Night settled slowly over Aiyra.
The city glowed with life, neon lights pulsing, bars blaring with music and the living dead going about their way. Some tended to the city, cleaning, wiping and repairing anything broken. Others seemed to mimic the night life, walking the streets from one place to other, talking to each other and even visiting the bars and shops. The only issue here was that none of them actually spoke. They had no voices. Their mouths moved in scripted choreography but it was simply eerie for the observer.
Except that the observers were sleeping, in shifts.
A few hours pause and Taren was sleeping no more.
He woke automatically when it was time. Trained reflex. Old discipline. He rubbed his eyes once, rolled his shoulders, then turned towards where Lume should've been sitting.
Empty.
No trace of him, footsteps in the dust pointing towards the city. The young researcher himself missing.
Taren felt himself tighten up. He scanned the area around their camp twice, slow and methodical. Nothing. The only movement came from the city in the distance. It was clear that the kid had gone wandering off.
He didn't wait any longer and moved to alert the team. He shook Kshaya awake first.
"He's gone. Lume is gone missing. Probably wandered off into the Aiyra."
Kshaya woke up in a split, his face immediately alert. No grogginess. No hesitation. His chains silent once more.
One by one, the others stirred awake.
"What do you mean gone?" Mira whispered, clutching her slate.
"Just that," Taren growled. "He walked off. Alone. Footsteps point towards the city and there are none coming back."
Eira cursed under her breath. Korr paled, already imagining the worst.
The sixth member stood up silently, but her hands were trembling, betraying a tension she never showed.
Kshaya looked at each of them once. "We're going in."
Korr squeaked, "At night?"
Eira snapped at him, "He's one of ours."
"But the city-"
"It doesn't matter," she cut him off.
Kshaya opened the van door. The engine stirred awake with a low growl. All of them climbed in. The wheels rolled over concrete, slowly making way into the living city.
The city accepted their intrusion. That was the only way to describe it.
As the van passed the hedges, streetlights flickered in greeting. Billboards blinked with advertisements from a past that was far long gone. Speakers crackled faintly with a slow melody. The blaring music from the bars in the distance had disappeared. It felt like a spotlight was on them.
In the distance, the silhouettes of living dead stopped with their looping patterns, turning to look at their passing van. The cleaners, commuters, police and everyone else simply paused, staring at the white van pass by.
It was a dead city mimicking life, now placing all its attention on its intruders.
Mira clutched her slate tighter. The attention was making her tense. Kshaya wanted to say something, but nothing of comfort came to mind. The others were no better, trying their best to ignore the stares. Taren, who was driving, felt weird as well. All vehicles on the roads simply moved out of their way as they moved. The city was paving a path for them.
"I... I'm getting a signal," Mira murmured, interrupting the silence. "Not a dead one. A living trace. Different from the living dead."
"Lume?" Taren asked.
She nodded. "I think so. But the signal's… trembling. The slate has never seen a signature shake like this. It is telling me that it's something more."
Kshaya's expression hardened. "Follow it."
The van now followed Mira's direction, as they drew deeper. Kshaya recognized that they were moving towards the city center. The pull he had felt earlier in the day returned. Whatever had been awaiting his return was being very patient.
The van sped up, making way along the cleared out path. The city resumed with its looping, bodies walking along, bots and drones continuing with their jobs. The welcome procession was over now.
He had no idea how he had ended up here. But right now, the only thing on Lume's mind was to make it back to the camp.
But no matter where he ran, he kept circling back to the same spot. The city circle. It had been a while since he woke up to find himself here, facing a single pillar in the center of wherever he was. Panicking, he had started running, but now he couldn't tell how long he he had been running.
Or how far he had gone. Because in a few more turns he would end up back where he started. In front of the pillar.
As he ran, he felt the the city breath around him, every light flickering in rhythm. The air felt warm against his face, almost as if it was comforting him.
You heard us, a voice whispered.
"No," Lume muttered, stumbling forward. "I didn't"
You did.
His surroundings changed. He was in a classroom. It was his from his days in the university. He had been the best student of his class, excelling in all fields. Curious as ever, he started exploring more esoteric fields in pass time.
Consciousness.
Metamorphosis.
Soul.
All such vague concepts had begun to gain traction as science had progressed. The technology back then had already evolved into such levels. And he wanted to be the one to find the next great breakthrough.
He remembered this particular scene.
