Twenty minutes after leaving the shrine, Kade still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching him.
He knew how ridiculous that sounded.
Then again, he’d recently watched a building swallow a stone without making a sound.
His standards for ridiculous had changed considerably.
"You’re limping worse," Tobi observed.
"I’m fine."
"You’ve been saying that since morning."
"And?"
"And your left leg has officially stopped believing you."
Kade leaned against a roadside railing.
His ankle throbbed beneath his shoe. The cut across his shoulder had reopened during their hurried escape from the shrine.
He was exhausted.
Hungry.
And increasingly convinced his body was preparing to resign.
Bamidele stopped beside them.
"We should separate here."
Kade looked up.
"Why?"
"Because I’ve already taken you somewhere I promised myself I’d never return to."
"That’s not an explanation."
"It’s the one you’re getting."
Tobi folded his arms.
"You repair phones for a living. How do you know so much about places that eat people?"
Bamidele’s expression hardened.
"I repair things. Sometimes those things belong to people who aren’t ordinary."
"Very reassuring."
"Most of what I know comes from learning when to stop asking questions."
Kade studied him.
"Then why did you help us?"
Bamidele considered the question.
"Because you’re young. And because whatever you’re carrying inside you, you looked genuinely frightened when that guardian examined you."
Kade said nothing.
The repairman reached into his pocket and produced a folded piece of paper.
A phone number.
"If you get trapped, call this."
"Whose number?"
"Someone who once helped me."
"Can we trust them?"
Bamidele hesitated.
"I trust them enough to give you the number. Not enough to tell you everything."
Kade accepted it.
"Thank you."
Bamidele nodded.
Then his gaze settled on Kade’s chest.
"One more thing."
"What?"
"Don’t let another cultivator examine you."
"Why?"
"Because some people don’t see an unusual person."
His voice lowered.
"They see something they can collect."
They reached a bus stop near Ojuelegba shortly afterward.
Tobi bought two bottles of water and a small packet of biscuits.
Kade stared at the food.
"That’s lunch?"
"Unless your System can turn hunger into fried rice."
Kade took the biscuits.
"How much?"
"Don’t worry about it."
"You’re keeping a record, aren’t you?"
"Every kobo. Including the seven thousand naira you already owe me."
Kade smiled faintly.
He ate slowly.
The ordinary hunger in his stomach was familiar.
The other hunger wasn’t.
It stirred when a man passed them carrying a faint spiritual signature.
Through NIGHT SIGHT, Kade noticed a weak glow beneath the stranger’s clothing.
Ase.
Warm.
Concentrated.
For one terrible moment, the energy looked more satisfying than food.
Take it.
Kade stopped chewing.
His fingers tightened around the biscuit packet.
"No," he whispered.
Tobi looked at him.
"What?"
"Nothing."
The stranger walked away.
The sensation faded.
[FOREIGN INSTINCT ACTIVITY: ELEVATED.]
[HOST CONTROL: MAINTAINED.]
Kade exhaled.
Tobi studied him.
"That thing again?"
Kade nodded.
Tobi looked at the half-eaten biscuits.
"Can you still eat normal food when it happens?"
"Yes."
"Good."
"Why?"
"Because I’m not financially prepared to feed you ghosts."
Kade laughed.
It helped.
A little.
They were approaching the pedestrian bridge when Kade noticed the woman.
She stood beside a newspaper vendor.
Grey blouse.
Black scarf.
Plain sandals.
Nothing about her appearance stood out.
Except that she was watching him.
Kade looked away.
Then checked again.
She hadn’t moved.
[SPIRITUAL SIGNATURE DETECTED.]
"Analyze."
[TARGET: HUMAN CULTIVATOR.]
[REALM: VESSEL.]
[SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY: CONTROLLED.]
[INTENT: UNKNOWN.]
Kade slowed.
Tobi noticed immediately.
"Don’t look directly behind us."
Tobi turned.
Kade closed his eyes.
"Wonderful."
"The woman?"
"Yes."
"She’s been watching us since the newspaper stand."
Kade stared at him.
"You noticed?"
"I’m not completely useless."
"Nobody said you were."
"You were thinking it."
They crossed toward a row of parked vehicles.
The woman followed.
Not hurriedly.
Not secretly.
She walked like someone who already knew they couldn’t escape.
"Kade Adeyemi."
Her voice was calm.
Kade stopped.
He hadn’t told her his name.
"Who are you?"
"Someone investigating a disturbance."
"What disturbance?"
"An old spiritual boundary activated today."
Kade kept his expression neutral.
"That sounds unfortunate."
"It recorded something unusual."
"Maybe the building needs repairs."
The woman’s eyes narrowed.
"You were there."
It wasn’t a question.
Kade glanced toward the passing traffic.
"Lots of people go lots of places."
"Not that place."
She stepped closer.
"I’d like to examine your spiritual channels."
"No."
Her expression changed slightly.
"You don’t understand."
"Then explain."
"I need to determine whether you’re dangerous."
Kade almost laughed.
Everyone kept asking whether he was dangerous.
Nobody seemed particularly concerned about whether he was safe.
"I said no."
The woman studied him.
Then raised her right hand.
A thin silver thread appeared between her fingers.
[SPIRITUAL TECHNIQUE DETECTED.]
[FUNCTION: RESTRAINT.]
Kade stepped backward.
"Don’t."
The thread shot toward his wrist.
He moved too slowly.
