The metal emblem on the workbench looked dull under the flickering neon light of the workshop. The symbol of the circle with three vertical lines in the center sat mutely, yet to us, it felt like a time bomb emitting deadly informational radiation. I leaned against the table, watching Cora, who had been sitting silently in front of her terminal for the past two hours.Cora began the identification process with the precision of a neurosurgeon. She ran a search script through the civilian databases of the entire Noctis Reach sector, and the result was zero. She switched to the military databases of the Galactic Republic's remnants, port transit records, down to the criminal logs of the most remote black markets—still nothing. No names, no organizational registrations, no legal records."That doesn't make sense, Cora," I muttered, folding my arms across my chest. "An organization that possesses military-grade signal-jamming infrastructure and operates in the depths of the Substrate shoul

The focused glow of my portable light finally touched the entire surface of the mysterious object atop the stone altar. My hand remained poised and ready over the hilt of my arcblade, prepared to trigger the plasma blade whenever a threat might leap from the darkness. However, this room remained mute. No deadly traps were triggered. No sudden ambush by The Wardens' forces. There was absolutely no echo of mechanical footsteps approaching.The object left so intentionally bore no resemblance to the modern technology I usually tinkered with in The Garage. It was a pitch-black stone prism, no larger than an adult's fist. Its surface was adorned with geometric pattern carvings that were incredibly fine and intricate. There was screen. No activation buttons. No battery sockets or energy sources of any kind visible to the naked eye.Nevertheless, the Veil instinct in my chest responded incredibly strongly. This object emitted a resonance that was incredibly old. Its resonance felt heavy, cal

I descended the metal stairs of The Garage's hatch with a slow, yet highly measured rhythm to my steps. I carried absolutely no digital maps projected from a screen. This time, my navigational instruments relied entirely on a pitch-black stone prism gripped tightly in the palm of my right hand.The ancient object pulsed with a slow rhythm in my grasp. As I stepped straight down the main corridor that stretched darkly to the north, the surface of the stone radiated a comfortably warm temperature, piercing through the thick layers of my leather gloves. Its energy pull felt aligned. That meant I was moving in the right direction.However, when I tried to test the device by turning my body toward the left hallway, the prism suddenly reacted violently. Its temperature plummeted instantly, turning ice-cold, and the white luminescence at its core dimmed drastically until it was nearly dead. I stepped back, and instantly the warm temperature crept slowly back into my palm."Have you figured o

I stood frozen in the center of this colossal, circular transit node. The Veil Archive in my jacket's cargo pocket felt heavy and mute. The warmth that had consistently guided every step I took had evaporated without a trace. The black stone prism no longer pulsed."You've stopped moving, L. Did it lose its signal?" Cora's voice sounded sharp through the earpiece, filled with analytical tension.I reached into my pocket, pulled out the stone prism, and stared at its surface, which was as dark as night. "It's not broken, Cora. But it’s no longer giving me direction. There’s no warmth for the right route, and no cold for the wrong one.""That’s not logical. It was functioning perfectly ten minutes ago," Cora replied, the sound of her terminal keys clattering rapidly as she tried to search for data anomalies."Maybe rules just changed," I replied flatly, rolling the stone between my fingers. I stared at the five corridor mouths in front of me. "Now, this artifact has abandoned its functi

I skidded to a halt right at the corner of the corridor where the silhouette had vanished. My breathing was ragged and heavy, my chest heaving in demand for oxygen. My hand tightly gripped the hilt of the arcblade, ready to trigger its white plasma blade in a fraction of a second. My eyes savagely swept the hallway past the turn, cutting through the shadows with the beam of my portable light.Empty.The corridor was completely and utterly vacant. No cloaked figure. No hidden door seams in the walls. No other intersections that could have served as a quick escape route. The black walls to my left and right stretched smooth and flawless, reflecting my own image like a dark mirror.I knelt slowly, lowering my gaze toward the pristine floor. While there was no thick accumulation of dust like in the upper layers, there is always a layer of microparticles settling on any structure. And right where the silhouette should have been standing just a fraction of a second ago, the floor surface wa