The reply came the next morning.
Seraphina had spent most of the night thinking about it.
She had considered deleting the conversation.
She had considered abandoning the entire investigation.
She had even considered telling her parents that she had found something dangerous and asking them to help her leave the city.
But every time she imagined doing that, the same image returned.
An orange hanging motionless in the air.
Something impossible had happened.
And she had seen it.
So, shortly after breakfast, she opened the encrypted connection again.
The anonymous account was online.
Seraphina typed:
You asked what he did.
A response appeared several minutes later.
Yes.
She hesitated.
Then wrote:
I saw a man stop an object in midair without touching it.
There was a long pause.
How long?
She thought carefully.
Less than a second.
Maybe two.
Another pause.
Did he use a device?
I saw nothing.
Did anyone else notice?
No.
The reply came almost immediately.
Then you may have actually seen one.
Seraphina stared at the sentence.
She typed:
One what?
The answer took longer this time.
One of them.
She waited.
Nothing.
That’s not an answer.
Three dots appeared.
Disappeared.
Appeared again.
Finally:
You’re asking questions that are difficult to answer properly.
Seraphina frowned.
Try anyway.
A few seconds later:
There are people who can do things ordinary humans cannot.
She leaned back.
That wasn’t exactly news.
She had already seen one.
But then another message arrived.
And there are creatures that shouldn’t exist either.
Seraphina’s expression changed.
What kind of creatures?
Different kinds.
Some are animals.
Some used to be animals.
Some may have been human.
Some aren’t easy to describe.
She stared at the screen.
And they have abilities?
Yes.
Where do they come from?
The reply took almost a minute.
Nobody knows.
That answer bothered her more than anything else.
The conversation continued.
Not quickly.
Not cleanly.
The person on the other side clearly didn’t know everything.
Sometimes they gave her an answer.
Sometimes they corrected themselves.
Sometimes they simply said:
I don’t know.
Seraphina appreciated that.
People who claimed to know everything had become increasingly suspicious to her.
Eventually, the anonymous person wrote:
There are materials inside some of these creatures.
Seraphina read the sentence twice.
Materials?
Something remains after they’re killed.
Bones?
Organs?
Not exactly.
What is it?
Hard to describe.
Sometimes it looks like an organ.
Sometimes a crystal.
Sometimes a piece of bone.
Sometimes something that doesn’t resemble anything natural.
Seraphina’s fingers stopped.
And what does it do?
It carries the same abnormal properties as the creature.
She looked toward the window.
Outside, the city continued normally.
Vehicles moved through the streets.
People walked to work.
A delivery drone passed overhead.
Everything looked ordinary.
She returned to the screen.
You’re saying the ability remains inside the creature after it dies?
That’s what we’ve observed.
And people can use it?
A longer pause.
Some people have tried.
Seraphina already knew she wouldn’t like the next answer.
What happened?
Some gained abilities.
She waited.
Some died.
Another message appeared.
Some became sick.
Then:
Some changed.
Seraphina frowned.
Changed how?
No response.
She waited.
Finally:
You don’t want details.
She didn’t believe him.
But she understood the warning.
She asked the question that had been sitting in her mind since the conversation began.
Why would anyone do that?
The answer came quickly.
Power.
Seraphina almost laughed.
It was such a simple answer.
Perhaps too simple.
People know it’s dangerous and still do it?
People will do almost anything if they believe the reward is worth the risk.
She couldn’t argue with that.
Then she asked:
Does it always work?
No.
Can you predict who will survive?
Not reliably.
Can you predict what ability they’ll get?
Sometimes.
That word caught her attention.
Sometimes?
There seem to be patterns.
Seraphina sat forward.
What patterns?
The answer took a long time.
We don’t know enough.
Then:
Different materials seem to produce different kinds of abilities.
She opened a new document.
SUPERNATURAL MATERIALS
She began typing.
The information continued to arrive in fragments.
There were certain creatures that seemed to produce materials with consistent effects.
Some materials could supposedly be consumed.
Others could be used in rituals.
Some were apparently dangerous even to touch.
There were stories of people becoming stronger, faster, more perceptive.
Others developed stranger abilities.
Seeing things that weren’t there.
Hearing voices.
Manipulating objects.
Influencing dreams.
Changing their bodies.
And some people simply stopped being human.
Seraphina asked whether there was a method for safely gaining these abilities.
The response was immediate.
Not one we trust.
She stared at that sentence.
So people are experimenting?
Constantly.
And nobody understands why it works?
We understand pieces.
That phrase stayed with her.
Pieces.
It was becoming a familiar word.
Everyone seemed to possess a fragment.
Nobody possessed the whole picture.
Eventually, she asked:
What do you call these materials?
The person hesitated.
Then replied:
We don’t have one universal name.
Seraphina frowned.
Then what do you call them?
Depends who you ask.
A pause.
Essence.
Remnants.
Cores.
Relics.
Inherited matter.
Then:
Some groups have other names.
Seraphina wrote them down.
None of them felt right.
They sounded like attempts to name something nobody understood.
She asked one final question.
What happens if someone uses too much?
The response came much later.
They stop being themselves.
Seraphina didn’t type anything for several seconds.
Then:
Meaning?
Their body changes.
Their mind changes.
Sometimes both.
Another message appeared.
We call those cases contamination.
Seraphina stared at the word.
Contamination.
She wrote it down.
Then closed her document.
She spent the rest of the day thinking.
By evening, she had covered an entire wall of her room with notes.
She connected the information from the last two years with what she had learned that morning.
Ancient rituals.
Unexplained creatures.
Strange materials.
People gaining abilities.
People dying.
People changing.
Ancient symbols.
The man in the market.
The symbol around his wrist.
The hidden communities.
The people buying information.
She stepped back.
For the first time, she could see something resembling a structure.
Not a complete one.
Not even close.
But there were connections.
She took a marker.
Drew a circle around the word:
MATERIALS
Then another around:
CREATURES
Then:
PEOPLE
She connected them.
Creature.
Material.
Human.
Ability.
Then she added:
RITUAL?
And beneath it:
UNKNOWN.
She stared at the diagram.
Something was happening.
Something had been happening for a very long time.
And the strangest part was that nobody seemed to understand the whole thing.
Not the people on the hidden forums.
Not the researchers.
Not the historians.
Perhaps not even the strange man she had followed.
Everyone seemed to be holding a piece of the same puzzle.
Seraphina sat down.
For several minutes, she said nothing.
Then she slowly shook her head.
“This isn’t random.”
She looked at the wall again.
Maybe it wasn’t a single organization.
Maybe it wasn’t one conspiracy.
Maybe it was something much larger.
Different groups.
Different countries.
Different centuries.
Different beliefs.
All touching the same hidden reality.
And if that was true—
then the strange events happening across the world weren’t isolated either.
The disappearing ships.
The abnormal astronomical observations.
The strange archaeological discoveries.
The people who went insane.
The creatures.
The materials.
The man in the market.
They might all be connected.
Seraphina looked at the enormous collection of notes surrounding her.
She didn’t know who was behind it.
She didn’t know how old it was.
She didn’t know whether anyone was actually controlling anything.
She didn’t even know whether the people she had contacted understood what they were involved in.
But she had reached one conclusion.
Not a fact.
Not yet.
Just a suspicion.
Someone—or something—had been influencing the world for a very long time.
And humanity had only begun to notice.
Seraphina turned off the light.
The room disappeared into darkness.
For the first time since she had started investigating, she wasn’t wondering whether the supernatural was real.
She knew it was.
Now she had a much more dangerous question.
What was behind it?