“Put her on your back. We need to move, like the tide pulling away from a storm-lashed shore.”

“Why?”

“My armor’s heavy; it binds my arms like iron vines. I can’t even reach my back.”

“Can’t we stay here, like stones hiding from rain?”

“The residents all turning strange at once is a bad omen, like crows winging over a field.”

Hedi muttered under her breath, then bent and shouldered Selina like a pack mule under a storm.

Selina’s weight pressed her down till breath ran thin, each step burning strength like a guttering candle.

“My strength’s fraying like a rope.”

“We haven’t even gone a few steps, Professor Melvina; the road still snakes ahead.”

“Talking’s painless when you’re not bent double; can’t you shed that junk armor like a husk?”

The guard walked ahead and shook his head like a reed refusing the wind.

Hedi grumbled, “I could punch your skull to dust,” and her body tilted sideways like a listing ship. She crouched to reset her balance, then stood and shuffled, feet heavy as lead.

“How do we go down, like water seeking a slope?”

“Downstairs? Ah, not that way.” The guard pointed at a rectangular wooden door like a coffin lid. “There’s a lift inside.”

“Tech changes life, like spring thaw loosening ice.”

“Why not use magic, like a shortcut through fog?”

“If magic beat tech for convenience, the Empire would have turned over like mountains flipping and seas pouring.”

“Makes sense, like a straight blade.”

“Help me! I’m really about to—drop like a felled tree!”

Hedi’s arms went soft, fingers losing Selina’s thigh like wax in heat. As Selina slid, the guard finally reached in and set her back on the spine’s center like a saddle.

“Can’t you carry her yourself, like bearing your own load?”

“No—bolted shut.”

“Then hold her, or sling her over your shoulder like a sack of grain.”

The guard said nothing. He opened the lift’s wooden door like splitting a chest and waved Hedi in first.

Hedi set Selina carefully against the lift wall, hands on hips, breath gusting like steam. The guard stood by and turned the button to the right.

The lift started slowly with a soft hum; the whole box swayed, dizziness rising like stirred wine. Then it stopped with a gear-grinding clack and opened to both sides like curtains.

“It’ll be fine once we reach the outpost, like shelter under an eave.”

The guard spoke as he slid an arm under Selina’s elbow, gripped her waist, and lifted her like a bundle. He seemed about to cradle her, but set her back onto Hedi’s spine, hollowing Hedi with a wave of helplessness like winter wind.

“Be human, will you? I’m a girl too!” Her voice skipped like a thrown pebble.

“It’ll be fine once we reach the outpost,” the guard repeated, and stepped out first like a shadow slipping ahead.

Hedi shuffled toward the outpost. She remembered a book saying a body weighs more when unconscious, like stones soaked through. Turns out it wasn’t a joke. She shook her head, flicked sweat from her eyes like rain beads, and fought for balance, refusing to let Selina slide.

“Here, set the Investigator on the bed—” The guard eyed the wrecked outpost like a storm-torn nest. “On a chair, then.”

“I’ll wake sore tomorrow for sure, like rust in every joint.”

“Now let’s talk about the Dark Realm, like opening a sealed jar.”

“Let me catch my breath, like a fish on shore.”

“Every second counts, Professor.” The guard picked up a gun from the outpost; his phrasing was like formal letters—precise, cold, lacking breath.

“You can steal seconds and still let people rest, like snatching fire without burning.”

“I ask, you answer: is the Dark Realm alive, like a forest with a heartbeat?”

“On thinking, it’s impossible, like stone refusing to bloom.”

“Assume it’s true—what follows, like dominoes falling through fog?”

“Magical studies is dead.” Hedi lay on the floor and gave a limp laugh like grass after frost. “Can you imagine a Dark Realm built of magic as matter, alive like a beast? It overturns human understanding; theories and laws would topple like shrines in an earthquake!”

“You know I don’t get this stuff, like fog over my eyes.”

“You’re so dense, like a brick in a stream!”

“Give me the conclusion, like the arrow, not the feathers.”

“Don’t know. But it sensed humans and tried to swallow us, like a maw in the dark.”

“The residents’ abnormalities came from that too, like ripples from a stone?”

“If it never happened before, then yes, like a new scar on old bark.”

“As for the Dark Realm—you only know it might be alive, like a rumor with teeth?”

“I’m not an Investigator. Ask the cutie on the chair for details,” she said, tossing the words like candies.

“Fine. Stay here; I’ll check on the residents like a scout slipping into tall grass.”

Hedi didn’t answer. She waved and watched the guard leave the outpost like a swallowed flame.

The room fell into silence like snow.

It was a silence without sound, like a bell with its tongue cut.

This silence had another weight—thick and pressing like wet velvet. I’ve felt it before, somewhere. Hedi combed through memory like turning old photo leaves and found it: the silence when the Priest made me kneel before the goddess statue, a pressure equal to now.

“Mm-hmm.” Selina clutched her head and looked around slowly like a deer coming out of fog. “Is this the Dark Realm?”

“It’s still exactly like Shattered City’s outpost, like a mirror copying a room.”

“Looks like my senior didn’t lie. He said the Dark Realm holds countless independent worlds, like stars in a jar.”

“Interesting. The books on the Dark Realm never say this, their pages silent like sealed leaves.”

“Why are you smiling? We’re inside the Dark Realm, like ants in a hive!”

Hedi folded her hands behind her head like a lazy cat. “No. I dragged you out.”

“Like this—” Selina touched her neck as if smoothing a ribbon. “I don’t remember what happened.”

“Not worth remembering, like ash in a bowl.”

