Wee had been carrying this heaviness in her heart for days.
Her smiles withered too quickly, her laughter faded too soon.
And Lamai.....
she had fallen ill.
Winter's first chill had crept into her body,
leaving her weak, coughing, and feverish.
Wee had promised to fetch medicine.
So, with evening draped across the sky,
she walked alone.
The Institute's bustle slowly thinned.
Students returned to their rooms,
their voices fading with the sinking sun.
Wee walked past a familiar corridor....
past the very room Suda had once led Lamai into,
And then....
her steps faltered.
Something unseen pulled at her chest.
A whisper without sound.
That room…
it felt as though it was calling her.
She hesitated.
Told herself to move on.
But her feet betrayed her,
and she was drawn closer.
---
Meanwhile.....
Kai and Teanguan had slipped silently into the forest.
Nightfall was their ally.
The darker the shadows, the easier their hunt.
Kai scoured the ground.....
lifting stones, brushing away leaves,
pressing her boots against the earth.
Then, at last....
her hand froze.
There, beneath a layer of grass,
she found it.
A hidden hatch.
Old. Rusted.
Long sealed.
She crouched low,
pulling the tattoo design parchment from her pocket.
The design, sharp in the moonlight,
was more than mere art.
It was a key.
Kai studied every line, every curve,
her eyes narrowing.
And then....
she saw it.
A number.
Faint, but there.
999.
Teanguan's expression sharpened instantly.
That number.....he had seen it before.
"Yes," he murmured.
"There's a door inside the Institute with this same mark.
Only one.
Nowhere else."
His voice carried quiet certainty.
Kai's gaze lifted, sharp as steel.
"Then that's where I go."
But Teanguan shook his head.
" I'll remain here.
The hatch might open moment.
Someone must watch it."
Kai did not argue.
She only nodded once,
slipped the parchment away,
and vanished into the shadows.
---
Her steps were silent.
Her movements invisible.
She was a predator on familiar ground.
And then...
she arrived.
The door.
Marked with the numbers: 999.
Kai exhaled slowly,
her mask concealing the faint curl of her lips.
But she did not know.
She did not know that fate, mischievous and cruel,
was weaving her closer to the one soul
she tried hardest to escape.
For at that very moment,
inside that same room.....
Wee had already stepped through the door.
And tonight,
the distance between them
was about to vanish.