Kael didn't sleep.
He didn't trust the silence in his head anymore—not after the Core had gone still. The relic given to him by the chained woman now sat in the far corner of the room, wedged between two broken gears and a bent wrench. It hadn't moved since.
But another one had.
He'd barely looked away when it started. A cracked metallic sphere, once part of a navigation array, had been lying inert all day. Now it was spinning slowly on its own, trembling with a high-pitched whine, as if something inside was trying to claw its way out.
Kael narrowed his eyes. "You're not supposed to move."
The sphere spun faster.
"Out—let me out—out—out—too long too long TOO—"
It rose off the floor, shaking violently, glyphs glowing in lines across its shell. Kael lunged toward it just as it zipped across the cell, slamming against the wall with a burst of static and arc-light.
Kael's hand shot out—
And the moment his fingers touched it, Core surged.
Not with words.
Not with emotion.
With command.
The glyphs across Kael's arm blazed. His back arched as something ancient and furious flooded his nervous system. He wasn't guiding it.
It was guiding him.
His fingers twisted the air—not in gestures, but in directives. Reality hiccuped.
The sphere stopped. Froze mid-spin. And then folded in on itself with a strangled, metallic shriek, like a machine being convinced it never existed.
Kael collapsed to one knee, gasping. Smoke rose from his fingers. The sphere dropped to the floor, no longer glowing. No longer anything.
His ears rang with static.
Then—outside the cell—alarms began to scream.
Divine sigils lit up in the hallway beyond the rune-glass. Footsteps thundered across the marble. The scent of blood and war hung thick in the air.
Kael rose, swaying.
And standing just outside his cell door, behind a shimmering ward, was the war goddess.
Veyra.
Her arms were crossed, her armor gleaming like living sinew, and her red eyes locked on him with something new.
Not disgust.
Not amusement.
Something like calculation.
Kael coughed once, blood flecking his lip.
"Miss me?" he rasped.
Veyra tilted her head.
"You're not supposed to be alive."
Kael wiped his mouth. "That's becoming a theme."