Eveline stood before the guard’s corpse. Her mouth dipped in a faint arc, pity and scorn braided like shadow and light.

She watched him for a breath. Then she lifted her face to a sky set too high, a cold lid of porcelain over the world.

Bury him. Yes—you.

The driver started to ask, Me? Eveline cut him off like a blade through thread. She turned, snapped a textbook salute to the dead, and carried the body toward a bare patch of earth, a pale scar on the ground.

Eveline watched the driver loosen the soil with magic, the dirt crumbling like stale bread. He laid the guard in the pit, adjusted his limbs again and again, until the pose looked like sleep under a quilt of earth. Then he covered him slowly, each shovel a soft, dull drum.

The meaning of death, Eveline said, thoughtful as falling snow, isn’t the end of life. It’s the lasting memory of how fiercely we lived, how deeply we loved, and how brightly we gave.

Am I supposed to say something too?

What?

A eulogy.

The dead can’t hear. It’s just a form.

The driver scratched his head, clouded as a fogged window. He came up with nothing, and let it go.

Found any other residents? Frost glazed Eveline’s face again. Her tone sat level, a metronome in a clockwork heart, as if she were a precision machine.

Shouldn’t be any.

Shouldn’t?

I’ll check again.

Eveline followed a step behind, unhurried as a slow river under ice.

Houses leaned like tired trees. Plaster peeled and exposed mottled brick, like old scars under torn cloth. Windows were ragged; glass spiderwebbed and split, edges catching hard light like knives.

A prickle crawled under the skin on the back of her left hand. She rubbed it once, then paced past the lifeless ruins, a snake of path winding ahead. Colors deepened shade by shade, until every wall wore a coat of mouse-gray ash.

Deputy Director!

Eveline followed the driver’s finger. That’s a Shattered City outpost.

Aren’t outposts built near the gates?

I didn’t design this city.

My mistake. Too many questions.

Let’s go in.

Give me a moment.

Eveline had only counted to fifteen in her head when the driver came out, a portable suitcase in hand, its leather fine as a cat’s back. The bear-brown hide drank the light, and its rounded corners shone like river stones, both protection and polish.

Only this inside.

Looks like a travel case.

Eveline opened it. Velvet lined the interior, soft as dusk, the color in quiet harmony with the bear-brown shell.

She crouched and lifted each item out: a fantasy novel, three fountain pens, a calendar, and a calligraphy copybook, paper neat as raked sand.

The Investigator standing behind her murmured the name on the copybook. Hedi Melvina. A Professor from the Noble Academy actually came here!

Not came. She’s still in Shattered City.

Why?

Because the suitcase is here. No reason to abandon it and walk away alone.

I didn’t see anyone except the mutated residents.

She may have entered the Dark Realm. Eveline recalled the guard’s words. Tried to leave by the Investigators’ private stair, and slipped into the Dark Realm instead.

How did you deduce that? If you’d rather not—

Why were the residents crowding the stair mouth?

To get out.

If so, isn’t the city gate easier?

So she left by the stair like those residents? Wouldn’t having the guard open the gate be easier?

Too many people. A swarm through the gate can’t be controlled. Eveline straightened, her shadow a narrow blade. When we came in, a one-way barrier spell sealed the stair the residents had blocked. That points to Melvina going that way. And the stair sits beside the Dark Realm. She might have been pulled in.

The driver still had a hive of questions. He sealed them, like cork in a bottle, and muttered, I see.

I’ll ask again. No residents left?

Confirmed.

Let’s go. We’re shrinking the Dark Realm.

If Selina is inside—

A trainee Investigator can’t escape an A-class Dark Realm. We shrink its reach before it spreads like wildfire.

Shame. Selina’s fitness scores are the best I’ve seen among Investigators.

Who knows why she came here?

Eveline urged the driver toward the Dark Realm. One before, one behind, they climbed the stair again. They worked their magic, thinning the mana around the boundary like pulling threads from a cloak.

The Dark Realm felt the ebb. It didn’t yank to feed. It swelled and shrank, a black lung panting, like a tantrum with no strength to throw.

Strange, the driver said, glancing at Eveline. It’s not pulling anything to keep its mana up.

Very strange.

Whoosh—two black smudges shot out from within. One slammed into Eveline mid-incantation. Pain flashed; she hit the ground hard, the world a ringing bell. Before she could see what struck her, the shadow stood up and shook itself into shape.

Professor! Selina shouted. She hauled Hedi up like a sapling in a storm. You okay?

Hedi gritted her teeth. That makes three times. Damn thing—where did it dump us this time?

The crystal brought us.

Right, damn crystal!

Not the crystal.

Hedi scanned the surroundings, a ripple of familiarity brushing her like a remembered scent. Aside from a wary man and a woman on the ground, this place… It could be a mirage the Dark Realm spun. It can be altered by human hands. That thought fit like a key.

We’re back in Shattered City! Selina got it first. She hugged Hedi tight, a tide spilling the banks. We made it out!

That can’t be right. Hit me.

Selina grabbed Hedi’s cheek and pinched. Pain stung; tears welled like dew.

We actually made it back. Hedi rubbed her swelling cheek, a hamster pouch stuffed full. Also—your strength is ridiculous!

Got a little excited, heh.

Eveline watched their racket, her face a still pond. She stood without a ripple and handed Hedi the suitcase. I’m Eveline Stratford, Deputy Director of the Dark Realm Research Institute.

Ah— Selina squeaked. She hid behind Hedi like a small bird behind a tree. Hedi stepped in front with easy instinct. The Deputy Director herself came to catch a thief?

Professor!

If you did wrong, own it. This one’s on you.

On one hand, yes, Eveline said, not denying a thing. On the other, we’re here to stop the Dark Realm from expanding.

Not to close it?

It’s been open too long. It grew from C-class to A-class. You don’t shut that by wishing. What surprises me is that you walked out alive.

Hedi drew Selina forward, offering her like a shield that smiles. Thanks to this long-distance champion. Without her, we’d be dinner for roaches.

Just that?

If you want to know what we saw in the Dark Realm—

I can reduce your penalty, but it won’t vanish.

That’s the line I wanted. Hedi nodded, satisfied, then sniffed her sleeve, face wrinkling like paper. I need to go home and wash.

Not yet. I need to run a full workup on you and Selina. I have to make sure you’ve truly left the Dark Realm.