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The second morning on Long Ring Long Land began with laughter. Villagers herded their absurdly long-necked cows into a corral, preparing for another contest. The animals mooed in stretched tones, as if the island itself mocked the sound of normality. Children darted between their legs, tugging ropes twice their height.
Kaya laughed until she nearly doubled over. "Even the cows are stretched! This place feels like a dream."
Vivi smiled beside her, though her attention kept drifting back to the figure standing apart from the noise. Rael leaned against a post at the edge of the field, his eyes sharp, his jaw set.
"Still nothing?" Robin asked quietly, notebook in hand as she joined him.
"They're close," Rael muttered. "Too close."
Robin studied the horizon with her own calm detachment. "You've been saying that since yesterday."
"Because they haven't left," Rael replied. His voice was steady, but there was weight behind it — the certainty of a predator who had already scented another.
Before she could respond, a ripple passed through the villagers. Heads turned, voices rose, and someone shouted that travelers had arrived. The crowd parted, welcoming three cloaked figures with cheerful curiosity.
Rael's eyes narrowed instantly.
Kaya waved without hesitation. "More visitors! Maybe they'll join the games!"
But Vivi caught the stiffness in Rael's shoulders. Her smile faded.
The newcomers accepted the villagers' hospitality with ease, even bowing slightly before joining a contest. One vaulted onto a pair of stilts taller than a house, balancing perfectly. Another hefted a tug-of-war rope that should have taken five men to move. Their movements were fluid, measured — and wrong.
Rael felt the prickle at the back of his neck. Trained. Watching me while pretending to play along.
For the rest of the afternoon, the island was filled with games, laughter, and music. Yet wherever Rael moved, one of the strangers' gazes followed. It wasn't obvious to the villagers, but to him, it was a blade's edge of intent hiding beneath a smile.
Robin sidled closer to him as lanterns began to glow against the evening sky. Her voice was low, unreadable. "If you fight here, they'll bleed among innocents."
"I know," Rael said. His eyes didn't leave the cloaked men.
"Then what?"
His lips curved into the faintest smirk. "I'll drag them where laughter dies. Then it'll just be them and me."
Robin's eyes glimmered, not with fear, but with a dark kind of acceptance.
Night wrapped itself around the ridge. Lanterns swayed like fireflies, the music rising and falling with the villagers' joy. Kaya danced in a circle of children. Vivi spoke animatedly with locals about tides and fishing.
But Rael sat at the edge of the glow, gaze locked on the three shadows at the perimeter.
The villagers thought the night belonged to games and songs.
Rael knew better.
This was only the opening act.
The Cipher Pol weren't here to play.
And when the lanterns burned low, he'd make sure they had no place left to hide.
---
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