Inside the institute, Suda's condition was worsening. His anxiety grew heavier with each passing hour, for today was no ordinary day.
It was the day of the Sunset Capturing Examination ..... when Wee and Lamai were supposed to photograph the breathtaking beauty of twilight. But neither of them was anywhere to be found. On such an important occasion, their disappearance gnawed at him like a slow poison. And to make matters stranger, Kai and Teanguan too carried an unsettling air about them.
Still, Suda couldn't abandon his own duties. He convinced himself that maybe for Kai and Teanguan as well, today held some special significance. After all, he had seen sparks of interest in their eyes whenever the topic of the Aurea Flora Complex came up. What he didn't know was the truth .... that they weren't here by choice.
Now, with the last hope extinguished .... the Morwyn Noxflora destroyed, its lethal extract gone forever ..... Kai and Teanguan had no reason to remain in this lab. And yet, for Kai, the bitterness of last night's failure clung to her heart like a shadow she could not shake. But there was something else too .... something still unfinished, waiting to be done.
Meanwhile, Teanguan's eyes shifted restlessly from corner to corner. Though his expression betrayed little, his silence carried weight. He too had been searching since he first heard Suda's frantic calls. The absence of Wee and Lamai now pressed against his mind with a strange unease. But deeper than that, a storm raged inside him ..... the storm that had begun the moment he heard of Jain's arrest.
The very man who had driven him from his own home.
The man responsible for his sister's death.
The man guilty of sins that could never be undone.
And yet, Teanguan remained calm. His heart no longer demanded vengeance for himself. If his sister received justice, it would be enough. Nothing else ..... no apology, no punishment, no retribution ..... could ever repair what he had lost, what he had endured.
Kai, on the other hand, felt a hollowness that cut even deeper. With the last fragment of her plan gone, she felt like a bird thrust out of its cage… only to realize its wings had already been clipped. Freedom mocked her, standing just out of reach.
---
Far away, the wheels of a motorcycle rolled steadily toward the city. Wee and Lamai were almost at their hometown, the place that had once been filled with dreams, laughter, and warmth. But now, waiting there was not a homecoming…
It was a terrible truth.
One they had neither heard nor imagined.
A reality that would shatter everything.