Space folded with a soft ripple around Arias and his daughter, and in the next instant they stood atop the roof of one of the tallest skyscrapers in the city of Vacuo. The wind was warm and dry, carrying with it the faint scent of dust, heated steel, and distant spice markets far below. She instinctively tightened her jacket around herself as she stepped closer to the edge. The weather was hot, but the comfort of it felt good against her skin.
From up here, the city looked almost unreal.
Towering spires of glass and polished metal rose from the desert like spears driven into the earth by giants. Their mirrored surfaces caught the fierce sunlight and threw it back in blinding flashes, making the entire skyline shimmer. Elevated walkways linked some of the larger towers, threading silver lines through the air. Neon signage glowed even in daylight, vibrant against the pale sandstone architecture that mixed old-world Vacuoan design with sleek modern engineering.
Beyond the last ring of skyscrapers, the city gave way to a vast ocean of sand.
The girl stared at the dunes which rolled endlessly toward the horizon. Watching as their surfaces rippled beneath the wind like the skin of some sleeping beast. In the far distance, the heat haze blurred the line between earth and sky, turning the desert into a molten mirage.
For a moment, neither of them spoke. Then, the girl looked sideways at her father.
"Is there ever a chance?" she asked quietly.
Arias did not answer immediately. He kept his gaze on the city, one hand resting in his coat pocket, the other loose at his side.
Finally, he let out a long sigh.
"Amber," he said, his voice low and tired, "you know we can't."
Her jaw tightened.
"There has to be some way."
He turned to look at her then, and the weight in his expression made her stomach knot.
"Even if we disappear completely, and I use Displacement to keep us moving every single day, they'll still find us."
Amber looked away.
Arias continued.
"They have bloodhounds, in every sense of the word. People whose runes were built for tracking, surveillance and prediction."
He paused, then added with grim honesty, "If you were a Rank 2, maybe we could stretch it out."
Amber's hands curled into fists.
Arias' mouth thinned. "But with Nicholas Arc involved… we'd last a month at best if he doesn't personally care enough to look for us."
Amber's voice came out sharp.
"And if he does?"
Arias gave a humorless smile.
"Probably a day or even a few hours."
The rooftop suddenly felt colder despite the desert heat. Amber looked down at the traffic far below, tiny streams of light and movement threading through the streets.
"So what," she muttered bitterly. "Our lives depend entirely on luck?"
Arias did not lie to her.
"Yes."
The single word settled between them like a stone. Amber swallowed, then asked the question she had clearly been holding back.
"What if we went to LUCID? With my rune, they'll surely... let us seek sanctuary."
Arias closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them again, there was only resignation there.
"You already know why that won't work."
Amber's frustration flared visibly.
She knew.
Of course she knew. Sleepless was not just a shadow organization working from the outside.
It was inside everything. Every major LUCID branch had been compromised. At least two hidden Sleepless members were in each branch, and sometimes even more.
Operatives, researchers, administrators.
Government offices too.
Military logistics.
City security.
People in places where trust should have meant something.
The scale of Sleepless was mind bogglingly large. Seeking sanctuary wouldn't actually be sanctuary. It would be a beacon—a flag raised to every mole watching from the inside.
Amber exhaled through clenched teeth.
"So there's nowhere..."
Arias stepped closer and rested a hand on her shoulder.
"For now," he said softly. After a moment, Arias' expression shifted slightly.
"I found the entrance."
Amber blinked.
He was already focusing and in just a moment the world twisted again.
The rooftop vanished.
This time they reappeared in an alleyway far removed from the polished brilliance of central Vacuo.
The contrast was immediate.
The buildings here were older, shorter, and weathered by years of sand and heat. Cracked concrete walls leaned close together, patched with exposed piping and faded graffiti. Laundry lines stretched overhead between apartments, fluttering in the dry wind.
This was one of the poorer districts. The part of the city tourists and executives pretended did not exist.
Amber glanced back toward the distant skyline, now only partially visible between the narrow buildings.
Arias stepped toward a large manhole cover set into the alley floor. Without ceremony, it vanished from the ground and appeared in his hand.
Beneath it yawned a dark opening.
Amber stared down.
"Sewers?"
Arias gave a faint smile.
"The best places to hide are the ones in which no one wants to look."
He dropped down first and Amber followed.
The landing was surprisingly clean.
The sewer corridor was broad and dry, lined with smooth concrete walls. To Amber's mild surprise, it didn't smell terrible. There was a faint sterile scent in the air instead, more like filtered ventilation than sewage.
Arias replaced the manhole cover above them with a flicker of displaced space.
The circle of daylight vanished, leaving only the muted corridor lights remained.
They walked forwards. The tunnel wound through several turns, splitting into narrower channels and branching pathways that looked nearly identical.
Amber quickly realized this was intentional.
A maze.
Anyone unfamiliar with the route would be hopelessly lost. After several minutes, Arias stopped before what appeared to be a simple maintenance hatch set into the wall.
A keypad was set beside it. He entered a sequence of numbers. When he was done, a soft mechanical hiss resounded and the hatch slid sideways.
Beyond it was no maintenance room. It opened into a long, polished corridor.
Amber's eyes narrowed.
