Chapter 6: True Nature
When Jin opened the door, he expected betrayal or a gun in his face. Instead, a boy stood there, maybe fifteen, dressed in worn courier leathers with a brass insignia pinned to his collar. His eyes were dark and unreadable, his posture calm, too calm for someone staring down two bloodied fugitives.
A shattercloak. Kemi blinked in confusion. Jin's entire body tensed. "You've got to be joking," Jin growled, taking a threatening step forward. The boy didn't flinch. "I'm here on Miraq's behalf."
"That bastard sent us into a suicide pit," Jin snapped, his voice rising. "You think you just stroll in here and ask for—what? A handshake?"
His gauntlet twitched. Kemi stepped between them instantly, one arm against Jin's chest. "Jin," she said quietly, warning in her voice. Shattercloaks were considered neutral in all forms of violence, they were too valuable for the spread of information. Attacking one would cause problems even she couldn't predict. No one had broken this unspoken rule for decades—even before the Second Rift. So there was no chance Jin would be the first. Besides, they'd already offended one organization. They were still too weak to take on the whole city.
Jin's breathing was heavy. The messenger looked at her, then back at Jin. "Congratulations on surviving," he said flatly. "Miraq was… optimistic."
"Optimistic?" Jin echoed with a bitter laugh.
"I'm just a messenger," the boy said, unfazed. "He sent me to retrieve the data. That's it."
Kemi's jaw clenched. "You mean the data we nearly died for? The one that cost us half a ribcage and everything we had left?"
"I don't make the orders," the boy replied. "I deliver them."
The room pulsed with tension. Jin didn't back down. "Tell Miraq," he said coldly, "the next time he wants a suicide run, he can send himself."
The messenger simply extended his hand.
Jin crossed his arms tightly. "You came here to collect the chip? Just like that?"
The boy blinked. "That was the arrangement. You complete the mission, Miraq provides access to Torga. That chip is your key to getting out."
"No. We're not handing it over like that," Jin snapped.
Kemi's brow furrowed. "What exactly are you saying, Jin?"
"I'm saying I don't trust them," Jin growled. "That mission was a death trap, and now some fifteen-year-old looking punk walks in asking for the prize?"
"I'm not involved in Miraq's decisions," the courier said with a shrug. "I just deliver instructions. You give me the chip, and you get access to Torga's vessel. That's the deal."
"That deal's broken," Jin said coldly. "We deliver it ourselves."
The boy looked mildly annoyed for the first time. "Miraq won't like that."
"I don't give a damn what Miraq likes," Jin snapped, his voice rising. "We've bled too much to trust words passed along by children."
Kemi placed a gentle hand on Jin's shoulder. "We'll take it ourselves," she told the messenger. "You can tell Miraq we don't back out, but we do things on our own terms now."
There was a beat of silence.
"Suit yourselves," the courier finally said, stepping back. "But don't be late. Miraq doesn't wait. Two hours. Spillway Docks. Don't screw it up."
And with that, he turned and disappeared down the corridor like a shadow on retreat.
Before delving into the stranger's intent, Jin turned his eyes to a satchel on the floor. The data chip they'd stolen from the Black Ordinance headquarters lay within—a slim, black crystalline shard. Kemi's brow furrowed as she retrieved it.
"This is the Rift Anomaly Grid near Ghaali Crag," she explained. "These readings… they show Flarepoints—unstable pockets of Rift energy where dimensional membranes grow thin. This can be used to navigate safe currents. But they're also… dangerous. Unstable power blooms can tear a ship apart in seconds."
Jin frowned, watching her trace one line of code that spiraled like a helix
Kemi looked up, her expression grim. "Ghaali Crag is where Rift-space started unraveling again. Ten years after the first cataclysm, the Second Surge erupted—not global like the first, but targeted. Ghaali Crag was ground zero. Quarter of a continent convulsed. Cities folded into each other. Akhara-Veil's eastern districts were reduced ashes."
She paused. "The Force isn't stable near the Crag. It breathes. Like something alive. Torga doesn't just want to avoid the danger—he wants to ride the waves of it. This data is like knowing the heartbeat of a wild beast before you try to crawl across its spine."
Jin sat back, eyes narrowing. "And what happens if someone else gets this data?"
Kemi looked him dead in the eye.
"They could weaponize it. Predict when the Rift surges would happen. Redirect Force flares. Even collapse cities remotely. With the right tech this data makes you a living entity, though I doubt that such tech exists in this backwater of a country"
"This... this isn't just coordinates," Kemi added, her fingers trembling slightly. "These pulses—they mirror what happened in the alley when you—when you used the Force. Jin... this grid isn't just about Rift storms. It's mapping anomalies. People like you."
Jin stared down at the crystal, his expression unreadable. A long silence followed.
Then, softly: "So what the hell did we steal, Kemi?"
She didn't answer right away. Her voice was quiet when she did.
"We didn't just steal maps or power routes. We stole the truth. And maybe something much, much older... hidden inside the Rift before we were ever born."
Jin stared hard at her.
"How do you even know all this?" he asked.
Kemi's eyes flicked away. "I've seen it before."
"Seen what?"
"I was part of something… long before Akhara-Veil. Before bioslicing was outlawed."
"You were a researcher?"
"Something like that." Her voice dropped. Jin didn't press her—she was clearly not ready to share everything. It was at that point Jin realised how little they knew about each other. But something in her tone sent a chill up his spine.
His thoughts drifted. That moment in the alley the Force had exploded out of him, raw and uncontrolled. It had saved them. But at what cost?
His scar still ached.
"Am I one of those anomalies?" he murmured.
Kemi only looked at him. "Maybe the only one left who can still change what that means."
Jin turned away from her gaze.
He didn't like the weight of that word: anomaly. It made him feel less like a person, more like a fault in a system no one understood.
"I don't want to be some damn anomaly," he muttered. "I just want answers. I want to know why it happened. Why now."
"You've been suppressing it your whole life," Kemi said quietly. "Maybe not consciously. But it's in you, like a locked door you've avoided opening."
"It's not locked anymore," he said darkly, rubbing his arm. "It kicked itself open. I didn't control it."
"But you can, Jin."
He looked at her. "How can you be so sure?"
Kemi hesitated. No answers in mind. "Think, what has been different from your whole life to this point" Jin clenched his jaw. "That blast...i don't really know" He scoffed, but didn't push further. His thoughts were already spiraling. But there were a few thoughts that still spiraling. If he goes back home, the home that he was kicked out off for being powerless. If he could develop this power he's status would change in a place where Force manipulation meant everything.
Jin stood and walked towards the narrow window slit of the hideout. Akhara-Veil was stretching awake again under the smog-heavy sunrise, orange and bruised like an open wound.
"We need to move," he said. "Miraq knows what we have now. That messenger was just to see if we were alive. The next one won't be so polite."
"Then we don't give him the chance," Kemi replied. "We find Torga before Miraq finds us."
Jin nodded slowly. "And we keep the data. For now."
They gathered what little gear they had. The moment they stepped outside, the pressure in the air shifted. It wasn't paranoia. It was presence.
And someone — somewhere — was already hunting them.