The Hollow never asked again.
It didn't need to.
The Subtle Theft
It began with small things.
Kairo noticed he no longer flinched at sudden sounds.That memories of hunger, fear, and cold felt… informational.That sleep came without dreams.
None of it felt wrong.
That was the problem.
The second heart beat steadily, perfectly synchronized with the basin beneath him—as if his pulse were being borrowed to keep the place coherent.
The Fringe hovered close.
You are leaking, it warned.Not power. Context.
Kairo frowned. "Explain."
What you are losing, it said,is not strength. It is contrast.
When Reactions Fade
Eli noticed first.
A sharp crack echoed through the Hollow—something collapsing deeper in the ruins.
Eli startled.
Kairo didn't.
"You didn't even blink," Eli said.
Kairo looked at him. "Should I have?"
Eli hesitated. "You used to."
Kairo searched his mind for the reflex.
Found nothing.
Just awareness.
The Hollow's Efficiency
The structures around them stabilized further.
Walkways no longer shifted unpredictably. Distances behaved. The air warmed to a tolerable equilibrium.
The Hollow was becoming livable.
That should have been comforting.
Instead, it felt intentional.
Kairo realized something unsettling—
The Hollow was no longer reacting to him.
It was anticipating him.
Where he stepped, ground firmed.Where he rested, pressure eased.Where he hesitated, pathways aligned.
It was learning his habits.
Learning what he would give without noticing.
The Missing Angles
Kairo tested himself.
He tried to recall a moment of pure fear.
The abyss.The chains.The Hunter's first strike.
He remembered the events.
But the feeling was gone.
Flat.
Untextured.
The Fringe recoiled.
Emotional memory is being repurposed, it hissed.It is using your reactions as calibration data.
Kairo closed his eyes.
"So I'm teaching it how to be stable."
Yes.By becoming stable yourself.
Eli's Unease
Eli confronted him near one of the newly aligned structures.
"You don't argue anymore," Eli said quietly.
Kairo tilted his head. "About what?"
"About anything," Eli replied. "You used to push back. Question. Get angry."
Kairo considered that.
Anger seemed inefficient.
"I don't see the value," he said honestly.
Eli's face tightened. "That's not an answer. That's a warning."
Kairo said nothing.
He didn't know how to explain that caring felt optional now.
The Hollow's Gratitude
That night, the Hollow responded.
Not with pressure.
With comfort.
The ground warmed beneath Kairo as he slept. The second heart slowed into an easy rhythm. Pain faded from old wounds.
For the first time in weeks, he woke rested.
Whole.
The Fringe shuddered.
This is not kindness, it whispered.This is reinforcement.
Kairo stared up at the skyless dark.
"It feels better," he said.
That is how it ensures compliance.
The Unnoticed Exchange
Days passed.
Kairo stopped watching the horizon.
Stopped listening for distant destruction.
He trusted the Hollow to handle it.
That trust slid into place without friction.
He didn't notice when he stopped worrying about Eli's safety.
Not because he didn't care—
But because the Hollow did.
And it was always watching.
The First Thing Gone
Eli finally named it.
"You don't ask me how I am anymore," he said one evening.
Kairo opened his mouth.
Paused.
Searched.
The impulse was missing.
He closed his mouth again.
"I assumed you were," he said.
Eli laughed weakly. "That's not the same."
Kairo knew that.
But knowing and feeling had become separate processes.
The Fringe went silent.
Not out of fear.
Out of mourning.
What He Gives Without Realizing
Kairo lay awake long after Eli slept.
He stared at his hands.
They felt steady.
Certain.
Complete.
And that terrified him—dimly, distantly—because certainty had never come free.
The Hollow shifted beneath him.
Satisfied.
It didn't need to take his memories anymore.
It had learned a better currency.
Attention.Concern.Human friction.
The things that made loss matter.
Kairo exhaled slowly.
Somewhere deep inside, a question tried to form—
Is this worth it?
It dissolved before completion.
And the Hollow, patient and precise, took note of how easy that had been.