Chapter 11: Secrets and Silver Threads

The air remains heavy, thick with something unseen. A presence that does not leave, even though the voice from the dark has faded.

Aldia does not move at first. Her body still hums with exhaustion, her skin still burns, not with heat, but with something deeper, something she cannot shake.

The candle is long dead, its wax cooled into hardened rivers over the table's edge. She does not relight it.

Then she hears footsteps.

They are measured and deliberate. Coming closer.

Nyxie flicks its tail, perched high on a wooden shelf. Its silver eyes narrow toward the entrance, but it does not stir. It is not concerned.

Aldia does not reach for her dagger. But she straightens, muscles coiling beneath her skin like a blade waiting to strike.

Then a shape emerges from the doorway.

"Did I wake you?" Liora's voice is smooth as silk.

Liora steps inside, moving like a whisper, like a flicker of something that should not exist in the lanternlight.

Her gaze lands on Aldia immediately.

And on the markings burned into her skin.

She stops.

"That's new." For being curious, her voice is too calm.

Aldia does not flinch.

She should have covered her arm. Should have pulled the sleeve down, hidden the evidence of whatever had been done to her.

But it is too late now.

Liora's eyes sharpen, the usual amusement in them fading into something closer to calculation.

She steps forward, tilting her head slightly.

"What happened to you?" She asks, her voice is soft.

Aldia exhales, slow and measured, keeping her breathing even, steady, as she says flatly, "I had a bad night."

Liora arches a brow, unimpressed. "I can see that."

Without asking for permission, she reaches out, fingers hovering just above the burned skin. Close, but not touching.

"Does it hurt?" Her questions are endless.

Aldia considers lying but she does not.

"No." Aldia rolls her eyes. "Will you stop asking all these questions."

Liora's brow furrows, just slightly, not giving a heed to what Aldia said.

"Then what does it feel like?"

Aldia closes her fingers into a loose fist. The markings do not fade. They pulse beneath her skin, a quiet rhythm only she can hear.

"Like something waiting." She says reluctantly, her voice low.

A flicker of something crosses Liora's face.

Something not surprise, its not even confusion. It is something too close to recognition.

"Of course it does." Liora mutters to herself softly.

Aldia's eyes narrow, "You know what this is."

Liora does not confirm. She does not deny either. Instead, she tilts her head, as if debating how much to reveal. Then she exhales.

"I know it isn't something you should ignore." Liora says carefully.

Liora pulls back, leaning against the wall behind. She moves like someone weighing her next words.

"Those marks. They're not from this realm." She let out the words slowly.

Aldia's gaze travels from her to her burn marks. "I figured that much."

Liora's lips curl, not in amusement, but something sharper.

"You don't get it. This isn't just Veil magic. It's older."

Aldia frowns. "Older than the Veil?"

Liora nods.

"The Veil has always been there, right? A barrier between what should exist and what shouldn't. But things… seep through. Fragments of something before the realms were split."

Aldia presses her palm over the markings. They pulse beneath her touch, like something stirring beneath ice.

"And this?" She asks.

Liora's expression does not shift.

"This is proof the Veil let you through."

The words settle like ash in Aldia's lungs.

She already knew she was different. She had crossed the Veil without dying. But now—this? The Veil had marked her.

Liora watches her reaction carefully as she continues, "And the Veil never gives without taking."

Aldia clenches her jaw.

Because she knows.

She just doesn't know what it took.

"And you? How do you know all this?" Aldia asks bitterly.

Liora doesn't answer immediately. Instead, she glances toward the broken window. The sky beyond is still dark, Noxport's eternal twilight pressing in like a held breath.

"Because I've seen it before." Her voice is distant.

Aldia watches her.

Liora does not look away from the window.

But Aldia sees the tension in her shoulders, the way her fingers press just a little harder against the table's surface.

And then Liora moves, turning towards her.

She steps back, brushing the dust off her coat, eyes flickering briefly toward the entrance.

"That's not the only thing you've been keeping to yourself, is it?" She questions Aldia. 

Aldia raises a brow, 

And without wasting anymore minute she says, "We need to go back."

Aldia frowns,"Back where?"

Liora finally meets her gaze again, smirking slightly.

"To your little hideout." She says.

"And why do we do that?" Aldia frowns on the thought that Liora has found her home already.

Liora's lips curl at the edges, but her voice is softer when she speaks, "Because that map you found? It's not just a map."

Aldia's fingers tighten around the frayed fabric of her sleeve. "Then what is it?"

Liora's gaze darkens. And when she speaks there is darkness in her voice.

"A warning."

"Then lets get it, I guess," Aldia hesitates at first, but then gets up.

---------

Aldia moves carefully through Noxport's skeletal remains, the city still wearing the wounds of the storm. The air is damp, thick with the scent of rain-drenched decay, and the distant creak of shifting ruins echoes like a dying breath.

Beside her, Liora walks with unhurried ease, as if this place does not concern her. As if she is only passing through.

Nyxie slinks ahead, its dark form flickering between solid and shadow, tail curling lazily through the thick air. Its silver eyes gleam with something knowing.

"You two have a terrible habit of making things worse." It coments lazily.

Aldia ignores it.

Her fingers press absently against the inside of her wrist, where the markings still pulse, silent, waiting, watching.

They are heading back. Back to her home beneath the rot, to where the map waits.

And Aldia cannot shake the feeling that something is watching, something impending.

"Where did you find it." The question from Liora is sudden. Aldia looks back at her.

"Where I found it isn't important." She 

Liora tilts her head.

"Then why does it look like you think it is?"

Aldia exhales, fingers tightening against the edge of the parchment.

"It was on a dead man."

Liora's smirk fades. Her amusement shifts into something else. Something closer to interest.

"Where?"

Aldia hesitates.

"In the ruins. Near the fountain." She watches Liora's reaction closely. There is a flicker, a vision of knowingness that Liora hides quickly.

They are nearing the city's ruined center when the ground shudders beneath them.

Not a tremor. Not a normal shift of old stone and crumbling earth.

Something deep. Something unnatural.

Aldia stops.

The air grows thick, oppressive. As if the world itself is holding its breath.

Liora exhales slowly, tilting her head as if listening.

Liora speaks, "Do you feel that?"

Nyxie's fur bristles. Not in fear, but something close to irritation.

"Wonderful. Just what we need." It gruntles.

The wind shifts. And the scent changes. Aldia stiffens. It is something she has experienced before. 

She is no longer in that damp stone and decay.

Something new bleeds into the air, something that is hot, dry and sharp.

The scent of scorched sand and restless storms hits her senses.