"Humanity has already conquered the human body. Ageing has been slowed to the pace of a snail. Diseases are a threat of the past. What should be the next step in our ladder?"
The professor, a young woman who was actually in her seventies, had asked the class. This was the leading institute of science in the world and the students here were the future pillars that would lead the world of science. It was not wrong to say that this question was literally putting the bricks for what was to come next.
"Humanity has conquered the physical body. The next step should be to explore the non-physical. The mind or soul. Or however one wants to call it. If we can understand this piece of the puzzle, I believe we will be one step closer to defeating death itself."
This had been his answer. At the time, he had felt proud of himself.
Not because he had answered something unique. But because he had been faster to raise his hand and present the answer everyone else had been thinking of.
To defeat death itself.
That was the next venture humanity was preparing to solve.
His words weren't empty thoughts. Since rumors were already spreading that such discussions were taking place already.
But since then, Lume had been reconsidering.
His vision changed again, as he found himself in front of the pillar.
'Why do I keep seeing that memory?'
Was the entity responsible for his current state trying to tell him something?
Something brushed against his mind. A warm pulse. A gentle push.
Bond… with us…
We can give you what you've always sought…
Lume's hand trembled. His nails dug into his palms. This voice, it had been prodding him constantly. He regretted his words from back then. Two weeks after that class, after his words had been published in the university newspaper, the light of genesis had changed everything. And now he was stuck here, forced to bond with something he couldn't even call as living.
He clenched his fists, trying to shut out the whisper before it seeped deeper.
Just accept us, the voice coaxed, warm and patient.
You've always been searching. Let us fill the gaps.
"No," Lume hissed. "I didn't ask for this-"
The pillar before him shook. A glow started converging around it, slowly covering it completely. Then the rings appeared - two halos touching, touching each other just at the edge, forming a shape that should've felt familiar.
Except this one was wrong. One ring turned darker and started overlapping over the other, as if consuming it. He felt something creep closer, wanting to control him, take over.
Lume stumbled back. He felt the air suffocating him, wanting to subdue him. If he gave up, if he broke right now, he would never be himself again.
A sudden blast of headlights washed over him, tearing him away from the process, forcefully bringing him back and saving him in process.
The van skidded to a stop.
"Lume!" Taren leaped out first, grabbing him by the shoulders.
Lume gasped, shaking in his hold as he felt the the voice in his head recoil, like something had been yanked away mid-feast. It was receding, escaping him.
For the first time since he'd woken in this trap, he felt normal as only the silence of his mind was felt.
Just silence.
"It tried to… talk to me, bond with me" he whispered. "It isn't alive. It isn't dead. It wants something... it wants me."
Eira draped a coat around him, guiding him back toward the van. "No more talking. You're safe now."
But Lume shook his head. "No… you don't understand. It didn't want to kill me. Or harm me. It wanted to use me, like clothes. It wanted to wear me like clothes. It is trying, to be human..."
The ride back was not smooth. One by one, the lights started rippling. Every living dead in sight froze mid-step and turned towards the passing van.
Then a voice,,, gentle, cultured, almost concerned flowed from every speaker, every screen.
"He belongs here."
They all stiffened. But Kshaya continued to drive without pause.
"He came because I called. A fair exchange."
Kshaya did not stop, his chains clanking for the first time.
"Not happening."
A pause.
Then the voice softened further, almost amused.
"You interfere too much, chained one."
The van sped forward, ignoring the voice. Streetlights flickered madly behind them, chasing like angry eyes. Distorted noise attacked them in vain. But the city couldn't stop them from leaving.
It simply… watched them leave.
As the van cleared the final intersection, the lights abruptly died. The city went cold, as if holding its breath, biding its time.
Kshaya didn't breathe until they were a distance away from the boundary. Only then did he cut the engine. Lume sat silently, trembling beside him. His hands were folded in his lap, as if hiding something.
Kshaya noticed and reached out.
The young man flinched but didn't pull away.
Slowly… reluctantly… he opened his palm.
A faint symbol was visible beneath his skin.
Two rings. One darker than the other, slightly overlapping the lighter one. No one else in the van saw it. Only Kshaya, sitting closest.
Lume whispered, barely audible:
"…it was interrupted... It wanted me. It called itself the Warden."
Kshaya didn't answer. But inside, he could feel that the Warden was something more than just an artifact. And it desperately needed Lume.