Inner Drive.

The Dark Realm’s feedback hums like a hidden heart, pulsing behind every shadow.

Hedi watched Bruns leave, her mood a tight knot, then wrote two grounded guesses on paper like map lines inked in twilight.

Worst case, they complement each other, weaving a full spine for Dark Realm Magic like roots braiding underground.

That would choke where Dark Realm Magic could be used, like narrowing a river with stone embankments.

It wouldn’t just need a specific mental force; it would demand you stand inside the Dark Realm, like a diver needing the sea.

Until new material arrived, more thinking was gnawing on a dry bone, no marrow to be had.

She pushed Dark Realm Magic to the back of her mind like shelving a heavy tome, and flipped through records on unknown magic in the brain.

It outstripped traditional magic theory like a hawk above storm clouds, and wasn’t the observer effect of physics.

It kept solid shielding like armor under moonlight, yet shifted form like smoke to dodge every probe and study.

Hedi slid the files back into the drawer like sealing a vault and headed for the Academy library.

Every shelf was stacked to the brim, a forest of spines, from ancient tomes to modern monographs, and none cut through her fog.

“What are you looking for?”

Hedi turned; a tall, slim girl stood there, a pocket-sized book cupped like a sparrow in her hand.

Hedi asked for books or records on transient magic; the girl tilted her head, finger to lips, thought in silence like a still pond.

“The section you’re in has them.”

“But not the ones I need.”

“Please wait,” the girl said, then sprinted toward the reference room like a quick silver fish.

She sat at a differential engine of fine gears, brass tubes, and a complex mechanical keyboard, her fingers tapping like rain.

Hundreds of codes bloomed on the screen, a field of numbered fireflies.

“Ah! There are a few in that direction too.”

Hedi followed her pointing finger toward the religion section, then shook her head with a soft sigh, a leaf falling.

“I’m not looking for mythology.”

“In that case, the area you saw is everything.”

She thanked the girl and borrowed a few deep studies, not for hidden clues but for a subtle comfort, like warm tea in cold hands.

Leaving empty-handed felt weird, like walking into a convenience store and buying nothing, the clerk’s stare a needle-prick.

She didn’t want that awkward scene again, an itch under winter wool.

Hedi strolled the quiet, tree-lined path, mind circling the drawer’s files like a moth around a lamp, all the way to her building.

Dead leaves crunched underfoot, crisp as crackers, a brief death before spring stirs the roots.

Dusk thickened; the sky darkened like an ink bottle overturned, indigo lines running from the horizon.

Scattered pedestrians clutched their coats and strode fast, the street a flute for the howling wind.

Frost would gather, and snow would arrive, a soft siege.

“The Empire is still the Empire—peaceful, prosperous, yet a few things worth noting.

The Cabinet announced a citywide energy overhaul next month, to boost steam power efficiency and cut pollution…”

The host’s voice drifted from the radio like an electronic ghost, pale and echoing.

Hedi turned on the living room light, a warm cave glow that pushed back the dark like a gentle hand.

Selina sat poised on the sofa, listening to the Empire’s news.

She saw the paper bag and books in Hedi’s arms and lifted some weight away, freeing Hedi to shrug off her heavy camel coat like a winter pelt.

“Your toiletries are inside. Pajamas—we’ll buy later.”

“No pajamas is fine.”

“Great, saves me money.” Hedi ran her gaze up and down like a scan. “Did you go all day without eating?”

“Bagels.”

“That’s just a pastime food. I’ll give you a key.

Then when I leave for work, you won’t have to stick at home like a cat in a box.”

Selina scratched her head, embarrassed, like a sparrow ruffling feathers.

Her sudden visit felt like trouble for Hedi, but Hedi cut in before the apology could hatch.

“I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not that. I’m happy.

Coming home used to be cold and lifeless, a dark room with no breath.

Now at least there’s a voice—even if it’s the radio.”

“I can wait at the door for you!”

“I didn’t ask you to wait there,” Hedi rubbed her lips with a sly touch, a fox hiding a smile.

“That’s your own will.”

As she spoke, wind-chilled cheeks thawed in Selina’s warm palms like ice under sun.

“What are you doing?”

“You look tired, and your mood isn’t great,” Selina said, voice soft as wool.

“Not great,” Hedi admitted, the word a small stone.

She let Selina knead her face, then drifted into her eyes, a deep lake under uneven light.

Long lashes framed them; a pale blue shadow pooled near the lids, making the gaze cavernous.

The lamp cast patchy shade, and Hedi couldn’t read the meaning inside, like mist hiding a path.

“Sometimes I wonder,” Selina said, smile like a ribbon, “you’re so cute—what did you eat growing up?”

Hedi bit Selina’s thumb hard, a sharp fox-snap.

Selina yelped. “No one gets to call me cute. No one!”

“You really do bite.”

“What do you mean? I don’t get it.”

“The milk delivery guy told me,” Selina said, baring teeth like an angry puppy, then smoothing back to normal.

“Like this.”

“I’m not that fierce. I am a girl!”

“What girl bites people at random?”

Hedi parted her lips, showed her pointed canines like moonlit knives, and let out a beast-like growl from her throat.

Selina cradled her thumb and backed up a few steps, eyes wide, a startled deer.

“I... I didn’t say anything!”

“Good. Besides the delivery guy, did anyone call?”

“No.”

“Stratford,” Hedi muttered as she moved to the sofa, words low as embers.

“I hate how everything seems to land exactly in her plan.”

“There was one!”

“What?”

“The delivery guy said your milk subscription expired. I renewed it for you.”

“Regular is fine. Don’t order premium milk.”

“I... uh... heh heh...”

Hedi looked at Selina and softened, her voice a blanket. “It’s fine. Those sales pitches get me too.”

“He said it makes you taller and prettier!”

“Just hype. They mix in potion additives like sugar in tea.”

“How do you know?”

“Uh… well…” Hedi’s small head spun gears like a clockwork bird.

“It’s in the papers, right? Who buys that to grow taller?

It’s like slimming pills—believe it and you’re an idiot.”

“I believed it.”

“So you’re an idiot.”

Selina pouted, lips a cherry ring. “I’m just uninformed, not an idiot!”

Topic shifted, Hedi fell quiet and stretched on the sofa like a cat, thinking about dinner outside.

She doubted her renovation choice, a pebble in her shoe.

She should’ve built a kitchen, but she can’t cook; it would only gather dust like pale frost on unused steel.

Ugh—going out in winter is misery, the wind a row of knives.

Maybe bagels tonight.

But Selina ate them all day—malnutrition? That’s silly.

Even a year of bagels and you’d still be standing; the human body’s a strange machine.

“Professor, what are we eating later?”

“Uh…” Hedi rummaged her mind like a drawer, then pushed out one line.

“Let’s go out and see.”

She couldn’t say it—bagels.

No way that word leaves her mouth.