VOL. 1: CHAPTER 6: DATA IS A KIND OF BLOOD
The soldiers didn't retreat like men who'd lost.
They retreated like men who'd learned something valuable.
Engines snarled outside Latvier, heavy vehicles pulling back into formation with mechanical obedience. Drones lifted higher, lenses narrowing, recording everything they could before distance dulled the details.
Inside the Ebony Church, nobody celebrated.
Silence settled like ash.
The steam Blitz had raised thinned and drifted upward, leaving damp stone and the sharp scent of ozone behind. Bits of concrete littered the floor where the breach had been sealed by Kael's wards, the damage already knitting itself closed with faintly glowing lines that pulsed like a slow heartbeat.
Ultimo sat against a pillar, breathing hard, sweat pouring down his face. His hands trembled like he'd just lifted the world and put it back down wrong.
Blitz leaned on her bat, chest rising and falling, eyes still locked on the hole where soldiers had been seconds ago.
Sionu knelt in the center of it all.
His ears rang. His arms felt hollow, like the electricity had scooped something out of him and left echoes behind. Every nerve buzzed with aftershock, not pain, but a deep bone-tired hum.
Kael stood beside him, steady as stone.
"Breathe," Kael said quietly. "If you pass out now, you don't get to learn from it."
Sionu sucked in a shaky breath. Then another.
His hands still sparked faintly, like embers refusing to die.
Blitz crouched in front of him. "You still with us?"
Sionu nodded. "Yeah."
Ultimo laughed weakly. "Bro… you fried their whole setup."
Sionu looked up at him. "I didn't want to."
Ultimo wiped his face. "Didn't matter."
Kael's gaze swept the room, cataloging injuries, fear, resolve.
"Everyone who can walk," he said calmly, "help those who cannot. Do not chase the silence outside. Silence is a lie."
People moved. Quietly. Purposefully. Some with awe in their eyes when they glanced at Sionu. Others with something sharper.
Fear.
Kael noticed it too.
He gestured for Blitz, Ultimo, and Sionu to follow him toward a side chamber.
"This way," he said. "You've crossed the threshold now. You don't belong in the general room anymore."
Blitz frowned. "That supposed to make me feel better?"
Kael didn't slow. "No. It's supposed to keep you alive longer."
1) THE ROOM WITHOUT WINDOWS
The chamber Kael led them into was smaller, circular, and windowless. The walls were etched with older symbols, deeper grooves, darker stone. The air felt heavier here, but not threatening. More like the weight of history pressing close.
A single light hovered in the center of the room, floating without a source, dim but steady.
Kael closed the door behind them.
The hum of the city faded.
Sionu sagged slightly as the pressure in his chest eased.
Blitz noticed. "This room… it dampening you."
Kael nodded. "Not dampening. Grounding."
Ultimo rubbed his arms. "Feels like gravity wearing slippers."
Kael allowed himself a faint smile. "That's the idea."
He turned to Sionu, studying him more closely now, not as a battlefield anomaly but as a person whose consequences were just beginning to unfold.
"What you released back there," Kael said, "was not an attack."
Sionu frowned. "Felt like one."
Kael shook his head. "It was a declaration."
Sionu swallowed. "I didn't declare anything."
Kael's eyes softened. "Power does not wait for permission. It waits for truth."
Blitz scoffed. "So what truth did he tell?"
Kael replied without hesitation. "That he cannot be ignored."
Ultimo muttered, "Government hate that."
Kael nodded. "The infected hunt Starborne because your SOL is concentrated. The state hunts Starborne because your existence proves control is a myth."
Sionu's stomach tightened. "They called it data."
Kael exhaled. "Yes."
He walked to the wall and pressed his palm against a sigil. Light rippled outward, and the stone surface shimmered, projecting faint images into the air.
Soldiers.
Scanners.
Charts.
Human silhouettes overlaid with glowing networks.
"Division Hale doesn't kill first," Kael continued. "They observe. They provoke. They catalogue."
Blitz crossed her arms. "They wanted him to pop."
Kael nodded. "They wanted to see how."
Ultimo leaned forward. "And now they know."
Kael's gaze hardened. "Enough to build counters."
Sionu's fists clenched. "So what, I just… don't use it anymore?"
Kael shook his head slowly. "No. You learn faster than they can."
Blitz shot Sionu a look. "Told you. Storm."
Sionu sighed. "I didn't ask for this."
