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Chapter 209 – Blood Ties and Shadows
Chapter 209 – Blood Ties and Shadows
The air was thick with the scent of old death, but something else lingered beneath it. A familiar presence. The kind that clung to the soul, a memory buried deep within the marrow of one’s bones.
Lilith narrowed her crimson eyes as she stepped closer to Seraphis, her silver hair catching the dim light of the graveyard’s eerie glow. She inhaled deeply, her gaze never wavering.
"Have you seen our brother?"
Her voice was smooth, calm—but there was an underlying tension. A demand.
Sena, standing just behind her, crossed her arms. She was quieter, more reserved, but her posture screamed the same thing. They wanted answers.
Seraphis met their gazes without hesitation. She could feel the weight of their unspoken expectations pressing into her like an invisible force.
She nodded once.
"Yes. I found him."
Lilith took a sharp breath, as if confirming what she had already suspected.
"I smell him on you," she murmured, her expression unreadable.
Sena’s fingers twitched at her sides.
Seraphis didn’t wait for them to demand more. Instead, she took a step forward, closing the space between them, and spoke.
"He was in another facility. Abandoned, just like this one. Left in a stasis tube, half-dead, but still clinging to existence. Just like you."
Lilith’s eyes darkened, her lips pressing into a thin line.
Seraphis continued, her voice steady but firm.
"When I found him, his heart was barely beating. His body had been in that limbo for who knows how long. But he was still there. He was still alive."
Sena’s grip on her own arms tightened.
Seraphis took another breath before delivering the most important part.
"I brought him back. I did the ritual, just like I did for you. And when he opened his eyes, he called me Mother."
Lilith closed her eyes for a moment, processing the words.
When she opened them again, there was something different in them.
A fire.
A hunger.
A purpose.
"Where is he?"
Seraphis tilted her head.
"Safe. Waiting."
Lilith exhaled through her nose, glancing at Sena, who remained silent but watchful.
"Then take us to him."
Seraphis didn’t move.
Not yet.
"I will. But first, there’s something I need to give you."
The Gift of Memory
Seraphis extended her hand.
Lilith and Sena exchanged a brief look before stepping forward in unison. They didn’t hesitate. They simply accepted what was about to happen.
Seraphis placed her palms gently on their foreheads.
Then, she pushed.
A flood of memories poured forth, weaving into their minds like a thousand threads stitching themselves into place.
They saw everything.
Every step she had taken.
Every kill she had made.
Every lesson she had learned.
They saw the way shadows became her allies, the way silence became her weapon, the way every movement had been honed into lethal precision.
They felt the cold steel of her daggers as if they were holding them themselves.
They relived the weight of every decision, every calculated strike, every mission she had executed with unflinching resolve.
And then, deeper.
They saw the world through her eyes.
The contracts. The betrayals. The silent hours spent waiting in the darkness before a single swift kill changed the course of someone’s fate.
They felt the blood on their hands—her blood, her kills, her instincts.
The knowledge etched itself into their bones.
Lilith’s breath hitched.
Sena’s fingers clenched.
And then—it stopped.
Seraphis pulled her hands away, and the connection snapped.
Lilith stumbled back, gasping softly.
Sena’s eyes flickered, her fingers twitching at her sides as if itching to hold a blade.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then—Lilith let out a slow, measured breath.
"Incredible."
Her voice was lower now. Stronger.
Sena flexed her hands, staring down at them as if expecting something new to manifest there.
"It’s like... we’ve lived it ourselves," she murmured.
Seraphis nodded.
"Because you have."
Lilith looked up, her crimson eyes gleaming in the dim moonlight.
"This changes everything."
Seraphis smirked.
"It does. And you’ll need it."
The Uniform of Shadows
Seraphis turned away, stepping toward a nearby stone slab. A bundle rested upon it, wrapped in dark fabric.
She picked it up and turned back to face them.
"This is yours now."
She unfolded the bundle, revealing two sets of sleek, black uniforms—stitched with reinforced leather and adorned with subtle silver accents.
Assassin’s garb.
Designed for silence.
Designed for death.
Atop each uniform lay a black mask, featureless except for the faint etching of a raven’s wing curling across one side.
Lilith reached out first, her fingers brushing over the fabric. The moment she touched it, something in her posture shifted.
She lifted the uniform and held it against her body, as if weighing its fit.
Sena followed, running a hand over the smooth texture before picking hers up as well.
Seraphis folded her arms.
"You’re not just experiments anymore. You’re not just sleepers waiting to be forgotten."
Her voice carried across the empty graveyard, cutting through the silence like a blade.
"You are assassins now."
Lilith and Sena exchanged glances.
Then, with the same synchronized precision they had always shared, they lifted their masks and placed them over their faces.
For the first time since waking, they felt whole.
Lilith exhaled, the sound muffled by the mask.
Then she tilted her head slightly.
"What now?"
Seraphis smirked.
"Now, we go find your brother."
Lilith nodded once.
"Then lead the way, Mother."
And with that, they stepped into the night—shadows among shadows, silent as death itself.