The stars were gone again.
Rei lay on the cold slab of stone they called a bed, staring up at the ceiling he'd memorized over three nights.
Every crack. Every fault line.
The silence pressed heavier than iron.
They hadn't fed him.
Hadn't spoken.
They just watched.
He could feel it.
Eyes in the walls.
Magic in the stone.
And the mark in his chest — pulsing slow and steady.
A second heartbeat.
A whisper wrapped in fire.
He was no longer afraid of it.
But he didn't understand it either.
What are you?
he had asked once, deep in the silence.
The Void had not answered.
But it listened.
Footsteps.
Not the heavy rhythm of guards.
Lighter. Controlled.
Predator's tread.
A shadow slipped into the cell — not through the door,
but through the dark around it.
Kaia.
She moved like cold air — unseen, inevitable.
When she emerged from the gloom, her voice was quiet, certain.
"You're alive."
Rei blinked, voice hoarse.
"You sound disappointed."
"I'm not." She crouched near him. "But I am curious."
He sat up slowly. Bones stiff. Head aching.
He looked at her — really looked.
Silver hair, pale stripes on her cheeks, golden eyes like molten dusk.
"Kaia," he said softly.
Her ears twitched.
"So… you remembered."
"I don't know how I know. I just… did."
She studied him, eyes sharp, searching.
Then she nodded once.
"The mark," she murmured. "It's waking things. Things not meant to wake."
Rei leaned forward, voice low.
"Like what?"
"Power. Memory. Instinct."
She lowered her voice further.
"Rage."
Silence.
Thicker now.
"And if I lose control?" he asked.
Kaia's eyes didn't waver.
"You won't."
"Because I'll kill you first."
He gave a dry, short laugh.
"Comforting."
"I'm serious."
"I know."
A beat. Stillness wrapped them again.
Then — she said it:
"We're leaving."
Rei blinked.
"What?"
"There's movement in the upper yards. New slavers. Something's shifting. It's now or never."
He swallowed.
Her words settled like weight along his spine.
"Can you still fight?" she asked.
He clenched his fists.
Felt the brand flare under his ribs like a drawn blade.
"…I don't know."
"But I'll try."
Kaia stood.
And offered her hand.
He took it.
And the hunt began.
**
Above the pits…
In the depths of the keep, the Overseer paced his chamber.
Scrolls, crystal arrays, and blood-inked diagrams lay scattered across the obsidian desk.
"The mark responds to emotion… memory… identity," he muttered.
"It's not overtaking him."
"It's listening."
He scrawled arcane notations onto parchment, the ink glowing as it dried.
Behind him, a pale-robed man stood silent — his face veiled in woven bone.
"Contact the Order," the Overseer snapped.
The robed man bowed.
"The Riftborn has awakened?"
The Overseer's grin stretched thin. Too wide.
"No…"
"But he's about to."