The Bureau never slept.
Even after midnight, its glass walls glowed faintly, pulsing with the low hum of active magic. Every light was a surveillance rune, every shadow could be a listening spell. Which made what I was about to do either incredibly stupid or incredibly necessary. Probably both.
I waited until the janitorial golems finished their patrols. The cat perched on my shoulder, tail twitching with disapproval.
"You do realize," it whispered, "that breaking into a government archive when you're legally dead is both ironic and suicidal?"
"I already passed the suicidal part," I said quietly. "I'm just seeing how creative I can get with irony."
The elevator didn't take me to the restricted floors, so I took the old way — a maintenance shaft that reeked of copper and ozone. The climb down felt endless. My gloves buzzed faintly as I brushed past arcane wires that hummed with static. When I reached the bottom, the door was locked with a sigil seal.
"Easy," I murmured. My palm glowed faintly blue, the same light that had destroyed my shadow earlier. I pressed it to the sigil. It flared, resisted, then shattered into quiet sparks.
"That was too easy," the cat muttered.
"Maybe luck is feeling charitable tonight."
"Or maybe someone wants you to open it."
I ignored that thought and stepped inside.
The archive was silent except for the faint flutter of enchanted papers rearranging themselves. Rows upon rows of transparent drawers glowed with names. Some were familiar. Some were classified. Most were dead.
And then I saw it.
CASE ZERO: VANE, ELIOR
STATUS: EXPERIMENTAL SUBJECT
My stomach turned cold.
I pulled the drawer open. A single black folder floated out, humming softly as if aware it wasn't supposed to be touched. The moment I opened it, the lights flickered.
Inside were photographs — not of my body, but of me alive. In some, I was surrounded by Bureau agents, standing near containment chambers. In others, I was wired to machines that looked like something between a medical device and a coffin.
Each photo had a timestamp. None of them matched the dates I remembered.
"These are fake," I whispered, though even I didn't believe it.
The cat hopped onto the table, peering at the photos. "You look remarkably calm for someone being electrocuted."
My eyes caught the last page — a report stamped with red ink:
'SUBJECT VANE EL-003: MEMORY EXPERIMENT SUCCESSFUL.
PHASE TWO: CONSTRUCT SELF-AWARENESS LOOP.
RESULT: SUBJECT DECEASED, BUT CONSCIOUSNESS RETAINED.'
I felt my pulse try to start and fail miserably.
"I wasn't murdered," I said slowly. "I was… built."
The cat's ears flattened. "That would explain the blue glow. You're not completely human anymore. Half soul, half imprint. You are a thought that refuses to die."
The sound of footsteps echoed in the distance.
I turned quickly, shoving the folder into my coat. The lights brightened as security runes activated.
The cat hissed. "We need to leave now."
I ran through the aisles, the folder pressed to my chest. The runes pulsed brighter, the temperature dropped, and a voice spoke from the ceiling.
"Unauthorized access detected. Intruder classified as unstable anomaly. Termination protocol engaged."
Panels opened on the walls. Mechanical sentinels stepped out, their eyes glowing with the same eerie blue as mine.
One raised its arm and spoke in a voice that froze my blood.
It was my voice.
"Return to containment, Subject Vane."
The cat swore under its breath. "You really have a talent for making enemies, don't you?"
"Only the interesting ones."
The first sentinel lunged. I ducked, energy flashing past my head. My hand lit up again, brighter than before, and I fired back. The blast tore through the air, shattering glass and sigils alike.
The last thing I saw before everything went white was the folder flying out of my coat, pages scattering through the air like snow.
Then there was silence.
When I opened my eyes again, I wasn't in the Bureau anymore.
I was standing in the middle of a dark street. The rain had stopped.
And every light in Velridge flickered with the same color as my eyes.