They fled the cathedral before its towers collapsed into molten brass. By the time they emerged into the undercity's soot-stained alleys, night had deepened. Fog clung to the cobbles, and the hiss of steam vents echoed like whispers.
Selene guided them through twisting lanes with the instinct of a thief. Evangeline stumbled after, clutching the broken remains of her bird. Elric walked last, cane steady, every step weighed with the memory of Hollis.
It was in a half-collapsed railway tunnel that they first saw them.
Figures stepped from the shadows: ragged Anomalists, gaunt from hunger and fear, their eyes glowing faintly with the shimmer of unnatural gifts. A girl no older than fifteen, silver fire flickering in her pupils. A man whose very breath froze the fog. A pair of twins moving in eerie synchronicity, their hands never letting go of one another's.
"You're the detective," the silver-eyed girl whispered. Her voice quavered, yet she did not look away. "The one who stood in the cathedral. We heard it through the pipes. The Engineer screamed when you defied him."
Selene muttered under her breath, "Rumor runs faster than truth."
The girl stepped closer. "We've been hunted like vermin. The city spits us out, Parliament brands us, and now his machines drag us into the smoke and we don't return. But you—" she lifted her chin, trembling but proud "—you stood against him. Let us stand with you."
Evangeline's lips trembled. She saw herself in them — hunted, desperate, clinging to scraps of hope. "Not all of you must die," she murmured. "Some of you must live… to remember."
Elric looked at the group. Their faces were pale with hunger, their gifts flickering like candles in a gale. Were they soldiers, or simply fuel for the Engineer's next machine? He could not tell. But their eyes burned with the fire of the oppressed, and that fire could be shaped into a weapon.
Still, his voice was cold when he finally spoke."If you follow us, you follow into death. But if you stay hidden, you will die slowly anyway. Choose the manner of your ending."
The girl did not flinch. "Then we choose to fight."