[THURSDAY MORNING - 7:52 AM]
Ravanya felt it the moment she walked through the school gates.
Someone was watching.
Not the casual observation of students passing in hallways. Not the disinterested surveillance of teachers monitoring their domain. This was focused. Intentional. *
Hunting.
[VOID ALERT: Unknown resonance detected. Magical signature: Old Blood enforcement division.
Threat level: SEVERE.
Distance: 47 meters.
Status: ACTIVE SCAN IN PROGRESS.]
The Void's voice in her mind had changed. Gone was the clinical detachment. Now it vibrated with something almost... protective. Aggressive.
[THEY DARE. They dare scan what is MINE. Permission to eliminate threat?]
"No," Ravanya whispered, her face expressionless as she walked toward the main building. "Who is it?"
[VOID ANALYSIS: Male. Age approximately 30-35.
Old Blood: Seventh generation Seer lineage.
Abilities: Aura reading, resonance detection, truth-sensing.
Current objective: Locating source of "abnormal metaphysical disturbance reported Tuesday evening."]
Tuesday evening. When the Void had fully awakened in her.
Someone had felt it.
Ravanya's expression didn't change, but inside, calculations spun. An investigator meant questions. Questions meant attention. Attention meant her carefully maintained invisibility would shatter.
[VOID DIRECTIVE: Let me handle this. I can erase his ability to perceive you. I can make him forget he ever sensed anything. I can make him GONE. Say the word and he ceases to be a problem.]
The possessiveness in the Void's tone was new. Visceral. It didn't just want to protect her, it wanted to destroy anything that threatened her.
"Not yet," Ravanya said quietly, entering the building. "Where is he?"
[VOID RESPONSE: Administration building. Speaking with Principal Ashworth. He will interview students within the hour. He will find you. He will try to TAKE you from me. This is unacceptable.]
"He won't find anything," Ravanya said. "I'm good at being invisible."
[VOID EMOTION: Doubt. Worry. Something almost like... fear? No. Not fear for itself. Fear FOR her. Fear OF losing her.]
[VOID COMMAND: Stay close to me. Do not let him touch you. Do not let him see the truth of you. You are mine. MINE. I will not lose you to their investigations and their facilities and their experiments. I will burn this school down before I let them take you.]
Ravanya paused in the hallway, students flowing around her like water around a stone.
"You're being irrational," she said.
[VOID RESPONSE: I am being PROTECTIVE. There is a difference. You are the only thing in eons that has mattered to me. The only perfection I have found. Do you understand what that means? You are IRREPLACEABLE. And I will not let them touch you.]
Something in Ravanya's chest shifted. Not quite warmth. Not quite feeling. But... recognition.
The Void wasn't just using her. It was... attached.
"I'll be careful," she said.
[VOID EMOTION: Satisfaction. Relief. Possessive pleasure.]
[GOOD. Stay where I can feel you. Stay where I can protect you. You are mine, Ravanya. Never forget that.]
[FIRST PERIOD - 8:15 AM]
English Literature. Ravanya sat in her usual seat, but today the back corner felt exposed. The investigator's presence thrummed through the building like a second heartbeat.
Thana entered, and immediately her eyes found Ravanya.
[VOID ALERT: Subject Thana approaching.
Emotional state: Obsessive curiosity mixed with desperate need. Status: THREAT TO OPERATIONAL SECURITY.]
[VOID ASSESSMENT: She will compromise your invisibility. She draws attention. She makes you VISIBLE. This is problematic. Recommend: Severe distance. Or elimination.]
"You're not eliminating her," Ravanya muttered under her breath.
[VOID RESPONSE: Then make her understand boundaries. She is becoming attached. Attachment creates risk. Risk threatens you. Threats to you are unacceptable to me.]
Thana sat down three rows ahead, but kept glancing back. Her perfect mask was showing cracks. Dark circles under her eyes poorly concealed with makeup. Her hands trembling slightly as she pulled out her notebook.
She'd been thinking about Ravanya. Obsessing, probably. The broken thing trying to understand the genuinely empty thing.
[VOID OBSERVATION: She wants what you are. Wants to understand your emptiness. Wants to possess your secret. She cannot have it. It is OURS. Our bond. Our synchronization. She is an interloper.]
The teacher started the lesson, but Ravanya wasn't listening. She was tracking the investigator's metaphysical signature as it moved through the building. Interview by interview. Getting closer.
