The night had a pulse.
It throbbed beneath the cracked streets of the Glass City—slow, deliberate, alive. The kind of silence that wasn't silence at all, but a warning, holding its breath before something inevitable. Even the lights above seemed hesitant, flickering in uneasy rhythm as if the city itself sensed what was coming.
I stood at the edge of the plaza, the Vein humming faintly under my boots, vibrating through the soles like a restless heartbeat. Jarek was beside me, checking the charge on his weapon with the kind of focus that masked worry. Selene watched the rooftops, her expression unreadable, every movement precise, controlled.
Something was wrong.
The air carried it—too still, too heavy. The kind of quiet that felt like someone had draped a glass dome over the world.
Then the whisper came.
It wasn't sound exactly. It moved through the Vein, not the air. A pulse of energy, faint and metallic, like a heartbeat echoing from somewhere deep below. My body reacted before my mind caught up—skin prickling, stomach tightening.
"They're here," I said quietly.
Selene's head snapped up. "Where?"
I didn't answer. I couldn't. Because they weren't here yet… but they were close enough that the city could feel them.
The first wave came like smoke—dark figures gliding through the side streets, movements sharp and synchronized. Kael's ambushers. Fast, disciplined, and wearing the kind of silence that only killers could.
The plaza erupted.
Glass shattered from the upper floors. The ground seemed to shudder as the Vein reacted, every pulse of energy echoing the violence breaking across its surface. I raised my hand instinctively, the currents inside me flaring. A wall of shimmering energy snapped up—half instinct, half fear.
It caught the first volley of plasma bolts, the sound ricocheting through the square.
Jarek fired back, moving with a kind of reckless precision that somehow worked for him. "You really should warn us earlier next time!"
Selene didn't respond—she was already moving, a blur of motion and precision, deflecting and striking with the rhythm of someone who didn't need sight to predict chaos.
The air crackled. The Vein within me surged like lightning through glass. I felt it—every heartbeat of the city, every vibration beneath the concrete. It wasn't just energy. It was alive.
Kaelen's voice whispered faintly through the current, calm amidst the storm.(Control is not restraint. Control is clarity.)
I exhaled, grounding myself. Focus, not fear.
The energy steadied. Every movement of my hand translated into flow—shards of glass lifting midair, swirling around like silver petals caught in a storm. One struck an attacker's weapon, disarming him before he even understood what had happened.
Selene's voice cut through the chaos. "North alley! Two more incoming!"
Jarek swung toward the sound, his shot lighting the narrow street in a sharp blue flash. A scream followed, short and final.
For a moment, the world slowed.
The city seemed to pulse with me—its veins, my veins. Every spark of light, every flicker of shadow danced in rhythm with my heartbeat. The Vein wasn't resisting anymore. It was syncing.
Then, just as quickly, the moment fractured.
Kael's presence slid into the plaza like smoke through cracks. Even before I saw him, I felt him—the calm, the precision, the intent. His voice was quiet but carried through the air like a blade drawn in silence.
"Your orchestration improves," he said, almost casually. "But you're still afraid of what control demands."
His golden eyes caught the broken light—half warmth, half warning.
I met his gaze. "If control means losing humanity, then I'll take the fear."
A ghost of a smile touched his lips. "Then fear will be your cage."
The Vein shuddered. For a second, the entire street seemed to tilt—shadows bending, glass trembling in sympathy. Kael's energy wasn't just power; it was persuasion, woven into the city itself.
Selene stepped forward, her voice steady. "You don't own her, Kael."
He didn't even look at her. "No," he said softly, "but she belongs to this city. And it to her. Let's see which claims the other first."
And then he vanished—dissolving into the reflection of the glass wall behind him.
The silence that followed wasn't peace. It was exhaustion—the kind that weighed down the air and made every breath feel earned.
Jarek dropped to one knee, wiping dust from his face. "Remind me why we ever leave the apartment."
Selene gave a faint, humorless smile. "Because hiding doesn't stop war."
I stayed quiet, still staring at where Kael had been. The Vein pulsed faintly beneath my skin, calmer now, but alive—like it was watching, listening.
Kaelen's whisper came again, softer this time.(You are learning balance. The city moves through you, not around you. But remember, Aradia… every current has its price.)
The words lingered as I looked over the plaza—ruined, smoking, but still standing. People would rebuild. Life would continue. But something fundamental had shifted tonight.
Kael had tested not my power—but my conviction.
And as dawn began to slip between the fractured towers, the Glass City shimmered like a wound half-healed—broken, beautiful, and still breathing.
I turned to Selene and Jarek, the morning light catching the dust in the air like glittering ash. "We survived," I said quietly. "But this was just a warning."
Selene nodded. "Then we better start listening."
The Vein beneath us pulsed once—steady, resolute, like the heartbeat of something ancient that had chosen, for now, to let us live.