Two days later.
Abandoned District – Temporary Shelter.
Dawn arrived softly, like a sigh through the fractured windows. Pale golden light filtered over the floor, painting quiet shapes across sleeping forms.
Kairos sat alone at the edge of the balcony. The city below was quiet—too quiet. Not the uneasy hush of waiting horrors, but a stillness that felt borrowed, stolen from a world that had long since stopped breathing.
He flexed his hand. The runes etched into his skin had dulled, now faint like whispers after a scream. Whatever he had awakened, it no longer raged. It waited.
His younger sister stirred behind him. She sat up slowly, rubbing at her eyes.
"You're always up before the sun now," she said.
He smiled faintly, gaze distant. "Hard to sleep when the world keeps shifting beneath your feet."
She moved to sit beside him, curling her knees beneath her. "Will we go back to the Academy?"
Kairos hesitated.
"I want to. But there are things I need to understand first. Things that… weren't part of the curriculum."
She tilted her head. "Like magic?"
He chuckled, soft and dry. "Like what magic leaves behind when the world's been broken."
Behind them, their mother prepared breakfast—bread from scavenged grain, stewed roots, and a ration of dried meat. The scent was humble. Home-like. For a moment, the ruins felt less haunted.
---
Midday.
Kairos wandered the outer edge of the district. Not patrolling. Just… walking. Watching. Listening.
The rot had not reached this place. The earth here was only cracked, not corrupted. Old murals still clung to the stone. One showed a circle of mages, surrounding a crystal sun. Another, a tree with stars for leaves.
He paused beneath the second mural. Pressed his palm to it.
The rune beneath his shirt pulsed once—like a heartbeat.
But nothing else happened.
Not yet.
---
Evening.
Shelter Rooftop.
That night, as stars blinked slowly into the sky, Kairos sat with his sword across his lap. He polished it not out of need, but ritual. His mind wandered.
To Selene.
She had stood at his side when the world cracked open. Had stared down the abyss with eyes that didn't flinch. What was she doing now? Had she sensed the change in him?
And why did he feel like they were being prepared—not just trained?
He closed his eyes.
The stars above held no answers.
Only silence.
---
Far across the city, within the Academy's shadowed corridors, Selene stood before the grand archive. Her hand hovered over a sealed tome.
A whisper curled at the edge of her mind:
He's changing. So must you.
She opened the book.
And the pages turned on their own.