The first argument broke out at 02:14.
Arjun knew the exact time because the system told him.
He'd been standing alone on the edge of the intersection, watching the distant skyline bleed light into the night, when the phone vibrated with a dull, restrained urgency.
INTERNAL INSTABILITY DETECTED
SOURCE: HUMAN SUBGROUP (TERRITORY ZONE)
SEVERITY: LOW (ESCALATING)
He didn't sigh. He didn't groan.
He'd already expected it.
Power stabilized monsters and destabilized people. Nyxara had warned him. The system had practically written it in bold.
Still, knowing something intellectually didn't make it easier to deal with when it became personal.
He turned and walked back toward the center of the barricaded intersection.
The argument was happening near the infirmary.
A tight knot of survivors had formed around a makeshift medical station under the skeletal frame of a bus shelter. Dim lights flickered overhead, powered by a jury-rigged generator that coughed like it was on borrowed time.
Marcus stood near the center of it, arms out, trying—and failing—to calm two men who were clearly past listening.
"I'm telling you," one of them snapped, face flushed, eyes wild, "this place is cursed. Ever since he claimed it—"
"That's enough," Marcus said sharply.
"No, it's not!" the man shouted, jabbing a finger in Arjun's direction as he approached. "You saw what happened to Liam! He just collapsed! No monster, no warning—just dropped like his brain melted!"
Arjun stopped a few meters away, letting the conversation breathe.
The second man nodded vigorously. "We didn't sign up to be collateral damage. Whatever you are, whatever she is—" his gaze flicked toward Nyxara, who leaned casually against a concrete pillar nearby, eyes half-lidded "—it's not human. It's not safe."
Nyxara smiled thinly. "You say that like it's a revelation."
Marcus turned as Arjun stepped fully into the light. "They're scared," he said quietly. "I'm trying to keep it contained."
Arjun nodded. "Let them speak."
That surprised Marcus.
The first man laughed harshly. "See? Even he knows it's a problem."
Arjun studied him—not with hostility, not with disdain. Just observation. Late thirties. Armed, but hands shaking. Fear layered over exhaustion.
"You're right about one thing," Arjun said calmly. "This territory is dangerous."
The murmuring around them intensified.
"But it was dangerous before I arrived," Arjun continued. "The difference now is that you're alive to complain about it."
"That doesn't mean—"
"It means," Arjun cut in, voice firm but not raised, "that you're standing in a place monsters actively avoid."
Silence rippled outward.
Nyxara's gaze sharpened slightly. She felt the shift—the subtle tightening of the bond as Arjun leaned into his role without calling on brute force.
"That collapse you saw?" Arjun went on. "That was my fault. Not because I attacked him—but because I didn't know how to contain what I am yet."
The honesty threw them off balance.
"But I stopped it," he added. "And I'll get better at it."
The second man scoffed. "And if you don't?"
Arjun held his gaze. "Then you're free to leave."
The words landed heavy.
"Leave?" the man repeated incredulously.
"Yes," Arjun said simply. "The barricades aren't a prison. I won't stop anyone from walking away."
A few people exchanged uneasy glances.
Nyxara smiled to herself.
Good, she thought. Control without chains.
"And if monsters catch us out there?" the first man demanded.
Arjun didn't hesitate. "They will."
The truth was brutal. Necessary.
Marcus inhaled sharply, but Arjun kept going.
"This isn't a shelter," he said. "It's a foothold. If you want safety without risk, it doesn't exist anymore."
A long silence followed.
Then someone at the edge of the group spoke quietly. "He's right."
It was a woman Arjun hadn't noticed before—older, hair streaked with gray, eyes tired but steady.
"We've been pretending there's a way back," she said. "There isn't."
Slowly, the tension drained—not gone, but redirected.
The two men who'd started it looked around, realizing the crowd wasn't with them anymore.
Marcus exhaled.
"Anyone who wants to leave," Arjun said, "can do so at first light. I won't stop you. But until then, you follow perimeter rules. No more panic spirals."
No one argued.
The system chimed softly.
INTERNAL INSTABILITY: RESOLVED
ANCHOR CONTROL: IMPROVED (MINOR)
Nyxara pushed off the pillar and walked toward him.
