The camp stretched like a patchwork of tents and fires. Pheo wandered it aimlessly, letting his feet carry him where they pleased. He kept his head low, weaving between operatives that moved with purpose, their eyes sharp and observant. Compared to them, he felt out of place, like a stray caught in the middle of an army.
Eventually, he found himself at the camp's edge, climbing a narrow trail that wound up the rocky rise. When he reached the top, the noise of the camp dulled, replaced by the quiet hum of the wind.
Below, The Free City sprawled in the distance, its walls lit by lanterns and flickering fires that looked like the stars in the night sky. Pheo sat down on a flat boulder, drawing his knees to his chest.
His thoughts circled around him like vultures. Adam had left him behind, someone who he thought could've been a father figure for him, even if it was all in his head. Their journey had started because Adam had taken pity on him after his constant pestering.
It should've been obvious that once Adam had led him somewhere safe enough, he would've left him. He was always the type of person to only care for himself, he's a Black Ace after all.
So why did I think that we would've continued staying together?
He felt small again, like he did back then staring at the frozen prison his mother was trapped in. Her face frozen in that last, fragile moment for what could be eternity. He had promised himself that he would free her, but look at him now.
Not a single bit closer to saving her.
A crunch of gravel behind him snapped him out of his spiral. He turned, startled, only to see Kael approaching, his steps unhurried with his hands in his pockets. His silhouette framed itself against the dim glow of the city, his expression unreadable but not unkind.
"What are you doing here?" Kael asked him, "Waiting for someone to confess your love to them?" His voice carried easily on the wind, casual but with a note of curiosity. "Who would I even be confessing to in this place?"
"Why don't you tell me?" Kael came closer, settling down a short distance away, giving the boy space but making it clear he intended to stay. "You picked such a romantic spot, why else would you be here?"
He looked out to the view that Pheo saw, the city shining faintly against the dark. He stretched his legs out in front of him with a sigh, as though he'd only come up here to rest.
Kael continued talking, "This view isn't that bad, is it?" He asked him, "At least, it's better than The Caverns." Pheo froze at the mention, his head snapping toward Kael. "...What did you say?"
He didn't look at him right away. Kael just kept his gaze fixed on the city lights, tone casual, almost teasing. "The Caverns. That's where you crawled out from, wasn't it?"
Pheo's throat tightened. His hands dug into his knees as he searched Kael's face. "How'd you know about that?" At that, Kael finally turned, his smirk faint but deliberate. "I didn't, but you just confirmed it for me."
"I make it my business to know things. Your connections with some of the operatives don't make much sense to me. So I dug around, found out the correlation between them and that mission."
Pheo's voice dropped, cautious. "That's not enough proof for someone like you to be certain." Kael nodded, "That's true. While you were passed out, I had checked something else, something that linked what you did here to The Caverns."
"And that is?" Pheo asked, curious to know more but also scared for just how much Kael knew. Kael tilted his head, studying Pheo with eyes that looked far too sharp for the casual tone he carried.
"The Golden Flame. That was my proof." His words changed the atmosphere around them, as if suddenly increasing the weight of the air around them. "An awakening that shouldn't have happened. A flame that shouldn't have existed."
Pheo had grown attached to Kael from the time they spent in The Free City. But now that he knew the secret he had been keeping, would they have to become enemies? "And what would you do now that you know? Tell someone? Maybe The Director?"
His eyes flickered with a bit of gold flashing, defiance bleeding into his tone. "Even if you did… do you really think they could stop me?" The challenge lingered in the air, quiet but sharp.
Kael didn't flinch from it though. His voice remained calm and steady, measured but not without weight. "No. Not them. But me? I wouldn't need to stop you right now. But if you change."
"I'm sure we both know that power changes people, especially power like yours. If the person I knew started fading away, turning into something inhuman… Then I won't hesitate to step in."
Then, after a pause, Kael's tone softened, though the weight never left it. "But that's not why I came here tonight. For now, I didn't come here to threaten you. I came because I think you need help."
