Woven Between Her War And My Weakness

Kael wasn't speaking. Not with words, anyway.

She paced the narrow hallway outside the war room, the floor beneath her boots groaning with every step.

Her fists were clenched, and the look in her eyes? Wild. Like someone trying to hold herself together with nothing but sheer force of will.

I stood there, watching her.

"What are you not telling me?" I asked, arms crossed.

Kael didn't stop pacing.

"You said the portal took time," I continued. "What does that even mean?"She finally paused.

Her jaw worked like she was chewing glass. "It means… we lost three days."

My heart dropped. "What?"

"You passed out for fifteen minutes. But the sun moved. Communications went dark. Satellite time signatures all flipped. When the portal activated… it skipped time. Dragged everything in its radius three days into the future."

I stared at her, then down at my Mark. It shimmered with an unsettling calm, almost like it was… smug.

Kael sighed. "That's not the worst part."

I braced myself.

"When you were out," she said quietly, "they took Sector Five."

Sector Five was more than just a zone on the map.

It was our lifeline. The main source of food, medical supply, and comms. Losing it wasn't just a setback. It was a death sentence.

Kael and I met with what was left of the command council. Most of them were new — people we didn't know, faces pale with panic, some too young to be here at all.

Ashi slammed her palm on the table. "We can't keep reacting. That's what they want."

"We have no choice," someone snapped. "They're pushing us back faster than we can rebuild. We've lost three safehouses this week."

"Because we're divided," Kael cut in. "Scattered.

We need a signal. Something the rest of the city can rally around."

I stood. "I have an idea."

They all turned to me. I wasn't used to that. It still made my skin crawl.

"What if we take Vault Zero public?" I said.

The silence was instant.

Ashi narrowed her eyes. "You mean… tell people what we found?"

I nodded.

"Show them the truth. That the Queen is experimenting on Marked. That the portal exists. That we're more than fugitives — we're chosen."

"They'll think we're insane," someone muttered.

"Maybe," Kael said. "Or maybe they'll finally understand why this matters."

We broadcasted it that night.

A hacked channel, run through six proxy towers and filtered through an old media satellite Kael's team managed to reboot. The footage was raw — shaky cam shots of Vault Zero, the glowing pods, the Queen's voice.

My voice.

I recorded the message myself.

"If you're hearing this," I said on the screen, "you've probably heard rumors. Whispers. Of portals. Of Marks. Of the Queen's secret labs. It's not fiction. It's fact. And I've seen it with my own eyes."

The clip cut to the vault. The pods. The portal.

"This is real. We are real. And we're not just running anymore. We're fighting. For truth. For the Marked. For the ones who never got a chance."

We ended it with coordinates to the outpost and the phrase: You are not alone.

Kael turned off the monitor after we finished broadcasting. She looked… tense.

"Was that a mistake?" I asked.

"We'll find out by morning," she said.

Morning came like an earthquake.

The outpost alarms screamed as motion sensors went wild. I bolted from bed, grabbing my blade and Kael's jacket as I ran.

Outside? Chaos.

People.

Dozens. Then hundreds.

Some carried bags. Others wore hospital gowns. Marked, unmarked, children, elders. All of them running toward us.

Kael blinked. "They came."

Ashi whistled low. "That signal was a damn flare."

The outpost couldn't hold them all. We moved fast, clearing space, sharing rations, using old tunnels to guide them to safe zones.

One girl, no older than twelve, stared at me like I was magic.

"You're the girl from the message," she whispered.

I knelt. "And you're the future."

She smiled, revealing a tiny Mark glowing on her palm.

Later that night, as we counted heads and reviewed supply logs, I found Kael on the rooftop again. Same place she always went to think.

She didn't turn when I approached.

"You made a spark," she said. "Now we need fire."

"I thought that was your job," I teased.

She glanced at me, lips quirking. "I'm more demolition. You're the symbol."

We stood in silence for a while, watching the fires below. Campfires. Signals. A hundred tiny beacons of hope.

"I saw something else," I said quietly. "In the vision. When the Queen touched me."

Kael's eyes flicked to mine.

"There's a second portal."

Her breath caught.

"Where?" she asked.

I shook my head. "I don't know. Not yet. But it's not on this continent."

Kael exhaled slowly. "Then we better prepare."

"For what?"

"For war."

To be CONTINUED...