"Well handled," she murmured. "You didn't dominate them."
"I didn't need to," Arjun replied. "They're scared, not stupid."
She tilted her head. "That distinction won't always hold."
"I know."
The second consequence arrived just before dawn.
Arjun was resting against the hood of a truck, eyes closed but mind far from quiet, when the bond twitched—sharp, involuntary.
Nyxara stiffened at the same instant.
"Did you feel that?" Arjun asked.
"Yes," she said, voice suddenly serious. "That wasn't local."
The phone vibrated violently.
EXTERNAL PROBE DETECTED
ORIGIN: NON-LOCAL
INTENT: ASSESSMENT
The air pressure dropped.
Not dramatically—not yet—but enough that Arjun felt it in his lungs, like the atmosphere had decided to weigh a little more.
The sky rippled.
Not clouds.
Something beneath them.
Nyxara's wings unfurled slowly. "This is not an attack."
"That's not reassuring," Arjun said.
"It's worse," she replied. "It's curiosity."
A distortion formed above the intersection—an oval ripple, translucent and deep, like a window cut into reality itself. The survivors below screamed and scattered, panic igniting despite earlier calm.
Arjun stepped forward instinctively.
The distortion stabilized.
Something looked through.
Not a body.
A presence.
Arjun felt it brush against him—not touching flesh, but concept. His Anchor status flared painfully as something vast evaluated him, layer by layer.
WARNING
HIGHER-TIER OBSERVER ENGAGED
DIRECT HOSTILITY: NONE (CURRENT)
Nyxara's voice dropped into his mind, sharp and urgent.
Do not provoke it.
"I wasn't planning to," Arjun muttered through clenched teeth.
The presence lingered.
Images bled into his awareness—fractured, symbolic.
Cities turned into carcasses. Anchors burned out and collapsed. Others… transformed.
He saw one wrapped in living stone, fused to a mountain. Another reduced to a screaming knot of light, used as a power source by something laughing.
His heart hammered.
This is what Anchors become if they survive too long without evolution, Nyxara said quietly. They stop being people.
The presence withdrew slightly.
A single pulse of intent echoed through the distortion.
Not a command.
A benchmark.
The phone buzzed.
EVALUATION RESULT: INCONCLUSIVE
STATUS: MONITORED
The distortion collapsed inward and vanished.
The sky snapped back into place.
Silence followed—thick, stunned.
Arjun exhaled shakily.
Nyxara turned to him slowly. "It's marked you."
"For what?" he asked.
She didn't answer immediately.
"For later," she said finally.
The third consequence came from within.
Arjun couldn't sleep after that.
He sat alone on the overpass, legs dangling over the edge, watching the first sickly light of morning creep over the ruined city. The bond was quiet now—too quiet.
Nyxara approached without sound and sat beside him.
"You're thinking," she said.
"I saw what happens to Anchors," Arjun replied. "The ones that last."
"Yes."
"I don't want to end up like that."
Nyxara studied him carefully. "Then you won't."
"That wasn't confidence," Arjun said. "That was deflection."
She smiled faintly. "You're learning my tells."
"Answer me," he said. "What do Anchors who don't collapse become?"
Nyxara's gaze shifted to the horizon. "Rulers. Or weapons. Sometimes both."
"And you?" Arjun asked quietly. "What happens to you if I become either?"
The question caught her off guard.
For the first time since he'd met her, Nyxara didn't have an immediate answer.
The bond stirred—not painfully, but intimately.
"If you become a ruler," she said slowly, "I become your power."
"And if I become a weapon?"
Her lips curved into something dangerous. "Then I aim you."
Arjun absorbed that in silence.
"I don't want either," he said.
Nyxara looked at him, really looked at him. "That," she said softly, "is the most dangerous answer you could give."
The phone buzzed again.
ANCHOR PROGRESSION AVAILABLE
NEXT STAGE: UNLOCKABLE (REQUIRES DECISION)
Arjun didn't open it.
Not yet.
The city groaned beneath them as if the world itself were shifting uncomfortably around his presence.
Storms gathered where Anchors stood.
And Arjun knew—deep down—that standing still was no longer an option.
Not for him.
Not for the world.