Embers of The Frosken

In the depths of the night, as the ashes of old fires filled the sky with the scent of burnt charcoal, Naiv sat planning his next moves.

Ashura stood beside him, still as always, while Mir sat on a worn-out chair, trying to appear present despite her swollen eyes from sleepless nights. Elsa, meanwhile, stared at the door as if expecting something terrible to burst in at any moment.

Naiv said in a low voice, pointing to a spot on the map:"The plan is unfolding as expected. The accelerating disappearances have caused panic, and everyone has fallen into silence. They're all looking for someone to blame, while we… move forward."

Ashura replied, without looking at him:"But this silence is fragile. One voice in the opposite direction could shatter the whole wall."

At that moment, a guard burst in, his expression disturbed, saying:"Sir… small papers are spreading, written in a strange hand. No one knows who put them there."

Naiv raised an eyebrow:"Words? What kind of words?"

The guard hesitated, then said:"They were also engraved on the wall, faintly, but you can read them: 'When they say you're delusional… maybe you're just one of the few who still see the truth.'"

Naiv froze. He exchanged glances with Ashura, then asked:"Where was the security?"

The guard answered:"No one saw anything. The darkness was thick, as if something had temporarily cloaked the area."

Naiv left the room quickly, accompanied by Ashura. When they reached the square, the sentence was there, etched into the grey brick like a scar on a sick man's body.

Naiv stared at it, then murmured:"He's clever… He doesn't want to expose us. He wants to shake the image we built. Planting small, invisible doubts that grow like fungi."

The next day, a rumor spread among civilians that the recently distributed food tasted different. A woman reportedly found something resembling a human bone shard in her share. Of course, the bone was never found again, but the rumor spread like wildfire.

At the same time, childish drawings appeared on the alley walls behind the warehouse, showing men with black eyes dragging bodies into a dark pit.

Realizing that the observer was no longer just playing, Naiv called a small meeting. He said:

"We have an enemy who doesn't have the strength to face us, but is smart enough to turn our power into a burden. He's not trying to expose us… he's trying to slow the plan down until we collapse from within."

Elsa, her voice trembling slightly:"What if we're facing an enemy that doesn't make mistakes?"

Naiv ignored the question and looked at Mir:"It's time to respond. Not with strength—cleverness."

The next night, anonymous flyers were distributed across the city, reading:"If you don't trust the light, learn to live in darkness. Silence is safety. Questions will kill you."

But those weren't the real messages. In an alley, a burned doll was hung, dressed in an old military uniform. On its chest, a leather patch read:"I was one of the believers."

Tension began to rise.

In the planning room, Naiv started reading the notes more than he read the maps. He spoke less and thought more.

One evening he said:"If this observer pushes further, we'll have to cut off the head of doubt. Anyone who questions us will be erased."

Zorim calmly objected:"You don't fight shadows by killing the walls."

Naiv was silent.

But what he didn't know was that the resistance had already planted the second bait…

A man named Kala, a simple volunteer in the excavation team, hid a small note in his pocket. He hadn't opened it yet. The instructions were clear:"Read it when you see blood again."

And the blood… would come soon.

Thus began the cold war in the city—no gunshots, only whispers, glances, and phrases etched between the cracks.

And the observer… still hadn't made a mistake.

The next day, the city awoke to something unusual. In the middle of the square, in front of the broken minaret, a paper written in coarse black ink was placed. No one dared approach, but its words spread like fire:

"When the innocent die in the shadows… know that those in the light are not angels. Blood is no accident, and disappearance is not a side effect."

Ashura tore the paper the moment he saw it, but the psychological echo had already spread. Whispers, suspicious eyes, quiet voices in the corners. Naiv quickly realized the observer had taken an offensive step.

Naiv immediately ordered fifty people from the eastern district to be gathered for questioning, and guards to be stationed at the main warehouse. He sat with Ashura and Zorim in the dim basement and said:

"No one plays like this unless they think they're smarter than us. It's time we expose them… or burn them in front of everyone."

But the observer was one step ahead.

That night, the secondary warehouse went up in flames from an unknown source. No one died, but half the supplies were destroyed. A new message was drawn on the wall in ashes:

"You won't find me, but you'll feel me. I'll let your hunger speak for me."

Naiv shouted as he watched the fire:"Stop the rumors! Stop devouring yourselves, you wretches! This is not the time for weakness!"

But even in his speech, a fearful anger had crept in.

Then he muttered:"We have a traitor inciting them, and we must end him before everything burns. I don't just want cooperation... I want obedience."

Elsa, staring at the ash on her boot:"And if it's one of us?"

Silence fell.

Zorim gripped the hilt of his sword:"So be it. Rules break when the ship is on fire."

But the observer wasn't interested in igniting anger alone.

That night, while Naiv stood at the upper guard post, a small paper fell at his feet. He didn't see who threw it. He picked it up and read:

"You try to survive by killing the seeds, but they grow in corpses."

Naiv clenched the paper until it tore. He didn't smile. Didn't speak. He simply turned his face toward the darkness and whispered:

"If you want to play with fire, I'll make the city burn before you do."

The observer, from a hidden place, was watching. He didn't smile either.

But in his eyes… a new plan was being born.

That same night, Naiv sat alone in a dim surveillance room, maps and name lists in front of him, flipping through notes with eyes burning with calculations.

He whispered to himself:"If your mind hides in shadows… I'll force it into the light. I never thought I'd need to use those powers inside the city again."

By morning, Naiv made an official announcement: fifty random people would be selected for a "Reality Test"—a technique he claimed could detect "early rift influence" by examining eyes and emotional responses.

What civilians didn't know was that Naiv already had an almost accurate map of the resistance group's movements through a resonance-based tracker—like a chip he had secretly placed on one of them before releasing him.

That day, 47 civilians were taken to the large hall. Three didn't show up.

They were the three men and the woman who had been beside the child—"The suspects vanished suddenly."

"Coincidence? I don't think so." said Naiv, watching the list, a faint smile appearing on his face for the first time.

That night, Naiv launched a surprise raid on an abandoned house in the city's western section, after tracking one of the observer's civilians trying to light a small fire as a distraction.

The raid was quick, quiet… and bloody.

Three members of the observer's support team were captured. They were held in the lower cellar, where no sound or light reached. The fourth… had his head severed.

The next morning, a new sign appeared in the square. No signature. No threat.

"Sometimes, the first to see the truth… is slaughtered for it."

But people weren't as shaken as before.

Their fear had started turning into obedience, not rebellion. And in some of their eyes, they began to see Naiv as something else… not just a leader, but a safety valve against madness—especially after hearing what happened to those who tried to side with that "madness."

In secret, the observer was watching.

For the first time, he felt the ground beneath him… wasn't solid.

"We've gotten too close to the fire…" he said to one of his surviving agents, holding the shattered pendant the child once carried.

"We need to change the rhythm… or we'll be crushed."

That evening, Naiv stood before Mir, Ashura, and Elsa, and said:

"Taking them down wasn't a victory… but we broke the wolf's leg. If it moves again, the whole city will hear the sound."

Ashura, in a deep voice:"For the first time, he's the one bleeding."