The hotel in Lako City stood between eras.
Its walls were tall but tired, its windows polished yet clouded by age, as if it had learned how to survive without truly changing. Travelers came and went, but the building itself remained—watching.
Riva arrived first.
An hour earlier than the others, she stood at the reception desk with her bag held close, eyes scanning the quiet lobby. The invisible pull that had followed her for days had softened here, turning into something steadier—like gravity finally agreeing with her weight.
"Single room," she said calmly.
The clerk nodded, handing her a key without question.
As Riva rode the elevator up, she felt it again—that strange sense of rightness. Not happiness. Not peace.
Stability.
Her room was simple. A bed by the window. A desk. A mirror that reflected her without distortion. Riva sat on the edge of the bed and exhaled slowly, unaware that this was the first place in years where her aura did not press outward.
Outside, the city continued to breathe.
---
Parna arrived next.
He paused outside the hotel entrance, fingers brushing the stone wall instinctively. The building felt neutral—not hostile, not welcoming. Alive, but reserved.
"That'll do," he murmured.
Inside, he requested a room without preference. When the clerk handed him the key, Parna felt the faintest vibration in the floor beneath his feet—like roots shifting far below the city.
His room overlooked the street.
He opened the window immediately.
The air carried layered scents—dust, rain, metal, old leaves trapped between stones. Parna rested his hands on the sill, grounding himself, unaware that the city was doing the same to him.
---
Eva arrived just before evening.
The compass in her hand grew warm as she stepped through the hotel doors, the needle spinning once before settling—neither forward nor back, but here.
She hesitated.
"This place," she whispered, unsure whether she was speaking to herself or to the compass.
Her grandmother's words echoed faintly in her mind: When you reach there, you will find your path.
Eva checked in quietly. Her room was higher than the others, the city spreading out beneath her like a map that refused to be fully read.
She placed the compass on the table.
It did not move.
For the first time, Eva felt unsure—not lost, but unanchored.
---
Aarvi arrived last.
She entered the lobby with energy that felt almost out of place—light footsteps, curious eyes, a smile that flickered even when nothing was amusing.
"Well," she said softly, glancing around, "this looks important."
The box in her bag shifted.
Aarvi checked in, humming under her breath, unaware that the symbols inside the box were responding to proximity—to people she had not yet met.
Her room felt warmer than expected. Sunlight lingered longer there, clinging to the walls as if reluctant to leave.
Aarvi dropped onto the bed, staring at the ceiling.
"I have a feeling," she said to no one, "that I won't be bored here."
---
Across the street from the hotel stood a tall, narrow building—fourteen floors of glass and shadow.
On the fourteenth floor, a man stood by the window.
He was forty years old, give or take, his posture relaxed but alert. His eyes tracked movement below—one arrival, then another, then another—each entering the same hotel without knowing why it mattered.
He smiled faintly.
"So," he said, turning away from the window, "the past has decided."
He paused, considering his words.
"No," he corrected himself. "It's going to be resolved… or revealed."
He picked up his coat and left the room without looking back, the door closing softly behind him.
The window reflected the empty space where he had stood—then cleared, as if he had never been there at all.
---
At the same moment, a car idled several streets away.
Inside sat a man older than the one in the tower—around fifty, his face lined not with age but with memory. He watched the hotel through the windshield, his gaze steady, unblinking.
His hand rested around a pendant.
It was old. Smooth from years of being held. Its surface bore a symbol that did not belong to any known alphabet.
The man tightened his grip.
"So it begins," he murmured.
Not loudly.
Not ceremonially.
Just a statement.
The pendant warmed.
He started the engine.
---
Night settled over Lako City.
Inside the hotel, four rooms remained separate.
Riva stood by her window, feeling unusually calm, unaware that her presence had stabilized more than just herself.
Parna sat cross-legged on the floor, palms against the ground, sensing movement beneath the city that mirrored his own breathing.
Eva lay awake, staring at the compass, unsettled by its silence.
Aarvi opened her bag, fingertips brushing the edge of the box, smiling despite the quiet tension in her chest.
None of them knew the others were there.
None of them knew they were already connected.
Outside, the tall building darkened floor by floor.
The abandoned area beyond the city shifted uneasily.
And somewhere between past and present, something old adjusted its position—
not awake,
not asleep—
Preparing.
---
The city had inhaled.
The story had noticed.
And whatever came next would not wait for introductions.
---