Chapter 24: The Cost of Seconds

Night falls quickly in the forest. The darkness is absolute, a heavy, suffocating blanket. I dare not light a fire. The smoke would be a beacon, and I do not know if the Cleaner can track us through smell or heat.

I sit in the dark, listening to the breathing of the two women behind me. Minaki's breath is soft and rhythmic. Hitane's is still ragged, a hitch in every exhale that sets my nerves on edge.

"Water," a voice rasps.

I scramble back to them. "Hitane?"

"Water," she repeats, her voice barely a whisper.

I fumble for my bag. I have a bottle of water I bought at the convenience store before... before everything went wrong. I unscrew the cap and lift Hitane's head. I tilt the bottle to her lips.

She drinks greedily, coughing as the water hits her dry throat. Minaki stirs and wakes up, her hand instantly going to Hitane's forehead.

"You are awake," Minaki breathes. "Thank the stars."

"Do not thank the stars," Hitane whispers, her voice weak but laced with her usual dry cynicism. "Thank the Anchor. He pulled us out before the collapse."

She tries to sit up but groans and falls back. "My head feels like it has been split open with an axe."

"You paused a Cleaner," I say. "You said it was impossible."

"It is," she says. "I did not pause him. I paused the entropy around him. I created a localized bubble of zero-time. It... it takes a toll."

She reaches out and finds my hand in the dark. Her grip is weak. "Where are we, Juiro?"

"A forest," I say. "I do not know exactly where. I just aimed for 'away'."

"Away is good," she murmurs. "Away is safe for now."

"He called you Triad," I say, the memory of the mechanical voice chilling me. "He knew us. He knew about the resonance."

"The Scout," Hitane says. "He must have been tracking the energy spikes. My training... Minaki's walls... your anchoring. We were loud. We thought we were learning to be quiet, but we were screaming into the void."

"He had a mask," Minaki whispers. "And a gun. He was going to kill us."

"Deletion," Hitane corrects. "They do not kill. They erase. They remove the anomaly from the timeline. If he had hit you with that beam, Minaki... you would never have been born. No memory of you would remain. Just a hole in the world."

I shudder. The stakes have shifted from survival to something far more existential.

"We cannot go back to the village," I state. "Or the city. They know our faces. They know our energy signatures."

"We have to keep moving," Hitane says. "But not yet. I cannot walk. My legs... they do not feel like mine."

"We will wait," I say firmly. "We are safe here. The mist is thick. The forest is dense. We will wait until you are strong."

"Juiro," Hitane says, her voice serious. "You ripped space. I saw it. You opened a fissure."

"I did not mean to," I say, touching my nose which is still tender. "I just... I wanted to put something between him and you."

"That is a weapon," she says. "Anchoring is defense. Rending... rending is offense. You tore the fabric of reality to save us. That is... dangerous. And impressive."

"I do not want to be a weapon," I say quietly.

"We do not get to choose what we are anymore," Hitane says, closing her eyes. "We only get to choose how we use it."