The city was half-dead.

  Sirens wailed in all districts, close enough to matter, close enough to remind everyone that Grand Sasebella was tearing itself apart. Streets that once choked with vendors and officers were empty now, littered with debris and flickering signage. That’s when I saw Jane.

  She didn’t hide. She walked openly through the street, boots steady, posture relaxed, like men weren't shaking buildings a few blocks away. No escort. Just a basic disguise.

  I followed her the moment I realized where she was heading. She didn’t take side roads. She didn’t break line of sight. She moved straight toward Sun’s entertainment complex, that massive neon-washed monument to denial. Most of it had been evacuated once the fighting escalated.

  A perfect place to be alone.

  Or to be followed. I tested her once—slowed my pace, shifted angles, crossed the street. She never once altered her stride. She didn’t need to look back. The path she chose told me everything.

  She wants someone important to bite.

  By the time she passed under the massive archway gate and into the complex, the city noise was gone. The music systems were off. It was dead.

  I stepped inside after her, letting the doors slide shut behind me.

  I understood it then.

  She didn’t care who followed her. But it was very good—for both of us—that it was me.

  Jane finally turned to face me. It felt like standing inside a mausoleum built for Sun.

  “You followed me.” she said calmly. “That means I mattered. That I'm considered a threat.”

  I let out a soft laugh. “Don’t flatter yourself—I'm overkill for you.”

  I stepped closer, slow and deliberate, circling her the way I used to circle informants before they broke. “Vellin talks about me, you know.”

  Her eyes sharpened. There it was. Her black outfit made her seem more serious.

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  “Not to me.” I continued. “To you.” I tilted my head. “Funny, isn’t it? Talking about another woman while lying next to you.”

  She grimaced, "I'm not jealous. All he thought of you was superficial."

  I watched her carefully and added, “I teased you back then, and it clearly got to you. It was jest. I promise.”

  She stiffened.

  “He didn’t sleep with me.” I said immediately. “Before you get ideas. But you should’ve seen your face. Like I’d peeled something open.”

  Jane’s voice stayed even. “You’re trying to make me angry. What a great former friend you are.”

  “No.” I corrected. “I’m trying to remind you where you stand.”

  I stopped in front of her. “He said I was stronger than you. That I’d already reached my peak.” My mouth twisted. “Then he said you had more potential.”

  The words tasted bitter even now.

  “That’s what made you dangerous.” I said. “He loves you, but I don't think he'd lie for you, to you.”

  Jane met my gaze without flinching. “You believed him? Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  “I didn’t have to.” I snapped. “He was right. So I had to transcend.”

  I exhaled, forcing myself back into control. “You want to erase transcendents. You call it justice. I call it arrogance.”

  “They aren’t guardians.” she replied. “They’re weapons that decided they were gods.”

  “And gods keep order.” I shot back. “Caleb understood that. Transcendents make society function. They gave people something to fear.”

  Jane shook her head. “Fear isn’t stability. It’s rot.”

  I laughed quietly. “Then rot is what kept this city standing.”

  Jane didn’t move. Neither did I. I remembered what Sun used to be. When we were weakened, Obsidian took advantage. Their territory was always mistreated.

  “You mistake function for necessity.” she said. “Sun and all its territories survived because people adapted. Not because transcendents loomed over them like threats.”

  I scoffed. “That’s a comforting story. It’s also a lie.” I took another step, close enough now to see the tension in her shoulders, the restraint she was forcing into stillness. “When transcendents disappear, power doesn’t vanish. It scatters. And scattered power is chaos.”

  Her eyes hardened. “Chaos is preferable to worship.”

  That earned a sharp smile from me. “You sound just like him.”

  She didn’t ask who.

  “You think ending transcendents will free people,” I continued. “But all you’re doing is stripping away the only figures strong enough to keep monsters in line. You think gangs, warlords, and tyrants will just... stop?”

  Jane answered immediately. “I think they’ll be killable, as we will be the only transcendents left.”

  “You know what Vellin never said to you?” I asked quietly.

  Her jaw tightened.

  “He never said you were a warrior.” I went on. “You have no idea what loss is.”

  I exploded forward, "Only two people I care about are still alive."

  My barrage came fast and layered, snapping toward her centerline, elbows carving tight arcs.

  She flicked her head.

  My first strike tore through empty space. The second brushed aside. The third missed by inches that felt intentional. It was pure neck movement.

  She stood where she’d started.

  I straightened, letting the words fall clean and sharp, rolling my shoulders back for another barrage.

  “No citizen of ours calls Vellin the Piercing Serpent anymore. They call him the Great Traitor.”