2025-12-24 16:41:36The night nurse spoke softly, as if raising her voice might worsen Lyra’s condition.
“She’s stable for now,” she said, adjusting the IV line. “But her vitals are… delicate.”
Delicate. Caelan hated that word. It sounded like something that could be fixed with care and patience. Like porcelain. Like glass.
Lyra stared as the nurse left, her eyelids fluttering open.
“Daddy?” she murmured.
He was at her side instantly. “I’m here.”
Her fingers curled weakly around his sleeve. “Did I scare you again?”
He forced a smile. “You always scare me. Ever since the day you decided to be born early.”
She smiled faintly at that. “Mom said I was impatient.”
The word mom landed heavier than it should have.
“You should sleep,” he said gently.
She nodded, then hesitated. “Daddy… if I don’t get better…”
He leaned closer. “You will.”
“But if I don’t,” she whispered stubbornly, “will you still come tell me stories?”
His throat tightened. “I’ll tell them until you’re sick of hearing my voice.”
“That’ll take forever,” she said, satisfied, and drifted back to sleep.
Caelan stayed long after the monitors settled into a steady rhythm. Around him, machines beeped and hummed, artificial life supporting fragile flesh. He realized then that this place was not built for hope, only for delay.
Caelan learned two things before noon.
First, Lyra’s condition had improved just enough to draw attention.
Second, attention was never neutral.
The morning rounds were different. Nurses lingered longer. A senior physician he hadn’t seen before reviewed Lyra’s chart twice, frowning in concentration.
“She’s responding better than expected,” the doctor said. “Stability like this… it’s unusual.”
Caelan kept his expression neutral. “Is that bad?”
The doctor hesitated. “Not bad. Just… surprising.”
Surprising was dangerous.
By midday, Selene returned.
This time, she didn’t come alone.
The man beside her wore an expensive charcoal suit and the kind of smile that never reached the eyes. He looked around the hospital room as if it were something mildly inconvenient, like traffic or bad weather.
“Caelan,” Selene said, composed as ever. “This is Mr. Harlan Veyne.”
The name landed with quiet weight.
Veyne.
One of the old elite families. Not the oldest, but ambitious, ruthless, and rapidly ascending. The kind that swallowed others whole and called it progress.
Harlan inclined his head slightly. “So this is you.”
Caelan didn’t offer his hand.
“I wasn’t aware that Lyra's condition required spectators,” Caelan said.
Selene’s lips tightened. “He’s here to help.”
Harlan chuckled. “Let’s not pretend this is charity.”
He stepped closer to Lyra’s bed, studying her like a problem to be solved. “The girl’s prognosis is… unfortunate. But not unsalvageable.”
Caelan’s jaw tightened. “Then speak plainly.”
Harlan smiled wider. “I like that. Straightforward men are rare these days.”
He glanced at Selene. She nodded once.
“I can secure access to the facility you need,” Harlan continued. “Fast-track approval. Top-tier specialists.”
Caelan didn’t breathe.
“And the price?” he asked.
Harlan tilted his head. “Your signature.”
Selene produced the divorce papers from her bag with smooth efficiency.
“You step aside,” Harlan said calmly. “No claims. No interference. No… inconvenient past resurfacing.”
Caelan looked at Selene. “You planned this.”
She met his gaze without shame. “I ensured leverage.”
Lyra stirred faintly, murmuring something incoherent.
Caelan stepped closer to her bed, instinctively placing himself between her and them.
“You don’t get to bargain with her life,” he said quietly.
Harlan’s smile thinned. “You misunderstand. I already am.”
The system pulsed.
Not a command.
A prompt.
First Obstacle Identified: Coercive Authority
Outcome Options Available
Caelan felt it, an invisible weight pressing against his awareness, urging decision.
He ignored it.
“I need time,” he said.
Harlan laughed outright. “You’re in no position to negotiate.”
“Then you can leave,” Caelan replied evenly.
The room went still.
Selene stared at him, incredulous. “Are you insane?”
“Possibly,” Caelan said. “But I won’t sign this.”
Harlan studied him for a long moment.
“Interesting,” he said finally. “You know, men like you usually fold faster.”
