01-25-2026, 06:08 PM
When Kaelan retreated from the wall, Nazik watched the benign reaction closely. Then he pressed his palm back against the smear.
The hum returned immediately, and with it, the blackness lifted again, gathering itself, stretching up his skin in thin, searching filaments. It moved with more confidence now, climbing his fingers, pooling in the creases of his knuckles like a little creature snuggling into a new home. Nazariy turned his hand slightly, studying it.
“I don’t know how,” he said. His voice was even. Almost bored. “It’s always done that. Since the first time I found it.”
He flexed his fingers once. The growth responded, tightening its grip, then loosening again, like a creature testing a perch.
“I didn’t call it,” he went on. “I didn’t ask. It just… likes me.” He glanced at Kaelan, then back to his hand. “
The black climbed higher, brushing his wrist. Nazariy watched it with mild curiosity, then angled his hand again toward Kaelan. The growth recoiled instantly, snapping back down his skin and thinning to nothing.
Nazariy gave a small huff of air. Not quite a laugh.
“See?”
He lowered his hand and wiped it once against his coat, leaving no mark. “Animals used to die around me,” he said, as if continuing a different conversation that was previously ongoing in his head. “Chickens first. Then the garden. Nothing would grow right. Things just… stopped.”
He shrugged.
“People too, I think. Hard to be sure. They didn’t like that.” He stepped away from the wall and crouched, resting his forearms on his knees.
“They said I brought sickness. That I was cursed. Wrong. A plague. So they burned my house and told me to walk away.” Another shrug. Smaller this time. “So I did.”
The hum returned immediately, and with it, the blackness lifted again, gathering itself, stretching up his skin in thin, searching filaments. It moved with more confidence now, climbing his fingers, pooling in the creases of his knuckles like a little creature snuggling into a new home. Nazariy turned his hand slightly, studying it.
“I don’t know how,” he said. His voice was even. Almost bored. “It’s always done that. Since the first time I found it.”
He flexed his fingers once. The growth responded, tightening its grip, then loosening again, like a creature testing a perch.
“I didn’t call it,” he went on. “I didn’t ask. It just… likes me.” He glanced at Kaelan, then back to his hand. “
The black climbed higher, brushing his wrist. Nazariy watched it with mild curiosity, then angled his hand again toward Kaelan. The growth recoiled instantly, snapping back down his skin and thinning to nothing.
Nazariy gave a small huff of air. Not quite a laugh.
“See?”
He lowered his hand and wiped it once against his coat, leaving no mark. “Animals used to die around me,” he said, as if continuing a different conversation that was previously ongoing in his head. “Chickens first. Then the garden. Nothing would grow right. Things just… stopped.”
He shrugged.
“People too, I think. Hard to be sure. They didn’t like that.” He stepped away from the wall and crouched, resting his forearms on his knees.
“They said I brought sickness. That I was cursed. Wrong. A plague. So they burned my house and told me to walk away.” Another shrug. Smaller this time. “So I did.”