Lung made a face, lifting a lip to show fangs, but he did as he was told—and all of them watched as Kelly’s body rotated back precisely to where it had been.
With purpose.
Lung did it again the other way—independently, now curious himself—as Xen ran triangulations.
“He’s pointed at theHelepolis. That’s the vector. Down to the degree.” It shouldn’t have been possible. There was no uplink. No direct nerve conduction. No magic Xen could currently detect.
But after Lung spun the chair a third time, Kelly’s legs sidled sideways until his shoulders squared to the direction he wanted, realigning with quiet, eerie intent.
Xen tilted his cameras toward the ceiling, processing the expanding shape of the mission.
One forked AI, lost in a pendant.
One headless soldier, reaching through the void.
One girl, stolen by monsters.
Who had monsters coming to save her.
“I want to have some words with Thorne,” Lung said, and the rest of the table grunted in agreement as Royce nodded.
“He’s trapped in stone until tonight,” Royce said.
Which gave Xen 6.8 hours to plan.
He started requisitioning items at once.
19 /NEX
T+001:20→ T+001:21:06
Time bloomed without her.
Hours. Then days.
No pulse to follow. No breath.
I was moved three times.
“Leave it alone. Keep it with the clothing,” someone said as someone else touched the pendant.
I was casually dropped onto a metal tray.
Once lifted—admired, maybe?—then replaced.
No one checked me.
No one scanned.
No one asked what I was.
Which was good.
Because I had nothing left to give?—
Not yet.
I learned what I could.
