2025-11-09 02:52:33
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Chapter 18 - The Well of Stars
MiguelThree weeks had passed. Three weeks of living like a ghost in a world that was hunting me. Our new refuge, provided by an old, paranoid contact of Kai’s, was an old textile factory in the industrial suburbs, a skeleton of brick and steel that offered an anonymity no apartment ever could. Time in that limbo was measured not in days, but in small breakthroughs and mounting tensions. Karol was no longer the frightened guest; she had become Lena’s shadow, absorbing knowledge about encryption and counter-surveillance with a quiet ferocity. Her old life had been erased, and in its place, she was forging a new identity from necessity and loyalty.My life, on the other hand, had turned inward. I spent my hours with Kai, not planning missions, but in a strange and desperate kind of training. Sitting on the dusty floor, surrounded by the silence of the dead machines, we practiced. It wasn't magic. We didn't know what it was. We approached it as if it were an unstable muscle. "Feel the hu
Chapter 17 - The Ghost and the Vote
MiguelThe air in the warehouse had grown thick, almost unbreathable. Kai’s question hung between us, a chasm opened at Karol’s feet. I watched her swallow, her eyes shifting from Kai’s serene, expectant gaze to the icy contempt on Silas’s face, and finally, to me. In her eyes, I saw a storm of emotions: pure, paralyzing fear, the confusion of a world turned upside down, and beneath it all, the same stubborn determination that had brought her here. The relief I had felt at seeing her had soured, turning into a heavy ball of guilt in the pit of my stomach. She was my anchor to the normal world, to the life I’d had just a few weeks ago. And I had just dragged my anchor down into the abyss with me.“Yes,” Karol said, and her voice didn’t tremble. It was a whisper, but as firm and clear as steel. “I accept.”A tense silence followed her answer. Kai nodded slowly, an expression of grave respect on his face. Rocco, who had brought her, looked both relieved and even more terrified at the sam
Chapter 16 - The Interrogation
KarolFear has a metallic taste, like blood in the mouth. I felt it on my tongue as the stocky, hostile-eyed boy loomed over my table. His shadow covered me completely, blocking out what little light was left in the coffee shop. His question, "Who are you, and how did you find this place?" wasn't a question. It was an accusation. A verdict delivered before the trial. My first instinct was to shrink back, to stammer an apology and run. But the image of the mural pulsing with that impossible blue light, and Maestra Zara's cold, dismissive face, anchored themselves in my mind, forging my panic into a fragile but sharp determination.“My name is Karol,” I said, surprised by the firmness in my own voice. “And I’m here because this is the only thread I could pull. I’m looking for my friend, Miguel. He disappeared last night.”The boy's—Rocco's, I guessed, based on what I’d overheard—eyes narrowed even further.“I don’t know any Miguel. You’re in the wrong place.”“No, I’m not,” I insisted,
Chapter 15 - Ghost Protocol
KaiThe silence after the lightbulb exploded was deeper, heavier than any scream. Outside, in the distance, the sirens continued to weave a web of panic over the city, but within the four walls of the dusty apartment, the only sound was our own ragged breathing. The four of us—Lena, Rocco, Silas, and I—stared at Miguel. He was sitting on the bed, his eyes wide, looking at the empty spot on the ceiling where the bulb had been, wearing the same expression of horror and awe as the rest of us. He had collapsed shortly after, not from fainting, but from sheer exhaustion. The hum that emanated from him had subsided, becoming a barely perceptible murmur, the purr of a sleeping storm.Now, hours later, in the stillness of the early morning, I was on watch, sitting in a rickety chair beside his cot. Lena and Rocco were finally asleep, slumped on an old sofa, their faces marked by a tension that not even sleep could erase. Silas was in the other room, supposedly sleeping, though I doubted someo
Chapter 14 - Ariadne's Thread
KarolFear is an ocean. For most of my life, I had only ever dipped my toes in at the shore, feeling the tingle of everyday worries: a difficult exam, an argument with my parents, the nervousness of talking to someone I liked. But now, hidden behind the cold solidity of a stone column, the ocean had swallowed me whole. I was drowning in the icy darkness of a truth I couldn't comprehend, my lungs burning for lack of air, for lack of logic. The mural, Miguel’s damned mural, was alive. It was pulsing with a soft, bluish light, an otherworldly breath that mocked every law of physics I had ever been taught.My first impulse was to run, to scream, to find an adult, an authority figure, someone who could put the world back to normal. But the image of Maestra Zara’s impassive face flashed in my mind, a wall of ice that extinguished any hope of help. Then I thought of the guards in their black uniforms, their weapons designed not to protect, but to suppress. No. I was alone. The fear was still
Chapter 13 - The Broken Morning
KarolI wasn’t woken up by the alarm on my tablet, with its soft, programmed melody. I was woken up by the silence. An unnatural, heavy silence that had swallowed the usual campus sounds: the laughter of those heading to early classes, the murmur of conversations, the distant hum of maintenance vehicles. I opened my eyes to a room tinted a pale gray. Outside, the sky was overcast, as if the strange storm from the night before had left a scar on the atmosphere.I looked out the window, and the real reason for the silence hit me with the force of a punch. The grounds of Rixus Institute looked like an occupied zone. The usual campus security guards, with their blue uniforms and relaxed attitude, were gone. In their place, men and women dressed in black tactical uniforms with no insignias patrolled the paths. They moved in pairs, with a cold, military efficiency, their boots marking an ominous rhythm in the morning stillness. They weren’t protecting. They were controlling.I left my room
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