Inside the warehouse, the air had stopped moving. It wasn't just the lack of a breeze; it was as if physics itself had been suspended to accommodate the monster now residing in Nala’s marrow. She stood in the center of the room, her body a black pillar of matte static, staring at the closed doors. Every nerve in her body felt like a high tension wire stretched to the point of snapping.
“Let me out, Nala,” a voice whispered inside her skull. It was Muteteri, but not the mother who tucked her in. It was the Architect cold, mathematical, and hungry. “You are a small vessel for such a vast sea. You will crack. And when you do, I will drown this city in the history it tried to forget.”
“Then I’ll just have to be the crack that never breaks,” Nala replied, though her lips didn’t move. Her thou
