Part 1
Two days after the incident at the Central Art Museum, Kael's apartment had reached a new and bewildering level of chaos. If before there was only Lyra as a silent, loyal shadow, now there was the addition of Chroma, an artistic black hole of silence.
That morning, Kael was struggling in the kitchen, trying to make breakfast for four people with very different tastes. Elara, as usual, requested pancakes with a generous amount of chocolate syrup. Kael himself preferred simple toast and eggs. Lyra, after some experimentation, had decided she only liked food that was "shaped like stars or the moon." And Chroma… Chroma didn't ask for anything. She would just sit and stare at whatever food was placed in front of her for several minutes before eating it very slowly.
"Kael, this star isn't pointy enough," Lyra protested softly, pointing at the fried egg Kael had tried to shape using a cookie cutter.
"Sorry, sorry, the cutter is a bit bent," Kael sighed. He glanced at the dining table. Elara was absorbed in her console, while Chroma sat quietly in her chair, a sketchbook open on her lap, her small hand holding a blue colored pencil.
Suddenly, a small incident occurred. Lyra, while trying to grab the syrup bottle for Kael (because Kael was the only one allowed to touch her "cosmic nectar"), accidentally knocked over the glass of water in front of Chroma. The glass tipped, spilling water all over Chroma's sketchbook.
"Ah!" Elara exclaimed.
Lyra froze, her eyes widening in panic. "I-I didn't mean to…"
Chroma stared at her now soaking wet sketchbook page. Her drawing, a portrait of a smiling Kael, had bled into a blurry smudge of color. A chilling silence fell over the dining table. Chroma didn't cry, nor did she get angry. She just stared at her ruined work with empty eyes, and the entire room seemed to grow colder.
Kael quickly grabbed a cloth and tried to dry the page, but it was too late. "It's okay, Chroma. We can buy a new sketchbook later. You can draw it again, right?" Kael tried to console her.
Chroma didn't answer. She just closed her sketchbook, got up from her chair, and walked to a corner of the room, sitting down and hugging her knees. She had retreated into her empty shell again.
Lyra looked at Kael with an expression of immense guilt. "Kael… I… I broke it."
"It's not your fault, Lyra. It was an accident," Kael comforted her, stroking her head. But he knew, for Chroma, it wasn't just a ruined drawing. It was a reminder of failure, of the imperfection she feared so much.
The awkward breakfast atmosphere was saved by Kael's ringing phone. A call from Rina.
"Hello?"
"Kael, it's me. Do you have time after breakfast? Commander Kirana wants to see us at headquarters," Rina's voice sounded as usual, flat and professional.
"Yeah, sure. Any new developments?"
"A lot. It's about 'Chroma'. Meet me at the usual pickup point in an hour. Alone."
"Understood," Kael hung up. He glanced at Chroma, still curled up in the corner, then at Lyra, who still looked downcast. His new family was truly a handful.
Part 2
An hour later, Kael was in the Chronosentinel Order's briefing room, sitting across from Commander Kirana and Rina. A large holographic screen between them displayed all the data that had been collected on the Phantasm Chroma.
"As you reported, Mr. Vance," Commander Kirana began, "the core emotion of 'Chroma' is a deep longing, tied to a father figure."
She displayed the spectral drawing Kael had found on the alley wall. "And based on your testimony, as well as the fact that her target was the Vincent Volkov exhibition, we've arrived at a single hypothesis."
"That this Phantasm… has a connection to my father," Rina finished the sentence, her voice soft and heavy.
"Precisely," Commander Kirana nodded. "We've looked through your father's old archives. There are no official records of an adopted child or a student who lived with him. But we found something else."
A digital journal entry appeared on the screen. It was from Vincent Volkov's personal diary, written about six years ago.
May 14th. Grecia showed me her new painting today. The colors are still raw, the technique still lacking. But her eyes… there is a storm in her eyes. A pure, wild, unpolished talent. I must be harder on her. I cannot let such potential wither due to shallow praise.
"Grecia…" Kael read it softly.
"We couldn't find that name in any resident database," Rina said. "It's likely a nickname, or a name my father gave her."
"The journal entries stop abruptly a few months after that," Commander Kirana continued. "And after that date, your father's works became darker, more somber. As if his 'light' had been extinguished. We believe something tragic happened to this girl named Grecia."
"What do we need to do?" Kael asked.
"You two are the key to solving this mystery," Commander Kirana replied. "Rina, as his daughter, you have access and possibly memories that could help. And Kael, as the Resonator, you can sense the emotional echoes left behind."
She looked at both of them seriously. "I'm giving you an official mission: investigate Vincent Volkov's old studio. The place has been sealed since his death. Find anything that can give us a clue as to who Grecia was, what happened to her, and why she became a Phantasm."
This mission felt very different. It was no longer about stopping a threat, but about digging up old wounds. Especially for Rina.
"Are you okay with this, Rina?" Kael asked as they were walking out of the briefing room.
Rina was silent for a moment, staring down the long, sterile corridor. "I'm an Order agent. This is a mission. Personal emotions are irrelevant."
The answer sounded cold, but Kael could see her hand clenched tightly at her side. This was far more than just a mission for her. This was about her father.
They were escorted to a special storage area where items from Vincent Volkov's studio were kept. An officer handed them a box containing old keys and an access card.
"The studio is in the Old Artist District, not far from Chroma's first appearance," the officer said. "No one has entered it for a long time."
As Kael and Rina prepared to leave, Kael remembered something.
"Wait a minute," he said to Rina. He walked to a communication terminal and made a video call to his apartment.
Elara's face appeared on the screen. "What's up, Big Bro?"
"Elara, can you put Lyra on for a second?"
The screen switched, displaying Lyra's slightly worried face. "Kael?"
"Lyra, I'm going out for a while with Rina for a mission. Please look after Chroma and Elara, okay?"
Lyra nodded. "Come back soon."
"I will," Kael smiled. "Oh, and can you do something for me? Try to get Chroma to draw again. Tell her it's okay if the drawing is smudged or not perfect. The important thing is to try again. Tell her… I'm looking forward to her new painting."
Lyra was silent for a moment, then nodded again, this time more firmly. "I will tell her."
After ending the call, Kael felt a little more at ease. He might be leaving on a mission to heal Chroma's past, but at home, he was leaving another mission for Lyra: to help heal Chroma's present.
"Let's go, Rina," Kael said.
Rina nodded. Together, they walked towards the car, towards an abandoned studio where the portrait of an unfinished family was waiting to be uncovered.