"They're tracking something," Ayari said, arms folded, eyes locked on the jagged pattern forming across the Vault map.
"Not you. Not me. Not even Protocol signatures."
"They're following absence."
Kaien looked up. The static projections were showing a new kind of trace—like ghost-ink burned into the air.
Negative imprint. As if someone had deleted fate itself.
And whatever was doing that… was moving with them.
They had been hiding in the sealed ruins beneath Solvyr for two days. Food was low. Energy was worse.
Renlo Vass kept pace. Made jokes. Helped Kaien patch a cracked glyphplate. Even taught him how to punch with less wasted motion.
And still…
Kaien didn't trust him.
He wanted to. But it felt like trying to grip smoke.
Every time Renlo said something kind, Kaien could see a flicker behind the smile—like someone turning pages in a different script.
Ayari watched too. But she said nothing.
Not yet.
That evening, as the shadows lengthened and torchlight flickered against crumbling statuary, Kaien sat apart.
Protocol Zero had remained mostly silent.
Until now.
"You still think power comes from what they give."
"It doesn't."
"Power is the refusal to follow a shape that hates you."
Kaien clenched his fists. "Then what am I supposed to be?"
Silence.
Then—
"Not supposed to be anything."
"That's your freedom."
He stood. Alone. Eyes flickering in the pale vault light.
And slowly, slowly—the air bent around him.
Just slightly.
Enough to make Ayari look up sharply from her corner.
Enough to make Renlo's earpiece spark—a static burst.
Kaien didn't notice.
Flashpoint Sequence — 2 Hours Later
The Concord arrived faster than expected.
Three cloaked agents. One bearing an Execution Crest.
They moved without sound.
Ayari was the first to draw blood—blades out, lips tight. Her precision was surgical.
Renlo fought beside her. Sloppier. Bolder. He shouted as he moved, keeping their attention scattered.
Kaien—he didn't fight yet.
He watched.
Every strike. Every motion. Every glyph-loop they summoned.
He saw patterns.
And more than that—he saw breaks in those patterns.
He saw what shouldn't be there.
And when one Concord agent surged toward him—
He didn't block.
He stepped through the strike.
A moment of pure silence.
The agent's eyes widened. Her blade passed straight through a flicker of shadow—
Kaien moved behind her like liquid refusal.
One strike. Open palm.
Her glyph-core shattered like glass.
Ayari paused mid-fight, stunned.
Renlo stared. Not at Kaien's power—
But at the reaction from his earpiece. The moment Kaien struck, it went dark. Off-grid.
They won. Barely.
The Concord agents retreated with precision.
But the message was clear: they'd found him again.
Aftermath Scene
They sat near the ruined skylight. Ash drifting from the burned scrolls.
Ayari patched her own wounds, quietly.
Kaien wiped blood from his lip, staring at his hand.
"They don't know what I am," he whispered.
"They keep calling me a Hollowborn. An error. A skip in the code."
Ayari looked over. Her voice soft, but not gentle.
"You're not a mistake."
"You're a message."
He glanced at her.
She added, "And they're terrified of reading it."
Meanwhile… elsewhere in the tower ruins…
Renlo activated a hidden switch on his gauntlet.
A holograph flickered. A Concord signal tried to light.
Failed.
He frowned.
"You didn't tell me," he muttered. "You didn't say he could jam Protocol trace."
"You didn't say he was becoming... self-directed."
He looked back toward the others.
"What the hell are you, Kaien?"
Back in the outer rings of Solvyr's old dormitory ruins, a Concord scout whispered into his command relay:
"Target sighted. Engaged. Unsuccessful."
"One Thornveil asset aiding him."
"Unknown third party."
He paused.
Then added, hesitantly:
"Locals are starting to call him something."
"Not a title, exactly. Not yet."
"Just... a shape in the silence."
Crackling static.
"Some say he's the one the Monolith rejected."
"Others—just call him... the Unwritten."