Akhara-Veil's sun died behind a broken skyline, streaking the sky with soot and dying orange embers. Jin and Kemi hugged the shadows, ghosts in a once-vibrant city now hollowed by ruin. They crossed the cracked asphalt of an abandoned market square, past burnt-out vehicles that lined the street like rusted carcasses. A distant hum of flickering generators and the creak of sagging power lines echoed through alleyways bristling with makeshift stalls and darting silhouettes. Every scrap of wood or rusted metal was bartered like gold.
Kemi led them toward the Sub-Lattice, an underground bazaar known only to smugglers, relic-hunters, and information peddlers. The deeper they went, the louder the noise of civilization—or what passed for it—swelled around them. People barked prices in half-broken tongues, while red-lit booths offered black-market Force suppressors, bottled Rift radiation, even monster fetuses preserved in jars. The air reeked of fuel and desperation.
"It's going to take time," Kemi whispered. "To find someone who can smuggle us across. Weeks, maybe months."
Jin nodded, his eyes scanning every face. "Then we use that time to gather intel. Map our options. Make allies. Or make people owe us."
A plan was beginning to form, but it was fragile, like a flame in a sandstorm.
They needed two things to leave Africa: a vessel, and a port where no one would ask questions. Ekunra's port was too unstable—word was, vessels either sank mid-crossing or went missing entirely. But an old smuggler named Torga M'zein was rumored to run a hidden dock further south near Ghaali Crag, where occasional successful crossings had been logged.
But first, they had to find him. And stay alive long enough to do so.
The first task was locating someone who could even point them toward Torga. Kemi suggested starting with The Shattercloaks, a syndicate of information brokers who controlled the central tenement towers of Akhara's old district. The climb to their headquarters, a broken monorail station turned fortress, was dangerous. Jin spotted glyph-tagged enforcers blocking the outer corridors, each one wearing force-threaded armor and irradiated blades.
Jin's instincts screamed at him to draw back. He turned slightly toward Kemi. "Why does this Miraq owe you, anyway?"
She hesitated. "I helped him fake his sister's death. She was Force-touched. They were going to bioslice her."
Jin's face darkened. "So she got away?"
"Far as I know," Kemi said quietly. "He never forgave me for lying about her being gone. But he still owes me."
Inside the tower, Miraq greeted them with scorn and amusement. "Kemi, you always bring trouble at your side." He eyed Jin like a potential corpse.
She got straight to the point. "Torga M'zein. Where is he?"
Miraq clicked his tongue. "Why does every dead man ask that question lately?"
"We're not dead yet," Jin said coldly.
Miraq eventually caved, but not without price. He demanded a favor: steal a package from the local city patrol headquarters—data on Rift anomalies near Ghaali Crag. If they succeeded, they'd gain directions to Torga's outpost. If they failed, they'd die.
The heist would be nearly suicidal. Akhara-Veil's patrol HQ was run by the Black Ordinance, a force-bound division of ex-military enforcers now running security for the city's corrupt elite. Uniformed zealots in armor stained with Force etchings, most were rumored to be former cultists or rogue enforcers from other continents.
Kemi mapped out a path through the city's old infrastructure: crawlspaces below the canals, a route used by sewer runners and bioslicers during the second Rift Surge. It was dangerous, but if they hit during curfew hours, security would be lighter.
Jin didn't like the odds but odds had never liked him either.
The night of the break-in, they moved like phantoms. The canal tunnels echoed with distant groans—some from water, others from things that should not have been down there. When they reached the base of the Ordinance's tower, Jin climbed with his good arm, pain flaring with each pull. Kemi watched from below, whispering encouragement.
They slipped inside through a shattered maintenance vent. The halls were eerily silent, lit by flickering neon strips powered by decaying Force capacitors. The building felt alive, like it breathed with the Force, pulsing faintly through the walls.
They reached the server room undetected. Kemi bypassed the old retinal scan with a portable imprint reader, a relic from her scavenging days. Jin kept watch.
But a security drone drifted past the hall and sounded a low-frequency alarm. Nothing in the world could have prepared them for that. In seconds, footsteps thundered from multiple directions.
Suddenly, the building came alive.
Not with alarms or sirens—but with footsteps. Sharp, precise, converging from multiple corridors at once. Jin's ears picked them up before Kemi did, his muscles already tensing from years of ingrained reflex. One group to the left, two to the right, and another set barreling down from above. They were boxing them in.
His breath caught in his throat.
This wasn't just patrol response.
They were being hunted.
Jin turned to Kemi, eyes narrowed, jaw clenched. "Go. Now."
She shook her head. "No—"
"Go, Kemi!" he snapped. Not out of anger. Out of necessity.
He stepped into the mouth of the hallway, placing his body between her and the oncoming danger. His brain was calculating, the way it always did before a fight—tight corridor, concrete floors, minimal cover. If he moved quickly enough, he could bottleneck them. Slow them down.
It was stupid. Reckless.
But he'd done worse.
Kemi touched his shoulder. "Why are you—?"
"Because I've been in worse corners than this," Jin growled. "I've survived with a busted arm, a broken rib, and no backup in dungeons where gods go to die. I can hold them."
The lie sat heavy on his tongue.
He wasn't sure he could.
But she was valuable. Not just because she healed, not just because she had information but because she still believed. In escape. In hope.
He hadn't believed in anything in years.
He looked her in the eye. "I can give you a head start. If you run fast enough, you'll make it out. Take the data. Find the smuggler. You want out of this rotting world? You don't get a better shot."
She hesitated. Her eyes welled with resistance.
He added, quieter now, "Don't waste what little future you might still have."
Then he turned.
And let the weight of his past walk straight into the fight.
Blades drawn, armor laced with glowing Force seams. Wound-level Force users. Not strong—but not weak either.
Jin struck first, landing a punch into the first guard's face, then parrying a blade with the broken gauntlet arm usable, but screaming in protest. He weaved between them with fluid movement, ducking under kicks, sidestepping slashes. His instincts were honed, precise, a result of six brutal years surviving with nothing but grit and betrayal. He landed knee strikes, body blows, elbow jabs. One fell unconscious. Another's ribs cracked. A third stumbled, bleeding from a temple.
But Jin was slowing. He blocked a blow with his bad arm. Pain shot like lightning down his spine. A blade grazed his ribs. Another cut his leg. There were too many. He could hold his own, maybe win, if he had the Force. But he didn't—not really. Not yet. He staggered back, vision blurring.
And then—something stirred.
The air changed. His veins lit up faintly.
A pulse exploded from him.
A subtle but powerful shockwave of violet energy surged outward. The guards were flung into the corridor walls like broken dolls. Sparks rained from shattered lights. Kemi screamed his name.
Jin collapsed.
They escaped in chaos, slipping into the sewers before reinforcements came. Kemi dragged him through rusted tunnels until they reached a hidden exit.
Hours later, they sat in silence. Jin's shirt clung to his skin with sweat. His breath was ragged.
"You used the Force," Kemi whispered.
"Not on purpose."
"But you did. You lit up. Just for a second."
He looked at his trembling hand. "It's gone now. Like it never happened."
Before they could process more, the loft door shook with a heavy knock.
Both froze.
Three slow, deliberate knocks.
They readied weapons.
Jin opened the door. What he saw left him speechless...