Chapter 26:

CH 21.1 Mama Knows Everything

The Wildworld

I hit the ground hard.

My back slammed into wooden floorboards, knocking the air out of me. When my vision steadied, I was back in the same corridor not one second had passed. It was the same lantern light. Same hum of voices. Same exact second as before everything froze.

But the tremor still crawled under my skin.

A whisper pulsed at the base of my skull—thin, synthetic, like a radio running out of battery.

Bandwidth linked.

Stabilization incomplete.

User: temporary.

I sucked a breath and pushed myself up.

My tiny room pressed in around me—chalk marks, scattered notes, Rin’s crumpled paper. I started pacing automatically: three steps, pivot, four steps, pivot. Bare feet whispering across the floor.

I rolled down the paper.

“Okay… think.”

“e5 to d4… no—knight to c3—fuck my life.”

I tried to slick back my hair out of habit, but my palm slid off my bald scalp, so I pushed my glasses up instead.

“If bishop takes, then I’m boxed in—idiot—why didn’t I see that—rook can’t even—fuck—”

The anxiety crawled too close to the surface, so I grabbed the shirt I moments ago when I formed that gun—still crusted with chalk dust—and wiped the scribbles off the wall before anyone else saw them.

I had broken one of the first rules every kid learns when they enter this place.

I could still hear the gray‑headed witch reading it to me:

“Attack with lethal intent is a sin against divine grace and punished severely.”

Meaning:

Only Mama is allowed to kill us.

I swallowed. The memory tasted like iron and humiliation.

Going back to her was part of my plan—just not the vision part. But the vision came with its advantages.

The hall.

The man.

The hourglass.

Time folding like wet paper.

I closed my eyes and tried to summon the exact feeling I had when the world slowed—a mix of wonder and terror, like something ancient looking right at me.

A warmth ignited in my chest.

My hand flickered—once—leaving a streak of pale blue light.

Then something flickered at the edge of my vision.

A rectangular blue pane.

A soft hum.

SYSTEMINTERFACE: ACTIVE

My breath steadied. My mind clicked into place like a door locking.

“Lyra,” I whispered. “Are you there?”

Silence.

No presence.

No comforting voice.

But the UI remained—calm, patient. Watching.

I inhaled and stepped toward the door—

A fist slammed into it. Dust rained from the ceiling.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: RETREAT

I didn’t.

The second hit cracked the wood and bent the hinges.

SYSTEM WARNING: IMPACT FORCE EXCEEDS SAFETY LIMIT

I bit my lip. Copper flooded my tongue. I pivoted just slightly—positioning myself.

The door exploded inward.

Wood smashed into my chest, throwing me to the floor. My glasses went crooked, miraculously unbroken.

Sandaled feet stepped over the ruins.

Bola.

Her white temple robe dragged like quiet judgment. Her eyes lit like controlled suns. Even the waiters in the hall stiffened when she appeared.

The first comma in my escape plan.

My system interface spasmed.

SYSTEM ALERT: MANA FIELD ANOMALY

Great.

My trump card—interference.

ERROR: EXTERNAL DRAIN DETECTED

She looked at me.

Just looked.

My muscles seized instantly. Pressure clamped down on my lungs.

She stepped closer.

“I—”

The slap hit before the word left my mouth.

She inhaled… paused… exhaled sharply through her nose.

“Just hope Mama doesn’t kill you,” she said.

Then she turned, and I scrambled up, clutching my lip. The hallway was already packed—white‑robed waiters, hands near hilts, eyes sharp.

They bowed to Bola, parted for her—then whispered at me.

“How’d he take Roan down?”

“He didn’t. It was an ambush.”

“New Awakened think one spark makes them gods.”

I kept my head down. One hand hiding the blood, the other clutching my robe like it could shield me.

Taylor walked past in the opposite direction. Her wooden sword knocked softly against her back. Her eyes widened at the sight of me—dust, blood, limp.

