In the city of Vetharis, your shadow is your soul's fingerprint — unique, irreplaceable, and the source of your magical identity. When a thief discovers he can steal and wear other people's shadows, he gains their abilities but starts losing pieces of himself. Now the city's most powerful shadows are going missing, and everyone wants to know who's wearing them.
Kael grew up in Vetharis's undercity, where shadows are currency and identity. The nobles wear shadows so dense they cast darkness even at noon. The merchants trade in shadow-essence. The guards use shadow-marks to track criminals. Kael has no shadow of his own — he was born shadowless, which in Vetharis means you're nobody. But Kael discovered something the nobles would kill to possess: he can take other people's shadows. Not permanently — just long enough to borrow what comes with them. A guard's shadow gives him authority. A merchant's shadow gives him charm. A killer's shadow gives him stealth. But each borrowed shadow leaves a residue, and the more Kael wears, the less he remembers which shadow was originally his. When the Grand Duke's shadow is stolen — the most powerful shadow in Vetharis, one that controls the city's entire shadow-economy — Kael becomes the prime suspect. Now he must find the real thief before the Duke's shadowguard catches him, all while struggling to remember which parts of himself are real and which are borrowed.
This story is in development. Chapters will appear here once approved for publication.
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