"You are a God-touched Fluxer because the Goddess of Death saved your life. Or better yet, you did die, Verdamona. And She revived you."
Verdamona's heart slammed against her ribs. She felt her stomach flip with nausea. Nobody had ever dared say it out loud, not even she herself. It was the truth she carried like a shadow, one she'd never confessed to anyone. Norphie walked along a row of mannequins, her hand brushing lazily across the fabric of a black silk blouse with laced buttons.
"The Goddess touched you. You felt it, didn't you? That cold pull back into your body, that voice that told you your time wasn't over. And She marked you. She granted you the ability to wield all Flux types except Concept."
Verdamona's throat burned as she tried to speak but her voice cracked before the words could form. Norphie didn't give her room to interrupt.
"Of course, you never told anyone because even at seven years old you weren't stupid. You knew if you spoke of that touch you would be branded, dissected or killed before you could even figure out what you were. So you buried it. You shut your mouth, smiled when they tested you and played along when they told you you were nothing more than a Combat Fluxer."
Her boots clicked sharply as she stopped right in front of Verdamona now, close enough that her perfume.
"And now at twenty-one years old, you still can't use anything apart from Combat. Not because you don't want to but you can't. Your body won't respond, will it? That touch of Death locked away what you were given. The Goddess chose you yes, but She made sure you'd crawl before you learned to fly."
Verdamona's lips trembled. She wanted to deny it and tell Norphie to shut her mouth but the words wouldn't come. The weight of hearing her own secret said aloud was suffocating. For a long moment, silence stretched between them. Mannequins stood around like witnesses frozen mid-gaze, as though they were leaning in to listen to this brutal unraveling. Finally, Norphie sighed, turning away.
"But honestly Miss Verdamona, I don't care what your life story is. I don't care if the Goddess kissed your soul or spit in your face. That's your burden, not mine."
"Then why tell me this?"
"Because who I do care about is Xaessia. You know what the Argemenes go through? Their training is hellish. It breaks bones and pushes mind and body past sanity. Xaessia endured it. Phaser endured it but Xaessia was the one chosen as heir. She was the one groomed to lead."
Her gaze slid over her shoulder, pinning Verdamona in place.
"And then Phaser took that weight from her. He became the heir so she wouldn't drown under it. And it was decided they would share the throne. Do you understand what kind of love that is? To take the throne of fire so your sister could breathe?"
Verdamona's hands clenched at her sides, the truth of Norphie's words hitting harder than any accusation.
"And what did you do? When Xaessia needed a friend, when all she wanted was someone to steady her, you abandoned her when you finally got along with everyone after being shinned. You turned away from her when she was reaching out. Maybe you thought it was nothing. Maybe you thought she would shrug it off but she didn't."
Her boots echoed as she took a step closer again, her face shadowed under the hallway's white lights.
"She turned bitter. She sharpened her edges and aimed them at herself amd her brother, or anyone who came close. That frost she wears? You helped forge it. And of course, you didn't realize. Not until years later, when the damage had already set like stone."
Verdamona flinched.
"I care for Xaessia like my own younger sister. She is reckless, abrasive, sometimes insufferable, but she is mine. And seeing the person who carved so much of her bitterness into her almost made me put a knife through your throat the moment we met. But, Xaessia forgave you. And if she can, then so can I. For now."
Her voice cracked when she finally asked.
"Which House... destroyed my coastal town?"
"I don't know."
Before Verdamona could push further, the quiet tension shattered like glass. The door swung open and Xaessia stepped in.
"Well? How do I look—"
Light instantly detonated through the boutique.
The first explosion shattered Heart's Boutique into pieces. Glass, marble, fabric and bodies were hurled into the air like feathers caught in a hurricane. The shockwave was deafening. It rolled outward in a perfect sphere, turning everything within three hundred meter radius into dust. Across the street, cars flipped over like toys. Lampposts snapped and skyscraper windows imploded from the force.
Manhattan fell into the kind of silence that comes only after catastrophe.
The explosion surged upward, blooming into a red-and-black flower that devoured the surrounding blocks. The sound of collapsing buildings was endless with concrete screaming, steel twisting and people shouting names that vanished into the roar of chaos. In seconds, the skyline turned into a silhouette of burning skeletons and yet, within that inferno, something lived.
Deep in what was once Heart's Boutique, the ruins trembled again. From within the mountain of burning rubble, vines erupted upward. They were black as obsidian, studded with glowing crimson roses. A dome formed around the epicenter and as the smoke thinned, it opened.
Inside stood Xaessia.
Her clothes were gone. The once-gothic woman now looked like something divine and terrifying. Het eyes were blazing silver. The scent of roses wad heavy around her as the vines slowly uncoiled from her body. Her breath was sharp and uneven. Norphie coughed violently, clutching her chest as Verdamona knelt beside her. Her blouse was torn and blackened, her face smeared with ash but she was alive.
Xaessia turned her gaze to them.
"Are you two alright?"
Verdamona nodded weakly, the smoke stinging her eyes. "We're alive because of you."
Xaessia exhaledand the vines retracted into her arm.
"Good. That blast wasn't random. Verdamona, protect Norphie at all costs. They targeted her, not us."
Norphie flinched, panic flickering through her usually calm, androgynous eyes.
"What do you mean targeted me?"
"The explosion started inside the boutique. The timing, the structure, it was planned. They knew you were here instead of Europe."
Verdamona's body tensed. Her instincts screamed at her. The smoke around them wasn't just smoke. It was moving too deliberately, hiding something.
"Xana signatures. We're surrounded. If I'm right, the ones behind this aren't after her for fashion. They're assassins. Stay alive."
She bolted toward the entrance, her silhouette framed by fire and falling debris. In a second, she was gone. The air felt heavier without her. Verdamona could hear her own pulse and the distant sirens of a dying block. Norphie trembled beside her, clutching her torn sleeve.
"I can't defend myself you know. I'll slow you down—"
Verdamona turned. She summoned her whip.
"You're not slowing me down. You're the reason I'm standing. You have information about my past and I'm not letting you die before you tell me. Dying isn't an option."
She scanned the shadows of the collapsing hallway. Dozens of signatures pulsed in her perception. They were too organized to be random Fluxers and too quiet to be amateurs.
"Whoever they are, they came ready to erase us."
"Why would anyone target— oh."
"Yes, because your family is Phoenicia," Verdamona interrupted, pulling her forward as a burning beam crashed behind them. "Because you have connections to every House. You know too much. Seriously, are you pretending not to know in this situation?"
Outside, the chaos didn't stop. The streets were burning. People ran screaming. The air was thick with soot and blood. Verdamona stopped at the shattered entrance of the boutique, holding Norphie close as she peered through the smoke. Dozens of figures in black armor moved through the wreckage. Verdamona's grip on her whip tightened until her knuckles went white.
"Norphie, when I say run, you run. Don't stop. Don't look back."
"And you?"
"I'll buy us time. I've got enough ghosts in me to handle a few more."
And as the smoke parted, revealing the first masked Fluxer stepping into view, Verdamona's Combat Flux erupted.