The quarantine room had developed its own kind of silence in the hours since Montgomery was taken. Only disgruntled murmurs and scraping furniture seemed to break the mould.
The room felt divided.
Nico and Kai had taken the walls on either side of the door, backs flat against the cold steel, arms folded. Nico kept his eyes closed long enough to make it convincing, but I knew he wasn't sleeping. Mira and Darius sat at the metal table in the centre. Sylus and Kami had retreated to the far corner, close enough that their shoulders nearly touched, neither of them speaking.
I sat cross-legged on the floor near the back wall with my head lowered.
My thoughts had been spiralling ever since I'd sat down. The same questions circled, time and time again, without an answer.
Two sets of physical evidence. Two completely different hunting patterns. But only one set of tracks.
I'd built my initial theory around the Argyle and committed to it. Even the evidence in the tunnels had pointed toward it. But the luring behaviour at the docks didn't align, and in the end, the black fluid on Montgomery's lips had dismantled the theory entirely.
Argyle venom was a paralytic. That was the physiology of the creature. There was simply no way the venom could have evolved due to a change in environment. Perhaps in a much longer time-frame, but how long ago had the attacks started? Weeks at most.
No matter how I tried to spin it, the theory didn't hold.
How could two creatures with drastically different hunting behaviour leave behind only one set of tracks? And the only creature that actually fit the pattern was disqualified outright because of its venom?
I sighed and slumped back against the wall.
Across the room, Mira's gaze lifted and darted to me. She'd been doing it every few minutes since we'd been locked in, short measuring glances she didn't bother disguising. Darius mirrored her. I chose to ignore them and kept my eyes down, turning my attention to what was happening beyond the room instead.
The base moved with its ordinary sounds outside. Footsteps echoed in distant corridors. The low mechanical drone of the water processors ran underneath everything. Occasionally, voices too muffled to make out passed by the sealed door and faded.
Then, an unknown amount of time later, the door clicked.
Every person in the room snapped to their feet before the handle had finished turning.
Lieutenant Jamie stepped in. His eyes swept the room once, registered each of us, and settled somewhere in the middle distance between all of us and none of us.
"Quarantine's lifted," he said. "You're all clear."
Sylus audibly sighed. Kami pressed her eyes shut.
I didn't move.
"What about Burns?" Mira asked.
Jamie paused briefly and heaved a breath.
"Montgomery is in critical condition. He'll stay in the isolation ward," Jamie said. "The poison has infected his lung tissue. He'll be staying there until command determines next steps. Due to the risk of exposure, no visitation is allowed for now."
Whatever relief had started building immediately fizzled out. The room returned to its mellow blues.
I looked around at the others. There was disbelief in everyone's eyes. I wasn't sure if it was self-reprieve or self-mockery. Maybe both. A single wound. Skin scraped raw beneath torn fabric. That was all it had taken, and now it had eaten through his lungs in hours.
The thought that it could have been any of us sat in my stomach like cold water.
I let the silence hold for a moment, then spoke. "What do we do in the meantime?"
"Return to your quarters," Jamie said. He was already half-turned toward the door. "Rest. Let command assess the situation and wait for a briefing when there's one to give."
I wanted to argue. I wanted to push and find out what was actually going on. But I hesitated.
I weighed it and let it go. Jamie hadn't been at the receiving bay. He hadn't been the one whose face cracked for a single, unguarded second at the sight of Montgomery's darkened veins.
"Yes, sir," I said.
Jamie left. The door sealed behind him, and the room exhaled something that wasn't quite relief.
We filed out in ones and twos. The corridor outside felt wider than it had this morning, or maybe we were just moving through it differently. I fell toward the back of the group, watching the others. Darius walked with his hands loosely closed at his sides, unaware of it. Mira held herself together with a particular kind of quiet that looked effortful from behind.
I replayed Zamri's face as I walked.
