Dolosa’s voice carried a hint of jealousy she herself hadn’t noticed.
Liang Lai didn’t notice anything odd in the other’s words.
Her silver hair shimmered with a gentle halo under the sunlight as she carefully carried the unconscious girl through the market.
Dolosa followed behind, stomping with every step.
“This child is as light as a feather.” Liang Lai said softly, her fingers brushing the girl’s dry hair from her forehead, “Look at her eyelashes—don’t they look like butterfly wings?”
Dolosa turned her head away.
“Filthy.”
Children could never hold back their feelings, always quietly disparaging those they disliked.
Liang Lai didn’t mind this, only thinking that Dolosa truly didn’t like dirty children.
Once she washed the child in her arms clean and fragrant, it would be fine.
When they returned to the Court of Purity, Liang Lai carried the unconscious girl through a corridor lined with red carpet. Dolosa trailed two steps behind, her fingers tightly clutching her clothes, leaving a few sweat-soaked marks on the fabric.
“Third Saintess, please set her here.”
The Medical Nun, dressed in a nun’s habit, drew open the Velvet Canopy, revealing a treatment table covered with linen sheets.
Liang Lai gently laid the girl down, her silver hair falling beside the child’s dirty cheek.
Dolosa stood by the window, unconsciously scraping her nails against the crystal inlay on the window frame.
The priceless decorations quickly became covered in web-like scratches, just like her chaotic thoughts at that moment.
“This child only fainted from hunger.”
The Medical Nun’s right eye, behind a Crystal Lens, glowed blue with Diagnostic Art.
“Her stomach has only half the capacity of an average person. Judging by the contraction of the stomach wall…”
She paused.
“At least seventy-two hours without food.”
Liang Lai let out a sigh of relief, her fingers gently brushing the girl’s dry, knotted white hair.
Sunlight streamed through the stained glass, casting a kaleidoscope of colors onto the treatment table, falling right on the girl’s bony wrist, where a ring of obvious ligature marks could be seen.
Suddenly, Dolosa pressed too hard, and a piece of crystal shattered with a sharp “crack.”
The Medical Nun shot her a reproachful glance, then continued, “We’ve already injected glucose. Feed her some liquid food once she wakes.”
As she put away her diagnostic tools, the metal instruments chimed crisply in the tray.
“Thank you, Sister Martha.”
Liang Lai’s smile made the golden markings beneath her eyelids shimmer faintly.
After the Medical Nun left, only the humming of the instruments remained in the room, accompanied by the faint buzzing of the Eternal Day Lamp floating outside the window.
The girl on the bed suddenly convulsed.
Dolosa’s eyes snapped to her, seeing the girl’s eyelids trembling violently, then slowly opening.
Her pupils were perfect five-pointed stars, glimmering with an emerald light in the darkness.
“You’re awake?”
Liang Lai picked up the prepared rice porridge, the porcelain spoon clinking softly against the bowl.
She scooped a spoonful and brought it to the girl’s lips.
“Drink slowly.”
The girl’s star-shaped pupils shrank to pinpoints.
She glanced around warily, her gaze pausing for a moment on the bristling Dolosa, before finally settling on Liang Lai’s face.
When the warm porridge touched her lips, she suddenly lunged forward like a small animal, nearly biting the silver spoon.
Dolosa’s nails left new scratches on the window frame as she watched Liang Lai patiently feed the girl spoon by spoon, her silver hair flowing over her shoulders with every movement.
After the seventh spoonful, the girl suddenly choked, and grains of rice splattered onto Liang Lai’s snow-white Saintess’s Robe.
“Don’t rush.”
Liang Lai wiped the girl’s lips with a gold-embroidered sleeve.
“What’s your name?”
“Asterys…” The girl’s voice was like rusty gears grinding against each other.
As she spoke, the shadow beneath the treatment table twisted unnaturally, squirming away from the light as if it were alive.
Several thin filaments stretched out from the edge of the shadow, then quickly withdrew.
Liang Lai seemed not to notice anything strange, continuing to smile, “Asterys, what a star-like beautiful name.”
But in truth, Liang Lai sensed the malice in the name.
Though it contained the meaning of ‘star,’ its implication was not good. It was evil, a patch of darkness.
Suddenly, a rumbling sound echoed in the room.
Asterys clutched her stomach in fright, but Liang Lai only smiled and scooped up another spoonful of porridge.
“Looks like your little tummy isn’t full yet.”
When the eighth spoonful was brought to her lips, Asterys suddenly went rigid.
Her shadow seethed like boiling water, forming irregular bulges beneath the treatment table.
Liang Lai’s pupils contracted slightly as she lowered her voice, “Is your little sister alright? Or is it your older sister?”
The porcelain bowl slipped from Asterys’s hand, but Liang Lai caught it deftly.
The porridge swirled in the bowl, reflecting the girl’s suddenly pale face.
Dolosa’s nails dug into the windowsill, leaving deep grooves.
She watched as Asterys’s shadow trembled violently, as if something was struggling beneath it.
The Eternal Day Lamp on the wall flickered, and the wavering light made the writhing darkness even more pronounced.
“Don’t be afraid.” The golden markings flowed beneath Liang Lai’s eyelids. “I know you are Twinborn of Shadow.”
She set the bowl on the bedside table, producing a soft clink.
“Mm… I would like to adopt you sisters.”
Liang Lai felt that only children who had suffered so much could truly understand her beliefs, so that when she became pope, she would not forget her beginnings, nor her original intentions.
However, if they were merely Shadowborn, it would be difficult.
But if they were Twinborn of Shadow, then things would be much easier.
Because ordinary Shadowborn—Shadow Weavers—used human shadows as their nests and could freely move through any connected darkness.
When they possessed a host, the person’s shadow would ripple slightly, like water being touched.
But Twinborn of Shadow were different.
One of them was indistinguishable from an ordinary human in appearance, and could even learn the ability of crystallization—that is, Light-Eater.
The girl before her was exactly like this.
Among every thousand pairs of Shadowborn twins, one would be born who could not reside in shadows.
Their very existence would trigger the “Backlight Phenomenon”—within three meters, all shadows would vanish.
Any creature stared at by them for more than ten seconds would begin to experience “Existence Dissociation” (fragmented memories, bodies turning transparent).
Asterys’s tears fell in large drops, soaking dark circles into the linen sheets.
Her shadow suddenly swelled like a volcanic eruption, casting a twisted darkness beside the treatment table.
Liang Lai blinked, her silver lashes sparkling in the light.
“Can I see her?”
The air in the room seemed to freeze.
The buzzing of the medical instruments abruptly stopped, and even the Eternal Day Lamp outside the window hung motionless in midair.
Dolosa held her breath as the shadow ballooned, instantly covering half the wall.
It writhed, and several tentacle-like things stretched out from within.