"You've been having trouble, knowing what that is, right?" Kael tilted his head slightly, his gaze feeling uncomfortably sharp despite his calm voice. "Seeing how you were, you don't fully understand it."
Pheo's shoulders stiffened at the accuracy of the words, his gaze stayed locked on Kael. He continued, "Even for an expert like me, you can count the records you could find in the Badlands related to your power in one hand."
Kael nodded as though he'd expected the silence. "I know a bit about it. Not much, but enough to see the outline." He smiled, "What you have right now, that golden flame. It's something kept secret by royalty."
"Royalty? But why?" Pheo asked, questions forming faster than he could ask them. "I don't know, but it's the reason why it's been so hard to find anything about it. And also the same reason why you can barely find literature related to gifts, though it's less guarded than the golden flame."
"And how do you even know that?" Pheo narrowed his eyes. "If it's as secret as you say, how could you be so sure?" Kael's smile didn't fade. If anything, it sharpened. "Because I'm a genius. People forget that, or they think it's just a title, but in the end actions speak louder than words."
"I can see the patterns others overlook, connect the dots they don't even know exist. That's why you're lucky I'm the one standing here, offering my help to you."
Pheo studied him in silence for a moment, his chest flaring faintly with unease. "Why? Why would you be going so far for me?" Kael's confidence eased into something quieter, steadier.
"Because you're the person who treated me like Kael, not a tool, not the boy genius. A weapon or pawn to be used. You just saw me for who I am, even after seeing my status or intelligence. That's rare, so rare that you're the only one among the tens of thousands I've met."
"And if I can be that for you too, then I will." He extended his hand. Pheo's eyes fell to the hand between them. For a long breath, he didn't move, his mind racing through all the implications.
Trust wasn't something he could give lightly, not after everything he's been through until now. Not with what he had carried inside him. But Kaels' gaze didn't waver. It wasn't demanding, not pitying. It was steady, grounded, almost stubborn in its sincerity.
Slowly, Pheo lifted his own hand and clasped Kael's. His grip was firm, but not without hesitation. "If you regret this, that's on you." His shake was firm, decisive. Kael's smile sharpened, his grip unwavering.
"I don't plan on regretting it. So don't give me a reason to." The two released their hands, and for the first time since their talk began, the air between them didn't feel heavy. It felt light, almost clear, making the view all the more vivid.
Pheo leaned back slightly, glancing out over the sprawl of the city bathed in silver moonlight. A quiet smile tugged at his lips. "You were right. The city really does look amazing from here. Nothing compared to the caverns."
Kael huffed out a laugh, the tension in his chest loosening. "Told you."
They stayed there, shoulders eased, trading words that for once carried no sharp edges. Just simple talk, the kind both hadn't realized they missed. Time slipped past quietly, the world below moving on as if it had no idea what promise had just been made above.
Eventually, Kael's gaze sharpened again. He turned slightly toward Pheo, his voice low but clear. "But there's something else. I need your help with something tonight. We have to move before dawn comes."
Pheo gave him a curious look. "What is it?" Kael only gave a smile, knowing he had his attention. "A secret. One I'm not even sure I should tell The Director about yet." The answer only made Pheo's suspicion deepen.
Kael went on his feet, walking while motioning for him to follow. "Come on. I'll explain as we go." Pheo quickly got up to follow him before he got too far from his view. They made their way through the silent streets until the looming shape of the Crimson Hall rose before them.
The building's shadow cast long beneath the moonlight. Kael's voice carried softly as they descended the steps into the cistern vaults below. "The reason why everyone seeks refuge in this city isn't because of the buildings that were built here or the people."
"But it's because of the night, when countless dust devils appear on the surface to destroy everything in its path. Well, they appear everywhere except for one place, The Free City."
Pheo tilted his head, his voice edged with impatience. "And how exactly is that relevant to what you wanted to show me?" Kael gave the faintest grin to his question, unbothered by the doubt in his tone.
"I found something down here while I was looking for the librarian. Something that I can't solve on my own." His tone shifted, but with a rare honesty beneath it. "And lately, I've noticed it's easier to work through problems with you around."