Worried.

I looked away.

I couldn’t accept pity from someone who might’ve helped Mama orchestrate all this.

But she hadn’t mentioned anyone besides me…

As if to deter me from thinking about anything else but my imment demise Bola opened the door and shoved me forward. Then watched me with an unreadable expression as I stepped.

For someone that mean to be so.... spineless. It was fine she’d be dead soon anyway.

My eyes glanced round the dim room lit only by the thin line of daylight slicing through the shutters. I had been here before so the fear I felt was soley towards the person infront of me and not something about some object of the demise hidden somewhere around me which would seem absurd. She didn't any of that to kll Corny.

She didn’t look up when I entered. She just tapped the table once.

“Sit.”

I sat.

My hands trembled on top of my knees. My heartbeat hammered in my ears, but my face stayed still. Calm, Aiden. You can shake inside. Not outside.

Behind my eyes, the system flickered.

SYSTEM ALERT: DANGER RATING—ELEVATED

RECOMMENDED ACTION: COMPLIANCE

Mama finally lifted her gaze. Those eyes always felt like they were peeling the skin off my thoughts.

“You caused quite the disturbance today,” she said softly.

I swallowed once. Slowly.

"The supreme deities are to be praised."

"Indeed they are."

“With respect, Mama,” I said, forcing each word through steady lips, "That plate was rigged"

"Indeed it was" She paused and just when I was about to speak intrepruted me. "But then what rules were you given when you were Admitted in here Rin. I rembered you back then you hadn't gained meat." She laughed. "Your eyes didn't bare so much doubt."

I paused saying too much too soon was for fools.

Their was silence. I didn't get uncomfortable in it because she wasn't then I spoke.

Mama do you know everything.

She laughed then slowly she mouthed while pointing her finger to the ground.

"everythignn in here yes."

“Mama it’s clear you know a lot. But not everything.”

Really?

"I found myself alive in the north forest on top of bodies." I dropped the bomb quiclkly then added "you must know that right?"

I held down my trembling hand. "The people you put in here are so incompetent so not only did Bola fail to kill me for whatever ritual that was, she didn't even wipe my brain propely"

A small smile curved at the corner of her mouth. Controlled.

Inside, my chest was a storm. But outside—only composure.

Mama leaned back, fingers steepling.

“Indeed,” she murmured. “Continue.”

So I told her everything

that she needed to hear:

How this place needed "young awakened corpses. I spoke about how I belived pepole transiting or being transifered was also obvious that they were dieing for whatever ritual I had been caught in. Then I told her I was not the smartest person i here and that one day misharps like me would happen again and when people foudn out. That I would do the work peple coudln't and make sure that all people that realsize are given to her. I even taught of Taylor for a moment while I spoke.

I didn’t lie too much.

While I spoke, she reached for a piece of chalk and drew slow, curling shapes across the surface of the wooden table.

A spiral.

A rune.

A symbol I didn’t recognize.

Halfway through the second line—

A scream tore through the hallway.

High. Raw.

Then choking.

Then nothing.

My stomach went hollow.

That voice—Bola’s.

Unmistakable.

The sound cut off so abruptly it felt like the air itself recoiled. A wet thud followed, like meat hitting stone, and the silence afterward pressed against my ears until they rang.

I didn’t move.

Mama didn’t even look toward the door.

She simply finished the last curve of her rune, exhaled like she’d been waiting for the interruption to end, and only then lifted her eyes to mine.

Somewhere outside, the last of Bola’s breath bubbled out into the floorboards.

My throat tightened

If someone like Bola died that fast…

then I was still alive only because Mama allowed it.

“You,” she whispered, leaning forward, “are one of the few I want to hear the truth from.”

SYSTEM WARNING: EXTREME THREAT LEVEL—CRITICAL

HEART RATE SPIKE DETECTED

RECOMMENDED ACTION: SUBMISSION

She tapped the chalk against the table.