Cold white lighting ran in along the ceiling. The walls were clean steel and composite paneling, so pristine that it felt disconnected from the grimy city above.
The door slid shut behind them and its seal clicked into place. They walked deeper inside and the corridor stretched farther than Amber expected.
Rooms lined both sides, with their doors open.
Laboratory spaces and observation chambers.
These were... research bays.
She caught glimpses of equipment inside: diagnostic tables, suspended monitors, runic calibration rigs, surgical tools gleaming beneath white light.
Funny enough, the place looked abandoned. There was not a soul there except for Amber herself and her dad.
The deeper they went, the quieter it seemed to become. The sterile hush of a place designed for secrets.
Then the corridor opened.
Amber slowed.
The room beyond was quite vast. Its ceiling rose high overhead, fitted with industrial lighting that cast everything in a pale, clinical glow.
Dozens of glass tanks stood in rows.
Amber's stomach tightened for inside each tank floated a human figure.
Test subjects.
Men and women suspended in translucent fluid, their limbs restrained by metallic clasps around wrists, ankles, and neck. Oxygen masks covered their mouths and noses, small streams of bubbles rising steadily from the tubing.
None of them were awake. Or if they were, they gave no sign of it.
Amber's expression darkened.
She hated this place already.
Then she saw him.
In the far corner of the chamber, seated in a chair beside a small table, was a man who looked entirely too comfortable in such a room.
Middle-aged and somewhat ruggedly handsome.
Blonde hair tousled in a slight mess but seemingly having order to the sharp chaos of it. A tailored coat draped over broad shoulders and in one hand he held a ceramic mug, steam curling lazily upward from the coffee inside.
Nicholas Arc.
He watched them over the rim of the cup with calm, pale blue eyes.
Amber felt her teeth grit instinctively. There was something about him that made the room feel smaller. Like gravity itself bent slightly toward wherever he was sitting.
Arias gave the barest incline of his head.
"Nicholas."
Nicholas lowered the cup.
"Sup, Arias? I trust there wasn't any issues with travelling?" His voice was smooth and almost pleasant.
"No. Border didn't even know we were there."
His gaze shifted to Amber.
"Hmm. Good. And Amber...."
She said nothing.
His lips curved into the faintest smile.
"This is our first time meeting. You have your father's features."
Amber's fingers twitched at her sides. Arias lightly touched her arm, a silent warning.
Nicholas gestured toward two chairs positioned across from him.
"Sit," he said.
Amber hated that her body tensed at the sound.
Arias stepped forward and sat, with Amber followed beside him, every muscle in her body tight with restrained anger.
The chairs waited.
Nicholas took another slow sip of coffee, his eyes never leaving them. Then, he set the cup down on the small table beside him with a soft ceramic click, and leaned back in his chair as though what he was about to say were the most ordinary thing in the world.
"Let's get straight to it," he said.
His pale blue eyes settled on Amber.
"Your job will be simple."
Nicholas gestured toward the rows of glass tanks. "You'll be outfitting Perpetuity into the tanks. Specifically, into the imbued runes which have been fixed into the support frames. This should keep us from having to renew them constantly."
Amber's eyes narrowed.
She looked again at the tanks, this time noticing the faint runic arrays etched into the metal clasps and the circular seals beneath each pod. Tiny channels of light pulsed through them in slow intervals.
Some form of Stasis runes which kept them in a preservation state
Her stomach turned
Nicholas rose from his seat, smoothing the front of his coat.
"Arias and I," he continued, "will be handling a separate yet no less special project."
Arias tilted his head slightly.
"What kind of project?"
Nicholas looked at him with something almost like amusement. Then he said, with complete seriousness, "A prototype portal."
Arias nodded.
Then Nicholas added, "To the moon, of course."
Silence.
Both father and daughter duo stared at him. For a moment the room became so quiet that the faint bubbling from the stasis tanks seemed deafening.
Amber genuinely could not tell if he was joking and judging by her father's face, neither could he.
Nicholas' expression, however, remained perfectly calm.
No smile or trace of irony. Just that same maddening composure.
Amber slowly blinked.
"…Are you... serious?"
"Completely."
The words landed with such casual certainty that it somehow made them worse. Arias exhaled through his nose, pinching the bridge of it for a moment.
Then his gaze shifted toward the rows of suspended bodies.
"What are they for?"
That, more than anything, changed the air in the room.
Nicholas reached for his coffee again, found the cup nearly empty, and drained the rest in a single swallow without so much as a flinch at the heat.
Nicholas stood and turned toward the tanks, his reflection stretching faintly across the glass. "To build an army. These are reserves. Candidates, if you will."
His fingers lightly tapped the nearest chamber. Inside, a young man floated motionless, face hidden behind an oxygen mask.
"They'll be remade into Amalgamations."
Nicholas looked back at them and let the word settle into the room like rot.
"No waste or weakness. Bodies reinforced, minds rewritten and glorified under Her name."
He spoke about it the way another man might describe inventory.
Amber's nails dug into the armrest of her chair.
Nicholas' eyes gleamed faintly in the light.
"They will remain in reserve," he said, "until the final battle." He paused. Then, almost reverently, he added:
"The day in which Sleepless tears LUCID apart and awakens Salem."