Ruby Fairchild slept for exactly three hours and forty-two minutes.
Not because she was tired— she wasn't, but because exhaustion was now a variable that could get her killed, and Ruby did not allow inefficiencies to compound.
She woke before dawn, eyes snapping open in the quiet of her bedroom as if summoned by an internal alarm. The house was still. Too still. Fairchild estates were designed to be silent, soundproofed against inconvenience and other people's emotions.
Ruby lay on her back for a moment, staring at the ceiling.
Her status window hovered obediently at the edge of her vision, faint and unobtrusive. The System hadn't spoken since last night. No alerts. No nudges.
Good.
She rolled out of bed and padded barefoot to the floor length mirror.
The girl who stared back at her looked the same.
Tall. Immaculate. Hair falling in dark waves over bare shoulders. Emerald eyes sharp and awake.
But Ruby noticed the difference.
The way her posture settled more naturally into balance. The way her muscles felt present, coiled instead of ornamental. The faint awareness at the back of her mind, a spatial sense she hadn't had before, like the world had suddenly become louder in dimensions no one had taught her to hear.
She raised her hand.
Conjuration.
The blade formed instantly this time, cleaner and more stable, its glow faint but controlled. No pain. No resistance.
Ruby smiled at her reflection.
"Progress."
She dismissed the weapon and dressed quickly; dark clothes, flexible, layered. Nothing flashy. No jewelry except the ring she always wore on her left hand, the one her grandmother had given her "for appearances."
Appearances still mattered.
Just less than survival.
Her phone buzzed as she tied her boots.
A message finally came through.
Elara: Maya's okay.
Elara: We stayed inside.
Elara: Where are you?
Ruby exhaled slowly, a tension she hadn't acknowledged easing just a fraction.
Ruby: Home.
Ruby: Don't go out today.
Ruby: I mean it.
A pause.
Elara: You're not my boss.
Ruby smirked.
Ruby: No.
Ruby: I'm worse.
She slipped the phone into her pocket and headed downstairs.
The news was still on.
Ruby's parents hadn't turned it off. Of course they hadn't. Fairchilds believed in information the way other families believed in prayer.
Her mother sat rigidly on the sofa, hands folded, eyes locked on the screen. Her father stood nearby, arms crossed, jaw tight. Neither looked at Ruby when she entered.
On the television, a reporter stood in front of a barricade somewhere in South America, shouting over the noise as soldiers scrambled behind her.
"…confirmed hostile entities emerging globally," the reporter said. "Governments are urging citizens to remain indoors. Emergency powers have been enacted in—"
The feed cut.
Another replaced it— grainy, frantic, filmed on a phone.
A man screamed as something massive barreled down a motorway, scattering cars like toys.
Ruby watched calmly.
She wasn't desensitized.
She was processing.
"Ruby," her mother said at last, voice tight. "You're not leaving the house."
Ruby poured herself water. "I already did."
Her father turned. "This isn't a debate."
"No," Ruby agreed. "It isn't."
She leaned against the counter, gaze flicking back to the screen. "The world has changed. Staying inside isn't safety. It's delay."
Her father scoffed. "You're eighteen."
"And level two," Ruby added mildly.
Silence snapped taut.
Her mother's eyes flicked to her. "What?"
Ruby turned to face them fully, expression pleasant. "You haven't checked, have you?"
Her parents exchanged a glance.
Ruby sighed. "You should."
She left them there, staring at the television, and stepped out into the morning air.
The city felt different in daylight.
Sharper. Exposed.
Ruby walked with purpose now, senses tuned outward. She noticed things she would have ignored yesterday like the scrape of movement in shadows, the way people clustered unconsciously near open spaces, the subtle wrongness in the air where mana pooled like humidity.
And she noticed something else.
Elara.
Not physically, but in absence.
Ruby found herself tracking familiar routes automatically. The café. The crosswalk Elara always hesitated at even when the light was green. The bookshop two streets over.
Ruby catalogued the lack like missing data.
Interesting.
She cut through a park, eyes scanning.
That's when she saw it.
A man, cornered near the path's edge, backing away from something low and fast. A beast, another warped animal, larger this time, muscles bulging unnaturally beneath stretched skin.
The man tripped.
Ruby didn't hesitate.
She stepped forward, mana surging smoothly this time.
The blade formed.
One strike. Clean. Efficient.
The creature fell.
[Mana Warped Stray — Level 1 defeated]
The man stared at her, wild-eyed. "Th-thank you—"
Ruby looked at him.
Not unkindly.
Not warmly.
Then she turned and walked away.
The System chimed behind her.
[Experience Points Gained]
Ruby didn't even look.
She already knew.
By afternoon, the city was fraying.
Sirens wailed without rhythm. Smoke rose in distant plumes. Social order bent under the weight of too many unknowns and not enough answers.
Ruby stood on her balcony, phone pressed to her ear.
"Elara," she said. "Tell me what you're seeing."
Elara's voice crackled through, low and tense. "People are forming groups. Neighbors. Some guy down the street tried to organize a patrol."
"And?"
"And no one trusts him."
Ruby smiled faintly. "Good."
"This isn't funny," Elara said.
"I didn't say it was."
A pause. Then, quieter, "Maya wants to paint. She says it helps her think."
"Let her," Ruby said immediately.
Elara hesitated. "You're being… decisive today."
Ruby leaned against the railing, watching a distant helicopter wobble through the sky. "I've always been decisive."
"That's not what I meant."
Ruby closed her eyes briefly.
The truth surfaced unbidden.
"I notice things," she said. "Small shifts. Stress points. People breaking in predictable ways."
Elara was silent.
"And I notice you," Ruby continued softly. "When you're scared. When you pretend you're not."
"Elara," Ruby said, voice sharpening just slightly. "You and Maya should stay inside today. Tomorrow too, if you can."
"And you?"
"I'm going shopping."
Elara sighed. "Of course you are."
Ruby smiled.
They hung up.
Ruby's status window pulsed faintly, almost curious.
The world was cracking along fault lines Ruby had mapped years ago.
She could feel it now, how close everything was to collapsing.
And how easily she could decide where it broke.