Vanishing Threads

The air was still. Too still.

Kael had expected something—someone—to be waiting for them at the contact's location. Instead, as they stepped inside, an unnatural silence swallowed their presence.

The space was frozen in time, abandoned but not forgotten. Dust clung to surfaces undisturbed, as if whoever had last been here never planned to leave in a hurry. Books lay scattered across tables, open but untouched for days. Shelves loomed overhead, filled with knowledge that had not been burned or destroyed—just left behind.

Ronan exhaled sharply, fingers clenching at his sides. "I don't like this," he muttered. His voice sounded small against the vast emptiness of the room.

Varian stepped forward, his gaze sweeping the space, reading it like a story that had already ended. Kael had never seen him unsettled before, but now, there was a slight tension in his movements. He had expected to find someone here. Someone who could provide answers.

Instead, they had arrived too late.

Kael moved toward a desk where an open notebook sat, its pages marked with scribbled notes and faded ink. His fingers traced over the words, half-legible, half-lost to rushed strokes of a pen. He didn't need to read the full text to understand the implication—whatever this person had been studying, it had gotten them killed.

A single word stood out, underlined multiple times in the notes: Hollow Veil.

"What the hell is this?" Ronan asked, peering over his shoulder.

Kael didn't answer immediately. The words carried weight. More than just a phrase—it was something deeper, something Varian's contact had thought was worth investigating. The only problem was, whoever they had been… they weren't around to explain why.

Varian finally spoke, his voice quieter than usual. "This isn't the first time."

Kael glanced at him. "What?"

"The first time someone disappeared like this." Varian's fingers hovered over the papers, eyes narrowing slightly as he skimmed the words. "Scholars. Defectors. People who dig too deep into things they shouldn't." He let out a breath. "They vanish. Or worse."

Kael's gaze darkened. "You knew this might happen."

"I suspected," Varian admitted. "But I had hoped…" His sentence trailed off, unfinished. Hope had no place here.

Ronan stepped back, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "So what do we do now?" His voice was edged with irritation. "Every time we get close to something, it slips through our fingers. Elias, now this—" He gestured at the empty room, at the scattered research that led nowhere. "We need answers, but every damn time we get close, we end up with another mystery instead."

Kael didn't respond. He stared at the desk, at the fragmented pieces of a truth no one wanted them to find.

This wasn't just about Ordo Arcanum. It wasn't just about Elias. This was something bigger. Something that had been buried for longer than any of them could imagine.

And now, it was becoming clear: someone didn't just want to keep that knowledge hidden.

They wanted to erase it.

Kael clenched his jaw.

That meant one thing.

"We stop waiting."

Ronan turned to him. "What?"

Kael met his gaze, eyes sharp. "We stop waiting for answers to come to us. We stop following trails that lead nowhere." He gestured toward the abandoned research, the contact who had been silenced before they could speak. "Whoever did this—they're scared of people like us finding out the truth."

Ronan scoffed. "People like us?"

Kael nodded. "People who won't stop digging. People who won't be erased." His fingers tightened against the desk. "This proves we're asking the right questions. And if we're already being treated like a threat…"

He looked up.

"Then it's time we start acting like one."

Varian studied him for a moment before a slow smirk pulled at his lips. "Now you're starting to think like someone who might actually survive."

Kael wasn't thinking about survival.

He was thinking about control.

And he was done letting someone else dictate what he could or couldn't know.

This time, he wasn't going to be the one running.

This time, he was going to hunt.