The night felt heavier than most. Not just dark — heavy, like the city was carrying something it didn't want to talk about. The air didn't move much. Every sound — the drip of water somewhere far off, the quiet squeak of a shutter in the wind — seemed too loud, like it didn't belong. Even the wind felt like it was holding back, not wanting to stir trouble.
Liora and I kept to the narrow alleys, where the shadows stack on top of each other. Street lamps here were mostly dead — the few still alive just flickered in weak, uneven gasps of light. Our boots were slow against the stone, as if moving too fast would make the night notice us.
I didn't say much. She didn't either. It was the kind of silence you don't break unless you have to — thick, full of everything you aren't ready to put into words. And under that silence, I could feel the city's heartbeat, faint and uneven. Something was wrong. Not just wrong. Sick.
We stopped for a moment in the shadow of a wall that time had half‑eaten. The kind of wall that looks like one more push might make it give up. Liora turned her head slightly toward me, her voice just above a whisper.
"Zane… I found a name."
I looked at her fully then. Names mean something.
"Who?"
Her gaze didn't waver, but there was a pause, like she was checking if she should even tell me.
"Kiran."
It was just a name, but it landed with weight.
Heavy enough that I felt it in my hands. The Guild's secrets suddenly weren't faceless anymore. They had a shape. Maybe a smile.
Maybe a knife.
The lamp above us flickered, throwing uneven shadows across her face. I felt the scythe shift faintly under my grip, its quiet pulse just enough to remind me it was there — and that it was part of all this whether I liked it or not.
"We'll need more than a name," I said.
"I know," she replied. "But this isn't random.
The Guild's protecting someone, and Kiran's right in the centre of it."It was the way she said protecting that made me cold. Not hiding from — protecting.
We moved forward. The alleys narrowed, then opened in stretches where the night pooled deeper. Each time we stepped out of one, I'd glance to the rooftops, the windows… expecting eyes.
There was a stretch where I thought about the name, rolling it in my mind. Kiran. Didn't tell me who they were, but I knew already — this was someone who didn't want to be found until they made the choice themselves. And that's the worst kind to follow.
We passed a temple, one that looked as tired as the city. The wooden doors were slumped on their hinges, a few tired candles burned in glass jars on the steps. I stopped for a second. Something about it — I couldn't say — made my chest tighten.
Liora caught it. "Zane?"
I shook my head. "It's nothing."
It wasn't nothing. I just wasn't ready to open that door.
That's when we heard it.
A scrape. Metal on stone. Small, but sharp enough to slice through the quiet.
We moved slow to the side, pressing against the temple's worn pillars. My hand slid to the scythe, its hum deepening like it could sense what I was thinking.
A figure moved past. Fast. Too fast to be casual.
"You saw that?" Liora's voice was too soft for anyone else to hear.
"Yeah. They're following us."
We didn't need to discuss chasing. We just moved.
The figure took us through a crooked network of streets and slanted rooftops. I kept pace despite the burn building in my legs. One turn, two turns — every street here looked like the last, but every time I thought we'd lost them, I'd see the faint trail of movement ahead.
The chase ended in a dead part of the old market. No stalls. No lights. Just outlines of places that used to mean something, now emptied and forgotten.
The figure stopped.
We slowed, closing the distance carefully. My breath sounded loud in my own ears.
They turned.
Kiran.
Not at all like I'd pictured. No masks. No grand posture. Just… a tired person.
Shoulders heavy, eyes carrying every sleepless night they'd ever had. Not harmless. But not the monster my mind had made.
"Kiran?" Liora said, almost carefully.
Their eyes flicked to her, then to me.
Measuring."You don't know what you've stepped into," Kiran said. Their voice was low, worn.I took a step forward.
"No. But I want to."
They looked at me for a long moment before exhaling slowly. "The city's not what you think. The Tower — that's just a piece of it. The real enemy hides where you think you're safe. Behind faces you'd trust."
I glanced at Liora, and she met my eyes with that look she gets when she hears truth she already knew was coming.
Kiran didn't tell us to leave. That told me enough.
We followed them through the forgotten back routes most people never knew existed. They spoke quietly, in bits. About a council in the shadows, older than any guild here. About wrong deals made long ago — and debts never paid off.
The pieces they gave us were like broken glass;
you couldn't hold them all without cutting yourself. Still, we took them.
By the time the sky was lightening, we were standing where the city's edge dropped into the old river gorge. The wind carried the scent of water and moss, and the first thin light of morning touched the stones.Kiran stood with their back to us. "You've got a choice. Keep climbing blindly, or start seeing how deep the cracks go. But once you see it, you can't go back."
I didn't answer. Neither did Liora. We didn't have to. Our being there was the answer.
We turned toward the heart of the city again. The air felt the same, but I wasn't the same.
We weren't chasing only monsters now.
There were people in this fight who'd been playing it longer than I'd been breathing. People who smiled while pulling the strings that kept others in the dark.
The road ahead hadn't just darkened — it had split. And every path was dangerous.
To be continued.....