A guttural roar tore through me, trapped behind my teeth, as Lissea, a saccharine smile pasted on her face, stepped forward. The Grand Artificer’s voice, a gravelly pronouncement, echoed in the smog-laden air, an accusation more than an honor. He handed her the key, its heavy brass glinting, a cruel mockery of all we had endured.
“My rightful reward,” she simpered, her voice sickly sweet, as she took the prize. Chem-Fog bit the back of my throat like pulverized glass while she bowed. Every burnt blister from the shafts, every lungful of foul steam—handed over to a smiling cheat. My fingers twitched toward the crowbar at my hip.
But before my anger could fully erupt, something shifted. Lissea’s smile faltered. Her gaze locked on the dais, rigid. A shudder wrenched her forearm, the one gripping brass. Her knuckles blanched white, then mottled with an angry red that seemed to bloom from beneath her skin. She gasped, a small, choked sound, and stumbled back a step.
[ERROR: PROTAGONIST ENERGY OVERLOAD. LUCK SYPHON INVERSION. PLOT ARMOR INTEGRITY FAILING.]
Lissea let out a sharp cry, a sound of pure agony. She dropped the key, clattering loudly on the dais, and clutched her arm, a pained whimper escaping her lips. Her face contorted, not in fake distress, but in genuine, searing pain. Her skin, especially on the arm, looked blistered, as if she’d plunged it into molten slag. She dropped to her knees, rocking over the stones, a shrill whine rasping out of her.
[SYSTEM FAILURE IMMINENT. RECOMMENCING SYPHON PROTOCOL. TARGET: MASTER KEY.]
The master engineer bent down, leather coat creaking. “Student Morzhan? Stand up.” Lissea, still gasping, shook her head, unable to speak. The officials exchanged uneasy glances. The crowd murmured, some stepping back, others craning their necks for a better view. My own fury momentarily stalled, replaced by a morbid fascination. What in the blazes was happening to her?
I didn't know what it was, but the sight of her pain, raw and undeniable, sparked a dark, vengeful satisfaction deep inside me. It wasn't enough, not nearly enough for what she’d done, but it was *something*. A twisted relief. She had paid a price, whatever it was.
Nadeya’s hand landed on my elbow, a grounding presence. “Let’s go, Tavira. There’s nothing more to see here.” Her voice was tight with suppressed anger. Vadim, grim-faced, stood beside us, his gaze unwavering on Lissea’s writhing form. The key lay abandoned on the dais. No one touched it.
We moved away, the cheers and murmurs of the crowd fading as Lissea’s cries intensified. We didn’t stop until we reached a secluded alcove beneath a crumbling gargoyle, the stone weeping soot.
I kicked a loose brick, sending it skittering into the gloom. “She got it. After everything. After the cave-in she caused down in the shafts, the old man just hands it across. Unprecedented aura of destiny,” I spat. “Rotten farce.” The humiliation burned, a sour taste in my mouth.
“A setback, nothing more,” Vadim murmured, his posture stiff against the damp brick. “We knew this was a possibility. We just didn’t expect… whatever *that* was.” He gestured vaguely back towards the courtyard.
Nadeya leaned against the grimy wall, her eyes scanning the empty corridor. “The key isn’t safe with her. She’s a liability, Tavira. You saw how she botched the filter, the mine. What if she loses it, or worse, gives it to the wrong people? My contacts, the people I need to get out… they’re counting on it.” Her gaze, usually so warm, was hard, resolute.
“So what, Nadeya? We just… steal it from her?” I scoffed. “She holds the prize now. It’s locked in his inner vault, or tucked in his coat, or—” The cold reality choked off my words. My temper, usually a roaring inferno, was a cold, desolate ember. I felt hollowed out, utterly depleted. All that effort, for nothing.
“Yes, Tavira. We steal it,” Vadim said, his voice flat and decisive. “It’s the only way. She’s proven she’s not fit to possess it. And you’ve proven you are. We need to locate it first. It’s unlikely she’d be allowed to just carry it around.”
