Their eyes t across the table, and for a long mont, the hum of the ss hall around them — the clatter of trays, the low murmurs of tired shard users — faded into sothing distant.
The mory of their talks in the pod room pressed in close — her stubbornness, his grudging encouragent, the long, slow fight to hold a shard stable without breaking themselves in the process.
They parted with a small nod, quiet and certain.
The ss hall’s noise returned behind them, but Cube X’s heavy hum stayed steady, a backdrop to the shared weight they both carried.
Vardency’s threat pulsed faint and far beyond the walls, but closer than either dared to admit.
The pod quarters in A Block stretched quiet and dim, the modular units lining the walls like sleeping sentries.
The screens on most pods had long since cracked or darkened, throwing fractured reflections across the tal floor. The air tasted cool, laced with the recycled hum of Cube X’s life systems pressing steadily against the silence.
Elias lay back in his pod, the padding firm against his spine, the worn fabric catching slightly against the battered seams of his fatigues.
Dot hovered at his side, her glow dim, her hum tuned down to a soft lullaby against the pod’s walls.
His shard pulsed faintly inside his chest, a distant beat too slow to match the racing of his thoughts.
Sleep felt like sothing foreign — a word he rembered but couldn’t reach.
Faye’s voice echoed in the quiet — You keep us steady.
The Chairwoman’s words carved sharper still — Will you break?
The screens’ replayed carnage flashed behind his eyes — Roachaline’s storm, Lyra’s blades, the shattered soldiers littering a battlefield Elias hadn’t even set foot on yet.
The pod’s ceiling stretched above him, the dull tal sared with scratches and forgotten repairs.
His stab wound ached under his side, the pain throbbing in slow, stubborn pulses.
And sowhere beyond Cube X’s reinforced walls, Vardency’s shadow thickened — patient, waiting, always closer than any of them wanted to believe.
The explosion hit like a hamr blow.
The pod shuddered under Elias, throwing him upright before he even registered the deafening boom that split the silence wide open.
His heart slamd against his ribs, breath tearing from his throat as he staggered inside the small space. Sleepwear clung damp to his skin, sweat breaking cold across his back.
The air stung sharp and acrid, the recycled systems hissing in protest sowhere deep in the walls.
Across the hall, Kikaru’s voice broke through the chaos, banging hard against her pod door.
"What the hell was that?" she shouted, her voice tight, already snapping to battle tension.
Through the cracked screen of her pod, her golden orb Ikona flared, throwing distorted light across the dark corridor.
A second later, Faye stumbled out of her pod, loose sleepwear slipping from her shoulders, her music Ikona humming a thin, urgent note behind her.
"Was that Vardency?" she gasped.
Her hands gripped the edge of the doorway, knuckles white, eyes wide with raw fear. The way her voice shook made sothing clench sharper inside Elias than the blast had.
Then Tidwell slamd into the corridor, half-dressed, a combat knife flashing in his hand, his cloud Ikona swirling thick around his shoulders.
"Damn Epics!" he barked, scanning the hallway, the old anger already cutting through the shock. His head whipped toward the pod bay doors.
The heavy bolt-locks hissed and clanked into place a breath later.
Steel braces slamd down with a deep, grinding thud, and red ergency lights flared along the seams, throwing the corridor into harsh, pulsing color.
The way out was gone. They were sealed inside.
Elias shoved against his pod screen, breath fogging the scratched glass. He stared into the corridor beyond, but saw nothing — just darkness thick against the ergency lights.
His shard pulsed a cold weight in his chest, dragging his mind into focus.
The pod shuddered again under Elias’s hands, the vibrations rattling faint through the fra.
Dot hovered close at his side, her blue glow dim but steady, the soft hum brushing against his wrist like an anchor.
He pressed his palm harder against the cracked glass, breath fogging the surface as he tried to see through the pulsing red ergency lights.
"What the hell could that have been?" Elias muttered, voice low, trying to keep his breathing steady.
"Could it be the Epics?" he asked, turning slightly toward the others.
Across the hallway, Kikaru slamd her fist against her pod door again, her golden orb Ikona flaring in a jagged burst of light.
"If it was," she snapped, her voice sharp, "we’d already be dead."
The words ca out raw — too fast, too certain — but Elias heard the fear underneath it, the crack running under her usual control.
Faye stepped out from behind her pod, hands tight on the fra, her music Ikona humming low behind her shoulder.
"But how would they even find us?" Elias pressed, scanning the sealed hallway, the heavy lock chanisms still glowing red along the doors.
Faye shook her head, swallowing hard.
"They shouldn’t be able to," she said. Her voice faltered halfway through the sentence, a small fracture opening under the pressure.
"Cube X is buried too deep," she added, softer.
At the far end of the row, Tidwell spun his knife once, the motion sharper than necessary. His cloud Ikona tightened around him, mist rising like smoke.
"Sabotage," Tidwell growled. "Bet on it."
The usual smirk was gone from his face, wiped clean by sothing harder — the kind of frustration that ca when the worst ideas started making the most sense.
Elias pushed off from the pod wall, legs still shaky, and stepped toward the center of the hallway.
The cold air bit against his skin, too sharp, too thin.
He set his hand flat against the sealed door, the cold bleeding straight into his bones.
"Stay calm," he said, voice low but carrying.
Even if the drumbeat of the explosion still pounded against his ears.
He swept a look across them — Faye’s wide, frightened eyes, Kikaru’s clenched fists, Tidwell’s restless blade flashing under the ergency lights — and felt the fracture lines in A Block more clearly than ever.
Reviews
All reviews (0)