The hum of the private jet faded into the distance as Miko Tanaka stepped onto the tarmac, flanked by two of her tech advisors. Her posture was composed, her eyes scanning the unfamiliar skyline. She wore a sleek black suit, her long dark hair tied into a high knot. Nathan had arranged for a quiet arrival, without any press or cameras, but she still drew attention just by being herself.Nathan was waiting at the terminal entrance, with Harper beside him.When the women finally stood face to face, Nathan watched carefully, almost unconsciously letting the ring hum against his skin. It was an old habit now, sensing intentions, unraveling the first layer of thought before words were spoken.But there was nothing for him to sense.Miko’s mind, as before, was shrouded in mist, calculating, deliberate, but blurred. He felt a gentle static, like trying to tune into a station just slightly out of range. But as he turned to Harper, preparing to sense the flicker of recognition or curiosity..

Harper stood in the east wing of the Imperium headquarters, eyes scanning through a complex data trail splayed across multiple monitors. A web of overlapping file transfers, strange login attempts, and packet trails pulsed in bright lines across the holographic interface."It is the third anomaly this week."She muttered, fingers flying across the glass. "Whoever is doing this knows the system. They're mimicking clearance levels a little too well."Behind her, Nathan leaned against the frame of the observation deck window, watching, not just her movements, but the emotions flickering just beneath her surface.She had changed.Ever since the vault and the sync with 028C, Harper had grown sharper, more attuned. Her instincts were almost surgical now. But there was something else. Something Nathan wasn’t prepared for.A whisper of longing.His name, soft in thought.A flash of him across her mind—unbidden.He tried not to invade, but the ring fed him signals whether he wanted them or not

Nathan stepped into the penthouse, the metallic scent of blood still faint on his jacket. His mind buzzed with the phantom imprint of the fight,.but it wasn’t the fight that was lingering in his mind. It was the fact that someone had been there, but before he could spiral into that thought again, a soft voice broke the silence.“I saw you…” Harper said from the hallway, arms crossed, her eyes unreadable.Nathan turned. “What… what did you just say?”“In the parking garage.”She clarified. “I was there, just coming to help you. I was halfway down the stairwell when I heard the first scream.’She said, stepping into the light. “But by the time I got there, you were already dismantling them like they were made of glass.”Nathan didn’t respond at first, and Harper studied him carefully. “I didn’t step in because I didn’t need to, but I noticed something. Back there, you didn’t just fight them. You were predicting their movements before they decided what they do, and you moved like y

From the far end of the cafés wide glass windows, hidden by the shadows of a half-drawn curtain, Miko stood motionless.Her almond-shaped eyes, usually so calm, now shimmered with restrained alarm.She had followed her instincts to the café after Harper texted her to meet but hadn’t expected this—Nathan and Harper locked in an embrace, surrounded by a radiant flare from his ring. Not a trick of light. Not technology. Something older. Deeper.As the glow faded and the pair stood there, breathless and changed, Miko pressed her palm to the cool glass.It was just like in the scrolls.Her grandfather’s stories drifted back to her like a song on wind. Scrolls written in forgotten dialects, describing artifacts said to be forged from cosmic stone, imbued with the essence of celestial guardians. Artifacts that reacted to soul alignment—where two beings momentarily became one.She had always assumed it was folklore. Romanticized nonsense passed down from monk to child.But she had just witnes

The sound of fingers furiously clacking against a keyboard echoed in the dimmed data room, tucked three floors below Imperium Corp’s main building. Miko’s dark eyes flicked across the streaming code on the screen, her brows furrowed in concentration.Harper stood beside her, arms crossed, gaze fixed on the monitor. “You’re sure it’s not just Nathan updating his files remotely?”Miko shook her head, tapping to enlarge a highlighted block of log entries. “He hasn't accessed these folders in over three weeks. But someone else tried to, five times. From an external node masked through three proxy layers. Whoever it was knew exactly what to look for.”“Can you trace it?”Miko hesitated. “Not fully. But I know where it originated: someone inside the company. They didn’t get in, but that won’t stop them next time.”Before Harper could reply, the security door hissed open behind them. Nathan stepped in, black jacket still damp from the rain outside, his presence calm but alert.“You called?”