In the days that followed, Selina kept her guard up, like a little night-beast that didn’t understand human hours. Wherever they were, her round eyes clung to Hedi like dew to grass; even at the toilet she pried the door to a finger’s-width slit.

“If you don’t mind the stink, I do.” Hedi sat on the bowl, rubbing her forehead like raking dry sand. “What are you after, picking at me in broad daylight?”

“Surveillance.” Her voice landed like a pebble in a pond.

“There’s always a reason.” Hedi’s tone was a tired breeze.

“The magazine says: your partner’s odd shifts hide in the seams.” Selina’s eyes shone like polished glass.

“What changed on me?”

“You didn’t drink milk.” Her words poked like a twig.

“Thanks to you, the delivered milk was spiked with additives.” Hedi’s mouth curled like a wilted leaf.

“You aren’t picky anymore.” Selina counted on her fingers like beads. “Eating out these days, you left nothing, plate clean as a mirror.”

“Isn’t that good?”

“Or you’re plotting in the shadows, like a cat under the stove.”

“That, yes. I want a bolt on the bathroom door, so you don’t burst in like a gust.”

“There’s more.” Her brows gathered like storm clouds.

“What else?”

“You’re hiding something from me.” Her mutter was a moth behind a fan.

Hedi narrowed her eyes; her left hand cupped air, then tapped her right palm like striking a spark. “The dishes you borrowed the academy cafeteria to cook were awful. But seeing you come back soot-streaked… I humored you.”

“You—”

“Okay, okay, not that.”

Selina stared at Hedi with a dark, heavy look, a thunderhead holding rain. Hedi sealed her lips with silence, like a lid on a boiling pot; any extra word would dig her own pit.

The quiet ran on without a seam, cool as river water.

At last Selina couldn’t hold it. She broke the stillness like snapping a twig. “Are you planning to go to the Dark Realm Research Institute?”

“Why would I?” Hedi’s voice was flat as a pond.

“Because you said… if you got strapped to a surgical table…” Her breath snagged like a thread.

“Words and deeds aren’t the same thing.”

“Smart people give everything for a riddle.” Her tone leapt like a spark.

“Which magazine now?”

“Detective Fitz.”

Hedi’s face turned odd—a braid of surprise, helplessness, and tease—her gaze pinned Selina, pupils catching her deer‑skittish nerves. Her nostrils flared a touch; she drank a breath like cool tea. Calm settled over her eyes like dusk on a lake. She tipped her head back and answered with a silence as thick as snow.

“It’s not what you think!”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“He’s a detective in the Empire’s west, not some made‑up sleuth from a dime novel!”

“Detectives,” Hedi flicked her hair like a blade of grass, “live off decoding. Of course they’ll give everything. I’m not them.”

“You’re smart too. You reason like a detective.”

“Not the same. They think on the spot. I need a few days.”

“Then you’ve figured it out?”

“Stratford is still alive. He’s still working with the man who called. Something happened, so he couldn’t call himself. He told me to ‘work it out with Stratford.’”

“So the call and the files were the Vice Dean’s order.”

Hedi shook her head; the motion cut the air like a fan. “If it were her, she wouldn’t send that kind of file. The threat in it screamed like a red stamp. Feels like someone went rogue.”

“Hiding it from the Vice Dean? That’s pretty… wild.”

“Serves her right. She hid things from me first.”

“Mm… what does the hungry lion mean?” Selina’s voice drifted like smoke.

“An unforeseen turn, or betrayal. The first is more likely.” Hedi’s words fell like stones.

“The Dark Realm?” Selina asked, low as a night wind. “The Vice Dean likes probing waking Dark Realms. Did she go alone?”

“She did say in the car a certain Dark Realm was about to wake.” Hedi’s gaze tightened like a knot. “But she dropped me home days ago. No reason to go now. Unless she banked on me refusing to cooperate. So the man’s call—what did it mean—”

A thought hit. Hedi jerked her pants up like snapping a banner, dragged on her clothes, hems whipping a brief wind. She didn’t bother to smooth anything; she stabbed at her coat buttons while striding for the door like a spear.

