Chapter 2: Acurels Flames
They collapsed behind a massive, moss-covered boulder. The silence was overwhelming. The immediate surge of cold power that had carried them through the Iron District was gone, leaving Reiyo weak and shaking.
"They called you a Syqnix Kenji rasped, his face still covered in soot, looking less at Reiyo and more at the knife. "What is that thing in your hand?"
"I don't know," Reiyo admitted, gripping the hunting knife. "I just know it's the reason we're alive, and it's the reason they're hunting us."
He knew they couldn't risk a village. The Aetherium would be methodical, targeting known settlements. Their only chance was to disappear into the vast, unforgiving expanse ahead.
"We go into the empty lands," Reiyo decided, pushing himself up. "They'll track us in the villages, but in the wilderness, they have to hunt."
They walked for hours, the ground quickly becoming a mix of jagged obsidian and loose, unstable sand—the treacherous, unmapped edge of the Kryll Desert. The cold thrum of the knife was now a faint, rhythmic pulse, keeping Reiyo's senses unnaturally sharp.
As the first faint streaks of dawn began to paint the distant sky, Reiyo scanned the horizon. He saw it: a small, almost invisible plume of smoke rising from a narrow canyon several miles to the west. It was a campfire.
"Someone else is out here," Reiyo whispered, his survival instinct overriding his need for secrecy. A single person meant risk, but it also meant a potential source of water, supplies, or information. The Aetherium wouldn't be this slow. The patrol was focused on the city.
"Stay here," Reiyo ordered Kenji, whose eyes were already drooping with exhaustion. "Don't move. Don't make a sound. If anything goes wrong, you run back toward the city's perimeter, not into the waste."
Reiyo moved toward the smoke, the rhythmic pulse from the knife guiding his steps. He kept low to the ground, using the jagged rocks for cover until he reached the canyon's edge. Below, nestled beside a small, cracked stone ruin, was a tiny campfire.
Beside the fire sat a man with a heavy cloak pulled tight against the desert chill. He was older than Reiyo, lean and hard, and his eyes, when he finally looked up, were a piercing, vibrant purple.
Reiyo froze, realizing he had made a mistake. The man hadn't heard him, hadn't seen him; he simply knew Reiyo was there.
The man didn't move, yet his voice, calm and clear, cut through the dawn air. "You're late, Source. And loud. You brought the hunters right to my doorstep."
Reiyo gripped the knife, preparing to use the speed again, but the man didn't seem threatened. He simply gestured to the empty seat across the fire.
"The Aetherium is a day behind you. That little surge you used to burst the chimney—it left a trail they won't lose easily. Sitting there won't help you."
Reiyo slowly descended, his confusion warring with the terror of being seen so clearly. "Who are you?"
"My name is Silas," the man said, leaning forward. "And I'm after your answers. That cold, borrowed strength in your hand has unique scars and it's currently leading you to your grave. Your only chance is to outsmart them."
Silas gestured toward the far horizon, where a massive, needle-thin spire of black crystal pierced the dawn sky.
"That crystal spire," Silas continued, pouring a cup of water from a canteen. "It masks the last known entrance to the Library of the Unwritten. And how to survive the hunt, In there. But the Aetherium soldiers will be there soon." Reiyo looked at the distant spire, then back at Silas. He had gone from surviving day-to-day to being plunged into a massive, hidden conflict, with a stranger who knew too much.
Does Reiyo accept Silas's immediate guidance and follow him toward the crystal spire, or does he distrust the stranger and try to flee into the open desert?