That widened look. The jaw pulled tight in a way that had nothing to do with the situation's difficulty and everything to do with recognition. The way she'd gone straight to isolation orders without asking for a threat description, without asking what had attacked him or what conditions we'd found him in.
She had already known.
There was no other way.
Which meant the information was present, but simply not given to us. And now Montgomery was in an isolation ward paying the cost of it.
I kept walking. I filed the thought away and let it sit as I entered my room and dropped onto the bed. I lay on my back for a long time, staring at nothing.
Sleep eluded me. My thoughts rowed toward darker shores, crossing familiar waters.
I went back to the beginning.
Argyle. Paralytic venom, shallow grip marks on the pier, a luring call designed to draw prey toward water. Patient, ambush-built, suited perfectly to the harbour environment.
Then there were the tunnels that didn't fit. The violence of those claw marks was inconsistent with an animal built around patience. Argyles lured. They didn't storm enclosed spaces and tear through them with that kind of force.
I'd told myself two creatures. But there was only one set of non-human physical evidence.
I went through it again, slower.
The grip marks at the dock. The claw marks in the tunnel. I'd been reading those as evidence of two attack styles from either one creature or two creatures working in proximity.
But there was a third possibility I hadn't considered.
What if there were two creatures, but only one of them left traces?
My mind raced.
A predator that used another predator as its instrument. That operated through a host instead of beside one. That left no direct evidence because it had never been outside the host to begin with.
Something small enough to be invisible, integrated deeply enough to rewrite the animal it occupied from the inside out. Something that altered behavioural patterns. Reworked venom chemistry. Turning a patient, luring creature into something aggressive enough to tear through a tunnel at full force.
And when the host made contact with a human target, it transferred.
I sat up abruptly. A chill rushed down my spine.
The black fluid. The darkening veins. The respiratory destruction. Those weren't symptoms of Argyle venom. They were symptoms of something establishing itself, burning through lung tissue to reach the mana stream beneath.
The poison hadn't been trying to kill Montgomery. It was trying to take control of him.
Only one creature came to mind.
I leapt off the bed and reached for my jacket before the thought had fully finished forming. I grabbed for the door and pulled it open.
Nico was leaning against the wall directly across the corridor, arms crossed, ankles loosely together. His eyes were already open when the light from my room reached him.
He looked at me for a moment without speaking.
"You figured it out," he said, raising his chin.
I was startled for a second. "Yes."
Nico nodded. "It's obvious the Lieutenants are hiding something. And judging by your reaction, whatever you've put together is probably connected to it." He uncrossed his arms and pushed off the wall. "Confronting them might not end well for you. You still going to do that?"
"Do I have a choice?" I scoffed. I'd held on to the information long enough. Now that I was certain, there was no point in waiting.
Nico shook his head. "There's always a choice."
"I've made mine." I turned and started toward the central room.
His hand landed on my shoulder. He moved ahead of me. "Since you're so determined, I'll tag along. It'll be harder to punish two than just one."
I studied his face for a second. The corners of my mouth twitched. It was clear he'd always planned to come. But I appreciated that he'd tried to dissuade me from going alone.
We walked briskly down the hallway.
The administrative wing was quieter than the rest of the base at this hour; the usual background hum of personnel thinned to almost nothing. Our footsteps were careful and deliberate on the metal floor. The base's emergency lighting cast everything in a dim, functional blue that made the corridors look longer than they were.
A thin strip of yellow light marked the door to the Lieutenant's briefing room. That was when I heard them. Two voices, low and measured, the words unclear but the cadences familiar.
As we reached the door, I slowed. I hadn't fully decided yet whether to knock. The murmurs inside quieted.
"Enter."
Lieutenant Kayla's voice rang out, as though she'd known we were standing there.
I pushed the door open.
The room was compact and functional, stripped of anything unnecessary. A broad table dominated the centre, and a wall-mounted display on the far side showed the harbour's depth readings in calm green lines. Lieutenant Kayla stood near the head of the table with her arms at her sides. Lieutenant Nomi sat at the table's edge, hands folded in front of her, expression quieter and considerably harder to read. Lieutenant Zamri sat quietly across from the door, and Lieutenant Jamie leaned against the wall beside it.
