The platinum watch on my wrist chimed, a single, crystalline note that sliced through the pre-dawn silence. Its face, usually a cool silver, flashed a defiant crimson: [TODAY: LIGHTNING TRIAL - SURVIVE 30 MINUTES]
I rolled out of bed, the whisper of silk against bare skin the only sound in the cavernous room. Moonlight, thin and sharp as spun glass, streaked through the floor-to-ceiling windows, painting silver stripes across the polished obsidian tiles. My shadow stretched unnaturally long behind me, a pool of animate darkness that twitched with restless energy, hungry for the coming storm.
[System: You're up early. Adrenaline levels are elevated. Nervous?]
