2025-09-29 08:33:48Miguel
The night smelled of damp asphalt and the promise of rain. I held the two pieces of paper in my hand, nearly identical in their mystery. One was a simple slip with an address jotted down in a quick but elegant script, the one Kai had given me. The other, a stiff, formal business card, had the same address written on the back. Two invitations, one destination. I decided to follow the directions from Kai’s paper. There was something about the older student’s calmness that inspired more trust than the rehearsed smile of the man in the suit. The address led me far from the Rixus campus, to a residential neighborhood of two-story houses with small front yards. It was a normal, almost boring place, the kind of spot where no one would expect to find the epicenter of a conspiracy. I stopped in front of a number painted on a wooden mailbox. Soft music drifted from inside the house, along with the murmur of several conversations mixed with occasional laughter. Colored lights flickered behind the drawn curtains. It looked like a party, just as the atmosphere suggested, but something about the normality of the scene felt like a perfect disguise. I took a deep breath, repeating my motto to myself: Being afraid isn't the bad part. Letting it drag you down is. I walked up the three porch steps and knocked on the door. The face that appeared was not the one I expected. A girl with electric-blue hair smiled at me. “Yeah?” “I… uh, I was invited,” I said, suddenly feeling like an intruder. The girl looked me up and down, her smile widening. “Of course you were. Come on in, make yourself at home.” The inside confirmed my suspicions. In the main living room, a dozen young people, my age or a little older, were scattered about. Some were talking on a couch, others were getting drinks from a table. The music created a relaxed atmosphere, but no one was dancing. And everyone, I noticed, had a sharp, observant look in their eyes. This wasn’t a party; it was a meeting. “So you decided to come.” Kai’s calm voice sounded right beside me. He had approached without me noticing. He was wearing casual clothes, a far cry from the school uniform, but his unflappable presence was the same. “I was curious,” I replied. “Curiosity is what brings us all here,” Kai said, and his dark eyes seemed to assess me with a new intensity. “I’m glad you came.” “Not so fast, Kai. Don’t recruit him just yet.” A young man broke away from one of the groups and walked toward us. It was the man in the suit, Silas, though now he wore dark jeans and a shirt that still looked too expensive for a student gathering. His smile was sharp, almost a sneer. “I gave him my card. Technically, he’s my guest,” he said, looking at me with a predatory interest. “My name is Silas. And you’re the famous portal boy, aren’t you?” I frowned, on the defensive. “How do you know that?” “We know a lot of things here,” Kai intervened, taking a subtle step to place himself slightly between Silas and me. “And we also know how to be discreet. Something you forget when you hand out business cards like candy.” The tension between them was palpable. Silas let out a short, joyless laugh. “I just make sure the message gets through. Unlike some people, I don’t hide.” Kai ignored him and focused on me. “Come with me. The real meeting is about to start. Leave the ‘party’ for the onlookers.” I nodded and followed Kai through the room, feeling Silas’s gaze fixed on my back. He led me down a short hallway and stopped in front of a closed door at the end. “What you hear in here cannot leave these walls,” Kai said in a low voice, his tone now completely serious. “What we do is dangerous. We investigate the most powerful people on the continent: the Veyra Dynasty.” I swallowed hard, the name echoing in my head. The Governor’s surname. “Are you ready to find out why the explosion at an institute five years ago and last night’s ‘solar flares’ are connected?” Kai asked, his hand on the doorknob. I could only nod, knowing I had just crossed a line from which I could never return.
