2025-10-14 16:05:42The apartment felt colder that night. Evelyn moved quietly around the kitchen, shutting drawers with the soft finality of someone rehearsing silence.
Rick watched her from the doorway. “You’re not talking to me.”
She kept her eyes on the counter. “I don’t know what to say that won’t make it worse.”
“You could start with I believe you.”
“I want to.” She turned then, tired, beautiful, terrified. “But every screen in the city’s replaying that footage, Rick. They’re calling you an alchemist. A fraud. The hospital’s under audit. And Yuren Sun’s reputation’s bleeding because of you.”
“I didn’t leak anything.”
“I know. But truth doesn’t matter when the Syndicate decides what’s real.”
He rubbed his face. “You think I should confess to something I didn’t do?”
“I think you should disappear until this burns out.”
He stared. “Run?”
“Lay low. Take a transfer to the outer wards. Pretend to be ordinary for once.”
“That’s not who I am.”
Her laugh broke halfway. “That’s the problem.”
He reached for her, but she stepped back. The distance between them felt heavier than any punishment. “Evelyn.”
“Just stop, Rick. You can’t fight a system that owns the definition of life.”
He swallowed hard, searching for words, but all that came was a whisper. “Maybe the system forgot what life is.”
She closed her eyes. “Then I hope you remember before it kills you.”
When she left the room, he sank against the wall, feeling the pulse beneath his wrist throb like a second heartbeat that wasn’t his.
The next morning, black vehicles lined the hospital entrance. Syndicate agents in gray coats moved through the lobby, scanning badges, collecting files. Patients whispered; interns scattered like birds.
Rick walked through the metal detectors, every eye following him. The lead agent from the hearing, the one with the unblinking stare, waited near reception.
“Dr. Franklin,” he said smoothly. “We’re expanding our review. Your personal research logs, private correspondences, neural interface backups, all of it.”
Rick kept his voice level. “That violates privacy statutes.”
The agent smiled faintly. “Article Nine of the Emergency Protocol overrides them in cases of anomalous medical activity.”
“Anomalous,” Rick repeated. “That’s what you call saving a child now?”
The agent’s eyes gleamed. “When the dead glow gold, Doctor, we call it many things.”
Yuren appeared from behind the security gates. “You’ll search nothing without my authorization.”
The agent bowed slightly. “Then we’ll wait for your compliance, Master Sun. The Syndicate appreciates your cooperation.”
When they were gone, Yuren exhaled. “They’re baiting us.”
Rick’s voice was low. “Then maybe it’s time we stop playing prey.”
Yuren turned sharply. “No heroics. You disobey me again, I will end your apprenticeship myself.”
Rick met his eyes, anger flashing. “I didn’t ask for your protection.”
“Then at least respect my experience.”
The words cut deeper than any accusation. Rick walked away before his temper betrayed him.
That night, the Syndicate agent met Isaac Voss in the underground parking bay. Rainwater pooled around their shoes; neon from the city reflected in slick red lines across the cement.
“You delivered the footage?” the agent asked.
Isaac handed over a data-chip. “Every frame. He’s unstable. The glow’s spreading, through his skin, maybe deeper.”
The agent pocketed it. “Good. The council will want confirmation before they move on Master Sun.”
Isaac blinked. “You said you wanted Franklin, not Sun.”
“Sun trained him. He’ll share the blame.”
A flicker of unease crossed Isaac’s face. “That wasn’t our deal.”
The agent smiled thinly. “Deals change. You’ll be rewarded, Dr. Voss. Perhaps a position on the review board.”
Isaac hesitated, then nodded once. “Whatever it takes.”
When the agent left, Isaac stared at the elevator doors, his reflection fractured in the metal, one half lit, one half shadowed. He whispered to no one, “You should have stayed ordinary, Rick.”
Far above, Rick stood on the roof of Salt Lake General, rain drumming against his coat. The city spread out below, lights, water, silence.
He opened his hand. The golden rune shimmered faintly, each pulse syncing with the storm. He could feel something under the hospital, deep as bone, like a second heartbeat echoing his own.
“Is this what they fear?” he murmured. “The world remembering it can heal itself?”
Lightning flashed; for an instant the entire rooftop glowed gold. Down in the archives, monitors flickered alive one by one, Lila’s heart-rate logs spiking, every screen pulsing in the same rhythm as his.
Rick didn’t see it, but Yuren did, standing in the control room, eyes wide with recognition and dread. He whispered, “The system is awakening.”
