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  The city greeted the Imperial delegation with a morose morning, soaked in gray humidity. At the head of the procession was Suzy—an elite mage and agent of the OCULUS, draped in a deep crimson mantle etched with gold. Behind her rode several grim Inquisitors atop black chargers.

  The local Lord met her—a bloated, pomaded creature, draped in so many chains he looked like a runaway shelf from a royal pawnshop. He bowed low, his compliments hissing and sycophantic, groveling with such fervor one expected him to turn inside out.

  “Oh, esteemed Lady Suzy! What an honor! The city is blessed by your presence!”

  “I didn't come for the scenery,” she snapped. “Where are the experimental results?”

  “Everything... everything is proceeding as planned!” the Lord chortled. “Thanks to the decree from the capital, we are ahead of schedule. We have more subjects than we know what to do with. We’ve even had to expand the dungeons!”

  They approached an old manor with massive oak doors—the entrance to the subterranean vault where the "work" was conducted.

  At that exact moment, the doors didn't just open; they detonated. Shards of oak sprayed outward like shrapnel, and through the debris, Violetta launched herself like a kinetic slug. Snow kicked up in swirling clouds; a splinter buried itself in the Lord’s cheek.

  Suzy and the Lord froze, blinking through the dust.

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  “What the hell...?” the Lord whispered.

  Bolting after her was the Sphere—a perfect, translucent orb spinning through the air, tethering itself to the girl’s trajectory. Violetta scrambled up, clutching her side, and vanished into a dead sprint.

  From the dark breach of the manor, the Black Knight limped out, his armor scarred.

  “SECURE HER!” he roared.

  Suzy didn't hesitate. She lunged after the white-haired blur. Violetta tore through narrow alleys, vaulting over obstacles, the orb trailing her like a familiar.

  “ADJACENT STRUCTURE. VERTICAL ASCENT RECOMMENDED,” the Sphere commanded.

  Violetta leapt onto a barrel like a cat, kicked off toward a balcony, and clawed her way up the stonework until a final, desperate heave landed her on the roof. Suzy, fueled by the thrill of the hunt, followed close behind.

  The street ahead was a chasm. Violetta broke into a sprint and leapt. In mid-air, she seized the Sphere, which jerked violently, shifting its momentum to "hurl" her through an open window of the opposite building. She crashed inside, upending a table and chairs.

  “Gah! Gods be everywhere!” an old man choked, spraying tea across the room.

  “Sorry! Wrong window!” Violetta yelled, diving out of the far casement back onto the street.

  Suzy reached the ledge, but realizing the gap was too great, she skidded to a halt.

  “Dammit!” she spat, her breath hitching in the cold.

  Violetta reached a drainage grate and plunged into the dark. Minutes later, she emerged on the city's outskirts. Reaching her cache, she donned her rucksack and checked her gear. Katana. Pistol. Rations. Water. She cast one last look back at the jagged silhouette of the city.

  “No roads. No people. Just the forest, the Sphere, and me.”

  She vanished into the timber. She paused for a heartbeat, her breath a ghost of steam in the freeze. The silence—the first in an eternity—felt alien. Unreal.

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  Wayne and Suzy stood by the splintered remains of the manor doors.

  “A little girl, you said,” she muttered. “Escaped, you said? Unscathed, no less. Bravo, Wayne.”

  “Shut it,” he snarled, wrenching a translucent dagger from his own thigh. “That’s no girl. It’s not even human. It’s... something else entirely. She pulled metal out of the void, Suzy. That wasn't magic. It was fundamental manipulation.”

  Suzy leaned back, the image of the Sphere burned into her mind's eye.

  “What interests me more... is that orb. I’ve heard whispers of such things in the archives. And that snow-white hair...” she mused aloud.

  “I’m drafting a dispatch to the Capital,” Wayne grunted. “The Oculus needs to know. Something from the old world has woken up.”

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