4 months later…
The days had settled into a quiet rhythm, a far cry from the intensity of their encounter with Kane and the Gravewalkers. For Kaius, life had slowed down in ways he never thought possible. He and Gareth had taken the money—a hefty sum that gave them enough to live for the next three years without worry. No more scraping by to pay rent or wondering where their next meal would come from. They could afford the basics now: food, rent, public transportation. A normal life. For most people, it would have been enough.
But for Kaius, it felt like a waiting game.
Since graduating school, he hadn't known what to do with his life. His mind buzzed with ideas, half-formed concepts for inventions and breakthroughs he could never realize because they lacked the resources. And so he spent most of his time in his room, barely speaking to his father, silently beating himself up for what he saw as his failures. But that had changed, slowly. After the events four months ago, after Kane's unsettling visit and the choices they made, something had shifted between them. He felt closer to his dad now than ever before.
The dream pill had become their shared project. They worked on it together—not in any physical sense, since they couldn't afford the equipment or the materials needed to actually create the pill—but in theoretical ways. Gareth, with his wealth of knowledge and experience, guided Kaius through equations, probabilities, and formulas that might one day bring their dream to life. They spent hours discussing how the pill would work, its potential side effects, and what impact it could have on those who used it.
Kaius didn't mind that it was all just theory for now. He saw the potential in the work, even if it was intangible. What mattered most was that he and his father were working together. For the first time in a long while, they felt like a real family.
Their small apartment in the slums felt less like a prison now. They had enough to get by, and even though Kaius still felt the pull of something greater—something beyond the normal life they had settled into—he knew he could live with this for a while. It wasn't what he had imagined for himself, but it was enough. His dad was healthy, their relationship was strong, and they had food on the table.
And for now, that was enough.
In those quiet months, something else had been happening to Kaius, something he hadn't shared with his father. It started as a vague sensation, almost like a whisper at the back of his mind. At first, he thought it was just his imagination, a side effect of the intense pressure he'd been under. But slowly, he began to realize that it was real—there was something inside him, a power, one he didn't fully understand yet.
It had to do with the strings.
They weren't always visible, but every now and then, Kaius would catch glimpses of them when he looked at people. Thin, glowing threads that seemed to connect him to the world around him. They came in different colors, each one representing something different. He hadn't fully worked out what all of them meant, but he had figured out a few.
The green strings were the easiest to understand—they seemed to represent people who were easy to access, people who didn't pose much of a challenge in any sense. The grey ones were harder. He suspected they represented people with no real potential or future—people stuck in their ways, unable to change or grow. Then there were the purple strings. Those were the ones he found most intriguing. They seemed to glow with a kind of emotional intensity, people whose emotions or circumstances could be leveraged to his advantage, though he wasn't sure how.
And then there were the red strings.
Those terrified him. Whenever he saw one of those threads, he knew instinctively that the person it connected to was dangerous. High-profile threats. People who could change the course of his life in ways he wasn't ready for. Kane had one of those red strings, and Kaius had been trying to avoid seeing them ever since.
He hadn't told his father about the strings. It didn't seem important—not yet, anyway. Right now, it was just a vague understanding of something bigger than him. Something he didn't quite know how to use.
The morning sun filtered through the window as Kaius stretched, yawning as he pushed himself out of bed. His body ached slightly from sitting hunched over equations with his dad the night before, but he didn't mind. It felt good to be doing something—working toward a future, even if it was uncertain.
He pulled on a simple grey t-shirt and some worn black pants, grabbing his coat off the hook near the door. His reflection in the cracked mirror by the door caught his attention for a moment. His dark hair was a mess, sticking up at odd angles, and there were faint circles under his eyes from too many late nights. His once-boyish features had sharpened slightly over the past few months, though he still had the restless energy of someone just stepping into adulthood. His coat, long and dark, swayed slightly as he slipped it on, and he adjusted the collar as he grabbed his bag.
"I'm heading out to get food," Kaius called to his father, who was hunched over the table, pouring over more notes and diagrams. Gareth gave a distracted grunt of acknowledgment but didn't look up.
Kaius stepped out onto the street, the cold air hitting him in the face like a reminder of where he was—still in the slums. Still far from the Sky District, where everything was clean, shiny, and polished. But this place had become familiar. He navigated the cracked pavement and narrow alleyways with ease, his boots scuffing softly against the ground as he made his way toward the hover bus stop.
The hover bus rumbled softly as it pulled to a stop in front of him. Kaius climbed aboard, taking a seat near the back. The city passed by in a blur as they sped through the lower levels. Fifteen minutes later, he stepped off at a market district, a place filled with old shops and stands that sold everything from fresh produce to cheap electronics.
As he walked, Kaius's mind wandered, thinking about the dream pill, about what kind of food he would pick up for lunch, and the equations they had been working on. It felt good to have a purpose, even if it was still far away from becoming real.
But then, something caught his eye.
Ahead of him, walking in the opposite direction, was a figure—someone who looked strangely familiar. Kaius squinted, trying to make out the features, and his breath caught in his throat.
The person looked exactly like…