“Men like me?” Caelan echoed.
“Men without backing,” Harlan clarified. “Without a name.”
The system flickered again.
Authority Challenge Detected
Caelan felt something stir—not power, but recognition. As if the world itself were watching to see whether he would bow.
He straightened.
“My name,” he said, “is irrelevant to you.”
Harlan raised an eyebrow. “Is it?”
“Yes,” Caelan said calmly. “Because you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t already fear what happens if I don’t comply.”
The words surprised even him.
Selene’s eyes narrowed.
Harlan laughed softly. “Bold. Reckless. I see why you were removed.”
Removed.
There it was.
Harlan leaned closer. “Sign the papers, and your daughter lives comfortably. Refuse, and we see how long this ‘stability’ lasts.”
Caelan looked down at Lyra.
Her fingers curled weakly around the blanket.
He exhaled slowly.
“Get out,” he said.
Selene stared at him like he’d lost his mind.
Harlan’s smile vanished.
“You’re making a mistake.”
“Maybe,” Caelan agreed. “But it’s mine.”
Silence stretched.
Then Harlan stepped back, adjusting his cuffs. “Very well.”
He turned to Selene. “We tried.”
Selene’s voice was sharp. “You’re condemning her.”
Caelan didn’t look at her. “No. I’m refusing to sell her.”
They left.
The door closed.
The room felt smaller.
The system activated again—this time without asking.
Obstacle Outcome: Partial Defiance
Authority Established: Minimal
Visibility Increased
Caelan sank into the chair beside Lyra’s bed.
His heart pounded.
He had no plan.
No money.
No allies.
Only borrowed time.
First Reward Granted
A single line appeared.
Skill Unlocked: Insight (Passive)
Effect: Perceive Intent, Detect Falsehoods (Low Tier)
Caelan blinked.
He felt no surge. No rush.
Only clarity.
The door opened.
A nurse stepped in, smiling politely but something felt off.
“You’ll need to move rooms,” she said. “Orders from administration.”
Caelan’s new awareness stirred.
Falsehood.
“Why?” he asked.
The nurse hesitated just a fraction too long.
“Standard procedure,” she said.
The system pulsed faintly.
Intent Detected: External Pressure
Caelan stood.
“No,” he said calmly. “We’re staying.”
The nurse frowned. “Sir—”
“I’ll speak to the administrator myself,” he said. “Now.”
The nurse swallowed. “I’ll… check.”
She left hurriedly.
Caelan sat back down, heart racing.
This wasn’t strength.
It was resistance.
But resistance was a start.
Lyra shifted, eyes fluttering open.
“Daddy,” she whispered. “Did the bad people leave?”
He smiled gently. “Yes.”
“Good,” she murmured. “I don’t like them.”
He squeezed her hand. “Neither do I.”
Outside the room, unseen eyes watched.
And somewhere far above, the elite began to ask a dangerous question:
Why hadn’t Caelan Ashborne broken yet?
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
CHAPTER 100
The monitors glowed faintly in the quiet room, their projections flickering like stars in a collapsing constellation. Every calculation, every predictive model, every scenario the system had conjured was failing faster than it could generate it. Caelan watched silently as Lyra moved across the room, steps precise, eyes sharp, mind racing.She had already outpaced every expectation, every framework, every boundary the system had set.“Dad,” she said, voice steady, deliberate, almost regal in its calm, “I think… I’ve understood how to make it work for us. Instead of me following its plan, I can guide it.”Caelan’s chest tightened. He had suspected this was possible, but seeing her say it, knowing she had grasped it fully, left him breathless. “Then do it,” he said.Lyra placed her fingers on the console. Not pressing, not commanding, just touching. And the streams of numbers and probability patterns shifted, subtle at first, then cascading like ripples across water. The system was still
CHAPTER 99
The city below pulsed with life, oblivious to the quiet storm forming in a single hospital room. For Caelan, the world had always moved too fast to accommodate the powerless. For Lyra, it was just beginning to move too slow to contain her.She stood at the center of the room, amber eyes steady, arms folded, scanning the monitors like a strategist reading battle maps. Every line, every pulse, every calculated projection was a challenge now. The system had predicted obedience. Compliance. Predictable behavior. What it faced instead was a child unshackled, a mind uncontainable, a legacy refusing erasure.Caelan watched her, a mixture of pride and caution heavy in his chest. “You understand the stakes,” he said. “Every choice you make from here on… they’ll try to predict it. They’ll try to stop it.”Lyra’s lips curved faintly. “Let them try.”The monitors pulsed, the system escalating in intensity. Probabilities surged like electricity, converging and collapsing in seconds. It was trying
