STARLIGHT UNBOUND by Deus Ex Machina - HTML preview

STARLIGHT UNBOUND

The words clung to him, like the dream, their meaning circling out of reach. He wasn ’t sure if it was true—but he knew one thing.

I’m not the same.

A sigh escaped him. He pushed to his feet, dressing quickly and grabbing his work bag. His wrist device vibrated again, the soft pulse of an incoming notification —routine tasks, reports, schedules.

He didn’t bother looking.

For the first time, he didn’t care.

***

Darius was at his station as Lucien stepped inside. “Lucien? What the hell, man? You ’re late.”

Lucien nodded absently, sliding into his chair without offering an explanation.

“You okay?” Darius frowned. “That’s not like you.”

Lucien didn’t answer right away. His hands hovered over the keyboard, his eyes locked on the blinking login prompt. He considered telling Darius everything —about Lyra, about the strange things he’d seen, about the gnawing feeling that something was fundamentally wrong.

Instead, he muttered, “I’m fine. Just a rough morning. Didn’t sleep well.”

The lie tasted bitter.

Darius hesitated but let it go. “Alright, man. Don’t make a habit of it though.”

Lucien forced a thin smile and turned back to his monitor.

***

The morning passed in fragments.

He moved through his tasks mechanically, fingers typing commands he barely registered, his thoughts tangled elsewhere. Lyra. The dreams. The pull. Each repetition of routine felt like he was sinking into something he couldn ’t escape.

At midday, something shifted.

Running a routine diagnostic on a minor subsystem, he caught it—a fragment of corrupted data buried deep within the code. His fingers stilled over the keyboard, brows furrowing. What the hell?

It didn ’t belong.

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