The room glowed faintly with shifting colors from the old console screen. Navir leaned forward, fingers tapping rapidly; Mehrak groaned as his character fell off a ledge; Sorvan remained perfectly composed, posture straight, expression unreadable as always.
They had been playing for nearly an hour when Navir's phone buzzed. A headline blinked across the screen.
"Recently employed Fresh graduate murdered by three envious friends."
Navir's smile faded. "Another one…?" he whispered.
Mehrak paused the game, throat tight. Sorvan didn't move at first, only his lashes lowered slightly, a shadow passing over those sharp red eyes. He exhaled slowly, his voice gentle and distant as he murmured, "Hmm… people."
The silence held weight, pressing on the small room like dim light.
Mehrak cleared his throat. "Let's… just keep playing."
Navir nodded. They needed something, anything, to stop the heaviness from swallowing the evening whole.
Sorvan unpaused the game with quiet precision, his calm expression restored, though something colder sat behind it.
Another buzz. A new message.
Nimi.
Navir opened it.
"Meet me now. There are things I haven't told you."
His grip tightened on the phone.
The game sounds faded.
Something was wrong.
The courtyard was steeped in the last colors of dusk, amber light bleeding into violet as the sun slipped behind the rooftops. Long, wavering shadows stretched over the dirt floor. Navir stepped in quietly, breath tight in his chest. Nimi stood beneath the aging palm, the dim glow catching on her tense posture. Her fingers were laced together, knuckles strained as if she'd been holding her breath long before he arrived.
"You came," she whispered, almost relieved.
"What's going on?" Navir asked. His voice echoed softly between the walls.
For a moment she didn't answer. Then she drew in a sharp breath. "There are things you were never meant to know. About the Time Readers… the ones who claim to watch the threads of destiny."
"The time… What?" Navir's brows lifted slightly, a flicker of startled curiosity tightening his posture.
Her eyes didn't shift away this time, if anything, they sharpened, sweeping the darkening path behind Navir as though something might be listening. Her voice dropped, low and steady.
"The real architects behind Argathe's downfall."
Navir's pulse kicked. "You mean they betrayed us?"
Nimi flinched. "No. Not that…" She paused, drawing a sharp breath, her eyes locked on Navir as if weighing each word. "They've hindered the nation's growth for millennia."
"How exactly?" Navir asked, his voice low but edged with urgency.
The air tightened.
Her silence lasted too long.
Nimi's gaze darkened, a flicker of pain crossing her features. "Don't you find it strange? Young people with the potential to push the nation forward… they vanish, fall, or are silenced." She swallowed hard, as if forcing herself to keep speaking.
"What about Baasit?" Navir asked.
Finally, her voice trembled. "His disappearance… it wasn't random."
Navir's breath froze.
Behind them, something shifted in the darkness, soft, deliberate.
A shadow moved.
Navir stepped into the house and greeted his mother softly. "Good evening Mom." The weight of what he had learned pressed against his chest like a stone. Arisha looked up from the kitchen counter, her expression calm, almost too calm.
"Mom… I need to tell you something," he began, voice tight. He recounted Nimi's words, the Time Readers, the vanished youths, and Baasit's timing. Each detail seemed to hang in the air like smoke.
Arisha froze, fingers lingering on the edge of the counter. Her eyes narrowed, and for the first time, her carefully maintained composure wavered.
"You've learned more than you should," she said finally, voice low.
"Come, sit." She urged as she left the kitchen to take a seat by the dining table.
"The Time Readers… they've always watched, shaping what we see, what we do. They predicted much before anyone else."
Navir's brow furrowed. "And Baasit? My Classmate, the one I told you about."
She exhaled slowly, a flicker of relief in her gaze. "He was wise to keep a low profile."
Navir straightened, meeting her eyes. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" he asked, firm but respectful.
Arisha's folded hands trembled slightly on the dining table. The calm she'd worn like armor cracked, fear breaking through, raw an
d undeniable.
Navir noticed, and for the first time, understood the stakes fully.