CHAPTER 98
Lyra sat on the edge of the bed, legs swinging, eyes fixed on the pale ceiling. The room was quiet, but the hum of the system pulsing faintly through the walls reminded Caelan that nothing here was truly still. Not her. Not him. Not the world beyond the hospital tower.“Dad,” she said softly. Her voice carried a weight beyond her years. “I need to know about her.”Caelan froze for the briefest moment. Not because he hadn’t prepared for this question, he had–but because no answer could convey the depth of what had been taken from him, from her, from their family.“Your mother,” he began carefully, “was… remarkable. Stronger than anyone the world knew. And clever enough that they feared her even in her absence.”Lyra’s eyes narrowed. “Then why… why isn’t she here?”Caelan swallowed, his throat tight. “Because she was taken from us. Not by chance. Not by fate. By people who wanted everything she stood for, and everything she protected removed from the world.”She absorbed that quietly, h
CHAPTER 97
The monitors were still alive, but the glow had shifted. Instead of patterns folding neatly under its control, the system now flickered like a puzzle missing a piece. One piece it could never retrieve.Caelan stood by Lyra’s bedside, arms crossed, watching the way her fingers tapped a rhythm on the mattress. She had done this since she was little, a simple nervous habit that now carried the weight of calculation. She didn’t notice him watching, not really but the system did. Every micro-movement, every pulse, every blink was mapped in real time.SYSTEM ALERT:SUBJECT LYRA ASHBORNE EXCEEDS OPTIMAL PROGRESSION RATE.VARIABLE: UNSTABLE.RECOMMENDATION: ADJUST INTERVENTION.Lyra tilted her head, listening to the silent hum of the monitors. “It’s trying again,” she said softly. “To see if it can predict me.”“And?” Caelan asked.She shrugged, still calm. “It won’t work.”It wasn’t arrogance. Not yet. It was observation. She had already seen how it faltered, how it failed, how it could neve
CHAPTER 96
The room hummed with an almost imperceptible vibration, the kind of low-frequency pressure that Caelan had learned to notice long before it became audible. The monitors by Lyra’s bed flickered, not malfunctioning, but alive, scanning, mapping every pulse, every breath, every micro-movement with a precision that was almost invasive.Caelan stood beside her, arms crossed, sensing the pattern before it manifested: the system was running the comparison.Not of her vitals. Not of her strength. Not of her survival probability. It was measuring her against everything it had ever processed—every child in its database, every variable, every deviation. And Lyra, as always, did not fit.SYSTEM NOTICE:SUBJECT LYRA ASHBORNE: COMPARISON INITIATED.REFERENCE DATA: INCOMPLETE.DEVIATION RATE: UNPRECEDENTED.Lyra’s eyes were open, serene. Calm. But the way her gaze followed the invisible threads weaving through the system’s calculation made Caelan’s chest tighten. She understood the stakes. Not abstr
CHAPTER 95
Morning arrived without a system prompt. No objective. No metric. No faint mechanical pressure behind his eyes nudging him toward efficiency. The world felt heavier for it, like gravity had returned after a long suspension.Lyra slept on.Her vitals were steady, but that wasn’t what held his attention. It was the way her dreams moved, subtle shifts beneath her eyelids, micro-expressions passing across her face as if she were sorting through things she had no words for yet.Caelan had grown used to translations. The system framed everything loss as deficit, survival as optimization, love as leverage. Without it narrating the moment, he was left with something rawer.Uninterpreted reality.He reached for the chair beside her bed and sat, folding his hands together to keep them from shaking. This was the price of what he had chosen last night. Not punishment. Responsibility.The door opened quietly.No announcement. No clearance request.Just fabric brushing air.Jux stepped inside and c
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