, he placed it on his own. Squeezing his eyes shut, he called upon the shadows scattered across his dimly lit bedroom. They gravitated towards him, pooling around his boots. The familiar cold feeling seeped through his skin and grabbed his bones. A tugging sensation formed behind his navel.

His eyes snapped open.

He was no longer in his bedroom.

There was no stairway to the dungeons of the castle. It was only accessible by shadowjumping, a skill possessed only by true Shades. It was a skill Sebastian perfected early on in his training. Most shadoweaving techniques came naturally to him. Some of the other Shades referred to him as a prodigy, even though their tones were spiteful.

Still, he didn't disagree.

The purple velvet walls of the castle above his head had been swapped for dark cobblestone with the occasional block of black eldricite sticking from the rocks. At the end of the hall was the meeting room. A heavy, purple curtain hung over the doorway.

Sebastian released a breath. Straightening his back and erasing any trace of emotion from his face, he made his way down the shadowy hall.