Morning light crept in through the thin gap between the curtains, pale and unremarkable. Liora woke with the dull awareness of someone who hadn't slept deeply, but enough to function. Her head no longer throbbed. That alone felt like progress.
She lay still for a moment, listening.
No echoes. No pull. Just the distant sound of traffic and a neighbor's alarm going off one floor below her.
She sat up slowly.
On the desk across the room, her notebook lay exactly where she'd left it. The stabilizer rested beside it, untouched. She studied both for a long second before standing.
The shower helped clear the last of the fog from her head. By the time she stepped out, wrapped in a towel, the city felt… manageable. Not safe. But not actively pressing in on her either.
Her phone buzzed.
Aiden: How do you feel?
She considered the question longer than necessary.
Liora: Tired. Still here.
A pause.
Aiden: That counts.
She almost smiled.
At campus, the day unfolded quietly. Too quietly. Liora caught herself waiting for something to slip, for a face to blur or a shadow to stretch too far. Nothing did. People hurried past her, worried about deadlines and coffee and things that still existed in full.
In the journalism building, she took her usual seat.
The girl from the third row was there.
Alive. Present. Complaining loudly to her friend about a broken printer.
Relief hit Liora so suddenly she had to look away.
When class ended, she didn't rush out. She packed her bag slowly, grounding herself in the mundane. Pens. Paper. Weight. Reality.
Outside, Seren appeared like she always did casual, unbothered, eyes already scanning.
"You made it through the morning," Seren said. "That's new."
"Is that supposed to be encouraging?"
"Very," Seren replied. "It means they're regrouping."
They walked together across campus. The sky was overcast, threatening rain but holding back for now.
"I checked a few things last night," Seren said after a moment. "Some of the underground chatter shifted."
Liora glanced at her. "Shifted how?"
Seren shrugged. "Less denial. More curiosity. You're becoming… a rumor."
Liora exhaled. "I didn't want to be anything."
"No one ever does," Seren said. "Until they are."
They stopped near the edge of the quad. Students moved around them, unaware of the invisible line Liora had crossed days ago.
"Nothing bad happened today," Liora said quietly.
Seren looked at her. "No. Something different did."
Liora waited.
"You disrupted a pattern," Seren continued. "And patterns don't like that. They respond. Slowly."
Liora nodded. She could feel it now not fear, not anticipation. Just the awareness that the shape of her life had shifted slightly off-center.
Small things.
The kind that changed everything, given enough time.