Chapter 10: Twins
There was a sourness in Duoluosa’s voice she didn’t notice herself.
Liang Lai missed the edge in her words.
Her silver hair gleamed softly in the sunlight.
She carefully carried the unconscious girl through the market.
Duoluosa trailed behind, each step heavy.
“This child is light as a feather,” Liang Lai said softly.
Her fingers brushed the girl’s dry hair from her forehead.
“Look at her eyelashes—don’t they look like butterfly wings?”
Duoluosa turned her head away.
“Dirty.”
She couldn’t hold back, always quietly disparaging those she disliked.
Liang Lai didn’t mind, thinking Duoluosa just didn’t like dirty kids.
She’d wash this child later and make her smell nice.
Back at the Garden of Purity, Liang Lai carried the girl down the red-carpeted corridor.
Duoluosa followed two steps behind.
Her fingers clutched her robe’s hem, leaving sweaty marks.
“Third Saintess, please place her here.”
A medical nun in a robe pulled back the velvet curtains.
A linen-covered examination table appeared.
Liang Lai gently laid the girl down.
Her silver hair fell around the girl’s grimy face.
Duoluosa stood by the window.
Her nails scratched unconsciously at the crystal inlaid in the frame.
Soon, spiderweb-like scratches marred the priceless decorations, mirroring her chaotic thoughts.
“The child fainted from hunger.”
The medical nun’s right eye, behind a crystal monocle, glowed with diagnostic blue light.
“Her stomach capacity is half a normal person’s.”
“Judging by the stomach wall’s contraction…”
She paused.
“She hasn’t eaten in at least seventy-two hours.”
Liang Lai sighed in relief.
Her fingers gently combed the girl’s dry, tangled white hair.
Sunlight filtered through the stained glass, casting colorful specks on the table.
They fell on the girl’s bony wrist, revealing a clear ring of strangulation marks.
Duoluosa’s grip tightened.
A piece of crystal snapped off with a crack.
The medical nun shot her a reproachful glance and continued:
“She’s been given a glucose injection.”
“She’ll be fed liquid food when she wakes.”
As she stowed her diagnostic tools, the metal instruments clinked in the tray.
“Thank you, Sister Martha.”
Liang Lai’s smile made the golden lines under her eyelids flicker faintly.
When the nun left, only the hum of instruments and the faint buzz of the Eternal Daylight Lamps outside remained.
The girl on the bed twitched suddenly.
Duoluosa’s eyes darted to her.
The girl’s eyelids trembled violently, then slowly opened.
Her pupils were perfect five-pointed stars, glowing emerald in the dim light.
“Awake?”
Liang Lai picked up a bowl of rice porridge.
The porcelain spoon tapped the bowl’s edge, tinkling softly.
She scooped a spoonful and held it to the girl’s lips.
“Drink slowly.”
The girl’s star-shaped pupils shrank to pinpoints.
She scanned the room warily.
Her gaze lingered on the fuming Duoluosa, then settled on Liang Lai’s face.
When the warm porridge touched her lips, she lunged forward like a small animal, nearly biting the silver spoon.
Duoluosa’s nails left deeper marks on the window frame.
She watched Liang Lai feed the girl spoonful by spoonful.
Liang Lai’s silver hair flowed over her shoulders with each movement.
On the seventh spoonful, the girl choked.
Coughed-up rice grains splattered Liang Lai’s snow-white robe.
“Don’t rush.”
Liang Lai wiped the girl’s mouth with her gold-embroidered sleeve.
“May I have your name?”
“Aster… Reese,” the girl rasped, her voice like rusty gears.
As she spoke, the shadow beneath the table twisted unnaturally.
It squirmed, avoiding the light as if alive.
Filaments extended from its edge, then quickly retracted.
Liang Lai seemed unfazed, smiling gently.
“Asteris, what a beautiful name, like the stars.”
But she sensed malice in the name.
Though it meant stars, its undertone was dark, sinister.
A sudden gurgle filled the room.
Asteris clutched her stomach in fear.
Liang Lai just smiled, scooping another spoonful of porridge.
“Sounds like your tummy’s still hungry.”
On the eighth spoonful, Asteris stiffened.
Her shadow surged like boiling water, forming an irregular bulge under the table.
Liang Lai’s pupils narrowed slightly.
She lowered her voice.
“Is your sister okay? Is she your younger sister, or older?”
The ceramic bowl slipped from Asteris’s hands.
Liang Lai caught it swiftly.
The porridge swirled, reflecting the girl’s ashen face.
Duoluosa’s nails scraped the windowsill, carving deep grooves.
She watched Asteris’s shadow tremble violently.
Something struggled beneath it.
The Eternal Daylight Lamp flickered, making the writhing darkness more pronounced.
“Don’t be afraid.”
Liang Lai’s golden lines flowed under her eyelids.
“I know you’re the Shadow Twins.”
She set the bowl on the bedside table with a soft clatter.
“Well… I want to adopt you sisters.”
Liang Lai believed only children who’d suffered deeply could understand her ideals.
Only they would remember their past and stay true to their principles if they became Pope.
Shadowborn were tricky, but Shadow Twins were easier to handle.
Ordinary Shadowborn, or Shadow Weavers, used human shadows as nests.
They moved freely between connected shadows.
When possessing a host, their shadow rippled subtly, like water gently touched.
But Shadow Twins were different.
One appeared normal, even capable of crystallization.
The Light Devourer.
That was the girl before her.
For every thousand Shadowborn twins, one was born unable to host shadows.
Their presence triggered the “backlight phenomenon”—shadows within three meters vanished.
Any creature stared at by them for over ten seconds suffered “existential dissociation”: memory fragmentation and physical transparency.
Asteris’s tears fell in large drops, staining the linen sheets with dark spots.
Her shadow bulged like a volcanic eruption, casting a distorted shape beside the table.
Liang Lai blinked, her silver eyelashes flickering in the light.
“Can I see her?”
The air froze.
The medical equipment’s hum stopped.
Even the Eternal Daylight Lamp outside halted mid-air.
Duoluosa held her breath.
The shadow expanded, covering half the wall.
It writhed, and several tentacles stretched out from its edges.