ShadowBound: The Need For Power

HhyThree days passed after Lady Seraphina Vale gave the observation assignment, and in those three days, Liam took his time choosing exactly who he wanted to observe.

He did not rush into picking someone the way some of the other students likely did. There was no point in attaching himself to the first interesting target he found, especially when the assignment gave him enough room to choose nearly anyone outside Tactical Espionage.

A careless student would pick someone loud, obvious, or conveniently impressive. A proud student might choose a noble, a ranked fighter, or someone difficult enough to make the report feel more valuable than it needed to be. Liam considered all of that and ignored most of it.

His goal was not to impress Seraphina. It was to complete the assignment efficiently, learn something useful if possible, and avoid giving the woman any more entertainment than necessary.

During those three days, he scanned the academy with more attention than usual. He watched first-years rushing between classes with their bags held too tightly and their eyes still too open. He watched second-years moving with the newer habits Nalim had carved into them, more aware of corners and crowds than they had been at the beginning of the year. He watched the rare third-years when they appeared, though most moved quickly enough that observing them would have required effort he had no desire to waste on an assignment that did not deserve to consume his life.

In the end, he chose someone who almost escaped his attention entirely.

Her name was Marren Voss.

She was not exactly a student, though at first glance she could have passed for one. She seemed around the age of a second-year, perhaps a little older, though her role placed her somewhere between academy staff and advanced assistant.

Marren was an academic aide, one of those quiet figures who existed in the margins of classes, records, supply rooms, and faculty errands. She wore the modest dark uniform given to aides, simple enough that most students looked through her rather than at her. Her brown hair was usually tied back with practical neatness, and she carried herself with the dull efficiency of someone trained to avoid interrupting anything important.

She did not speak loudly, did not linger in dramatic places, did not draw attention with beauty, arrogance, fear, status, or power. In a school full of students trying to prove themselves, Marren Voss had made herself almost invisible by simply being useful and forgettable.

Liam almost did not pick her for that exact reason.

She had been so unnoticeable that she only caught his attention the day after the assignment was given, when the afternoon bell rang and students began spilling out of their classes. Liam had been passing near the Fire Magic wing when he saw Professor Vale, Seraphina’s uncle and the Fire Magic instructor, stepping out with several papers in one hand. Marren walked beside him, carrying a sealed case and a stack of thin folders pressed carefully against her chest.

Professor Vale spoke to her without slowing, giving short instructions, and Marren answered with calm little nods before separating from him near the corridor’s end. The entire exchange lasted no more than a minute. Most students around them did not notice it at all.

That was why Liam did.

People who passed unseen through important places often knew more than people who stood at the center of them. Not always. But often enough.

Once he chose her, he did not personally follow her every time he wanted to observe her. That would have been inefficient, obvious, and irritating. Instead, he used Nyxie.

The reason was simple. Nyxie could remain in Marren’s shadow far more easily than Liam could trail her through the academy. If the shadow dragon blended properly, she reduced the risk of discovery almost completely. She could observe spaces Liam would have no natural excuse to enter, especially faculty-adjacent areas, aide corridors, storage passages, and waiting rooms outside offices. More importantly, using Nyxie allowed Liam to test something beyond the assignment itself.

He wanted to gauge just how intelligent and reliable his shadow dragon had become.

Nyxie was already his most powerful shadow, and even compared to Smoke, the spiked-fur shadow wolf, she stood apart in awareness and personality. Smoke was useful, vicious, loyal, and capable of following simple combat instincts well.

Nyxie, however, possessed something sharper. She understood mood. She adapted. She had preferences. She could be mischievous, stubborn, and frighteningly observant when she wanted to be. Liam knew that already, but knowing something generally and testing its limits were different matters.

Or rather, testing their limits.

For three days, Liam had Nyxie lurk within Marren Voss’s shadow. He gave her strict instructions to blend perfectly, avoid unnatural distortion, and retreat whenever someone with strong Myst awareness seemed too close to noticing her. Instructors and professors were the greatest concern. Professor Vale, Seraphina, Kaine, Mystica, Magnus, and several others were not the kind of people Liam wanted catching a strange adolescent Nyxarion’s presence clinging to an academic aide.

Even if they did not identify Nyxie immediately, they would notice something. Some might ask questions. Some might say nothing and begin watching.

Liam preferred neither.

To his satisfaction, Nyxie performed far better than she had months ago.

She was not perfect. That mattered. Liam did not lie to himself about that. Nyxie could still become distracted by emotionally charged conversations, unusual movements, or the scent of food she had no physical need to care about but apparently still found interesting enough to report with great importance. She also occasionally decided that something was "useful" because it amused her, not because it served the assignment. But compared to Smoke, there was no contest.

Nyxie could separate important information from useless movement with enough consistency to make her valuable outside combat. She recognized repeated routes. She identified people who interacted with Marren more than once. She noticed when Marren changed pace, when she held something more tightly than usual, when she avoided a crowded hallway, and when instructors altered their tone around her.

The greatest discovery came from the sensory link.

Before, Liam had usually been the one to initiate a sync with Nyxie’s senses. He could see through her, hear through her, and sometimes catch impressions of smell or movement when he focused. It was useful, but it carried problems. Linking at the wrong time meant seeing something he did not need or want to see, hearing conversations without context, or getting flooded with useless detail while he was in the middle of his own tasks.

Nyxie had begun triggering the sync herself.

Not constantly, and not always smoothly, but deliberately. When she found something she judged important, she could pull the connection open enough for Liam to see what she saw, smell what she smelled, or hear what she heard. The first time she did it, Liam had been halfway through a Knight Combat drill and nearly misstepped because his vision briefly split between the training hall and a records corridor where Marren was receiving a packet from an aide supervisor. After that, he gave Nyxie sharper instructions.

Only sync when the information matters.

Nyxie obeyed.

Mostly.

There were still a few mistakes. Twice, she linked their senses at times that made Liam immediately sever the connection and stare blankly at nothing for a few seconds while deciding whether shadow dragons understood the concept of privacy.

One incident involved Marren entering a changing area used by aides, and another involved a private argument between two staff members that turned personal in a way Liam had no interest in knowing. After that, his instructions became more specific: no syncing in private rooms unless danger, academy security, suspicious magic, or directly assignment-relevant behavior was involved.

Nyxie understood that better.

The reports improved after that.

With her help, Liam gathered enough notes on Marren to build a clean assignment file. Her habits were consistent. She rose early, often before many students had left their dormitories. She reported first to the administrative record office, then moved between faculty rooms depending on the day’s lesson schedules. She assisted Professor Vale more than the others, though she also carried documents for Core Myst, Combat Theory, and occasionally the Headmaster’s office.

She rarely ate in crowded dining spaces, preferring a small side hall used by aides and junior staff. She had a habit of touching the edge of her left sleeve whenever a professor gave her direct instructions, but not when another aide did. She avoided one particular corridor near the older storage wing unless ordered there, and she was unusually careful with sealed cases carrying red wax rather than black.

Some of that might be useless.

Some of it might not.

Liam wrote down what seemed worthy and ignored the rest.

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