A Forced Hand
The illusion of peace shattered at precisely three in the afternoon.
Ruyi had been mid-way through boiling water for tea when her mother’s phone rang. It wasn't a normal call. It was the breathless, trembling kind of ring that made the air in the kitchen instantly freeze.
Rion’s high school field trip to the botanical gardens near the outskirts of City CC had gone terribly wrong. A localized spatial fracture—a sudden, unannounced stray gate—had opened directly over the park.
When Ruyi rushed back into the main living area, her home was in a state of quiet panic. Her father and uncle Lin were already gone, having rushed straight to the school district’s central gathering point where emergency updates were being issued. Her mother sat at the dining table, her hands clutching a cold mug of water, her face as pale as chalk.
Ruyi sat beside her, gently wrapping her hands over her mother’s trembling ones. She was rarely a chatty person—she preferred silence over noise ninety-nine percent of the time—but right now, silence was an enemy.
"Rion is okay," Ruyi said, her voice steady, low, and smooth. "He’s smart. He knows the emergency protocols, and he’s fast enough to hide. He’s probably sitting in a reinforced shelter right now, waiting for the responders to clear the streets."
"Your father said the local news isn't showing everything," her mother whispered, her eyes glossy with unshed tears. "They said it’s a Class-2 breach, Ruyi. The same kind that took out the plaza last month."
"Dad and Uncle Lin are there to get the direct updates," Ruyi reassured her softly, suppressing the cold, terrible coil of anxiety tightening in her own chest. "They left so you wouldn't have to sit in a chaotic crowd. Rion is going to be fine."
Ruyi wanted to sprint out the front door right then and there. She had power. She had an ability that could tear through flesh and dodge through shadows. Sitting in an apartment while her younger brother was trapped in a monster-infested zone felt like a slow, suffocating torture.
But she couldn't leave. Leaving meant abandoning her mother in an empty house with a television that only broadcasted terror.
Her silent agony was answered twenty minutes later by a urgent knock at the door.
Ruyi opened it to find her Aunt May and her older cousin, Kaimel, standing in the hallway. Aunt May immediately stepped inside, gathering Ruyi's mother into a tight embrace as the two older women began exchanging frantic, comforting words.
Ruyi didn't waste a second. She grabbed Kaimel by the sleeve of his jacket and dragged him out into the corridor, pulling him around the corner toward the stairwell to speak in private.
"Can I leave Mom with you and Aunt May?" Ruyi asked directly, her eyes sharp. "I want to go to Dad."
Kaimel frowned, his brow furrowing in disapproval. "My father is already there with Uncle, Ruyi. There's zero reason for you to go. The area is locked down by guild forces."
"I can't calm down staying here," Ruyi pressed, keeping her voice low so it wouldn't carry back to the apartment. "I'm worried about Dad, too. He gets reckless when he's panicked. Seeing you and Aunt May here relieved me—at least Mom won't be alone. Please."
Kaimel crossed his arms, looking down at her skeptically. "I promised my dad I'd watch over the apartment and keep you two safe until they got back. I can't just let you run off toward a monster breach."
"Please, Kael. Let me go."
She used his childhood nickname intentionally, meeting his gaze with a rare, desperate intensity.
Kaimel stared at her for a long moment. He let out a heavy, defeated sigh and ran a hand through his messy raven hair. "Damn it, Ruyi... Fine. But you keep your phone in your hand. Contact me the second you get on the transit, and call me the moment you reach the perimeter barricade. If you don't check in every fifteen minutes, I'm coming to drag you back."
"Deal," Ruyi nodded quickly.
She stepped back into the apartment, grabbing her light jacket. She told her mother that she had forgotten an important prescription at the local pharmacy and needed to run out for a few minutes while Aunt May and Kael were there.
"Can’t you forget that for a while?" her aunt asked, looking up from the couch. "It's dangerous outside."
"Can’t. It’s important," Ruyi gave a firm, reassuring nod to her mother, slipped her shoes on, and stepped out into the hall before anyone could argue further.
Once she cleared the apartment building's main doors, Ruyi broke into a run.
Calling a cab was out of the question—traffic around the district was already paralyzed by emergency vehicles and fleeing civilians. Besides, she was faster.
She darted into the narrow service alleys, cutting through the shadows between residential blocks. Her agility kicked in, her body moving with effortless, terrifying speed as she vaulted over dumpsters and cleared high fences. Yet, as fast as her legs carried her, it wasn't enough. The botanical gardens were nearly six miles away. At this rate, it would take her fifteen minutes.
Faster, she thought fiercely, her teeth grinding together as her lungs burned. I need to be faster. Right now.
She pictured the botanical garden's main entrance—the arched iron gates, the stone plaza, the familiar bus drop-off zone she had visited three times during her own school years. She held that mental image in her mind, her desperate desire blooming into a raw, demanding force deep within her chest.
As if answering her silent plea, the cold space inside her opened.
It didn't open in front of her. It opened around her.
Before Ruyi could even register what was happening, a dark, distortion folded over her vision. Light vanished. Sound vanished. The sensation of wind against her face ceased completely. For a microsecond, she was suspended in the absolute, silent nothingness of her own void—a place where time and space felt entirely nonexistent.
Whishp.
In the very next heartbeat, reality snapped back into place like a stretched rubber band.
A wave of cool air rushed into her lungs. The muffled roar of distant sirens and shouting crowds slammed back into her ears.
Ruyi stumbled forward, her boots catching on concrete as she balanced herself against a brick wall. She blinked, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs, and looked around in complete disbelief.
She was no longer in the alley near her apartment.
She was standing behind a deserted news kiosk, less than fifty yards from the main gates of the Botanical Gardens.
The air around her was thick with the scent of ozone, burnt foliage, and monster blood. Above the trees, a giant, jagged seam in reality flickered with violent purple energy—a Class-2 gate. Emergency barricades had been erected down the street, and dozens of guild responders, paramedics, and frantic parents were milling about in chaotic waves.
Nobody had noticed her appear. To the frantic crowd, she was just another face stepping out from behind a building.
"Good..." Ruyi breathed, pressing her palm against her chest as a light wave of fatigue washed over her.
She had used the void to fold space. It wasn't just a weapon, and it wasn't just a cold, lifeless storage room. It was a doorway. As long as she had a clear, familiar memory of a location, her void could swallow her whole and spit her out at her destination in a blink of an eye.
She shook off the lingering dizziness, her amethyst eyes sweeping across the chaotic crowd gathered near the police line.
She had no time to marvel at her new discovery. She needed to find Rion.