While the entire nation remained focused on the Capital Games, another part of Libria moved in silence far from the screens, applause, and false entertainment.
Deep beneath one of the sectors that had long ago been officially marked as destroyed, hidden tunnels stretched through old underground foundations and abandoned industrial chambers where no ordinary resident had reason to go. The sector above had already been reduced to broken structures and dead land years earlier, its ruins left untouched except by dust, wind, and the occasional patrol drone that never searched too deeply.
But beneath that dead sector, life continued.
A group of armed men walked through one of the underground corridors, their boots echoing against reinforced metal flooring. Their uniforms were dark and practical, built for movement rather than display, and each sleeve carried the same symbol—a burning fire emblem stitched in red.
The mark of the Embers.
