Everyone heard everyone else's thoughts. No exceptions. Or at least, that's what the city believed.
Kael moved through the crowded street, footsteps light, mind sharper than any blade. A hundred voices brushed against theirs—snippets of fear, desire, anger, hunger all uninvited, all unavoidable. And yet, Kael's own thoughts stayed locked, quiet, invisible. It was a skill no one else had. A gift… and a curse.
A child nearby screamed in thought: I'm hungry! Feed me! A merchant fumed: He touched my goods! Idiot! A man muttered to himself: If I can just get one coin… one coin… one coin… Kael felt the brush of each, but nothing touched them. They were the silent observer in a world that refused silence.
Then it came. A thought that didn't belong. Not a voice, not a whisper. A pulse. A shadow of memory or maybe a memory that shouldn't exist.
I remember…
Kael froze. They scanned the crowd. No one looked at them. No one even knew. And yet, the thought lingered, sticky and wrong, pulling at the edges of Kael's mind.
This is mine… but it's not.
Cold sweat prickled their skin. Blocking thoughts had always been a risk, but never like this. Never this heavy.
A figure emerged ahead—a man in a hood, gliding through the crowd as if the chaos parted for him. His thoughts were fractured, jagged. Anger. Hunger. Fear. But something else. Calculated. Malicious.
Kael's pulse quickened. Not now… not here.
They ducked into a narrow alley, pressed against the damp brick wall, and inhaled sharply. Every passerby's mind flowed past like water. Fear. Greed. Hatred. Desire. And underneath it all, a single thread: Kael. Not shouted. Not spoken. Not even conscious. But there. Someone or somethingnknew.
The city thrummed around them, a living mind of its own. The chatter of a million thoughts, all bleeding into each other, all impossible to silence. And Kael—Kael was the anomaly.
The pulse flared again. Clear, deliberate: You cannot hide forever.
Kael's hand went to their temple, pressing hard. Control. Focus. Don't let it reach in.
A shriek cut through the alley—the thoughts of a girl nearby-sharp, panicked, dangerous. Kael moved instinctively, ducking behind a crate. The girl's mind was collapsing, screaming fragments at anyone nearby: Help me… they are coming… it hurts… Kael barely avoided the psychic backlash. Thoughts like knives stabbed at their senses, but they stayed intact. Still calm. Still unseen.
They exhaled slowly. Breathe. Observe. Survive.
The hooded figure appeared at the alley's entrance, silent except for the torrent of thoughts radiating outward. Kael could feel the edges of control fraying. He was testing them. Watching. Waiting.
Kael's mind probed briefly, careful, brushing against the edges of the stranger's thoughts—but met only confusion, smoke, false memories. Skill. Kael wasn't the only one hiding secrets.
A sound behind them—a soft, deliberate footstep—made Kael spin. Nothing. No one. Yet the thought came anyway: We are always watching you. Not in a voice. Not in anyone's. In the very walls of the alley.
Kael swallowed, teeth grinding. Every instinct screamed to run, but where could they go? The city itself betrayed the unprepared, but Kael had been preparing all their life. Every blocked thought, every hidden emotion, every erased desire—it all led here.
They could feel the pulse again, deeper, stronger. Not a threat. Not yet. A warning.
Find the memory. Or die.
Kael staggered back against the wall, pressing fingers to their temple, trying to pull the pulse away from their mind. Nothing worked. The memory—the missing memory—called to them from everywhere and nowhere. They had lived years unaware of what they could not remember, but now the absence had a voice.
And it spoke clearly: You cannot escape yourself.
The hooded figure vanished as suddenly as he appeared, swallowed by the crowd, leaving only the echo of thoughts: panic, greed, fear. Kael's chest heaved. Around them, the city continued its endless chatter, oblivious to the silent war playing in minds.
Kael stood in the alley, trembling slightly, not from fear, but from the realization that even hiding their thoughts had limits. Someone knew. Someone had touched the place in their mind no one else could reach.
A single, horrifying truth settled in their chest: This is only the beginning.