The sudden tension bit Selina’s skin like frost. Every word rattled with tight drums in her throat. “W‑what is it?”

“I know where Stratford’s headed.”

“Where?”

“Shoes. Now. I’ll talk on the way.”

Hedi’s urgency burned like dry tinder. She seized Selina’s wrist in a hot grip.

They burst from the apartment. On the street, a carriage happened to idle like a patient horse by the curb. Hedi didn’t hesitate; she pulled Selina up in a bound and told the driver the destination with an arrow’s snap.

The carriage lunged forward. Their bodies pitched like reeds in wind. Wheel on stone clattered like hail; hooves beat like war drums. They shot off like an arrow from a taut string toward the mark.

“What’s going on?” Selina looked at Hedi, who panted from the run, chest rising like a bellows.

“Stratford went for the Dark Realm in Shattered City.”

“He wants to turn my sister—”

“Yes. She said so.”

“But the man called you for cooperation.”

“No conflict. If I refuse, your sister’s the lab rat. If I agree, I’m the lab rat.” Hedi’s voice was iron under cloth.

“We need to rush to Shattered City!”

“We won’t.” The words landed like a lid on flame.

Selina fell silent. She just stared at Hedi’s temples, gray‑white hairs tousled like a tornado’s wake.

“Winnie Olina.” Hedi’s tone steadied like a hand on a cup. “You need to recall a piece of the past.”

“Does it matter whether I remember now?” Her worry fluttered like a trapped bird.

“Your sister opened the Dark Realm of Shattered City. That set off a long chain like falling dominos. We need her motive.”

“Right now—”

“We’re already late. We don’t know when Stratford left. Trust me, that Dark Realm isn’t easy to crack.” Her eyes held a cold glint like steel.

“A split?” Selina rushed the words like rain. “Did the Vice Dean and her partner disagree?”

“Could be.” Hedi’s gaze cut like a knife. “The man wanted to negotiate with me. Stratford knew I wouldn’t. Unforeseen turn—ha. She hid it from everyone and went to Shattered City’s Dark Realm. I thought ‘inconvenient’ meant trouble. Now it seems the caller learned late and tried to patch it through ‘cooperation.’”

“He even allowed the Vice Dean’s move.” Selina gripped Hedi’s hand like an anchor. “He said, ‘Call back when you’re in a better mood.’”

Hedi watched the street roll past, heart tight as a clenched fist.

Too much. The word rang like a bell.

Stratford. From the cafe talk, you were already setting the next stones, like a go board laid in shadow. The surgery wasn’t only for me. It was also for Olivia.

I’m wrapped in unknown magic like silk. She’s eroded yet clings to her human core like a lantern in fog. Study either, and you leap a chasm.

For now I can reject the deal. But if you seize Olivia, then wave surgical logs like chains—

“Professor… you’re… sweating…” Selina’s whisper was soft as rain.

So this is the battle-hardened Vice Dean? Hedi’s chest hollowed like a drum. I’m not even half her match. Good thing the caller’s surgical files are useful. Better that he sent them without Stratford’s knowing, like a letter slipped under a door.

“Don’t worry.” Selina’s comfort was a warm hand on cold stone. “I’ll try to remember who spoke with my sister, and tell you why she went to Shattered City.” Then worry returned like a tide. “Will knowing the motive help right now?”

“No.” The word was a single pebble.

“Then why are we going to the witch’s shop?” Her eyes searched like lanterns.

“I said the motive won’t help the present.” Hedi’s tone eased like lowering a blade. “Long term, it lets us dig to the root.”

“And you?” The question trembled like a leaf.

Hedi watched the flowing scene like a river of glass.

“Don’t tell me you’ll go to Shattered City alone.”

She shook her head, a small breeze through reeds. “Of course not. I’ll stay at the shop with you.”