It caught his sleeve.
Pain flashed through his injured shoulder as the fabric tightened.
Tobi grabbed Kade around the waist and pulled.
The thread stretched.
Then something strange happened.
A tiny portion of its silver glow vanished where it touched Kade’s sleeve.
The woman frowned.
Her fingers tightened.
The thread dimmed again.
For an instant, Kade felt something cold move beneath his skin.
Not pain.
Recognition.
The hunger stirred.
More.
[FOREIGN INSTINCT ACTIVITY: ELEVATED.]
[UNCONTROLLED ENERGY INTERACTION DETECTED.]
[ENERGY ABSORPTION: UNCONFIRMED.]
Kade recoiled.
The thread tore through his sleeve and snapped free.
He stumbled behind a parked delivery van.
A second thread struck the vehicle.
Metal shrieked.
"She’s trying to kill us!" Tobi shouted.
"She’s trying to catch us!"
"That distinction is not comforting!"
Kade activated ANALYZE.
[TECHNIQUE: SPIRITUAL RESTRAINT THREAD.]
[CONTROL: CONTINUOUS.]
[OBSERVED LIMITATION: REQUIRES SUSTAINED CONCENTRATION.]
Kade glanced toward the road.
Crowds.
Traffic.
Noise.
He couldn’t outrun a Vessel cultivator.
But he could make her hesitate.
He grabbed a loose stone and threw it against a metal sign.
The sharp clang made the woman glance sideways.
Her remaining thread slackened.
Kade pulled Tobi toward the bus stop.
His injured ankle nearly gave way.
He caught himself against a parked bus.
"Move!" Tobi shouted.
They pushed into the crowd.
Behind them, the woman stopped.
Several people were staring at the damaged van.
She lowered her hand.
Then examined her fingers.
The Ase circulating through them had weakened.
Not much.
Barely enough to notice.
But she had felt the loss.
And the boy hadn’t performed a recognizable cultivation technique.
Her breathing changed.
A memory surfaced.
Not a clear one.
A passage from a damaged account she’d encountered years earlier.
Most of the writing had been illegible.
But one description had remained.
A spiritual force that consumes what touches it.
She looked toward Kade.
Her lips moved.
"Devourer?"
The word escaped before she could stop it.
Kade froze.
He had heard.
Their eyes met across the crowd.
The woman looked frightened.
But not certain.
She glanced at her fingers again, as though searching for proof.
There was none.
Only the unexplained weakening of her technique.
She closed her fist.
Then stepped backward into the crowd.
Kade remained motionless.
Tobi grabbed his arm.
"Bus. Now."
They boarded a danfo heading away from the junction.
Kade barely noticed the conductor demanding payment.
He kept hearing the woman’s voice.
Devourer.
The same word that appeared in his System.
He summoned the interface.
"System."
[AWAITING INSTRUCTION.]
"Why did she recognize that word?"
[INSUFFICIENT INFORMATION.]
"Did she absorb spiritual energy from me?"
[NO CONFIRMED ABSORPTION DETECTED.]
"Did I absorb energy from her?"
[ENERGY TRANSFER: UNCONFIRMED.]
Kade checked his status.
[SPIRITUAL ENERGY: 19 UNITS.]
Unchanged.
He frowned.
"Has someone else used DEVOUR?"
[INFORMATION UNAVAILABLE.]
"Was there another host before me?"
[INFORMATION UNAVAILABLE.]
Kade stared at the responses.
He wanted answers.
Instead, the System offered uncertainty.
Tobi leaned closer.
"What happened back there?"
"She recognized something."
"What?"
"Something connected to the System."
Tobi waited.
"She called it Devourer."
His friend frowned.
"Maybe she’s heard of it."
"Maybe."
"Or maybe she guessed."
"Maybe."
Tobi stared.
"You’re being unusually agreeable."
Kade looked out of the window.
The woman hadn’t sounded confident.
She’d sounded like someone who’d remembered an old nightmare without knowing whether it had ever been real.
That was almost worse.
Several streets behind them, the woman in grey entered a narrow alley.
She stopped beside a locked metal gate.
Her hand was trembling.
She opened her fist.
The silver Ase thread was gone.
But she could still remember the moment it weakened.
She took out her phone.
Dialled a number.
Waited.
A voice answered.
"Report."
"I investigated the shrine disturbance."
"And?"
"The subject appears to have no Ase Core."
Silence.
"Impossible."
"I couldn’t detect a conventional Core signature."
"Then what did the shrine record?"
"I don’t know."
A pause.
"Did you capture him?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Something interfered with my restraint technique."
"What kind of interference?"
The woman looked at her fingers.
"Part of the Ase maintaining the thread seemed to disappear."
"Seemed?"
"I couldn’t establish what happened."
"Could the technique have destabilized?"
"Possibly."
"Then don’t speculate."
The woman hesitated.
"There was something else."
"Speak."
She thought of the damaged account.
Of a single word she’d read without understanding.
But she had no evidence connecting that old description to the boy.
"Nothing confirmed," she said.
The voice hardened.
"Then submit only what you can verify."
"Understood."
The call ended.
She remained in the alley.
For several seconds, she stared at her empty hand.
Then whispered the word again.
"Devourer."
It was only a possibility.
An old name attached to an incomplete description.
Yet something about it disturbed her more than the missing Ase.
She could remember reading the word.
She could remember feeling afraid.
What she couldn’t remember was why.