The first thing Kade noticed was that Bamidele had stopped sweating.
That was strange.
Five minutes earlier, the repairman had been complaining about the heat. Now, standing beneath the afternoon sun, his face looked almost grey.
"Where did you get that symbol?" Bamidele asked.
Kade glanced at the folded paper in his hand.
"You already asked."
"And you haven’t answered."
"We found it in an old textbook. My mother told us where to look."
Bamidele’s eyes narrowed.
"Your mother is a cultivator?"
"I don’t know."
"Then how did she get something like that?"
Kade folded the paper.
"That’s what I’m trying to find out."
For several seconds, the repairman said nothing.
Then he looked toward the busy road.
"There’s a place I know."
Tobi immediately sighed.
"Of course there is."
Bamidele ignored him.
"An abandoned structure near an old drainage channel. I saw that mark there years ago."
"Where?"
"Not far from here."
Kade felt his pulse quicken.
The old waterworks.
The strange memory.
The rusted sign.
All the clues seemed to point toward the same area.
"Take us there."
Bamidele shook his head.
"I said I knew the place. I didn’t say I was going back."
Kade stared at him.
"Why?"
"Because I enjoy being alive."
Tobi nodded approvingly.
"Finally. Somebody with reasonable priorities."
Kade unfolded the paper again.
Silver lines shimmered beneath his enhanced vision.
"Whatever this symbol means, my mother wanted me to find it."
"Or wanted you to know what to avoid," Bamidele replied.
That silenced him.
Because it was possible.
Adunni had left warnings.
Not invitations.
Do not follow the voices.
If you see the eye, do not speak your name.
Perhaps Kade had mistaken a warning for directions.
But there was only one way to learn more.
"Tell me where it is," he said.
Bamidele studied him.
Then looked at Tobi.
"Can you convince your friend to stop?"
Tobi considered the question.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because I’ve known him since secondary school. Once Kade decides to do something stupid, the best you can do is make sure he doesn’t die doing it."
Kade frowned.
"That’s your job?"
"Apparently. And you’re behind on my salary."
Bamidele sighed.
"Fine. But we don’t enter."
The building was smaller than Kade expected.
They reached it through a narrow passage beside a neglected drainage channel.
Weeds grew through cracks in the concrete. Plastic bottles floated in shallow, dirty water.
Beyond a broken wall stood an old structure with faded white plaster.
Its roof sagged.
Its windows were dark.
And above the entrance was an eye.
Split vertically.
Kade stopped.
The image from the Hollow Wraith’s memory flashed through his mind.
A frightened girl.
A building beside water.
A woman opening a door.
The same symbol.
Or something remarkably similar.
Tobi followed his gaze.
"Please tell me we’re not going inside."
"We’re not going inside," Kade said.
"Good."
"Yet."
"I knew there was a problem with that answer."
Bamidele remained near the broken wall.
"I worked around here once," he said. "A contractor hired me to repair some electrical equipment. The workers refused to touch this building."
"Why?" Kade asked.
"One man claimed he heard his dead brother calling from inside."
Tobi’s smile disappeared.
"What happened?"
"He went in."
"And?"
"He came out eleven minutes later, insisting he’d been gone for three days."
Kade looked toward the entrance.
"Was he injured?" This chapter was taken from novelping.com without permission.
"No."
"Did he remember what happened inside?"
Bamidele hesitated.
"Only that someone kept asking for his name."
Kade felt a chill.
The warning on the paper suddenly seemed much less mysterious.
He activated NIGHT SIGHT.
The shadows around the entrance thinned.
Faint silver residue clung to the doorway.
It resembled the traces he’d discovered on Adunni’s window.
But resemblance wasn’t proof.
"Analyze."
[SPIRITUAL STRUCTURE DETECTED.]
[BOUNDARY STATUS: ACTIVE.]
[FUNCTION: ACCESS RESTRICTION.]
[ORIGIN: UNKNOWN.]
Kade studied the entrance.
There was no visible door.
Only darkness.
He picked up a stone and threw it inside.
The stone vanished without making a sound.
Tobi stepped backward.
"Wonderful. A building that eats stones."
Kade picked up another.
Bamidele grabbed his wrist.
"Stop testing things you don’t understand."
Kade looked at him.
"Then how am I supposed to understand them?"
"By surviving long enough to learn."
Before Kade could answer, something moved inside the doorway.
A figure emerged.
Tall and unnaturally thin.
Its body was wrapped in faded ceremonial cloth.
A wooden mask covered its face.
Carved into the mask was the split-eye symbol.
Tobi whispered, "I withdraw my earlier complaint about the building."
The figure stopped at the threshold.
"Who seeks passage?"
Its voice sounded like several people speaking from different rooms.
