Woven Between Her War And My Weakness

The cold hit differently that morning.

It wasn't just the frost clinging to the ruined metal walls or the chill in the underground vents. It was the kind of cold that came with a warning. A silence so thick even the usual hum of the outpost's generator felt muted. Kael noticed it too. She stood by the eastern entrance, boots half-laced, eyes locked on the skyline.

"Something's coming," she muttered, barely above a whisper.

I felt it in my Mark. The steady glow that usually pulsed softly beneath my skin now flickered in irregular bursts. Like a heartbeat gone wrong. It felt like something was cracking open inside me, something too ancient to name.

Overnight, the resistance had grown. After Ren's death, more splinter groups answered our beacon. Kael, though grieving, took command without hesitation. No one challenged her. Not even me. She walked like someone born to lead, even when grief haunted her steps.

And me? I wasn't just the girl who stumbled into a rebellion anymore. I wasn't just surviving. I was becoming something. Someone.

The war room was packed that morning.

We gathered around a glowing digital map spread across the floor, a mix of scavenged tech and tactical updates. The table buzzed with a low static, showing Royal troop movement. The anxiety in the room was loud, even when no one was speaking.

Kael pointed to a blinking red sector on the display.

"Sector Nine. They've set up a new compound," she said. "It's no longer a holding facility. It's a research base now."

My Mark tingled just hearing the words.

I stepped forward. "I had another vision. Last night. I saw a vault beneath that sector. Vault Zero. It's... not just research. It's connected to the Marks. To us."

Kael's gaze sharpened. "How?"

I hesitated. "I saw... tubes. Pods. People. Some of them looked like us. Marked, but... asleep. Preserved. And something else was there too. Something huge. Ancient."

Ashi, seated beside me, muttered, "Like a weapon?"

I shook my head. "Like a door."

The plan came together faster than I expected.

Kael divided us into three teams. One would intercept the supply convoy, another would jam the comm signals. My team? Infiltration.

It felt strange giving orders. But no one looked at me like I didn't belong. They looked at me like they believed I could do this. That I would.

We moved at dawn.

The city lay in ruins above us, still smoldering from last week's clashes. The streets stank of burnt rubber, copper, and ash. My boots scraped against glass as I led Beta team through a series of old maintenance tunnels.

Kael's voice crackled through the comm: "Watch your shadows. They've deployed trackers."

I gave a silent nod to my crew. Ashi took the rear. Niko and Eryn flanked me. Our breaths fogged in the freezing air as we approached the perimeter.

There it was. Sector Nine. Guard towers. Sniper nests. Drones on constant patrol. But they hadn't fortified the sewer vents. A mistake we were about to exploit.

We slipped into the lower levels like ghosts.

The inside of the compound was clinical. White walls. Stainless steel floors. Cameras hidden in corners.

We ducked into a storage closet and stripped the armor from two unconscious guards. Eryn and I suited up, walking casually into the next hall.

I could feel the Vault calling to me. The closer we got, the louder the Mark pulsed.

We found it beneath Sublevel Four. Massive reinforced doors. No keypads. Just a round indentation that shimmered faintly.

A Mark reader.

I hesitated, then placed my wrist against it.

The metal groaned. A hiss. The doors parted.

Vault Zero.

Inside, it was cold. Colder than anything I'd felt before. The air hummed with power. Giant capsules lined the walls, filled with a strange blue liquid. In each one—a person. Marked. Sleeping. Dreaming?

"Are they alive?" Ashi whispered.

"I think so," I said. "Or... preserved."

At the center of the room was the device from my vision. Not a door. Not a weapon.

A portal.

It shimmered faintly, like heatwaves in the air, showing fractured images — mountains, fire, oceans, faces.

I stepped closer. My Mark glowed white.

That's when the Queen arrived.

"Curious, isn't it?" she said, stepping from the shadows.

She looked young. Too young. Barefoot in a silver robe. Eyes like liquid mercury.

"You should have died at birth, you know," she said, walking slowly. "Like the others. But your Mark... it sang too loud. We couldn't ignore it."

I raised my hand, fire sparking to life.

She didn't flinch.

"The portal opens with seven Marks. You are the sixth," she said. "You've activated it without knowing. And when the seventh comes... the world will bleed."

Kael burst in behind her, gun raised. Ashi took position beside her.

"Let her go!" Kael growled.

The Queen laughed. "Go? She is the key."

Suddenly, everything inside me pulsed. The Mark seared with light. My body convulsed as images filled my mind — wars, stars, lovers, death.

Then darkness.

I woke up gasping on the floor of the outpost.

Kael was beside me, face pale. Ashi clutched my wrist, whispering, "You're okay. You're okay."

"What happened?" I croaked.

Kael answered. "You collapsed after the Queen vanished. The portal... it closed. But not before it took something."

"What?"

Kael looked haunted. "Time."

I spent the night staring at the ceiling.

The Mark no longer pulsed. It shimmered. Alive in a way it never had before. Like it was sentient. Like it remembered something I didn't.

I knew now what we were.

Weapons.

Keys.

Sacrifices.

But I wouldn't be anyone's offering.

I would find the seventh. I would stop the portal. Or burn trying.

And Kael?

She wasn't just my protector anymore.

She was my tether.

My war.

My heart.

To be CONTINUED....