Pheo glanced at him, brow furrowed. "You're being vague on purpose." Kael's lips curved into a knowing smile. "Of course I am. If I told you everything outright, I'd ruin the surprise."
Before Pheo could respond, Kael stopped at one of the cistern vaults. Without hesitation, he pressed his hand against the wall, sliding open a hidden mechanism. A section of the stone shifted aside with a grinding hum, revealing a narrow passage lit only by the faint glow of moss clinging to the walls.
Pheo blinked in surprise. "You had this hidden away here the whole time?" Kael glanced back, eyes gleaming in the dimness. "Oh, this? No, this is just the door." He stepped inside, his voice echoing slightly as he descended. "The main event has yet to begin."
They went down further, the air cooling with every step, until the rough stone of the cisterns gave way to something else. Arches of metal half-collapse under stone, walls carved with strange patterns unlike anything Pheo had seen in this age.
The ground crunched with glass fragments and brittle remains of long-forgotten machines. Pheo's breath caught. These foreign materials, the impeccable precision in the structures, and sophisticated designs of the forgotten machinery could only mean one thing.
"This… this is from the Old World." His eyes moved quickly across the rubble, picking out the broken devices and closely observing the structures he'd only seen in crude drawings. "I've read of these things, who knew there would be such a preserved ruin of the era here?"
"You recognize it?" Kael paused mid-step, brows lifting in honest surprise. "Some of it," Pheo admitted, crouching near a shattered panel of glass with faint lines running through it.
"They were in a few of the books I read. The descriptions and drawings all match to what we're seeing right now." Kael let out a soft laugh, almost disbelieving. "Incredible. You don't know how rare that is."
"Information about the Old World isn't just rare, it's nearing extinction. Even the royals barely have enough knowledge of it to fill a few pages with. I myself barely found a few pieces of information here and there."
His gaze swept across the ruins with renewed awe. "Enough to barely recognize this as a relic of that era after a few hours." He looked back at Pheo then, his voice quieter, edged with something sharper than curiosity. "And yet, you see more than I do."
Pheo shrugged, forcing a faint grin. "Guess I just got lucky, stumbling on the right books." The excuse slipped out smoothly, but the thought lingered in the back of his mind like an itch.
Lucky?
He remembered the shelves of his home, lined with tens of volumes he'd poured over and over again hoping they would have some clue for the unknown curse. Whole chapters that spoke of machines buried under sand, of towers that once touched the sky, of wars that split the world into dust.
It was like a fantasy to him, imagining a world filled with such wonders. In the end, he only found out that the knowledge would barely be of use, save for the fragile comfort knowing that she still lived, preserved under the ice.
If Kael, someone who was considered as a genius by society, called such scraps rare, then where had his family gotten them from? How many of the things that he had read were actually common knowledge, and not precious pieces of information that millions had died to know?
For the first time, he wondered if what he knew wasn't just knowledge, but a collection of secrets, and if his "luck" was something far stranger than chance, far deeper than a coincidence.
The chamber opened into a vast hall, walls lined with cables that still hummed faintly with power. A soft glow pulsed along circuits embedded in the stone, impossibly still alive after centuries.
At the heart of the room stood a colossal machine, its frame branching out like veins into every corner of the chamber. Dozens of monitors flickered with shifting graphs and strange symbols.
Streams of data constantly flowed, with information so dense and alien that even an educated man would struggle to follow it. Pheo's eyes darted across the displays, trying to stitch together meaning.
He stepped closer, brushing his sleeve across the thick layer of dust that dulled its glow. Lines of shifting graphs rolled endlessly across the screen. "These aren't numbers for population or trade… they're… cycles. Look, see how they repeat?"
Kael leaned over his shoulder, eyes narrowing. "Not daily cycles though. The intervals are too long. Weeks, maybe months…" His fingers tapped absently against his arm as he thought. "Could be tides?"
"No," Pheo shook his head. "The values are too irregular. Tides don't fluctuate like this. It's more like… pressure."
