⸻
The training field was silent.
It was a rare moment of calm in Sector 9—no drills, no orders, no screaming. The sky above was heavy with gray clouds, thick enough to smother even the dullest rays of the sun. And yet… the pressure in the air made everyone restless.
As if something was coming.
Kai sat at the edge of the stone platform, staring at his bandaged hand—the one scorched by the green Neva Core when he’d shielded Ellis.
“You should’ve let me burn.”
Ellis’s voice came from behind, quiet and guilty.
Kai didn’t turn.
“No,” he replied simply.
Ellis sat beside him. “Do you… remember what it felt like when you touched the wind?”
Kai hesitated.
It hadn’t felt like power.
It had felt like memory.
Like something familiar had returned.
“It felt like… home,” Kai said quietly. “
