STARLIGHT UNBOUND by Deus Ex Machina - HTML preview

STARLIGHT UNBOUND

He gripped his mug. “And if I help you? What happens then? You tear it all down and replace it with what? Chaos? Fear? ”

Lyra shook her head. “We’re not here to destroy. We’re here to give people a choice. That’s all. The system can still exist—but it can’t control us anymore.”

Jaris sat back, running a hand over his jaw. “If I agree to this, I’ll have a target on my back. ” His eyes flicked to Corin. “I need to know you’re serious.”

Corin smirked, dry. “We walked into a meeting with a Steward, knowing full well you could turn us in. How much more serious do you need us to be? ”

Jaris’s lips twitched—not quite a smile. His gaze settled on Lucien. “You. What’s your stake in this? You don’t look like the revolutionary type.”

Lucien hesitated, then met Jaris’s eyes. “I believed in AstroSYS once. Worked at the Bureau. ” His voice was quiet, but steady. “Then I saw what’s been done. And now … I can’t unsee them.” A pause. “I don’t know what happens next. But I know I can ’t go back.”

Jaris watched Lucien. Then he nodded. “Alright. I’ll help you. But we do this on my terms.”

The meeting ended abruptly.

Jaris’s wrist device buzzed—a single chime that sent a ripple of unease through the group. He glanced at the screen, his face darkening.

“We need to move,” he said.

Corin tensed, his hand drifting to his belt. “What is it?”

Jaris’s voice was quiet. “The Order issued a citywide lockdown. They’re hunting dissidents. And they ’re not being subtle about it.”

Lyra pushed back from the table, already calculating their next steps. “Then we need to disappear. Fast. ”

***

Lucien sat on the edge of a cot in one of the safehouse’s back rooms, his elbows braced against his knees, his head in his hands. His body felt like lead, weighed down by exhaustion, but his mind refused to slow—thoughts colliding, fracturing, reforming, recalculating in a relentless cycle.

Something shifted.

At first, it was a shimmer—subtle, like heat rippling off asphalt. The edges of the room wavered, warping like fabric stretched too thin. The air itself vibrated.

Lucien straightened, his breath catching in his throat as the walls dissolved.

162