"We’re not going to make it to the surface before the sun hits the meridian," Mara said, her voice sharp as the blade she kept trained on the darkened stairwell. "Look at him, Jax. Every step Zaid takes is carving a crater into the concrete."Zaid hauled his leaden body forward, the slate-like mineral on his arm pulsing with a sickly, rhythmic heat. Each movement felt like dragging a heavy, granite slab through quicksand. "I can make it," he gritted out, his voice sounding like gravel being crushed under a boot. "The Under-Grid. We need to reach the fence."Jax wiped a layer of grime from his forehead, his face pale under the flickering halogen tubes of the tunnel. "The Under-Grid? Boss, that’s not a route. That’s a grave for anyone who hasn't got a death wish. The local gangs are already stripping the cabling—they’ll have us gutted for our shoes, let alone our tech.""They’ll have us for the water, then," Mara countered, snapping her rifle into a locked carry. "Zaid is burning from t

"Jax, status," Mara whispered, her voice a sharp blade cutting through the oppressive damp of the tunnel.Jax didn't answer. He was pressed into a concave notch in the wall, his eyes darting rhythmically, fixed on something the others couldn't see. His skin, usually pale, was mapped with a sickly, iridescent bruising that seemed to hum in sync with the distant, low-frequency vibration of the city’s collapsing grid."Jax!" Mara shoved his shoulder.He didn't flinch. Instead, he started to shake, a fine, tremor-like rattling that echoed the sound Zaid’s calcifying joints made whenever he shifted his weight. "They’re talking, Mara," Jax murmured, his voice sounding hollow, like a voice echoing up from a deep, dry well. "Iskander isn't just looking for anomalies. He’s listening to the void. He promised… he said if we brought the vessel, the burning would stop. The hum would go away."Zaid froze. The stone creeping up his neck made it nearly impossible to turn, but he forced the movement,

"Move aside, Mara." Zaid’s voice was a jagged rasp, the sound of tectonic plates grinding together. His arm, heavily encased in the slate-like mineral, locked into place against the terminal."If you pull that lever, you’ll fry whatever is left of your nervous system," Mara hissed, her eyes darting toward the tunnel entrance. "The militia is closing in. We need that power to keep the gates sealed, not to vent it into the void.""The gate is already open," Zaid retorted, his vision swimming with patterns of searing white light. He shoved his fingers into the terminal’s exposed copper veins. A shockwave of pure, unfiltered energy surged through his arm. His muscles convulsed, the mineral plating on his skin glowing with a sickly, ethereal violet hue. "Can’t you feel it? She’s here.""Leila?" Mara raised her weapon, scanning the suffocating darkness of the Under-Grid. "Where?""Not where," Zaid groaned, arching his back as the conduit began to whine, a high-pitched frequency that vibrate

The smell of ozone and wet concrete hung thick in the air of the central plaza. Above, the sky was a bruised purple, illuminated only by the frantic, sweeping beams of Iskander’s searchlights cutting through the smog. The crowd—thousands of starving, desperate citizens—pushed against the armored barricades like a rising tide."She isn’t gone," Zaid rasped, his voice echoing with a dissonant, metallic hum that made the very air vibrate. He looked down at his own hand; the slate-grey plates of his skin were pulsing with a rhythmic, fading violet light. "She’s just... quiet. The fire is dormant. For now."Leila sat slumped against a shattered masonry wall a few feet away, her breathing shallow, her eyes wide and haunted. She reached out, her fingers trembling, and brushed against the jagged mineral plating of Zaid’s forearm. She didn’t recoil. She leaned into the cold, sharp surface as if it were the only anchor left in a collapsing world."The soldiers," Leila whispered, her voice fragi

"Left! Lean into me, Zaid, or we’re both going into the runoff!" Mara’s voice cracked through the humid stagnant air of the primary drainage vein. Her shoulder was buried in Zaid’s armpit, and every time his petrified leg struck the metal grating, it rang out like a hammer on an anvil."I can... walk..." Zaid wheezed, but the sound was more like stones grinding in a hopper. He stumbled, his calcified weight nearly pitching them both into the waist-deep black sludge swirling below."You can barely breathe!" Leila hissed from behind, her hands braced against Zaid’s rigid back to keep him upright. "Mara, look at his neck. The grey—it’s moving up. If it reaches his throat...""I see it!" Mara barked, her eyes darting toward the flickering red emergency lights of the junction. "We’re close. The Sinks. Just stay on your feet, Zaid. Give me five more minutes.""Who’s there?" A voice like dry parchment echoed from the darkness ahead. A beam of harsh, yellow light cut through the mist, landing