Caged

A week after our return from the settlements, I sat in the clinic's study, surrounded by maps and notes. Grace perched on the windowsill, humming softly while I tried to make sense of everything we'd encountered.

The Sephis weren't random. The more I studied our experiences, the clearer that became.

First, the eastern anomaly with its surveillance eyes and adaptive tentacles. Organized intelligence gathering, specifically targeting the dome's defenses. Then Blackwater's operation, using captive creatures to contaminate food supplies in a coordinated biological attack. The corrupted wildlife that had formed tactical units around the grain stores.

Each incident showed increasing sophistication, better coordination, more strategic thinking.

And then there was what Elara had told me about her family's curse. Something older than the Sephis, something that used them as tools rather than servants. Her ancestors had struck a bargain with an intelligence that could trap stars and bend the fundamental forces of reality. That knowledge sat like a weight in my chest, growing heavier each day.

I spread out Kaguya's detailed sketches across the desk. Her documentation was meticulous, recording everything from corruption patterns to behavioral observations. In her notes, she'd mentioned something about "Sephis light" that had caught my attention.

"The light moves differently beyond the dome," she'd written. "Less focused, more chaotic. As if something is interfering with natural illumination patterns."

A sketch buried among her technical diagrams made my blood run cold. The drawing showed a creature roughly human-sized, with a core of light wrapped in black tendrils. The same description she'd given me of the creature that killed her father.

Below the sketch: "Personal observation: Entity appeared to be studying our defenses rather than attempting destruction. Retreated systematically when confronted. Behavior suggests intelligence gathering."

The creature that had killed her father hadn't been some random outbreak of corruption. It had been reconnaissance. Her father had died interrupting a spy mission.

What if the Sephis weren't just corrupting individual creatures and settlements? What if they were building toward something larger?

The door opened quietly. Karin entered carrying two cups of tea, setting one beside my elbow.

"You've been in here for hours," she said, settling into the chair across from me.

"Trying to understand the pattern." I gestured to the maps. "Every Sephis encounter we've had shows signs of central coordination. But coordination requires communication, and communication requires a source."

"You think there's something out there controlling them?"

"I think there's something out there that they're serving." I pulled out the sketches from Garrett's laboratory. "Remember the bear? The way it moved with those other creatures, all responding to the same signals."

Karin studied the drawings. "Like a puppet."

"Like a soldier. Following orders from a command structure we can't see from inside the dome."

The door opened again. Kaguya entered with her own cup of tea and a thick folder of additional notes.

"Still working on the expedition theory?" she asked, settling beside Karin.

"Expedition theory?"

"Ken's been researching beyond-dome travel for the past week," Kaguya explained to her sister. "Maps, supply calculations, Sephis movement patterns. He thinks the answer is out there somewhere."

I hadn't realized I'd been that obvious about my planning. "The dome protects us, but it also blinds us. We're fighting symptoms while the cause remains hidden."

"The cause of what?" Karin asked.

"All of it. The corruption, the organized attacks, the increasing sophistication of Sephis behavior." I spread out a regional map showing the dome cities and the vast wilderness between them. "What if the real threat isn't individual outbreaks? What if it's something creating those outbreaks?"

Kaguya leaned forward, her analytical mind engaging with the problem. "A central source. Something that's been building strength while we focus on local containment."

"The vision I had during Elara's healing," I said quietly. "The trapped sun, the intelligence that spoke to me. It connects to something larger."

"You want to find it," Karin said. It wasn't a question.

"I want to understand it. And if possible, stop it."

"By going beyond the dome. Alone."

I looked at my hands, noting the faint crystalline patterns that had been appearing more frequently since working with Elara. Whatever changes were happening, they seemed to be accelerating.

"The Guild won't approve an expedition," I said. "The Executors are too valuable to risk on speculation. And involving civilians would be suicide."

"So you're planning to sneak out like some teenage academy student with delusions of heroism," Kaguya said, her voice sharp with worry.

"I'm planning to gather information. Routes, supply requirements, potential safe zones." I pulled out a notebook filled with my calculations. "Deep into the corrupted wilderness, following the strongest concentrations of Sephis activity. If I can trace the corruption back to its source..."

"Ken," Karin said, "you're talking about walking through Sephis territory for weeks. Alone. With no backup and no way to call for help."

"I have advantages others don't. The regeneration, the light abilities, now whatever protective instincts I've inherited from Elara's crystals."

"You have a death wish," Kaguya corrected. "And a concerning tendency to believe your abilities make you invincible."

I set down my pen, looking at both sisters. "This has to be done alone."

"Ken—"

"Listen to me." I spread out the maps, pointing to the routes I'd calculated. "I can regenerate from injuries that would kill anyone else. I can survive without food or water longer than normal humans. If something goes wrong, if I'm captured or corrupted, I'm the only one who might survive long enough to escape."

"Or you're the only one arrogant enough to think you can handle whatever's out there," Karin said.

"Maybe. But I'm also the only one who's seen what I saw in that vision with Elara. The only one who understands what we're really facing."

Kaguya leaned forward. "Then tell us. Let us help plan this properly."

"No." I closed the notebook. "This isn't a team mission. It's reconnaissance by someone expendable enough to lose and durable enough to maybe return with information."

"Expendable?" Karin's voice rose. "You think you're expendable?"

"I think I'm replaceable as a healer but irreplaceable as someone who can survive beyond the dome long enough to learn something useful."