Kade remembered the warning.
He kept his name to himself.
"A visitor."
The figure tilted its head.
"A visitor has no claim."
"What gives someone a claim?"
"Memory."
The System flickered.
[ENTITY DETECTED.]
[CLASSIFICATION: BOUND SPIRIT.]
[THREAT ASSESSMENT: INCOMPLETE.]
[WARNING: ENTITY OPERATES WITHIN AN ACTIVE SPIRITUAL BOUNDARY.]
Kade looked at the figure.
"What kind of memory?"
"A truth remembered. Freely offered."
Tobi leaned closer.
"Don’t offer anything."
Kade hesitated.
The guardian waited.
He thought of his mother.
Of the nights when electricity failed and Adunni sat beside the window, fanning herself with an old newspaper.
She would always ask whether he’d eaten.
Even when there wasn’t enough food for both of them.
Kade swallowed.
"My mother once told me that being powerless didn’t mean being helpless."
The figure remained still.
"She said strength was useful, but knowing when not to fight could save your life."
A faint light appeared beneath the wooden mask.
[MEMORY OFFERING DETECTED.]
[OFFERING ACCEPTED.]
"One inquiry," the guardian said.
Kade’s heart quickened.
One question.
He could ask about Adunni.
About the symbol.
About the building.
But if the guardian knew nothing about his mother, the opportunity would be wasted.
He raised the folded paper.
"What does this symbol mean?"
The guardian examined it.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the carving above the doorway glimmered.
"A boundary mark."
Kade frowned.
"A boundary between what?"
"That which may be known and that which must remain concealed."
"Who uses it?"
The figure became motionless.
"One inquiry was granted."
Kade clenched his jaw.
He had received an answer.
Just not enough of one.
The guardian began retreating. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
Then stopped.
Its wooden mask turned toward Kade’s chest.
The air changed.
A faint pressure settled over his skin.
[UNAUTHORIZED SPIRITUAL EXAMINATION DETECTED.]
Kade stepped backward.
The guardian spoke.
"Empty."
Its voice had lost the strange layered quality.
For the first time, it sounded almost human.
"Your vessel is empty."
Kade’s stomach tightened.
Bamidele moved closer.
"What is it seeing?"
The guardian ignored him.
"No Core."
A thin crack appeared across its mask.
"Yet something remains within."
Kade felt the familiar hunger stir.
More.
He clenched his fists.
The guardian recoiled.
"That is not Ase held by a vessel."
Kade’s pulse hammered.
"What is it?"
The figure raised one trembling hand.
"Leave."
"Answer me."
"Leave!"
The word struck the courtyard like a physical force.
Dust lifted from the ground.
Tobi stumbled.
Kade grabbed his arm.
The guardian retreated into the darkness.
But before it vanished, it whispered:
"The boundary remembers disturbances."
Then it was gone.
The split-eye carving above the doorway began to glow.
Kade activated ANALYZE.
[SPIRITUAL RECORDING DETECTED.]
[HOST SIGNATURE REGISTERED.]
[RECORD DESTINATION: UNKNOWN.]
Bamidele seized Kade’s shoulder.
"We’re leaving."
Kade winced.
"My shoulder!"
Bamidele released him immediately.
"Sorry. But move."
They hurried toward the broken wall.
Kade’s injured ankle protested with every step.
Behind them, the carving flashed once.
Then darkness returned.
Tobi glanced backward.
"Was that thing calling someone?"
Bamidele shook his head.
"I don’t know."
"Then why are we running?"
"Because whatever it just did, I don’t want to be here when someone comes to investigate."
They emerged beside the drainage channel.
Kade stopped to catch his breath.
The shrine had answered one question.
The symbol marked a boundary.
Something designed to conceal information.
But it hadn’t told him who used it.
Or whether Adunni had ever entered that building.
He looked at the paper.
Where the water forgets.
Perhaps this was only the beginning of the clue.
Perhaps the shrine wasn’t the destination at all.
Then the System flashed.
[RESIDUAL SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY DETECTED.]
[SOURCE: SHRINE BOUNDARY.]
[ACTIVITY PATTERN: REPEATING.]
Kade looked back.
The building stood silent beyond the wall.
"What does repeating mean?"
[INSUFFICIENT INFORMATION.]
A cold sensation moved down his spine.
Somewhere inside that abandoned structure, something was happening again and again.
Recording.
Repeating.
Perhaps waiting.
Tobi touched his arm.
"Kade?"
He folded the paper.
"Let’s go."
As they walked away, he glanced back one final time.
The shrine’s entrance remained dark.
But above it, the split-eye symbol briefly opened.
And for one terrible second, Kade had the unmistakable feeling that something on the other side was looking directly at him.