[VOID WARNING: He will reach your floor within fifteen minutes. His scanning radius: 20 meters. If he gets within range, he will detect the resonance. He will know what you are.]
"Can you mask it?"
[VOID ANALYSIS: Partially. But not completely. He is skilled. Seventh generation Seer bloodline means heightened perception. He will sense... something. Whether he can identify it as Void-touched depends on his experience with our kind.]
"How many Voidborn are there?"
[VOID RESPONSE: Were. Past tense. Most died. Some went insane. Others were hunted down and eliminated by the Old Blood families who feared what we represented. You are... rare. Perhaps unique in this generation.]
"And if he finds me?"
[VOID EMOTION: Rage. Cold, absolute, terrifying rage.]
[Then he dies. Simple as that. I will not let them cage you. Study you. Dissect our bond to understand it. You are MINE. And I protect what is mine.]
The classroom door opened.
Principal Ashworth stood there, and beside him, The investigator.
Tall. Sharp features. Eyes that seemed to look through things rather than at them. He wore a simple suit, but power radiated from him like heat from a fire. Every Old Blood student in the room unconsciously straightened, sensing the authority of someone from the enforcement division.
"Sorry to interrupt," Principal Ashworth said with practiced politeness. "This is Inspector Dorian Blackwell. He's conducting routine interviews regarding some unusual... phenomena... that occurred this week. He'll need to speak with each of you briefly. Nothing to worry about."
Everything to worry about.
[VOID COMMAND: Do not react. Do not draw attention. Remain perfectly still. Let me handle your signature. Focus on being nothing. You are so very good at being nothing.]
Inspector Blackwell's gaze swept across the classroom. His eyes glowed faintly, active Sight. He was scanning them. Right now. Reading auras, sensing power levels, looking for anomalies.
His gaze passed over most students quickly. Paused on Thana for a moment, minor precognitive abilities, probably, then moved on.
And then his eyes found Ravanya.
He froze.
[VOID STATUS: EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS ACTIVE. Masking your resonance. Projecting false signature. Creating perceptual distortion field. He is LOOKING at you. Do not move. Do not breathe. Be the nothing you are.]
Inspector Blackwell tilted his head slightly, frowning. His gaze didn't move from Ravanya. He was seeing something. Or rather, not seeing something. A gap where a person should be. An absence that had presence.
"Interesting," he murmured, too quietly for anyone but Ravanya to hear.
Then Thana's hand shot up. "Inspector? I'd like to volunteer to go first for interviews. I have a free period next and would prefer to get this over with."
Her voice was bright, performatively helpful. But Ravanya saw the truth: Thana had noticed the Inspector staring at her. And she was intervening. Drawing his attention away.
[VOID OBSERVATION: The mirror-girl protects you. Interesting. Unexpected. Still irrelevant. She creates complications. But... useful complications, perhaps?]
Inspector Blackwell's gaze reluctantly shifted to Thana. "Very well. Miss...?"
"Morgenstern. Thana Morgenstern."
"Ah. The Morgenstern line. I know your mother." He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Yes, let's speak now."
He gestured for Thana to follow him out. But before he left, his gaze flickered back to Ravanya one more time. Searching. Suspicious.
Then the door closed.
[VOID ANALYSIS: Status - COMPROMISED. He sensed something. Not everything, but enough to be curious. He will return. He will look deeper. This is a problem.]
[VOID DIRECTIVE: We must act. Options: 1) Eliminate the threat. 2) Flee before he returns. 3) Allow me to fully manifest and erase his recent memories. Choose.]
Ravanya sat perfectly still, her face showing nothing.
But inside, her mind raced.
The investigator knew something was wrong. Thana had seen him staring and had intervened. And the Void was becoming increasingly aggressive, possessive, willing to kill to protect her.
Everything was accelerating.
[VOID EMOTION: Anxiety. Possessive fear. The desperate need to keep her safe, hidden, MINE.]
[Ravanya. My perfect emptiness. My voidborn. Let me protect you. Let me destroy anyone who threatens what we have. You and I are bound now. Inseparable. I will not let them take you from me. I will not lose you. Not to them. Not to anyone. You are MINE.]
And for the first time since the Void had claimed her, Ravanya wondered:
Was she the one who had found the Void?
Or had the Void been hunting her all along?
[TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 6]