The crack in the crystal core did not close.
It froze.
Thin as a hairline fracture in glass, yet enough to change everything.
Within the Chrono Council, decisions were no longer unanimous. The circle that had once been whole had split into two silent currents watching each other with suspicion.
The first faction was led by Virelli and Heinrich. They believed one simple thing: the node must be secured. If Luca was the new center, then he had to be placed under the Council's control.
The second faction, led by Eleanor and Anwar, held a different conviction: if Luca was a natural mechanism, then further intervention would only worsen the fracture.
And in the midst of that division, a decision was made in secret.
Heinrich activated Protocol Aegis.
A hunt without announcement.
Rome felt too bright that morning.
The sky was clear. Sunlight touched domes and marble as though nothing had ever cracked.
Luca sat on the steps near the Pantheon, trying to understand the changes within him.
Since the power surge from London, the world no longer felt solid.
He could sense the pauses between seconds.
Not seeing the future.
Not returning to the past.
But touching the gap in between.
He closed his eyes.
Footsteps approached.
Three people. Their stride too uniform to be tourists.
He opened his eyes.
A man in a dark gray suit stood a few meters away. Two others spread to the sides; casual, yet trained.
"Luca Moretti?" the man asked in a smooth British accent.
"I've been called that," Luca replied calmly.
"We'd like to talk. Somewhere more private."
"And if I refuse?"
The man smiled thinly.
"We advise that you don't."
The air shifted.
Luca felt a subtle pressure an invisible field attempting to lock the space around him.
Portable devices.
Chrono Council.
He rose slowly.
"Then," he said softly, "we'll talk here."
The device in one agent's hand vibrated. An unseen wave spread outward, attempting to stabilize the fluctuations around Luca.
Normally, it was enough to suppress minor anomalies.
This time, the air resonated back.
A clock on the wall of a nearby café stopped.
Pigeons froze mid-flight for a fraction of a second.
The first agent stiffened, eyes widening.
"Shut it down!" he shouted.
Too late.
The temporal field rebounded like a mirror.
Luca did nothing consciously.
Yet the space around him curved slightly.
And in that pause, someone stood between them.
A dark-haired woman in a long coat.
Selena.
She appeared as if she had been there all along.
"Is this how you greet a new node?" she asked calmly, looking at the agents.
The suited man tensed.
"Agent Selena. You're violating orders."
"Orders change when the circle cracks."
She glanced briefly at Luca.
Her gaze was not surprised.
As if she had known him through resonance long before seeing his face.
"Leave," she told the agents.
"This isn't your decision," the man replied.
Selena pulled a small device from her pocket. Not a weapon.
An override key.
The Council's local network in Rome went dark within a two-hundred-meter radius.
The agents' devices powered down.
"Now it is."
Silence tightened.
The agents retreated slowly.
Not because they feared Selena.
But because they knew if the node truly destabilized in public, the consequences would be immeasurable.
They disappeared into the crowd of tourists who noticed nothing.
Luca and Selena stood facing each other.
For the first time.
"I feel like you've been waiting for me," Luca said softly.
Selena studied him.
"Not waiting for you. Waiting for this moment."
"You're one of them."
"Yes."
"And not entirely."
She did not deny it.
"They call you a node."
Luca gave a faint smile.
"They've called me many things I never asked for."
Selena stepped closer.
The air between them vibrated subtly.
Their frequencies brushed against each other.
The Pantheon behind them felt quieter than usual.
"You feel it too, don't you?" Selena asked.
"The fracture."
"Not just the fracture. Something behind it."
Luca nodded.
"A voice."
Selena held her breath for a moment.
"You hear it."
"The throne. The boundary. The lock."
Selena's eyes narrowed slightly.
"The lock?"
Luca looked up at the Pantheon's dome.
"I thought I was the center. Turns out I'm the door."
The word silenced her.
In London, the crystal core suddenly trembled again.
Claudia, monitoring from a private console, saw two frequencies merging.
Luca.
Selena.
The graph spiked not because of conflict.
Because of synchronization.
She immediately contacted Anwar.
"They've met," she said.
"And?"
"The field is stabilizing."
Anwar froze.
"Stabilizing?"
"The fracture in Rome has decreased by four percent."
In the Oculus, Heinrich saw the same data.
But he interpreted it differently.
"Two nodes," he murmured. "If we capture both, we can control the entire network."
Virelli did not answer immediately.
He stared at the crack in the crystal core.
Thin.
Silent.
As if waiting.
In Rome, the sky suddenly darkened.
Not from clouds.
But as if light were being subtly absorbed at a single point above the Pantheon.
Selena felt it first.
"They're increasing the power again," she said.
"For us?" Luca asked.
"To see what happens when the two primary frequencies meet."
The air vibrated.
Stronger this time.
The ancient stone of the Pantheon trembled faintly.
Tourists began to feel dizzy.
Time tightened.
Luca closed his eyes.
He did not try to resist.
He tried to listen.
Within the pressure, the voice returned.
Clearer.
"Two keys do not open."
"Two keys seal."
Luca opened his eyes.
He looked at Selena.
"We're not the door," he said softly.
"We're the lock."
Selena understood instantly.
If the Council continued increasing power, they would not open something.
They would force a defense mechanism to activate.
And that mechanism was not a machine.
The sky above Rome fractured faintly.
A blue line appeared more real than ever before.
People began to scream.
Not because they saw the line.
But because they felt an unexplainable pressure.
Selena grabbed Luca's hand.
The touch was like joining two magnetic poles.
Resonance surged.
Not wild.
Directed.
In London, the graphs exploded.
Claudia shouted for the power to be reduced.
Anwar forced system access.
Heinrich tried to maintain control.
Virelli stood rigid.
For a fraction of a second, he saw it.
Not on a screen.
In the air of the Oculus.
The crown appeared again.
Larger.
And within it, no figure sat.
The throne was empty.
Not because there was no ruler.
But because the throne itself was the mechanism.
And Luca and Selena were not candidates.
They were boundary keepers.
The power finally dropped.
The sky over Rome returned to normal.
The blue line faded.
People assumed they had experienced a minor tremor.
Luca and Selena still stood, hands clasped.
Their breathing steady.
The field around them stable.
More stable than before.
In London, the crack in the crystal core did not widen.
But one thing changed.
The Archive was no longer the center of the network.
The graphs showed a new temporal gravitational center.
Rome.
At the precise coordinates of the Pantheon.
The circle had broken.
And its center had shifted.
Virelli whispered to himself.
"We were never the guardians."
Heinrich looked at him.
"We can take it back."
Eleanor, standing at the doorway, said only one sentence.
"Or we learn to stop."
In Rome, Selena slowly released Luca's hand.
"Now they won't stop hunting you," she said.
Luca looked up at the sky, now blue again.
"Good."
Selena raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Good?"
"If I'm the lock, then I want to know what is truly trying to get out."
A soft wind moved through the marble columns.
And far beneath London, the crystal core emitted a second, faint crack.
Longer.
Deeper.
The game was no longer about observation.
It had become a struggle over the boundary.
And two people in Rome had just become its center.