The room is still dark when Kael realizes he is awake.
Cold in the way stone gets just before morning. The air settles against his skin while the building around him remains quiet. Nyra sleeps on the opposite pallet with one arm wrapped around her bag. Her breathing is slow and deep, the kind of sleep that comes from knowing how little you can afford to relax. The other laborers in the building have not stirred yet. Someone coughs once far below. Then it stops.
He sits up anyway.
Something feels off in his chest. It is not pain. It is not fear. It feels like forgetting something important and knowing it matters even if you cannot remember what it is yet.
He swings his legs off the pallet and his left boot makes a soft wet squeak when it hits the floor. The split sole again. He meant to fix it yesterday. He did not.
Nothing follows. No heat under his skin. No glow. No answers at all. Just the room and the scrape of his heel as he pulls the boot off and checks the damage with his fingers.
His breath catches. Shallow and tight. Like the air has thinned.
He exhales and stands.
The window is barely wide enough to count as one. Just a cut in the wall that lets in air and reminds you the city has not sealed you in completely. He leans closer and looks out into the Hollow. The sky is still dark and the floating districts above are only uneven shapes. Below, rune lamps burn low and flicker, their light never quite reaching the edges of the street.
Everything looks normal, which makes his shoulders tighten. He presses two fingers against his wrist. Bare skin. No mark. Nothing to explain why the feeling has not gone away.
Behind him Nyra shifts.
"You're awake."
"Yeah."
She sits up and rubs her eyes. Her braid has come loose in places she will fix later.
"Dreams?"
"Didn't get far enough."
She watches him instead of the room.
"You feel it again."
He nods.
"Stronger. But quieter."
Nyra does not smile.
"Quiet things pay attention."
They dress without talking much. No wasted movement. No arguing. The Hollow does not reward people who hesitate in the morning.
Outside, the streets are already moving. Vendors drag open shutters. Someone curses at a cart that will not turn cleanly. Kael becomes aware of his own smell, sweat and old oil, and wonders if Nyra notices or if she is just polite enough not to say anything.
For a second he finds himself thinking about fried dough from the corner stall near the river, the one that burns everything and still smells better than most meals he gets. The thought annoys him. He is not even hungry enough to justify it.
Two Wardens walk the main path. Their armor is spotless and their eyes scan slower than usual.
One of them looks at Kael. Not long. Long enough to be deliberate.
Nyra mutters, "They know."
"They always do."
They part at the next junction. Nyra heads toward the scaffold yards. Kael turns toward the lower supply routes where the work is dull and heavy and mostly ignored. He prefers it that way.
Two hours later he is lifting a metal bound crate onto a cart when a sharp whistle cuts through the air.
Three Wardens approach. They are not rushing. They walk like they are late for something else and want this done quickly. The workers around Kael stiffen and a few step back without being told.
One of the Wardens stops in front of him.
"Kael Ashari."
Kael straightens.
"That's me."
"You're Unbound."
"That's what the crystal said."
The man sighs. He already looks tired. His eyes flick to Kael's wrist.
"Look. I don't care what the Pillar called you. Someone higher up wants a look. You're coming with us for observation."
"For what purpose?"
The Warden's patience thins.
"Because that's how this works."
Kael does not move.
The Warden's hand rests near his baton. He does not reach for it.
"Am I being detained?" Kael asks.
There is a pause, long enough to matter.
"No," the Warden says.
"This is a request."
"Then I'm declining."
Someone drops a tool. A few workers suddenly find reasons to stay busy.
"You don't get to refuse," the Warden snaps.
"I do," Kael says. His voice stays calm.
"You just said so."
Something cold presses behind his ribs. One of the other Wardens shifts his weight and looks away.
The lead Warden studies Kael again, slower this time.
"You're making this harder than it needs to be."
Kael meets his gaze.
"You started it."
For a moment the man looks like he might argue. Instead he steps back half a pace.
"We'll be keeping an eye on you."
Kael nods.
"I figured."
They leave.
The silence afterward feels wrong. The workers stare at Kael like he has done something reckless and gotten away with it, and nobody is sure what that means for the rest of them.
"You shouldn't talk to them like that," someone mutters.
Kael lifts the crate again.
"They shouldn't have called my name."
Work continues but it never really settles. By midday the rumors have already started folding in on themselves.
Unbound is not powerless. That much is clear by now. What it is instead keeps changing, depending on who is whispering.
As his shift ends, a man steps into his path.
Older. Clean clothes. No crest. No visible rank. Too relaxed for the Hollow.
"Kael Ashari," the man says.
"You handled the Wardens better than most."
Kael stops.
"Do I know you?"
"No." The man smiles slightly.
"But I know you. Or at least what you didn't get."
Kael tastes copper at the back of his mouth.
"People will try to decide what you're for," the man says. His voice sounds bored.
"That happens when the system gives no instructions."
Someone bumps into the man from behind. He snaps at a vendor nearby, then pauses to brush at a dark stain on his cuff like it has been bothering him the whole time. When Kael looks again the man is already moving away, not vanishing, just lost among people who have places to be.
Kael stands longer than he should. Then he heads home.
That night he sits on his pallet and pulls off his boots. The left one finally gives up. The sole peels back another inch with a soft tear. He sets it against the wall and stares at it, already counting the cost.
The strange tightness settles again. Faint but steady. The room smells clean and metallic for a moment. Then it does not.
Kael lies back and listens to the building creak as someone turns over upstairs. A pipe knocks twice. Then it goes quiet.
He falls asleep thinking about the boot and whether fixing it now means going without something else later.