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Chapter 15 - Chapter 15 : stasis of shadows

The silence that followed hit heavier than the roar of any battle. Kael's hands hovered over the cryo tube, fingers curled like they were holding something fragile. The energy around him wasn't the aggressive darkness of shadows, nor the cold indigo of the Void. It was pale. Subtle. A moonlit glow made of memory and pure will.

Kael (narration): "I couldn't fix the machine. Didn't know how. But I could see it dying inside—tiny deaths. Connections snapping. Signals fading. Like watching a fabric tear, thread by thread."

He didn't force it. Didn't impose. Just applied a steady counter-pressure against the entropy gnawing at the system. Circuits became veins, cryogenic fluid became blood. He wasn't healing it. He was holding it. A dam against the river of time. Slowing the fall until it stopped.

< SYSTEM: REALITY DESIGN – ENGAGED >

< OBJECTIVE: STASIS >

< WARNING: NON-DESTRUCTIVE USE – EFFICIENCY 12% >

< CONCEPTUAL STRAIN: HIGH >

Sweat ran down his forehead. A dull hammering behind his eyes. This wasn't exhaustion from the Void. It was the grind of holding a tide back. Every second screamed. Every breath reminded him of the burden.

The alarm shrieked, shredded into static, then went dead. Red lights flickered, then settled into steady amber. Cracks in the regulator remained—but they weren't widening. Everything hung in balance, suspended by his will alone.

Kael lowered his hands, wobbling. Liora was at his side in an instant.

"You did it," she whispered, ignoring her own exhaustion.

"No," he rasped. "I… just stopped the fall. I can't hold it forever." He glanced at the tube. "And I can't get her out. Not here."

Elian approached, eyes wide on the woman inside. "Dad… he was protecting her."

"Now it's our turn," Liora said, voice hardening. She scanned the wall of maps. "There has to be a safer place. Somewhere we can move her."

The shelter was a whirlwind of panic. Alaric's notes were chaos, guilt and fear scrawled in every margin. But the maps—precise, surgical. Elian found one, small, rolled in a metal tube. It didn't show the crater. It showed lower levels of the Citadel, a path traced in red to "Sanctuary – Primary Source."

"The Citadel's energy source," Liora whispered, eyes glinting. "If it's still alive… even weakly… it could power the tube. Stabilize her."

Hope. Thin, fragile, real.

They descended into the Citadel's guts. Darkness, silence, ash. Corridors littered with debris, scorched bodies—those who'd tried to flee. Stale, acrid air.

Kael led, Void-sense like sonar, detecting structural weaknesses, radiation pockets. The cryo tube strapped to his back—both burden and responsibility. Every moment, every thread of power holding it together. One slip, one drop, and everything falls.

Kael (narration): "A new kind of exhaustion. Not the Void's blast-weariness. The constant drag of holding a tide back. Every step fought. Every breath a reminder."

They reached a massive armored door, the sun-and-vine symbol burned into it. Warped. Half-melted. But a side passage had been forced open. Just enough space to slip through.

Inside, the Sanctuary sprawled—a cavern of living crystal. Pale blue light pulsed weakly at its center, like a dying heart. Crystals ran from the source to walls and ceiling. Ancient energy, pure, calm.

"The Primary Source," Liora breathed. Reverent. "It's alive… I can feel it."

Urgency surged. They connected the cryo tube to a crystal conduit using Alaric's spare cables. Sparks, a hum. The tube brightened. A low buzz grew into a steady purr. Kael felt the weight in his mind lift. He could release his hold. The system ran on its own.

He exhaled a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, collapsing against the crystal. Trembling relief.

Then she opened her eyes.

Slow. Smooth. Light brown eyes blinking, taking in Kael's face, the crystal room, Liora, Elian. Confusion, not fear—yet.

Recognition dawned, pure and terrified.

The thaw hissed. The door seal broke. Steam forced the lid upward. She coughed, sat weakly.

"Kael?" Rusted by a century of silence. She scanned him, the room, then Liora and Elian. "Kael Veyr? The shadows… you stopped them?"

Kael froze. She didn't know. To her, the disaster had just happened.

"No, Aris," he said softly, tasting her strange name. "I didn't stop them."

Horrified understanding crawled across her face. She took in the crystals, dying light, Kael's scarred, exhausted face, Liora's strained determination.

"How long?" barely a whisper.

Kael met her gaze. "A long time."

Her shoulders slumped. She closed her eyes, absorbing a world lost. Opening them again, no tears. Only infinite sadness.

"Alaric?"

"Gone," Elian said, voice firm in the silence. "I'm his son."

Grief layered anew on her expression. A slight nod. Then she drew in a breath. Her voice came back, sharp, authoritative, the scientist she had been.

"They were wrong, Kael. The Council. Their project… they thought they could control the Void. Harness it." She locked eyes with him. "They weren't making a weapon. They were forging a god. One they could leash."

She planted her feet, unsteady.

"But the god had its own will. And it was afraid. The Council wanted control, so they struck first." She gestured weakly. "This… was not an accident. It was self-defense by a nascent consciousness."

Kael (narration): "All those lives. All that pain. Not a curse. Not an accident. Collateral of cosmic fear. The Void inside me stirred, not in anger, but recognition. It remembered."

A low rumble shook the floor. Dust fell from the crystal ceiling.

"What was that? Another collapse?" Liora asked.

Kael rose. Alert. It wasn't a collapse. Rhythmic. Mechanical.

< SYSTEM: MULTIPLE ENERGY SIGNATURES DETECTED >

< PROFILE: PURIFIERS – SEAT CLASS >

< ANALYSIS: SURFACE DRILLING >

They hadn't come through the doors. They were drilling straight from the surface.

Kael looked at Liora, Elian, the fragile, newly awakened woman who had rewritten her past.

"No," he said, cold, hard, survivor's whisper. "They're not coming for us."

Fists clenched. Shadows along his arms stirred. Docile since he saved Aris. Now reacting to rage.

"They're coming for her."

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