Woven Between Her War And My Weakness

The moment the outpost fell into silence, I knew something was wrong.

Kael's boots hit the floor hard as she charged through the corridor, her blade sheathed but her hands twitching like she wanted to draw it anyway. I chased after her, chest heaving, Mark burning faintly beneath my collarbone. We'd slept for maybe two hours, but war didn't care about schedules.

"They're inside," she muttered, mostly to herself.

"Who?" I hissed.

She didn't answer.

Alarms blared seconds later, the sound jarring enough to make my vision blur. The walls vibrated. Somewhere down the hall, metal clanged and voices shouted over one another.

We sprinted through the chaos.

When we emerged into the south wing of the outpost, we saw it. Smoke. Not fire — not yet — but plumes of thick, dark smoke curling through the ceiling vents like fingers searching for something.

Kael yanked a radio from her belt and shouted, "Containment breach! All hands to Block 9!"

My mind reeled. Block 9 was where we kept the Marked who hadn't woken up yet. The ones pulled from the pods in Vault Zero. Fragile. Sleeping. Still connected to whatever strange energy had preserved them for who knew how long.

The thought that someone — or something — was trying to take them made my blood run cold.

We reached the chamber just as two guards slammed the vault door shut behind them.

"What happened?" Kael barked.

One of the guards was bleeding from his arm, eyes wide with panic. "It… it just appeared. Like out of thin air. Shadow creature. No face. Cut through three people before we even saw it."

"Did it touch the pods?"

"I don't think so. We sealed them in just in time."

Kael cursed under her breath, then turned to me. "We're under surveillance. That thing isn't just a soldier. It's a scout."

My Mark throbbed again. A warning.

"They know we found the portal," I whispered.

A full lockdown followed.

Kael took over central command, issuing orders like her voice alone could hold the walls together. Ashi coordinated perimeter reinforcements, dragging in every scout team we had. The tech crew worked overtime re-encrypting our network, fearful the Queen had already tapped into our broadcasts.

I tried to help — really, I did — but my mind wasn't steady. Every few hours, I'd get flashes. Not quite visions, but not dreams either. Fragments. A hand reaching through flame. The sound of a heartbeat echoing in empty halls. Kael's voice calling my name through static.

Whatever the Queen had done to me in the portal chamber, it wasn't done yet.

Three days later, we had our first meeting with the new recruits.

It wasn't a speech or a pep talk. It was a truth session.

Kael stood in front of the crowd — over 200 people now — and laid it all bare. The Queen's experiments. The portals. The Marks. The coming war.

Then she handed the mic to me.

I stepped forward slowly. My voice cracked on the first word.

"My name is Rae. I was a nobody before this. Just another girl running from something she couldn't understand. But now… I know who I am. What I am."

I rolled up my sleeve and showed them my Mark. It glowed steady, brighter than ever.

"I'm not afraid of her anymore."

A pause.

"I'm afraid of you giving up. So don't. Because we're in this together now. Every one of you is a flame. And I swear — we'll set this city on fire."

The room roared.

That night, I wandered the halls alone.

Sleep wouldn't come. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw that faceless creature again. I heard its scream. Felt its hunger. It wasn't just killing. It was searching.

As I reached the observation deck, I found Kael there.

She was watching the city.

"I heard you couldn't sleep either," she said.

I sat beside her. "Are we ready for this?"

Kael hesitated. "Ready? No. But ready enough? Maybe."

I turned to her. "Do you ever wish we could go back?"

"Back to what?"

"Before the Marks. Before the portals. Just… normal."

Kael exhaled. "Normal never meant peace. It just meant ignorance. At least now we know what we're fighting."

I nodded slowly.

"You okay?" she asked.

"No. But I will be."

And I believed it.

Even as the storm gathered again.

The next morning, Kael brought me into the war room.

"There's something you need to see," she said.

On the map? A blinking dot far beyond the edge of our territory.

"What is that?" I asked.

"A message. From another Marked. One we haven't met yet."

My pulse spiked. "The seventh?"

Kael nodded. "It could be."

And just like that, the fire inside me reignited.

We had a new mission.

To be CONTINUED....