Many people have asked for a sequel to my Whisperings story, since Seth is awesome. After many years, I hope now to have fulfilled that request. This will be a multi-chapter series as I keep thinking of more characters to add, but each chapter will be relatively short. Most of these won't be in any specific chronological order, but I'll make note if they do. Hope you enjoy!

All of Fablehaven the ownership of Brandon Mull. As with all Fanfiction, I am simply building my own stories in someone else's sandbox.

So I'm supposed to be the bad guy?

Seth belted on Vasilis and stared at himself in his mirror. He didn't look like a villain. Well, except for the invisible shadows that patrolled around him ceaselessly, but the mirror couldn't see them. He looked, from the world's perspective, like a normal young man, albeit one with a sword.

Yet they all treat me like a ticking bomb.

Maybe they should. They should fear me.

Seth grimaced and turned away from the mirror as the thought crept into his mind. "Be quiet," he said to the empty air. Around him, the invisible shadows flared up around him for a moment before they settled again in their endless rounds. Sometimes Seth wished he could only see in the dark like his sister, instead of being able to see, and hear, the invisible. At least the shadows would be a little more faded.

But then you wouldn't be able to see what's really important in life.

"I said be quiet!" Seth nearly shouted before he remembered he was alone. Just him and his thoughts.

He wasn't really sure which thoughts were his anymore.

They spoke to him all the time now. The wraiths, the shades, the phantoms. Seth could barely remember a time when he didn't have a voice or two in the back of his mind, trying to "help" him out.

Oh, they still obeyed him; that was true. The Sphinx had told Seth that Shadow Charmers like them were links between life and shadow; that the creatures of shadow would do anything to keep that link open.

That didn't mean they couldn't abuse that obedience at every turn.

It was like working with a Djinn; they were just so…literal. Everything Seth told them had to be exact. If there was any ambiguity, any possibility for loopholes, you could bet they would abuse it to death, figuratively and literally speaking. If he told them to be quiet, he had to make sure he didn't talk to himself afterwards, out loud or in his head. They would treat any rhetorical question as being specifically directed at them. If he asked one to do something for him, he had to make sure every eventuality was planned for. It was like trying to order around a dark, twisted, sadistic lawyer. Their obedience to the letter of his instructions was perfect, but they clearly had their own agendas. It amazed Seth that the first wraiths he commanded after Fablehaven had fallen had been so helpful, obeying his intents as well as his words.

Of course they would obey you then; it just set you up for a greater fall later when you made a mistake. Besides, remember how they tried to trick you from the very beginning?

Greater fall. Right. That one had blown up in Seth's face pretty quickly.

It wasn't your fault. Doren and Newel had asked for help. They had been hexed by some of the littler fairies on the preserve and had asked for a cure. How was I supposed to know the shades would translate that as a request to kill them?