Shadow Contract: The Bodyguard’s War

The Origin Directive

They moved carefully.

Delta was walking now.

Slower than the others. Not fragile, just… fragile-looking. Like a structure you didn’t lean against because it held something inside.

He spoke little during the first miles.

Mostly in fragments.

Half-coded phrases.

Sometimes in reverse order.

Ash logged everything he said.

Sophia watched him more than she spoke.

Damien kept his point, weapons down.

By the third day, Delta began forming full sentences.

Still broken.

Still delayed.

But clear enough to piece together.

They camped beside a dry riverbed in what used to be the desert.

Now it was a forest.

Not natural.

Too symmetrical.

Another fabrication.

Eclipse is still trying to simulate control.

Failing.

Delta sat on the stone, tracing shapes into dust.

Ash asked what they were.

He replied:

Grief maps.

She waited.

He didn’t explain further.

That night, the sky cracked.

Not a metaphor.

A literal seam opened overhead—brief, like lightning, but silent.

Damien watched it without blinking.

He sai