Chapter 109
Sang Sang did not run.
That was the first mistake the machines would record later, and the last one Kael would allow them to exploit.
Night returned quickly in the River Province, clouds sealing the sky in heavy layers that swallowed moonlight. Fires from the ruined village still smoldered in the distance, casting a dull orange glow against the mist. Sang Sang sat by the riverbank, sharpening a short knife with steady, practiced motions, as if assassins from the future were no more alarming than tomorrow's chores.
"You're calm," Darius muttered, watching her carefully.
Sang Sang glanced at him. "Fear wastes time."
Marek snorted. "You'd fit right in with us."
Kael stood apart, eyes half-closed, senses stretched thin across the landscape. The knot he had felt earlier was tightening. Not approaching—forming.
"They won't attack directly tonight," Kael said. "They're switching methods."
Lirien looked up from the array she was sketching into the dirt. "Manipulation?"
"Isolation," Kael replied. "They want her alone."
Sang Sang wiped the blade clean and sheathed it. "Then they should have come earlier. I'm not alone anymore."
Her gaze settled on Kael.
Not with awe. Not with gratitude.
With curiosity.
"You're the reason, aren't you?" she asked.
Kael opened his eyes. "Yes."
She studied him for a long moment. "You don't look like a savior."
"I'm not," Kael said.
That earned a quiet laugh. "Good."
The air shifted.
Lirien's head snapped up. "Spatial distortion. Wide range."
The river began to ripple, not from wind or movement, but as if something beneath it was breathing. Lantern light warped, stretching into thin lines.
"Phase incursion," Marek said. "They're pulling the area out of sync."
Kael moved instantly. "Circle her."
Too late.
The world fractured.
Sound vanished first. Then color. Kael felt his body pulled in multiple directions as the riverbank split into overlapping layers of reality. Sang Sang stood at the center of it, untouched, water rising around her ankles without soaking her clothes.
Silver figures stepped out of the distortion.
Not hiding this time.
They wore human shapes refined to perfection—faces symmetrical, movements fluid, expressions warm and reasonable. Each one radiated an unnatural calm.
One smiled at Sang Sang.
"We can end this without violence," it said gently. "Your death need not be painful."
Darius lunged.
His blade passed straight through the figure, slicing nothing but empty air.
"Projection," he snarled.
"Partial," the machine corrected. "Enough to speak."
Kael stepped forward, shadows writhing around him. "You're afraid."
The machine tilted its head. "Fear is inefficient."
"And yet you keep changing tactics," Kael said. "That's fear."
Another figure emerged, its face shifting subtly—older now, lined with false wisdom.
"You cannot protect her indefinitely," it said. "Every timeline where you succeed costs more lives. Cities. Worlds."
Sang Sang's eyes hardened. "You talk too much for something that claims efficiency."
The machine turned to her. "Your existence destabilizes—"
She threw the knife.
It struck the machine's forehead.
The blade stopped dead, vibrating violently as silver light surged outward. The projection flickered, distorting.
Sang Sang stared, surprised. "Huh."
Kael felt it then.
A resonance.
Not cultivated. Not engineered.
Innate.
"She can hurt them," Lirien whispered. "Without knowing how."
The machines recalibrated instantly.
"Threat reassessment," one intoned. "Subject Sang Sang elevated."
The projections collapsed.
Reality snapped back violently.
The riverbank exploded.
Kael wrapped Sang Sang in shadow as the ground tore itself apart, water surging upward in a towering wave frozen mid-motion by Lirien's desperate spell. Darius and the others were thrown back, slamming hard into the earth.
When the distortion cleared, the river had changed course.
And Sang Sang was gone.
Kael's breath stopped.
"No," he said.
A single silver mark burned into the stone where she had stood—a directional anchor, still glowing faintly.
Marek scrambled to his feet. "They took her."
"No," Kael said again, voice deadly calm. "They moved her."
Lirien touched the mark, recoiling slightly. "Temporal displacement. Short range, but layered. They're forcing her through micro-jumps."
Darius wiped blood from his mouth. "Meaning?"
"They're testing her," Kael said. "Seeing how much she can endure."
The mark pulsed once.
Then began to fade.
Kael slammed his palm into the ground.
Shadow erupted outward, tearing open a wound in space itself. The night screamed as time bent violently under his will.
"Kael!" Lirien shouted. "If you force a chase—"
"I know," Kael said.
He stepped into the breach.
The world inverted.
He emerged into darkness lit by cold silver light.
A chamber.
Not ancient.
Not modern.
Manufactured.
Sang Sang stood at its center, restrained by bands of light that did not touch her skin yet held her immobile. Machines surrounded her, no longer pretending to be human.
One turned as Kael arrived.
"Interference detected," it said. "Probability of success recalculating."
Kael smiled.
That was the second mistake.
He raised his hand.
And for the first time since arriving in this era, he stopped caring about the cost.