Chapter 2: the Weight of silence

The symbol lingered in his mind long after it had vanished from the wall. Raven Veyrin leaned against the cold brick of the alley, his breath steady but his thoughts racing. The city around him moved on, oblivious, but something felt irreversibly changed.

He traced the memory of the swirling sigil with his thoughts, each line burned into his memory with uncanny clarity. There had been a meaning in its design—something ancient, something deliberate. But what?

The man's words echoed in his mind. It's time.

Time for what? Raven didn't believe in destiny, but this… this felt different.

He pushed off the wall and walked back into the street, his steps slower than before. The crowds were thinning as morning edged toward midday. The shadows shrank, but the air still felt heavy with something unseen, as though the city itself was holding its breath.

His instinct wasn't pulling him anymore, but it remained restless, buzzing faintly in the background. Watching. Waiting.

Raven hated waiting.

He turned a corner and slipped into a narrow café on the edge of the district, its windows fogged with steam from the brewing coffee. The bell above the door chimed softly, and the smell of roasted beans washed over him like a calming tide.

The barista, a young man with tired eyes, glanced up. "Back again?"

Raven nodded, offering a faint smile. "The usual."

As he waited, his gaze drifted toward the window. The city stretched out before him—familiar yet distant, as though something had shifted beneath its surface, unseen but undeniably present. His instincts stirred again, faint but insistent, like a whisper in the wind.

The coffee arrived, and Raven took a slow sip, savoring the warmth. His mind kept circling back to the alley.

The symbol. The man. The words.

None of it made sense. But that was what intrigued him the most.

He glanced at his reflection in the window, his eyes narrowing slightly. He would figure it out. He always did.

And whatever lay at the end of this new thread of fate, Raven Veyrin would be ready to meet it head-on.