Kael didn't sleep that night.
She sat by the window of the outpost, watching the city burn in the distance. The flame reflection flickered in her eyes like they were trying to pull her back to something she won't say out loud. I watched her from the cot, silent. My wrist still tangled from where she touched it.
The Mark. The Voice. The Dream.
And now.... the ache in my chest that won't go away. Not fear. Not confusion.
Something more.
"I saw someone in the dream," i said finally. "She looked like me. But older. Stronger. She said nothing but i could feel like. Like i knew her."
Kael didn't turn. "The version of you that survive. Maybe."
"You think it's a message?"
"I think it's a warning".
Her voice was low. Rough. Tired in a way that made my throat tighten.
She finally looked at me. "They are hunting again. After your outburst....it's only a matter of time. We can't stay."
I sat up, brushing sleep through my eyes. "Where are we going?"
"There is someone we need to find. An old contract. She used to track the Marked before Queen start wiping us out. If she's still alive, we'll know what your dream is about."
I nooded, pulling my boots on. My body was sore, but my heart was heavier.
–
We left the outpost at the dawn. The sky was burised purple, clouds hanging low like they don't want to watch the world below. I followed Kael down broken stairwells and rusted scaffolding until we reached an alley behind thr market square.
It was quite. Too quite.
The silences was thick — like something was waiting to break.
We moved fast. Kael had to duck behind walls, jumped fences, cross rooftops. We passed abandoned schools, collapsed train stations, and the wreckage of a mech still smoldering. The deeper we went, the more i realized how far gone the city was.
"What happened here?" I whispered.
Kael didn't answer for a long time.
"Faith," she said eventually. "The Queen outlawed it. Not religion. Faith. In anything other her."
I didn't understand. Not fully. But it made my chest tighten anyways.
–
The contract was hiding in an old theater. Kael made me wait while she scouted. I sat under a cracked marble column, watching the dust shift through sunbeams.
That's when i saw her.
A woman – or maybe a girl – standing in thr ruined stage, lit by broken skylight. Hair buzzed on one side, long braids on the other. Tattoos curled around her arms like veins. Her eyes locked unto mine.
"You are Rae," she said before i could even spoke.
"How—?"
"You lit up the city last night," she said, walking closer. "The dream. The fire. The Mark. All of it."
Kael re appeared beside me, swore drawn. "Don't touch her."
The girl raised her hands. "Chill warrior. If i wanted to harm her i wouldn't have waited un till morning."
"Who are you?" I asked.
"They call me Nova. I used to be like you. Until i broke the connection."
Rael narrowed her eyes. "You said you could help."
"I can." Nova replied. "If only Rae listens."
She turned to me again. "You saw ur future, didn't you?. In the ash. The fire."
I nodded slowly.
"That's not just a vision. It's a map." Nove said. And your Mark? It's not a curse, it's a compass. You are not the only one left. There are others — scattered, lost, hidden — but they are waking up too. You need to find them."
"Why me?", i asked. Heart pounding.
"Because your thread connect them. And because the Queen is already afraid of you."
Kael scoffed. "She's not ready for that kind of war."
Nova smiled faintly. "No one ever is."
We left the threater with a new destination. Black Hollow.
A place i had only heard in whispering rumors. A zone outside the Queen's reach. Wild. Dangerous. But also, according to Nova, the resting place of another Marked.
As we walked. Kael's pace slowed.
"Are u scared?" I asked.
She didn't answer immediately.
"Yes" she finally said. "Not for the Queen, not for the war."
"Then what?."
"You "
I stared at her, unsure if i heard right. But she walked ahead, saying nothing more.
The path ahead was full of ruins, shadows and slience. But for thr first time, i wasn't afraid of slience.
Because i wasn't walking alone.
To be CONTINUED.....