The room fell silent. Grace chirped uncertainly from her perch, sensing the tension.

"You're not coming either, Grace," I said, looking at the canary perched on the windowsill. "You stay with Karin and Kaguya."

"Ken," Kaguya said quietly, "you're not thinking clearly about this."

"I'm thinking more clearly than I have in months." I stood up, moving to the window where the dome's barriers shimmered in the distance. "Every day we delay, that intelligence grows stronger. Every settlement we save is just buying time while the real threat prepares something worse."

"So you'll abandon us to chase shadows beyond the dome."

"So I'll do what needs to be done while there's still time to do it."

I could feel their stares, their worry, their frustration. But I'd made my decision. The expedition would be solo, or it wouldn't happen at all.

"Two weeks," I said without turning around. "Then I go. Alone."

Behind me, I heard the sisters exchange glances. A moment of silent communication that I'd learned to recognize over our months together.

"No," Karin said finally. "You don't."

I turned around. "Excuse me?"

"You heard her," Kaguya said, already moving toward the door. "Karin, get Reika. Tell her we have a medical emergency requiring immediate intervention."

"Wait," I said, but Karin was already out the door. "You can't be serious."

"Completely serious." Kaguya's analytical mind had shifted into tactical mode. "You want to abandon your medical duties, your patients, your responsibilities, to chase after cosmic horrors based on visions and theories."

"Those visions showed me something real—"

"They showed you something that's made you willing to throw your life away." She blocked the doorway. "We're not going to stand by and watch you destroy yourself."

I started toward the door, but Grace suddenly flew between us, landing on Kaguya's shoulder and singing an urgent, distressed melody.

"Even Grace knows this is wrong," Kaguya said. "You're not the same person who taught us that every life is worth saving."

"I'm trying to save every life. All of them."

"By sacrificing yourself to satisfy your curiosity about cosmic horrors."

Heavy footsteps in the hallway announced Reika's arrival, along with what sounded like several other Guild officials. My heart sank as I realized how quickly they'd moved, how thoroughly they'd planned this intervention.

"Ken," Reika's voice called from outside the study. "We need to talk."

The door opened to reveal not just Reika, but Baron Gregory and two Guild physicians. Their expressions were concerned but determined.

"We're concerned about your mental state," Reika said gently. "The sisters tell me you're planning an unauthorized expedition beyond the dome."

"It's necessary—"

"It's suicidal," Baron Gregory interrupted. "And we can't allow someone of your importance to the city to undertake such a mission without proper evaluation."

I looked around the room. My family, my allies, all arrayed against me. All convinced they were protecting me from myself.

"How long?" I asked.

"Just until we can assess your condition properly," one of the physicians said. "A few days, perhaps a week."

"For your own protection," Reika added. "And for the protection of the people who depend on you."

◇◇◇◇

The Guild holding cell was comfortable enough. A narrow bed, a writing desk, a window overlooking the training grounds. They'd even allowed me to keep my medical supplies, though the more dangerous instruments had been removed.

I sat on the bed, studying the crystalline patterns beneath my skin. They pulsed more rapidly now, responding to my confinement and frustration. The walls felt too close, the window too small. Every instinct told me I needed to be moving, searching, acting while there was still time.

A soft knock interrupted my pacing. Karin entered, carrying a tray of food.

"Brought you dinner," she said, setting it on the desk.

"How long are you planning to keep me locked up?"

"Until you remember that throwing your life away isn't heroic. It's selfish."

"Selfish?"

"You think you're the only one who cares about stopping the corruption? The only one who wants to protect people?" She settled into the room's single chair. "We've been fighting beside you for months. We've saved settlements, purified corruption, proven that healing works better than destruction. And now you want to abandon all of that to go on some quest that will probably just get you killed."

"If I'm right about the source—"

"If you're wrong, you die for nothing. If you're right, you die learning something we can't use without you here to implement it."

Grace flew through the barred window, landing on my shoulder with a soft chirp. Even in confinement, she found ways to reach me.

"The patterns under your skin," Karin said quietly. "They're spreading, aren't they?"

I looked down at my hands. The crystalline formations were indeed more visible than they'd been even hours ago.

"Whatever's happening to you, running away to the wilderness isn't going to stop it. It's going to leave you alone with it when it gets worse."

"Maybe that's better. If these changes make me dangerous—"

"Then we face it together. Like we've faced everything else." She stood to leave. "The people who love you don't get to decide when you've become too dangerous to help."

The door closed behind her with a soft click, leaving me alone with Grace and the growing certainty that the crystalline patterns weren't just changing my appearance. They were changing my instincts, my priorities, my very nature.

I touched the glass of the window, feeling the barrier between me and the corrupted wilderness beyond. Somewhere out there, an intelligence older than human civilization was building toward something. Every day of delay gave it more time to prepare.

But here, in this comfortable cell, my family was preparing too. Planning alternatives, seeking solutions that didn't require me to walk alone into darkness.

The question was whether we'd find an answer before the changes accelerating through my body made the choice for all of us.

Grace sang softly, a melody of patience and hope. Outside the window, the dome's barriers held firm against the night.

Inside the cell, I began to plan an escape route that would let me reach the wilderness before anyone could stop me again.

Two weeks had become a few days. A few days might become hours.

The crystalline patterns pulsed beneath my skin, counting down to something I didn't yet understand but could no longer ignore.