Chapter 17: The Silver Warning
Rahmat Ali's hand shook as he reached for the silver envelope. The air in the shop felt cold, as if the shadows themselves were holding their breath.
"Uncle, don't open it!" Maya whispered, her eyes wide with terror. "That paper... it's not from this world. Look at the edges, they're burning without fire."
But Rahmat knew he couldn't ignore it. The Void King had seen him. If he didn't act, the darkness would bleed into his world, into this very street. He tore the envelope open.
Inside, there was no letter. Only a small, jagged piece of a broken mirror.
As Rahmat looked into the shard, he didn't see his own tired face. He saw the busy street outside his shop—but it was different. People were walking, but they had no shadows. The rickshaws were moving, but there was no sound. And in the middle of the crowd, the mysterious stranger was standing, pointing directly at Rahmat's door.
'The footprints are a trail,' a voice whispered directly into his mind. 'Cover them with the dust of a broken soul, or the King will find the gateway.'
"Maya, get the old sack of scrap leather from the back!" Rahmat shouted, suddenly moving with an energy he hadn't felt in years. "We have to hide the prints! Now!"
But as Maya ran to the back, the blue butterfly suddenly turned red. It landed on the mirror shard, and the glass began to grow. Within seconds, the small piece of mirror became a full-sized doorway, standing right in the middle of the shop.
From the other side of the glass, a dark, armored hand reached out, grabbing the edge of the workbench.
The Void King was no longer waiting in another world. He was coming through.