Chapter 29: Searching for Signals
The visions wouldn't leave Adrian alone. Every night, the pendant showed him flashes of the city bathed in emerald light, hunters scattering, and ordinary people holding fragments of stone. He woke drenched in sweat, chest heaving, the relic glowing faintly against his skin.
By the fourth night, he stopped pretending it was just dreams. The pendant wasn't whispering anymore. It was pointing him toward something — or someone.
Leah noticed first. "You're restless," she said one morning, catching him staring out the office window. "You're looking for something."
Adrian hesitated, then nodded. "The visions. They're not just warnings. They're signals. The relic is showing me people. Ordinary people. I think… they're connected somehow."
Leah frowned. "Connected how?"
Adrian clenched his fists. "Fragments. Like the cavern. But alive. Maybe they're carrying pieces of the same root. Maybe they don't even know it."
That night, he told Elias and Isabella.
Elias scowled immediately. "Dangerous. You start chasing faces in crowds, you'll lose focus. Hunters thrive on distraction."
Isabella leaned forward, her voice calm but firm. "But my grandmother wrote about this. She believed the relic didn't choose one vessel alone. It chose many, scattered across the city. Each carried a fragment; each tied to balance. If Adrian is seeing them, it means they're waking."
Elias muttered, "Or it means the relic is playing tricks."
Adrian shook his head. "No. It's too clear. Too vivid. The pendant wants me to find them."
Silence hung heavy. Finally, Elias sighed. "Then move carefully. If you're right, these people may not even know what they carry. And if hunters find them first…" He trailed off, the warning sharp enough without finishing.
The next day, Adrian began watching more closely. In jeepneys, in crowded markets, in office corridors. He studied faces, movements, the faint hum of energy that sometimes brushed against him. Most were ordinary. But every so often, the pendant pulsed faintly, warming against his chest.
One evening, as he walked home, the relic flared suddenly. Adrian froze, scanning the street. A boy no older than sixteen stood at a corner, sketching in a notebook. He looked ordinary — messy hair, worn clothes, tired eyes. But the pendant pulsed harder, frantic.
Adrian's chest tightened. He stepped closer, heart pounding. The boy glanced up, startled. For a moment, Adrian saw it — a faint shimmer around his hands, like the glow of a fragment hidden beneath the skin.
Leah whispered beside him, "It's him. One of them."
Adrian swallowed hard. "Then the visions were right."
The boy frowned, confused. "Do I… know you?"
Adrian hesitated, pendant burning against his chest. He wanted to explain, to tell him everything, but Elias's warning echoed in his mind: Trust is risk. Isolation is death. Learn to tell the difference.
He forced a smile. "Not yet. But maybe soon."
The boy blinked, then shrugged, returning to his sketch. Adrian stepped back, chest heaving, pendant glowing faintly. He didn't push further. Not yet. But he knew. The relic had led him here.
That night, he whispered to himself, voice hoarse. "I'll rise. I'll uncover the truth. And I'll find them."
The pendant pulsed again, brighter than before.
And Adrian Reyes knew the path ahead wasn't just about cultivation or history. It was about people — scattered across the city, carrying fragments of the same root, waiting to be found before the hunters reached them first.