Chapter 5: Miracle Clinic
The clinic smelled like alcohol wipes and old secrets.
Once the door shut behind them, the world changed. Not because the walls were magical, but because everything inside was designed to look normal to the wrong eyes.
There were framed certificates on the wall. A holo-screen playing an ad with smiling models and clean white text:
REJUVENATION. CELLULAR RESET. PRIVATE CARE.
Selene stared at it like she'd walked into a rich person's dream by accident.
Kairo kept his eyes on the corners.
Two cameras.
A motion sensor.
A second door with a biometric lock.
Varrik noticed his scan and didn't comment. She just led them into a back room that looked like a lab married a hospital: stainless steel surfaces, sealed drawers, diagnostic rigs, and a chair that screamed expensive.
"Sit," Varrik said to Kairo.
Kairo didn't sit immediately. "Why."
Varrik's eyes were flat. "Because you're leaking."
Kairo's skin prickled. "Leaking what."
"Veil," she replied like saying blood pressure. "It's faint. But it's there. Someone with the right nose will smell you."
Selene swallowed. "So it is real."
Varrik glanced at her. "Of course it's real."
Selene's voice tightened. "Then why does nobody talk about it."
Varrik's mouth twitched faintly. "People talk. Just not where you can hear."
Kairo finally sat. The chair adjusted under him automatically, scanning his vitals with a soft beep.
A screen lit up with clean medical graphs.
Heart rate.
Cortisol.
Temperature.
Then, a line Kairo didn't recognize:
Resonance instability: elevated.
Kairo stared. "That's… me?"
Varrik nodded once. "Your body doesn't know what to do with the current yet. It's fighting it."
Selene leaned closer. "Can you fix it?"
Varrik didn't answer right away. She opened a drawer and pulled out a slim injector pen with a sealed cartridge.
Not a potion.
Not a syringe.
Tech.
She held it up so both of them could see the label.
THREADGEL-9
For trauma stabilization.
Authorized clinics only.
Selene's eyes widened. "That's one of those… miracle meds."
Varrik's gaze sharpened. "That's what they call it."
Kairo felt the static under his skin tighten, like it disliked the pen.
Varrik noticed. "Good. Your gift has instincts. Listen to them."
She set the pen down and looked at Kairo. "If I give you this, your channels will settle. Your leakage will drop. You'll think clearer."
Kairo's eyes narrowed. "What's the price."
Varrik's mouth curved slightly. "Smart."
She tapped the resonance graph. "It will also make your next awakening step easier. Which means you'll be more visible to the Veil world."
Selene's jaw tightened. "So medicine is bait."
Varrik shrugged. "Everything is bait. People just pretend it isn't."
Kairo swallowed, then asked the question that mattered.
"You said someone is looking for a Pathmaker," he said. "Who."
Varrik didn't sit. She moved like a person who couldn't relax in rooms with locks.
"A buyer," she said. "They don't want a guide. They want a tool that makes teams survive."
Selene's voice went cold. "A slaver."
Varrik's eyes flicked to Selene. "Call it what it is."
Kairo's hands curled. "So Marrow sent us here to sell me."
Varrik shook her head once. "No."
She held up the letter again. "Marrow sent this here because he wants something from me. He wants me to take you off his hands."
Kairo's stomach tightened. "Why."
"Because you're hot," Varrik said flatly. "Not attractive. Dangerous. Fresh awakenings spike interest in the wrong circles."
Selene looked ready to bolt.
Kairo forced his voice to stay steady. "Then why let us in."
Varrik's gaze stayed on him. "Because I hate buyers."
A beat.
"And because," she added, "a Pathmaker in the wrong hands becomes a map to every hidden door."
Kairo's throat went dry.
Varrik picked up the injector again and clicked it once, the sound sharp in the quiet room.
"I can stabilize you," she said. "I can teach you the first rules. I can even put you under a clinic identity so the surface world thinks you're just another 'miracle medicine' case."
Selene whispered, "And then what."
Varrik's eyes sharpened. "Then you work for me. Not as property. As staff."
Kairo stared. "Staff."
Varrik nodded. "You want longevity? You want to live past the age your neighborhood expects? You want to stop being prey?"
She pointed at the rejuvenation ad on the wall. "That's what poor people think they're buying when they pay for these clinics."
Her finger shifted to the resonance graph. "This is what the rich are actually buying."
Kairo's skin prickled.
He realized, all at once, why the lower class only knew rumors about miracle medicine.
Because if they knew Veil was real…
they'd start asking why the rich got to live longer.
And questions like that started revolutions.
Varrik looked at him. "Decide."
Kairo exhaled slowly.
He glanced at Selene.
She looked terrified, but she wasn't running. Not yet.
Kairo looked back at Varrik and said, calm, "If I work for you…"
Varrik waited.
Kairo's eyes narrowed. "What do you want me to guide."
Varrik's mouth curved faintly.
"The right people," she said. "Into the Veil. Without letting the buyers smell them first."
Kairo felt the static under his skin tighten into a thin, quiet line.
Not a path out.
A path in.
Astral Pathmaker.