The tunnels were colder than the streets above. Water dripped steadily from cracked pipes,
echoing through the hollow darkness of the abandoned subway, and the air tasted
metallic, heavy with rust and memory. Kael sat against a broken pillar, his breathing finally steady, while across from him Lyra stood unnaturally still,
too still.
"You knew him," Kael said quietly.
Lyra didn't answer, and the silence stretched thin between them.
"You knew him," he repeated.
Her shadows flickered. "Yes." The word landed like a blade. She drew in a slow breath. "I wasn't always like this." Her voice had changed, no longer
cold or distant, just tired. "Before the fissures opened, there were experiments."
Kael frowned. "Experiments?"
"Government-funded. Military-backed. Secret,"
she replied. "They found something beneath the earth. Not oil. Not gas."
"Energy," Kael said.
Lyra nodded once. "Ancient. Buried. Alive in ways we didn't understand." The dripping water
seemed louder now. "They built a research facility outside the city, deep underground. Mordain was the lead director."
Kael felt his stomach tighten. "He wasn't always a tyrant?"
"No," Lyra said softly. "He was brilliant. Controlled. Obsessed with evolution." Shadows pooled faintly at her feet as her fingers flexed.
"He believed humanity was stagnant. Weak. That
the world needed to be forced forward."
"And you?" Kael asked.
"I was one of the volunteers." The words struck harder than expected.
"You chose this?"
Lyra's eyes darkened. "I was dying." Kael froze. "The doctors gave me months. Genetic
degradation. My body was collapsing. Mordain promised the energy could rewrite cellular decay. He promised survival."
"And?"
"It worked," she said, her voice cracking almost imperceptibly. "But not the way he expected." She continued, "The energy wasn't passive. It reacted to emotion. Fear. Pain. Desire."
Shadows climbed slowly up the tunnel wall beside her like living ink. "They exposed us
gradually at first, controlled doses while monitoring neural responses."
Kael felt cold realization settle into his chest. "And then?"
"Mordain stopped being cautious. He increased the exposure."
The dead subway lights flickered faintly despite the lack of power. "The energy didn't just alter us. It connected us. Linked our nervous systems to something vast beneath the earth."
Kael felt it again, that distant pull. "You've felt it," Lyra said quietly.
He didn't deny it. "The night the fissures opened wasn't an accident," she whispered. Silence swallowed the tunnel. "Mordain triggered it."
Kael's jaw tightened. "He destroyed the world."
"Yes." The word echoed softly.
"And you helped him," Kael said. Lyra flinched, the shadows recoiling slightly. "I didn't know what he would do."
"But you were there."
"Yes."
Anger flared in Kael's chest. "My family died in that first rupture."
Lyra's voice dropped almost to nothing. "So did mine." That stopped him. "The energy
overloaded the facility. Most of the staff were vaporized Instantly. Others changed." Her gaze grew distant. "Mordain walked into the core chamber alone. When he came back, his eyes were silver."
Kael remembered the way Mordain had moved, untouchable, certain. "He wasn't just
awakened," Lyra said. "He merged with it."
"With what?" Kael asked. She hesitated. "The source."
The word felt ancient and wrong. Kael's breathing grew shallow. "Why did he react to me like that?"
Lyra stepped closer. "When the fissure detonated, the energy didn't spread randomly.
It followed patterns. Bloodlines. Proximity. Neural compatibility."
Kael's pulse thudded heavily. "What are you saying?"
"You were near a secondary rupture."
"Yes."
"That wasn't coincidence. The energy marked certain individuals. Dormant carriers."
Kael stared at her. "You think I was chosen?"
"No," she
corrected softly. "I think you were seeded." The word felt invasive and cold.
"Seeded for what?"
Lyra's shadows tightened around her like armor once more. "For something Mordain
couldn't fully control." Kael stood abruptly. "You knew this."
"Yes."
"And you didn't tell me."
"You weren't ready."
His voice echoed sharply through the tunnel. "You dragged me into this knowing he would come for me."
"I was trying to protect you."
"From what?" he demanded. "From becoming him." The words hung heavy between them.
Kael's power flickered violently in response.
"You think I will turn into that?"
"I think the energy inside you is similar to his," she said quietly. Silence deepened.
"You felt it too when you pushed him back." Kael remembered the moment, the strange alignment, the familiarity, as if their powers recognized each other like mirrors.
"There's more," Lyra said. Kael gave a hollow laugh. "Of course there is."
She stepped forward slowly. "When Mordain entered the core chamber, he wasn't alone."
Kael's chest tightened. "There was another presence inside the energy. Something ancient."
The flickering lights pulsed harder. "And when you awakened, the resonance signature matched." "Matched?" he asked. "With his?"
"No."
The shadows behind her stretched unnaturally long. "With the other one." Cold silence
filled the tunnel. Kael felt something stir beneath his skin, not violent or chaotic but aware, listening.
"You think there are two forces?" he asked slowly. "Yes."
"And Mordain merged with one."
"Yes."
"And I…"
Lyra met his eyes fully. "You may be linked to the other." A tremor rolled beneath the
earth again, stronger this time. Kael felt it in his bones, a distant pulse answering him. Lyra stepped back slightly.
"You understand now why he won't kill you." Realization settled slowly.
"He doesn't want me dead," Kael whispered. "No," Lyra said. "He wants to see what you
become." Kael turned away. "You should have told me."
"Yes."
"You let me believe this was random."
"I was afraid."
He paused. "Afraid of what?"
"That if you knew," she said quietly, "you would embrace it." Silence settled once more, heavier than rubble.
"You don't trust me," Kael said finally. Lyra's answer was soft. "I don't trust what's inside you." The words cut deeper than Mordain's power ever had. Kael felt something fracture within him, not anger, not fear, but something colder, distance.
Above them, far across the broken skyline, Mordain stood on a rooftop and closed his silver
eyes briefly before smiling.
"They've begun to understand," he murmured. Beneath the earth, something vast shifted,
and two pulses answered each other in the darkness, one silver, one unseen, and
the world trembled.