Solwick never truly slept.
Even at 3 a.m., the city pulsed like a heartbeat — neon lights shimmered across glass skyscrapers, distant hovercars whispered through the sky lanes, and electric billboards flickered like digital stars. Every corner of Solwick was alive, buzzing, artificial. It was a city built to distract people from asking questions.
But Kael wasn't one of those people.
He stood alone on the rusted rooftop of his apartment tower, hands in his coat pockets, wind teasing the edge of his dark collar. His hair, a mess of ink-black strands, moved slightly as the breeze tugged across the skyline. Below, thousands of windows glowed, blinking on and off like lazy eyes refusing to close.
He wasn't looking at the view.
He was watching the reflection in a nearby panel of glass — not of himself, but of someone who used to exist. Someone he wasn't sure he still was.
Twenty-three years old. A bit older than most people stumbling into danger.
Witty, sharp, always a little distant.
That was Kael. Or at least, that's how the world saw him.
He didn't smile much these days. Not after what happened three years ago.
But even he couldn't deny it — something was off tonight.
He could feel it.
---
A flicker.
The moon, full and white, trembled — like a glitch on a broken screen.
The neon lights across the city blinked once… then died.
In one breathless second, Solwick fell into darkness.
A total, unnatural blackout.
No sounds.
No engines.
No power.
Just silence.
Then—
POP.
A ripple of blue light surged in the far distance — near the forgotten ruins of Sector 8.
Kael didn't wait.
He slipped on his gloves, tightened his jacket, and ran. No hesitation. His instincts were faster than his thoughts.
Whatever that light was… it wasn't electricity.
It was something else.
---
⬛ Sector 8 — 17 Minutes Later
Abandoned. Dead. Unmapped.
Old metal signs clung to cracked walls. Drones lay rusted in piles. This part of Solwick had been deleted from the system years ago — erased after a lab accident no one talked about.
Kael's boots splashed through puddles as he stepped into the remains of what used to be a research complex.
The source of the glow was deep underground.
Down the broken elevator shaft.
Through half-melted security doors.
Into a room that should not have existed.
And there, in the center — suspended in mid-air like it was thinking — was a fractured mirror.
No strings.
No support.
Just floating shards — rotating slowly in a perfect circle.
Kael stared.
The light bent around it like a dream refusing to wake up.
He stepped closer.
And then he saw it — not his reflection, but versions of himself.
Ten different versions.
One in armor.
One with white hair and glowing eyes.
One holding a woman's hand — a woman he didn't know, but whose face made his chest tighten like déjà vu.
His head spun.
"What the hell is this..."
And then —
heels clicked behind him.
A slow, deliberate sound. Sharp. Clean. Dangerous.
He turned.
And everything changed.
---
💫 Her Entrance
She emerged from the shadows like a glitch in reality — sleek, confident, absolutely unbothered by the chaos in the air.
Mira.
Long dark coat swirling around black boots that made every step echo like a warning. A high-slit silhouette underneath, just enough to catch the shimmer of broken light. Her skin kissed by the glow of the mirror. A single glowing tech-bracelet on her left wrist sparked faintly, pulsing like it knew something he didn't.
Her lips parted slightly, as if amused.
But it was her eyes that broke him —
Sharp. Cold. Gold-flecked.
They locked onto him like she was reading everything about him — every lie, every memory, every version of who he was.
And Kael… couldn't speak.
He didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
Couldn't look away.
It wasn't just attraction. It was something deeper.
A pull. Like gravity. Like fate.
She tilted her head, a smirk playing on her lips. "You're late."
Kael blinked. "...Do I know you?"
"You will."
That voice — smooth, low, teasing. She could've whispered it into his bloodstream and he'd still feel it hours later.
She walked slowly toward the floating mirror, gaze never leaving his.
"You shouldn't be here," she said. "But I guess the mirror doesn't care about rules anymore."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"
She stopped just a few feet away. Close enough that he could see the subtle scar along her collarbone — like she'd survived something impossible. Close enough to smell the faint trace of ozone and heat on her skin.
"I'm Mira," she said. "And you… Kael… you're the fracture point."
His heart stopped.
He hadn't told her his name.
to be continue _ _ _
[End of Chapter 1 part 1]