Episode 02:
The rain had stopped, yet the sky lingered in shades of gray over Westbridge.
The city breathed in silence cold, heavy, and restless.
Alok Fanando sat by his cracked bedroom window, his reflection faint against the glass.
Beneath his shirt, the silver crescent pendant rested against his chest.
It pulsed faintly a quiet heartbeat that didn't belong to him.
That night had changed something inside him.
He could feel it.
He remembered the antique shop the scent of dust, the shelves stacked with forgotten things, and the old man who had said the pendant was "waiting."
At the time, Alok thought it was nothing more than a relic.
Now, it felt like a chain invisible, but heavy pulling him toward something he couldn't see.
Life in Westbridge was a slow erosion.
Days bled into each other: wake, work, eat, sleep.
The factory's hum filled the air with monotony, drowning out the voices of tired men who had long stopped dreaming.
No one noticed the quiet young man who kept his head down.
No one saw the faint shadows that sometimes lingered at his back.
During lunch breaks, while others crowded the diner with laughter and noise, Alok would climb to the fire escape.
There, he'd sit beneath the overcast sky, watching pigeons fight over scraps of bread.
He would think of his family of what used to make life feel alive.
His mother, Liana, woke before dawn to bake bread at the town's small bakery. Her hands were cracked but steady, her smile soft but tired.
His father, Ruvin, once a soldier, rarely spoke anymore. The war had taken more than his voice; it had taken his light.
And Mina, his little sister bright, fearless, still young enough to believe in tomorrow was the only warmth left in the house.
That night, Alok held the pendant again.
It was warm now. Alive.
A faint glow traced the edges, as if it were breathing with him.
And then he saw her face again
white hair, violet eyes, a presence that felt divine and cruel all at once.
The woman from his vision. The goddess who had betrayed him.
He didn't understand why he remembered her name when he shouldn't have.
He didn't understand why the sight of her filled him with both pain and rage.
But deep down, Alok knew one truth
this was only the beginning.
Outside, Westbridge flickered with weary neon and scattered thunder.
The city slept, unaware that one of its quiet souls had already stepped beyond its boundaries.
The ordinary world was beginning to crack
and beyond the veil of rain, something ancient was watching.
Something that had waited too long.