Eira was clearly in a bad mood. She didn't even talk in the daily meetings that they held at the center of the museum. The air around her felt heavier than usual, sharp and biting. Everyone could feel it but no one dared mention it.
"Why is she so worked up," Garret silently thought while eating a biscuit
She wanted to move out, to hunt down the bastard who had used women as slaves. But she couldn't. Not yet. Right now, Kael was speaking and what he was saying cut through her anger like a knife.
"I… I spotted something near the girls' dorm," Kael began, his tone uneasy. "It wasn't a normal one. It was moving differently."
A few heads turned, curious.
"It… it's intelligent," Kael said finally, his voice dropping lower. "I…I think it was intelligent."
The room went silent. For a moment, all that could be heard was the faint hum of the emergency lights and the quiet drip of condensation from a cracked ceiling pipe. Garret, who had been leaning against the far wall, straightened slightly. His eyes narrowed, a flicker of understanding passing through them.
"First Weave," he murmured under his breath.
Eira turned to him sharply. "What did you say?"
Garret sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.
"A First Weave," he repeated, his voice calm. "It means that thing…or whatever it was, it has evolved. Once a living being learns enough, kills enough, it can evolve under the guidance of the Weave whatever you lot call the system. They're rare, but they're also the start of something worse."
Darrius frowned. "Start of what?"
Garret's eyes drifted toward the window, as he continued to explain what theory he had come up with to explain all the madness that had happened since day one. The others, still skeptical though, all nodded in understanding. He paused, the memory of his own battles flickering in his mind.
"It stops being something you can run from."
Garret's jaw tightened as he spoke, voice low and steady. "From my experience with a First Weave target, it isn't a thing you walk up to and stab. They think, they use the environment. Pulling one out of a defended position especially a dorm…
"What do you mean from your experience," Darius interrupted.
Leah, her usual calm gone, blinked rapidly as the weight of his words finally settled in her mind.
"W-wait… that monster… you… you were the one who killed that thing?"
Garret didn't answer right away. He just looked at her, then at the others their faces a mixture of disbelief, awe and something close to fear. His silence was answer enough.
Darrius let out a low whistle, crossing his arms. "No way. That monster could crush a truck… you're telling me this guy" he jabbed a thumb toward Garret "…walked out there and actually won?"
Eira's expression stayed unreadable, but her gaze lingered on Garret for a long moment, the memory of what she'd seen, the body of the slain beast, the state she'd found Garret in flashing in her mind.
"He did," she finally said, voice cold but certain. "I saw it. The thing was dead before I got there. If he hadn't killed it, none of us would still be breathing."
A heavy silence followed her words.
Kael swallowed hard. "Then… you're saying you faced that thing, a First Weave creature… alone?"
Garret's tone was flat, almost detached. "Faced it, fought it, bled for it." He looked down at his almost healed hand, flexing the stiff fingers. "I didn't win because I was stronger. I won because it slipped. And even then, it almost killed me."
The air grew heavier. Those who had doubted him or dismissed his earlier warnings found themselves rethinking everything.
Leah whispered, barely audible, "That… that's insane…"
Garret's eyes flicked up, steady and grim. "That's the world now," he said. "Insane is just another word for surviving."
No one had anything to say after that. Even Darrius, the loudest of them all, stayed quiet. His earlier skepticism replaced by something else. Respect. Others, fear.
"So how are we going to kill something like that?" Kael added, voice shaking.
Garret left the group to his 'room', clearly something bothering him. The others barely noticed him as they were busy trying to come up with a plan for tomorrow. Only Leah and Eira noticed his silent figure leaving. He sank against the wall of his makeshift room. The others were busy planning, their voices distant echoes in his mind. But he couldn't focus on any of it.
Kael had surveyed the girls' dorm from afar. What he reported chilled Garret to the bone.
The creature was on the third floor.
His sister's room was on the second floor.
The implication hit him like a punch to the chest. The creature didn't wander aimlessly. It was intelligent. Precise. If it was on the floor above her… she probably didn't make it. Anger flared, but it was hollow. His fists clenched, yet it didn't help. The fear, the guilt, the helplessness—they pressed in on him, heavy and suffocating. He could picture her alone, hiding, cornered, and finally… taken.
"If only I had taken action earlier, If only I had stuck to myself... then maybe..."
He forced himself to breathe, slow and steady, even as the darkness of the room seemed to press closer pushing him to its silent embrace, almost mirroring the void he felt inside. Sleep was impossible. Rest was impossible. There was only the gnawing, relentless thought.
"Maybe she left before the…" The only faint hope holding him.
After what felt like an eternity, he heard faint footsteps coming from outside his door. Eira opens the door slowly to see garret sited at the corner, face down.
"Garret," she began, voice calm. "We've come up with a plan that we believe will produce the best outcome. I can tell that something is on your mind but we need you at your best. You are our best fighter." A pause, then she added "You won't go back on your word, will you?"
Finally, Garret looked up, eyes narrowing. "You don't have to worry about that, I said I'll help you and that I will do."
"Okay, I'll brief you the specifics tomorrow morning," She added as she left.
The first pale fingers of dawn crept through the shattered gym windows, brushing the floor with cold light. Garret hadn't slept. Not a second. Not even a moment of rest. His eyes were bloodshot, his muscles tense, every nerve screaming from the constant adrenaline that had refused to leave his body. He had sat in the shadows all night, waiting, thinking, replaying Kael's words over and over
'The creature had been on the third'
His sister's room was on the second floor... The math was simple. The conclusion was brutal.
She was probably gone. But he couldn't afford grief. He couldn't afford hesitation. He had to act.
Garret rose slowly, stretching. Every joint protested, his body screaming for sleep, for reprieve. But the thought of what might have happened to her kept him moving. He checked his trustee sword, the Shroud pressed lightly against his shoulders, dark and cold as ever, feeding the fire in his chest, or rather than sapping from it.
He didn't know if he would find her. He didn't know if she still lived. But one thing was certain, he couldn't wait any longer.