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Chapter 7: Master’s Verdict
Incense drifted through Yuren Sun’s private study, coiling like smoke around memories. Scrolls lined the walls, each one a lifetime of knowledge, and on the table lay the ceremonial robe he would wear tomorrow, gold threads woven to blind the guilty and reassure the pure.He hadn’t moved in hours. The holo-screen before him looped the footage again: the patient’s dying gasp, the surge of golden light from Rick’s hands, the flare of the rune. Every time he paused it, the frame caught Rick’s face, desperate, alive, far too much like his younger self.A ghost of a smile crossed Yuren’s lips before bitterness returned. “You touched the mystery too soon, my son.”Footsteps echoed; Elder Liang entered, robes whispering. “The tribunal expects your statement at dawn.”Yuren didn’t look up. “And if my statement disagrees with theirs?”Liang’s tone was smooth as glass. “Then you lose your seat, and the academy dissolves under investigation. Do not let one boy’s arrogance destroy what took cen
Chapter 6: Framed for Death
Three days after the explosion, Salt Lake Central felt unfamiliar, too quiet, too bright. Rick walked through the sliding doors, coat collar up, trying to look ordinary. Every heartbeat around him hummed faintly in his ears; every cough or groan tugged at him like invisible strings.A nurse glanced up from reception, whispered to another. “He shouldn’t even be here.”“They say the basement’s still sealed.”Rick forced a thin smile and swiped his ID. The scanner blinked red: ACCESS PENDING INVESTIGATION.He exhaled through his nose, nodded at the guard as if it were nothing, and kept walking.Inside Ward C, an elderly woman gasped for air, monitors beeping in a chaotic rhythm. “Dr. Franklin?” a junior nurse stammered. “She’s crashing, heart failure, unresponsive to medication.”Rick’s hands moved before thought. “Give me space.”He pressed two needles, then three, tracing the pulse lines he could now see under her skin, threads of dull gold flickering weakly. He guided the energy with
Chapter 5: The Forbidden Rune
The hospital basement wasn’t on any floor plan Rick had ever seen. It lay below the morgue, metal doors, no label, only a flicker of cold light at the edge of a half-hidden stairwell.He hadn’t planned to come here. The System had guided him.[Descent coordinates verified] the voice whispered inside his pulse.[Source signal beneath primary structure.]“Great,” Rick muttered. “Haunted hospitals and invisible voices. Perfect combination.”The hum in his wrist brightened. He took the stairs. At the bottom, the air felt heavy, thick with rust and something older. Banks of sealed drawers lined the walls, discarded medical prototypes, analog monitors, broken holo-panels.And at the center: a door marked by a faint golden ring, the same pattern that burned beneath his skin. Rick reached for it. “Should I be opening this?”[Access recognized. Healer authorized.]The ring flared; the lock disengaged. The door slid open to a chamber lit by a single pulse of amber light, spreading across the f
Chapter 4B: Evelyn’s Ultimatum
Rick’s mouth opened, but she was already walking toward the bedroom. “Evelyn, ”She stopped at the door without turning back. “You have until sunrise. Choose me… or choose this obsession. After that, I’m gone.”The door shut with a quiet click. Rick stood motionless, the hum beneath his skin rising until it matched the rhythm of the storm outside.The apartment went still after she closed the door. Only the clock’s second hand moved, whispering over the hush.Rick sank onto the couch, exhaustion settling like sand through his veins. The hum inside his wrist hadn’t stopped since the board hearing; now it climbed up his arm, tiny sparks beneath his skin.He pressed a hand over his heart. “Quiet,” he whispered. “Please.”The pulse answered. A low vibration rolled through his chest, slow, resonant, like a second heartbeat trying to find him. The world blurred. The sound of the rain fell away.He stood in a space without gravity or walls, surrounded by a haze of molten gold. Each particle
Chapter 4A: Evelyn’s Ultimatum
The apartment was dark except for the soft pulse of the city outside the window. Rick dropped his coat on the couch and pressed the heel of his hand against his eyes. Every heartbeat still throbbed like an echo from the trauma ward. A voice came from the shadows. “Rough night, Doctor Franklin?”Rick spun toward it. A tall man stepped out of the dim light, gray suit, precise posture, the faintest scent of cigar smoke following him.“Victor Harrington,” Rick said slowly. “You don’t usually visit people unannounced.”Victor smiled, all teeth and civility. “Unannounced visits tend to reveal the truth, don’t they?” He glanced around the small apartment. “You’ve been busy. The city hasn’t stopped talking about your little miracle.”Rick exhaled. “If you came for gossip, you can find it on any screen.”“I came for an opportunity.” Victor pulled a small black card from his pocket and set it on the table. “The Syndicate’s Council is watching you. They think you’ve touched something ancient, s
Chapter 3B: The Healers’ Syndicate Rumor
The apartment felt colder that night. Evelyn moved quietly around the kitchen, shutting drawers with the soft finality of someone rehearsing silence.Rick watched her from the doorway. “You’re not talking to me.”She kept her eyes on the counter. “I don’t know what to say that won’t make it worse.”“You could start with I believe you.”“I want to.” She turned then, tired, beautiful, terrified. “But every screen in the city’s replaying that footage, Rick. They’re calling you an alchemist. A fraud. The hospital’s under audit. And Yuren Sun’s reputation’s bleeding because of you.”“I didn’t leak anything.”“I know. But truth doesn’t matter when the Syndicate decides what’s real.”He rubbed his face. “You think I should confess to something I didn’t do?”“I think you should disappear until this burns out.”He stared. “Run?”“Lay low. Take a transfer to the outer wards. Pretend to be ordinary for once.”“That’s not who I am.”Her laugh broke halfway. “That’s the problem.”He reached for he
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