I pushed a hand through my oil-stained hair. “Locate it? How? We don't just kick down the rector's door. That's a fast draft into the deep shafts without a working rebreather.”
Nadeya pushed off the wall. “His desk console,” Nadeya said. “It keeps transfer logs, routing dockets, maybe transponder coordinates. Standard procedure for high-value gear.”
“That console sits in his tower,” I countered, wiping grime from my nose. “Password-protected, probably biometric, and guarded like the city’s last clean breath. You think we can just waltz in and hack it?”
Vadim’s lips thinned. “No. But we can tap the network from below. There are three junction boxes down in the grease troughs that link straight to the central telegraphic core. We’ll need a distraction. And a system bypass.” He looked at me, his eyes sharp. “You’re the best with clockwork logic and encryption. If anyone can crack the school's mechanical relays, it’s you.”
I stared at the ground, the grit of the mine still clinging to my boots. The idea was insane. Suicidal. But the alternative – doing nothing, letting Lissea bumble her way to catastrophe, letting my family and Nadeya’s refugees suffocate – was worse. My anger, a slow, simmering heat, started to rebuild. A destructive grudge, sure, but also a burning need to survive.
“Alright,” I said, the word a struggle. “But we need to be careful. One wrong move and we’re all slag.”
Nadeya nodded. “I can arrange a distraction. A minor incident in the lower-level ventilation system. It’ll draw away the patrols for a short window.”
“Good,” Vadim said. “Then we move tonight. Meet me in the maintenance tunnels beneath Sector Gamma at midnight. The junction there gets checked once a month.”
Hours later, past the third bell, we slipped through the steam tunnels under the academy. The air in the maintenance tunnels was thick with the smell of ozone and damp metal. Gears whirred distantly, a constant, unsettling hum.
We reached the target panel, rusted bronze tucked behind copper steam lines. Vadim used a specialized prying tool to pop it open, revealing a tangle of glowing cables and a rudimentary network port. My multi-wrench, its gyroscopic core humming softly, was already out.
“Alright,” I muttered, clamping a spliced wire harness to the copper contacts, linking it to the portable reader Vadim had stolen. “Here goes nothing.”
Tickers of punch-code rattled across the phosphor display as I adjusted the balance pins. I jumped the safety tripwires, bypassed the galvanic locks, and unspooled the school's internal relay matrix. Vadim stood guard, his hand on a heavy pipe, ready to act at the slightest sound. Nadeya had already enacted her distraction; a distant alarm had blared then faded, pulling the security patrols away.
Minutes stretched into an agonizing eternity. My brow furrowed in concentration. The academy's traps were stubborn, drafted by foundry veterans who knew every bypass in the trade. But I had an edge: desperation. And a grudge.
Phosphor lit green along the phosphor tube. “I've tripped the gate,” I muttered. “Pulling manifests for the brass master cylinder.”
The device rattled, internal drums spinning until an index line flashed: `KEY_REGISTRY_GA_001.log`. I tripped the reader lever. It wasn't on Lissea, and it wasn't in the tower. The ledger routed it down toward sub-level four for mechanical inspection—right above the shifting sewer bedrock. A perfect, tragic irony.
Then an override pinged across the reader: `STRUCTURAL_INTEGRITY_REPORT_GALDA_12.9`. The casing rattled in my grip. Vadim leaned over my shoulder, his breath warm on my neck.
I clicked it open. The report was dense, filled with engineering schematics and stress calculations. My eyes scanned for the critical details, the numbers that mattered. The subterranean pilings were shearing along fault lines. The cavern rupture she triggered an hour ago had splintered the load-bearing granite. It had accelerated the entire process.
The phosphor glass flared dull crimson, text overwriting the schematic.
`STRUCTURAL FAILURE IMMINENT`
`INITIATING CATASTROPHE SEQUENCE`
`ORIGINAL ESTIMATE: 30 DAYS`
`CURRENT ESTIMATE: 12 HOURS`