The night swallowed them whole.Wind tore across the open plains as Kain and Aria sprinted through the broken settlement, shadows stretching long beneath the flashes of Dominion search lights sweeping overhead. Rain hammered the ground in waves, turning the dirt paths into slick mud that pulled at their boots.“Kain keep your head down!” Aria shouted over the storm.Kain tried. But his mind was still burning with Rhyen’s words.Your mother is alive.Each syllable replayed like a pulse in his skull.Aria grabbed his wrist and yanked him behind an overturned transport vehicle just as a drone streaked past, its engines screaming through the rain. The beam from its scanner swept only a few meters away before it moved on.Kain pressed his back against the cold metal, heart pounding.“Aria…” His voice shook. “Is it true? Was my mother”Aria closed her eyes. Rain streaked down her face, mixing with the dust and sweat, making her look both fierce and heartbreakingly human.“Kain… this isn’t t

The night felt too still.Kain stood by the cracked window of the safehouse, staring at the alley below. The city usually hummed at this hour distant horns, generators, people arguing somewhere. But tonight, the silence was thick. Heavy. Wrong.It crawled against his skin.“Something’s off,” he murmured.Behind him, Talia was packing quietly, sliding files into a worn leather satchel.“That’s because they’ve found our sector.” Her voice was calm, but the edges were tight. “Dominion surveillance patterns changed ten minutes ago.”Kain turned. “How do you know?”Talia lifted a small handheld device a narrow bar of black metal lined with shifting blue glyphs. Dominion tech, stolen long ago.“Their scanners are sweeping in triangular motions now. They only do that when they’re isolating a target.”His throat dried. “Me.”She didn’t deny it.Instead, she stepped toward him. “We don’t have much time. But before we run again… I need you to breathe.”Kain didn’t feel like he could breathe. H

The lower tunnels spat them out into the night.Cold air slapped Kain across the face the moment they emerged from the rusted drainage grate, carrying the scent of rain-soaked earth and distant fires. The sky was ink-black, broken only by the faint glow of the ruined industrial sector miles behind them.Aria rose first, scanning the area.Kain crawled out next, breathing hard partly from exhaustion, partly from the weight of Aria’s revelation still burning like a live wire in his mind.His father.The Dominion.The Ascendant Project.Everything he thought he knew had cracked open.Aria touched his shoulder gently.“Stay close. We’re almost there.”Kain didn’t answer. He followed her in silence through the flattened grass and scattered debris. The forest ahead looked like it had been burned, grown back, burned again scarred by years of conflict.A single path cut through the trees.Aria led him into it.“Where are we going?” Kain finally asked, his voice low.“To the one place the Domi

The safehouse felt different the next morning too still, too quiet, as if the walls were holding their breath. Kain sensed it the moment he woke. It wasn’t fear exactly. It was expectation. The kind that made your heart beat slower instead of faster.Aria stood in the hallway outside his door, her arms crossed, eyes unreadable.“Get dressed,” she said softly. “There’s something you need to see.”Her voice held a weight he hadn’t heard before.They didn’t speak as they walked through the old safehouse. The wooden floorboards creaked under them like old memories waking up. Sunlight filtered through dusty windows, turning floating specks into drifting stars. The house smelled faintly of old papers, solder, and something metallic like a lab that had died years ago.Aria stopped before a thick door at the end of the corridor.Dark. Reinforced. Locked from both sides.“This room is the archive,” she said.“It belonged to the Awakened before us. Everything they discovered, everything they su

The next morning arrived gray and cold.Wind pushed through the cracks of the old safehouse, rattling loose boards and carrying dust across the worn floor. The place smelled of old wood, damp stone, and a hint of smoke from the lantern Eli lit hours ago.Kain stood in the center of the main room feet apart, shoulders tense, fists curled at his sides.His breath fogged slightly in the air.Aria circled him slowly, hands behind her back, eyes sharp and calculating.“So,” she said, “you want to learn how to control your Echoes?”Kain swallowed.“Not just control. I want to understand them. Use them. Before they drop on me and leave me gasping like an idiot.”Aria arched a brow. “You’re not an idiot.”“Did you see how I nearly tripped over a broken pipe yesterday?”Aria smirked. “Fine. A talented idiot.”Kain groaned softly, but a faint smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. Somehow, Aria’s teasing always made the fear settle.Eli sat on the floor nearby, leaning against a stack of crat