The city pulsed beneath the skin of night- a low, fevered heartbeat that seemed to vibrate under Aarav's ribs. He sat on the edge of his narrow bed, hunched over like a man confessing to ghosts. The photograph and the note lay before him like evidence in a crime not yet committed.
"Bring her into the fold. Or destroy her."
The words curled through his mind like smoke laced with venom.
He had thought power would taste like victory -thunderous applause, gleaming futures, the quiet satisfaction of finally mattering.
He hadn't expected this.
This... choice.
Every path he imagined ended in a noose.
If he recruited Maya, he would be dragging her into the same unseen machinery that had begun to crush him.
If he refused, the Order would see it as weakness.
And if he chose to destroy her whatever that meant it would break something inside him.
Something that wouldn't heal.
The next morning, Maya found him first.
She moved like she had made up her mind about something, her energy sharp, almost reckless.
Without asking, she tugged him off the main path and into one of the abandoned lecture halls - a place swallowed by dust and forgotten lectures, where even time seemed to hesitate.
"You're hiding something," she said, tone soft but certain.
Aarav tensed.
Had she seen it on his face? Was it that obvious?
But she only smiled a soft, secret curve of her lips, like they shared a joke no one else would understand.
"Relax," she said. "So am I."
Then she pulled a folded slip of paper from her jacket and handed it to him.
Unfolded, it revealed a hand-drawn symbol-intricate, serpentine, endless.
Aarav's pulse skipped.
It was the same symbol embossed on the Order's card:
A serpent devouring its own tail. The Helix.
His voice turned to gravel. "Where did you get this?"
Maya tilted her head - not surprised, not afraid. Just... observant.
"You think you're the only one being watched?"
Silence dropped between them like a trapdoor.
Heavy. Unsteady.
"There are groups here," she said at last, her voice low enough that even the shadows leaned in to listen. "Secret ones. They promise power ,
Purpose and a seat at the table."
She met his eyes.
"But they don't tell you the cost. Not up front. Not until they start cutting pieces off you."
Aarav's mouth was dry. His mind spun, reeled.
Did she know?
Was she warning him?
Or was she testing him?
The thought struck like a knife:
What if Maya wasn't a victim?
What if she was bait?
That night, Aarav stood alone at the edge of the city, on a rooftop where the wind carried whispers
and the skyline looked like shattered glass.
Below him, Metronova glowed - all steel and secrets.
Behind him, the Institute loomed like a tomb filled with promises.
And in the dark, just beyond hearing, he could feel it . The Order watching.
Their presence wasn't seen, but felt - like a pressure beneath the skin, like gravity in the soul.
"Obey, and we will make you invincible. Defy us, and we will erase you."
He closed his eyes and saw Maya's laughter.
He saw the man tied to the chair. He saw himself the version who had left
Varsha dreaming of greatness, not realizing how steep the climb would be... and how deep the fall.
His fists clenched at his sides.
There had to be another way.
Some path that didn't end in silence or betrayal.
But he knew now the Order wasn't testing his ambition.
They were testing his soul.
And souls, once fractured, rarely healed clean.