The break was not official.
Relay City did not issue pauses. It only redistributed pressure until something cracked somewhere else. Still, that morning, someone made a decision. Work schedules thinned. Signal monitoring was rotated. For the first time since my arrival, no one slid a slate onto my desk with a look that said this cannot wait.
I noticed immediately.
"So this is what mercy looks like," I muttered.
Virex stretched atop the windowsill, sunlight warming his fur. "Temporary incompetence. Don't get used to it."
Outside, the city looked almost normal. People walked slower. Messengers laughed. A food cart had set up near the watch sector, the smell of fried dough drifting up between stone and sigil.
I hadn't realized how tense I'd been until my shoulders stopped hurting.
Elira found me halfway down the tower stairs.
"You're not working," she said.
"I am emotionally," I replied.
She didn't smile. Instead, she handed me a paper cup. Tea. Real leaves, not the powdered kind. That alone told me how serious this was.
"Sit," she said.
We took a bench overlooking one of the lower plazas. From here, the relay towers didn't dominate the skyline. They blended in, just more stone among stone. If you didn't know what they were, you'd think this was just another city with too many buildings and not enough space.
For a few minutes, neither of us spoke.
It was strange. Not awkward. Just… quiet.
"I forget sometimes," Elira said eventually, "that you're younger than most first-year academy students."
"I forget sometimes that you're not always manipulating me," I replied.
She winced. "Fair."
Virex snorted. "Progress."
Elira ignored him. "I pushed too hard."
"Yes."
She nodded. "I know."
That surprised me more than any excuse would have.
"I don't regret bringing you here," she continued. "But I regret pretending you had a choice."
I looked down at the tea. Steam curled upward, then vanished. "Everyone says that after."
"I'm not asking forgiveness."
"Good."
Another pause. Shorter this time.
"After this," she said, "I'll pull back. A little."
"A little," I echoed.
She met my eyes. "You matter alive."
I didn't know how to respond to that, so I didn't.
For a moment, it felt almost normal. Two people sitting in a city that wasn't on the brink of something unnamed. I could pretend I was just a student on break. I could almost believe it.
The bell rang.
Not a tower bell. Not a schedule marker.
An alarm.
It was low at first. More vibration than sound. The kind that crawled through stone and settled in your bones.
Virex was on his feet instantly. Fur standing. "That's new."
People froze. Conversations died mid-word. The relay towers pulsed once, sharply, like a heart skipping a beat.
Then the sky darkened.
Not clouds. Not weather.
Magic.
The light above Relay City warped, bending inward toward a point far beyond the walls. The air thickened. Breathing felt harder, like the world had gained weight.
"What is that?" Elira whispered.
I stood.
"That," I said slowly, "is not local."
A scream echoed from the upper towers.
Not human. Not animal.
Signal arrays flared across the city, lights spiraling out of control. Lines on distant relay maps burned red, then vanished entirely.
Someone shouted, "We've lost outer channels!"
Another voice, panicked. "Inner relays destabilizing!"
The ground shook.
Not an earthquake. Too focused. Too intentional.
Virex leapt onto my shoulder. "We are officially past the part where planning helps."
A tower screamed.
Stone cracked. Runes shattered. A column of light surged upward, then collapsed inward like something swallowing itself.
People ran.
I grabbed Elira's arm. "We need to get underground. Now."
She didn't argue.
We moved with the crowd, but the city was already fighting itself. Magic meant to communicate was feeding back, looping, tearing through conduits never designed to carry force.
This wasn't an attack.
It was overload.
A relay tower to our left went dark completely.
Then something answered.
A pressure slammed into my mind. Not pain. Awareness. Like standing too close to something vast and having it notice your existence by accident.
I staggered.
"Elira!" I gasped.
She caught me before I fell. "You're not allowed to collapse right now."
"Working on it."
Virex hissed. "It's closer."
"What is?" Elira demanded.
I forced myself upright, heart hammering. "The thing interfering with the relays."
The sky fractured.
Not shattered. Peeled.
For a brief, impossible second, something else was visible beyond it. A shape too large to be contained by perspective. Not a creature. Not a god. A presence that bent meaning around it.
Then it was gone.
The towers fell silent.
No hum. No pulse.
Relay City stopped listening.
For a heartbeat, everything was still.
Then the screams started.
Messages that had been mid-transmission flooded back all at once. Raw magic surged through conduits, burning out systems, knocking mages unconscious. Windows shattered. Streets cracked.
I pulled Elira and Virex into the shadow of a collapsed archway as debris rained down.
When it ended, it ended abruptly.
No fading. No warning.
Just absence.
Smoke drifted through the streets. Towers stood crippled, some dark, some flickering weakly. People stumbled through rubble, dazed but alive.
Relay City still stood.
Barely.
I stared at the ruined skyline, chest tight.
"That," I said hoarsely, "was not a warning."
Elira looked at me, fear finally breaking through her composure. "Then what was it?"
I swallowed.
"A test."
Virex's voice was quiet. No jokes. No sarcasm. "And we failed."
Somewhere far beyond the city, beyond the mountains, something had reached out.
And now it knew the empire was listening.