“Where’s the guard, like looking for a lantern?”

“He went to shoot the zombies, like crows pecking corn.”

“Zombiss?”

“Is my accent that strange?” Hedi pressed her throat and went, “Ah—ah—ah—ah,” like a vocalist practicing vowels.

“You’re awfully at ease, like tea steaming in a quiet room.”

“The most at ease is you; I had to carry you back like hauling a sack uphill!”

“Sorry,” she said, like a leaf curling.

“Heh. Apprentice Investigator,” Hedi said, the title tin-bright like a cheap badge.

Selina fell silent, feeling Hedi odd since a moment ago like a stream gone off-course. “Did I make you angry?”

“Why, like a flint spark?”

“You’re singing, and saying things I don’t understand, like birds speaking in trees.”

Hedi sat up and stared into Selina’s eyes. Her black irises held tea-brown tint, uneven between left and right, like each eye living its own life.

“What is it?” Selina asked, unease fluttering like moth wings.

“Feels pointless to ask, like throwing pebbles into a well.”

“If it’s the Dark Realm, I do have thoughts, like lanterns in a cave!”

“Fine, speak. Could it be alive, like a mountain with breath?”

“Complex systems theory, like a web strung across a valley.”

“You mean, treat the Dark Realm as a complex system—countless interacting agents forming life-like traits?” Hedi’s mind lit like a struck match. “As a living body, it must hold many elements and structures—”

“Those elements and structures depend and interact, matching the ‘countless worlds’ my senior mentioned, like roots threading a forest.”

“Then to keep life, it must reach dynamic stability... How does it take in energy and cycle matter, like tides feeding a reef?”

Hedi muttered to herself, then cast Selina the hungry gaze of a seeker like a hawk’s. “Got any books on it? You Investigators have studied forever; you must know if it’s alive.”

“I only brought money for the return ticket, like a single coin in an empty purse.”

“That money’s not yours anymore; it’ll enter my pocket sooner or later, like rain finding a gutter.”

“Ha... ha... Feels like we don’t need books—” Her words stumbled like loose stones.

“Not that simple. Complex systems can’t explain all life, especially consciousness, emotion, and subjective experience. Whether the Dark Realm is living needs other fields, like rivers feeding the sea.”

“Magical studies won’t do, like trying to mend silk with iron?”

“I declared magical studies dead, but it’s not magic’s fault. The Dark Realm has left my map, like a ship beyond charts.”

“What now? I still want to talk to the guard, like seeking a lighthouse.”

“He went to check the residents and will be back soon.” Hedi spoke, then remembered his flat tone when he made her carry Selina, and she ground her teeth like pebbles. She didn’t blame Selina’s weight; she’d been unconscious like a sleepwalker.

Bang!

Hedi jolted at the sound, and when she saw blood on the guard’s armor like red leaves, dread poured through her.

The guard was pale. One hand gripped the sidearm; the other trembled swapping rounds like a drummer missing beats.

“What happened, like a question tossed into storm?”

No answer, like a locked door.

The outpost held still, only the sound of bullets seating like beads clicking on a string.

“The Dark Realm spread?” If not that, what else? Hedi stood and slapped dust from her pants like brushing ash.

“Maybe worse than that. Quick, leave Shattered City, like fleeing before a flood!”

“Weren’t we going to close the Dark Realm, like shutting a gate against wolves?”

“Professor! Where do you get so many questions all day, like sparrows chattering on a roof?”

“How... do we get out, like finding a path through bamboo?”

The guard was speechless for a moment, the question catching him like a fishhook. He rubbed his face roughly. “I’ll see if anyone’s at the gate.”

Hedi stood there, dumbstruck like a post in rain. She looked back at Selina, who sat on the chair, nervously fixing her hair like a sparrow preening.

“No, we can’t use the gate.” The guard appeared again at the outpost door like a windblast. “Stay here first.”

He vanished from Hedi’s sight again, leaving only curses and the crack of bullets leaving chambers like lightning.

“Pr—Professor?” Her voice wobbled like a string.

“Riot. Absolutely a riot!” Hedi slapped her head, irritation buzzing like hornets. She’d seen the guard shoot residents on entering; it was only time. But where to hide in a narrow outpost, like a rabbit in a snare?

“Professor, you said riot—” The words stumbled like loose stones.

“Stand up first, like a sapling straightening.”

Hedi dragged a chair against the door and stepped back, ready to cast the moment someone broke in, like a bow drawn to the ear.

“Why would there be a riot, like asking why winds howl?”

“Afraid it’s the Dark Realm. After you blacked out, the residents howled miserably like dogs under a red moon. I don’t think it’s coincidence.”

“No wonder you wanted to know if it’s alive, like checking a beast’s pulse.”

“Not about that, but the current mess is proof of a kind, like tracks in fresh snow.”

“If the guard never comes back, what do we do, like a boat without oars?”

“Fight our way out, like cutting through bamboo.”

“Against those residents, like swinging at shadows?”

“Things with spider legs, twisted limbs, and tendrils sprouting from their backs don’t count as human, like nightmares wearing skins.”

“I... I can’t use magic. I have no combat power, like a candle without flame.”

Hedi looked at Selina hiding behind her and let her mouth tilt with mischief like a fox. “Nonsense. You’re the best monster bait.”

“Not funny, like a snapped string!”

At that, the room sank again into suffocating silence like a lid pressed on a jar.

If it were just me, escape wouldn’t be hard, like slipping through reeds.

But magic demands fierce focus; I couldn’t protect Selina too, like threading a needle while holding a shield.

Worst case, both of us die here, like candles guttering in a sealed room.