Kael's voice dropped. "None of us did."
2) THE FIRST COST
Kael turned his attention to Ultimo.
"You felt it strain you," he said. "The gravity."
Ultimo nodded. "Like my bones was arguing with the ground."
Kael stepped closer. "That is because you tried to command it."
Ultimo frowned. "Isn't that what power is?"
Kael shook his head. "Power is not command. It is negotiation."
Ultimo blinked. "With… the universe?"
Kael almost smiled. "With yourself."
Ultimo exhaled slowly. "So what happens if I mess up?"
Kael's gaze didn't waver. "You collapse things that cannot be rebuilt."
Ultimo swallowed hard.
Blitz broke the tension. "What about me? I nearly boiled a dude alive."
Kael looked at her carefully. "You used fear as a catalyst."
Blitz shrugged. "Worked."
"It always does at first," Kael said. "But fear burns hot and fast. Steam unchecked scalds the wielder too."
Blitz's jaw tightened. "So what, I gotta meditate?"
Kael replied evenly, "You must learn restraint without losing ferocity."
Blitz snorted. "That's gonna be a journey."
Kael turned back to Sionu.
"You," he said softly, "paid the highest cost."
Sionu frowned. "I'm still alive."
Kael nodded. "Yes. But you burned SOL."
Sionu's breath hitched. "That's… bad?"
Kael answered carefully. "SOL replenishes. But each time you burn it raw, it leaves an echo."
Blitz's eyes sharpened. "Echo how?"
Kael met Sionu's gaze. "Power remembers how you used it. Over time, it begins to expect the same answer."
Sionu went cold. "So if I keep using anger—"
"Then anger will answer before you do," Kael finished.
Ultimo whispered, "Damn."
Kael rested a hand briefly on Sionu's shoulder. "You stopped yourself. That matters."
Sionu nodded slowly, trying to believe that.
3) THE CITY RESPONDS
Outside Latvier, Kaloi's City reacted like a body realizing it had a fever.
Barricades tightened.
Curfews shortened.
Signals jammed.
Phones buzzed with alerts that contradicted each other.
Social feeds flooded with shaky videos of light bursting from the church walls, already labeled, cropped, reframed.
"UNKNOWN ENERGY EVENT"
"DOMESTIC TERROR CELL?"
"GOVERNMENT DENIES SUPERHUMAN CLAIMS"
Somewhere in a secure vehicle, Commander Hale watched the same footage on repeat.
He paused it on Sionu's silhouette, electricity outlining his form like a crown made of knives.
Hale's jaw tightened.
"Confirmed," he said quietly. "Starborne output exceeds projections."
An aide beside him swallowed. "Orders?"
Hale didn't look away from the screen.
"Phase two."
4) A QUIET PROMISE
Back inside Latvier, the tension settled into something colder.
Preparation.
Kael gestured toward a small bench. "Sit. All of you."
They did.
Kael clasped his hands. "Latvier will not fall tonight. But the city will not forget what it saw."
Blitz leaned back. "Good. Let 'em remember."
Kael met her gaze. "Memory cuts both ways."
He looked at Sionu.
"You are no longer invisible," Kael said. "That is a blessing and a curse."
Sionu nodded slowly. "So what do I do now?"
Kael's answer was simple.
"You train."
Ultimo blinked. "Like… for real?"
Kael nodded. "Body. Mind. SOL."
Blitz smirked. "About time somebody gave him homework."
Sionu exhaled, a tired half-laugh escaping him. "I don't even know the syllabus."
Kael allowed himself a faint smile.
"You will," he said. "Because if you don't…"
His expression hardened.
"…the city will decide it for you."
A distant rumble echoed through the church, not an explosion, but movement. Heavy vehicles repositioning. The sound of a machine adjusting its aim.
Sionu felt the electricity in his chest stir again, calmer now, like a storm cloud learning patience.
Blitz reached out and squeezed his hand.
"Hey," she said quietly. "We still here."
Sionu nodded. "Yeah."
Ultimo leaned forward, forcing a grin. "And next time? We hit back smarter."
Kael stood.
"Next time," he said, voice steady, "will not be a test."
Outside, sirens wailed in new patterns.
Inside, the Ebony Church of Latvier prepared for a future that had already arrived.
And somewhere beyond sight, the Event Horizon pulsed faintly, satisfied.
The Starborne had announced himself.
The world was answering.
to be continued...