The lights in the undercity's safehouse flickered again.
Just once.
A faint stutter, like a heartbeat skipping. Jake opened his eyes. He wasn't sure if the flicker had woken him or if he hadn't truly been asleep in the first place. His body was exhausted, but his mind refused to rest. Thoughts pressed in—not chaotic, but insistent, like a whisper behind a closed door: too faint to grasp, too persistent to forge t.He sat up, rubbing the back of his neck.
His hands were shaking again. From the other side of the room, Liora said quietly, "Nightmares?"
She didn't look up from the map she was marking—a sprawl of city grids, tunnels, and coded sigils that sprawled like veins across paper. She'd been at it since dawn."Not nightmares," Jake answered. "Just… something off."Liora glanced up then — sharp, evaluating, but tired. "Off how?"Jake opened his mouth, closed it, tried again.
"I don't know. It's like… like something is tugging on me. Or calling me. But not in words. Just… pressure."Liora stopped writing . Jake swallowed. "You said the Arcana can cause aftershocks, right? Residual effects from using them?""Yes," she said slowly. "But this isn't residual. This feels directional."He blinked. "Directional?"Liora leaned back against the cracked pillar behind her, arms crossing as she studied him.
"When an Arcana wants something, it pulls. When it fears something, it pushes. When it bonds—""I don't have anyone to bond to," Jake said quickly. Too quickly. Her eyes softened, just barely. "I didn't say you did. I'm saying something is shifting inside you. Suspensum is an Arcana of inversion — its power doesn't move forward or back. It moves between."Between. That word lodged under Jake's ribs like a splinter. He looked down at his hands.
They weren't glowing. They weren't trembling anymore. But he could feel something — a faint warmth pulsing under the skin, like a second pulse too slow to be his. Liora watched him carefully. "Tell me exactly what it feels like."Jake exhaled. "Like someone's thinking about me."Liora went still."Not watching. Not touching. Just… thinking about me. And every time I notice it, it stops. And then it comes back."He expected her to dismiss it. To call it stress. Trauma. Adrenaline withdrawal.Instead, she stood."Get your shoes on. We need to move."Jake blinked. "Move? Where? I thought we were staying here for the night."We were," Liora said, already packing her blades, her coat, her sigil-wrapped rope. "But if something is resonating with you, staying in one place is dangerous."Jake stood up slowly. "Dangerous to who?" To you," she said. "And to anyone we take refuge with."She realised her voice was sharper than she meant and softened it.
"This isn't your fault, Jake."He almost believed her. They stepped into the dim corridor outside their borrowed room. Vale was gone — likely scavenging or setting up false trails. Pipes rattled overhead. The air tasted of iron and concrete. Jake touched the wall lightly to steady himself — and felt it again. A pulse.
Not his.
Not Suspensum.A gentle ache behind his sternum, like a heartbeat trying to sync with his own.
Like someone reaching for him through fog. Liora noticed Jake stop. "It's happening?"He nodded, jaw tight. "It feels… closer. Or stronger. I don't know,""Tell me when it spikes," she said. "Or drops. Or changes direction."It's not really direction," Jake murmured. "It's more like… emotion."What emotion?"Jake hesitated."Loneliness," he whispered.Liora froze.That wasn't something an Arcana normally projected. Unless—No. She didn't say it. Wouldn't say it until she was sure. They reached a junction in the tunnels. Liora motioned him to sit on a crate while she unrolled the map again."We have three options," she said. "North tunnels — abandoned, but full of surveillance runes. East sector — safer, but too close to Ordo patrols. Or the old rail line."Jake pointed. "Rail line?"" Mostly collapsed," she said. "Good for hiding. Bad for breathing."He tried for a small smile. "Sounds perfect for us."Liora almost smiled back. Almost.
But her eyes kept returning to him, to the tension in his shoulders, the way he kept rubbing the centre of his chest. She crouched in front of him. "Jake."He looked up."You are not losing control."I feel like I am."You're not. You're adapting. There's a difference."He didn't answer. Li Ora sighed and sat beside him on the crates. She didn't touch him — she rarely did — but she leaned close enough that her voice softened without echoing."Suspensum is the Arcana of surrender. Not death. Not weakness. Perspective. You're supposed to feel things differently now. You're supposed to sense people differently. The Arcana is showing you a truth you haven't accepted yet."Jake's voice cracked. "What truth?" That you're not alone," she said quietly. Ja ke laughed, but it wasn't a happy sound. "Then why does it hurt?"Liora looked away."Because whoever is resonating with you…"
She paused.
"…is hurting too."Jake's breath caught. Liora folded the map. "We leave in five minutes."