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Chapter 12 - Cracks in the Facade
Isandra VeyraCalm was a luxury we couldn’t afford, but panic was a poison, one that could dissolve the foundations of an empire built on a century of meticulous control. That was why the crisis room in the Veyra Tower operated in a state of frenetic order, a ballet of efficiency rehearsed for moments precisely like this. Dozens of analysts, the best in Fosack, moved in near-absolute silence, their fingers flying over holographic keyboards that projected cascades of data. On the walls, giant screens were windows into the chaos. They showed maps of Rixus with entire sectors blinking red from massive power failures, real-time social media feeds exploding with thousands of shaky videos of the colored storm, and the pale faces of news anchors struggling to find words for the impossible.At the center of it all, Edrian Veyra watched, motionless. His face was a mask of serenity, but I, who knew his every nuance, could see the tension in the muscles of his jaw. It wasn’t fear. It was the con
Chapter 11 - The Color of the Fever
MiguelPain wasn’t a sound; it was a color. A blinding white that consumed everything, erasing the edges of the room, Silas’s face, my own hands in front of my eyes. My body was trembling uncontrollably, not from cold, but from the residual vibration of the roar, like a guitar string still quivering after being plucked too hard. The ringing in my ears began to fade, replaced by a chaotic murmur coming from outside. Sirens. Distant screams. The sound of a city plunged into confusion.“Miguel…” Silas’s voice was a hoarse whisper, stripped of all its arrogance. The shock had shattered his mask. “What… what was that? What happened to you?”I tried to answer, but only a moan escaped my lips. I curled up on the floor, hugging my knees, trying to anchor myself to something real while the world kept spinning. The fever in my head wasn’t from heat; it was from energy, as if a lightning bolt had lodged itself in my brain and was now fighting to get out.Silas knelt beside me, but not to help. H
Chapter 10 - The Fever and the Roar
MiguelThe note on my pillow wasn’t just a piece of paper. It was a violation. It was a statement. The cold wall of paranoia that had been closing in on me all day had finally collapsed, crushing me. The surveillance was no longer passive, no longer across the street or down a distant hallway. It had been in my room, in my safe space. Fear, until that moment, had been an animal stalking me from a distance. Now, it was in the cage with me. I sat on the edge of my bed, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs, staring at the three words in that elegant, unfamiliar handwriting: The mural breathes.Solitude was a death trap. They would isolate me, make me doubt my own sanity, and then, when I was scared and confused enough, they would make their move. I couldn't let them. Kai, Silas, Rocco, Lena... they were all I had. Ignoring the tremor in my hands, I left my room and headed for the student wing’s communication center. The emergency method was risky: sending a text message to
Chapter 9 - Echoes in the Walls
MiguelThe next morning, the sun filtering through the stained glass of Rixus felt like a sham. Walking through the institute’s hallways, which just twenty-four hours ago were merely a labyrinth of new experiences, had become an exercise in paranoia. Every security camera on the corners of the buildings seemed to slowly turn to follow me. The sleek, silver logo of the Veyra corporation, visible on students’ tablets and projectors, was no longer a symbol of progress, but the emblem of a crownless monarchy that watched me from everywhere. The truth was a heavy burden, and I carried it on my back, feeling it stoop my shoulders with every step. Knowledge hadn’t made me freer; it had locked me in a cage of fear and secrets.“Miguel, wait up!”Karol’s cheerful, carefree voice cut through the fog of my thoughts. She ran up to me, a smile on her face that made me feel like a traitor. She still lived in the world from before, the real, simple world that I had lost forever in a basement filled
Chapter 8 - Threads on the Map
Isandra VeyraThe artificial light in the Governor’s office was cold, designed to keep the mind sharp and eliminate any shadow where ambiguity might hide. Outside, the Rixus night enveloped the city, but in here, at the pinnacle of the Veyra tower, time itself seemed under our control. Edrian watched the cityscape through the armored window, his hands clasped behind his back. He wasn’t admiring the view; he was assessing it, like a general studying a map before a battle. My place was at the long, polished mahogany table, a holographic screen floating silently before me, displaying the post-crisis reports.The crisis, of course, was the one we had manufactured. “Solar flare.” An elegant, scientific term to cover up a massive electrical storm that had swept across all of Fosack. The narrative had been a success. Edrian’s speech, where he announced his aspiration for Internal Minister of the continent, had calmed public nerves and reinforced his image as a firm leader in times of uncerta
Chapter 7 - What the Flame Remembers
MiguelKai’s hand turned the knob, and the door swung inward, revealing a silent darkness. The sound of the “party” behind us cut off abruptly, as if we had crossed an invisible barrier. Kai gestured for me to enter and closed the door, plunging us into an almost total stillness. A second later, a series of fluorescent lights flickered on above us, revealing the true heart of the operation.If the living room was the disguise, this was the brain. We were in a basement, its concrete walls hidden beneath an ocean of information. Enormous corkboards covered every inch, interconnected by a web of red string that looked like pulsing veins. They linked satellite photos, portraits of politicians—I recognized Governor Veyra at the center of it all—newspaper clippings, and complex scientific equations. The air was thick, heavy with the smell of burnt coffee, the low hum of several computers, and the static energy of a shared obsession.Silas was already here, leaning against a table with his a
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