"Pressure?" Kael echoed, brows knitting. He moved to another monitor, trying to trace a set of rising and falling lines. "And this… These should be temperature gradients. It's tracking heat patterns across a region."
Pheo's gaze flicked between displays, his pulse quickening. "Pressure. Temperature. And those symbols… They're wind vectors." Kael stilled, following his words. "Wind… temperature… pressure…" He let out a breath, realization dawning slowly. "Put them together and–"
"–you can map the sky," Pheo finished, his voice almost reverent. Both of them stared at the colossal frame of the machine, the cables that fed into every wall. The data suddenly made sense, no longer a chaotic mess but purposeful, interconnected.
"It's not just mapping it," Kael said at last, his voice quiet with awe. "This machine is… regulating it. Controlling the weather itself." Pheo swallowed, his chest tight with disbelief. "They could shape the world, just by deciding what the sky would be."
Kael stepped closer to the nearest monitor, brushing his sleeve across the thick layer of dust that dulled its glow. The grime smeared. He squinted as the screen flickered to life. "Wait… this isn't global."
Kael moved beside him, doing the same to another monitor, clearing the years of neglect with the edge of his hand. "What do you mean?" Pheo motioned for him to come, "Here." He traced the glowing outline with his finger, the dust still clinging stubbornly to the glass.
"Look at the borders. The readings cut off right at this ridge… And here, this valley…" His breath hitched. "That's… that's The Free City's perimeter." Kael froze, then turned sharply to another display, swiping away a film of dirt to see the numbers more clearly.
His eyes darted between figures. "You're right. All the pressure stabilizers, the wind calibrations, everything stops outside that range. It doesn't extend past it."
"So it wouldn't be able to cover the world," Pheo muttered, voice low, "only this place." He leaned back, a strange chill crawling up his spine. "It's not protecting the planet… just a single pocket of it."
Kael let out a slow breath, the weight of the revelation settling in. He wiped the remaining dust from his fingertips against his trousers, gaze locked on the flickering maps. "No wonder this city has survived for so long. The storms, the dust devils… they were never a matter of chance. They were kept away."
Pheo's jaw tightened as he continued to study the steady hum of circuits, the quiet glow of screens still alive after centuries. "Which means…" he said carefully, "without this machine, The Free City would've been no different from the wastelands outside."
Kael gave a grim nod, his usual composure darkening. "Exactly. This city doesn't just stand because of its walls or people. It stands because someone, long ago, built a cage around the storm itself."
He began to pace slowly around the room, his boots echoing faintly against the metal floor, eyes locked on the monitors as though afraid they might flicker out at any moment. He muttered under his breath.
"This changes everything… everything we thought we knew about The Free City. To think its biggest mystery wasn't just chance, faith, or its walls, but this. An entire machine from the old world, buried right under our feet."
"If only I could stay and study this properly…" His voice cracked with rare frustration, his composure slipping as he clenched his fists. "This could rewrite everything in the archives, advance our technology as we know it."
Pheo remained still, letting Kael's words hang in the air. His gaze drifted back to the glowing monitors, the steady hum of power still alive after centuries, and his chest tightened. He remembered a different conversation he had, one he hadn't spoken of to Kael.
What even makes it a city if it's so lawless?
The city's the only place where dust devils can't get into. There's something in the ground there, some old world tech that messes with them when they get too near.
At the time, he thought that it was common knowledge. But now, standing before undeniable proof and seeing Kael's reaction, he couldn't help but wonder.
How did Adam know?
Kael was calling this ruin a grand discovery. And yet Adam had spoken of it so casually back then, as though it were fact that he couldn't fully understand, not some speculation.
If Kael, someone who's studied more than anyone I've met, calls this a nearly unthinkable discovery, then how could Adam…?
Pheo's eyes narrowed slightly.
And if this ruin has been untouched, sealed until Kael found it… then where did Adam's certainty come from?
The hum of the machine pressed into his thoughts like a low drumbeat. Secrets layered over secrets. Pheo felt the distance between what he thought he knew and what might have been hidden all along.