Kayla's gaze moved between Nico and me, then settled on me.
"It's past midnight, Cadet Reed," she said. "Walk me through what brought you here."
"I know what infected Montgomery."
Zamri's eyes narrowed. "Cadet Reed. If you've come here to talk about the poison, I assure you, our medical team is doing the best they can."
"A parasite," I said, keeping my voice level. "That's what it is, isn't it?"
The four of them stiffened. Their faces darkened.
"Cadet Reed." Kayla moved around the table, closer to the door. "What makes you think that?"
"Everything. The Argyle we encountered wasn't acting on instinct. Something was driving it, modifying its hunting patterns, restructuring its venom output into a compound capable of infecting a secondary host on contact." I held Kayla's gaze. "When Montgomery was wounded, the parasite transferred into him."
The room stilled.
"The black fluid in his lungs was the parasite working," I said. "Burning pathways through his tissue to access his mana stream. It wasn't trying to kill him. It was establishing itself. And Lt Zamri knew what she was looking at the moment she saw him at the receiving bay."
Kayla glanced at Zamri briefly.
"You sent us into that city with incomplete information," I said. "Why?"
Kayla took a slow, even breath. "Because the information carries no actionable value. There is no method to detect this unknown parasite before it acts. No test, no indicator, no early symptom that would have told you anything useful in the field. Briefing a team on something they cannot detect, avoid, or counter does not protect them. It only occupies their focus."
"That is not your decision to make," Nico said. His voice was quiet and flat, and it didn't invite a response.
"In matters of operational risk management," Kayla replied, without shifting her attention from me, "it very much is."
My brows furrowed.
"It's a Soul Tick."
The quality of the silence changed completely.
Nomi's hands separated on the table. Kayla's expression tightened.
"What?" Zamri shot up from her seat.
"A low-level demonic parasite," I continued. "Rarely confirmed because its hosts don't present as infected. The parasite integrates fully, alters the host from within, and transfers when the host is wounded and a more suitable candidate is available. That is what we're facing."
Kayla held my gaze for a long moment. "Cadet Reed, there are many parasitic creatures that could fit that description. Stating that it's a Soul Tick is an assumption we cannot make lightly. Currently, there's no way to verify the parasite. All we know is that it exists."
"No. Maybe not before." I felt my thoughts fall into place.
Insight triggered.
"Argyle venom is catered toward a very specific purpose. It holds almost no other characteristic. But the venom in Montgomery's system is a mutated version, and it's not just any mutation. The changes are undoubtedly brought about by a demonic infection. If we use a sealing magic on the venom's particulates, it should separate into its components."
I stopped there.
I watched understanding move across their faces.
Jamie spoke first. "Cadet Reed. If this works, you'll definitely be rewarded. But." His eyes turned stern. "If you're merely looking to extend someone's influence, I assure you, it will not end well."
I tilted my head. Nico answered for us.
"A passionate argument. Unfortunately, I'm only here to observe. After all, who knows what'll happen to a cadet willing to stand up to his superiors?" He flashed a grin that swiftly turned into a scoff.
"We'll test your solution immediately." Nomi moved quickly. "If it really does work, you'll have saved many lives."
I looked to Kayla. "What happens to Montgomery now?"
Nomi answered. Her voice was precise and unhurried, each word chosen carefully.
"The immediate poisoning will pass. His body will stabilise over the next day or two, and he'll present as recovering. The black fluid will clear." She paused. "But if it really is a Soul Tick, it'll use that recovery period to embed itself deeper into his mana stream. Once the integration is complete, the process cannot be reversed."
"It takes control of him," I said.
"His body continues to function normally. His mana system continues to operate." Nomi's voice didn't change. "But the will directing those systems is no longer his."
The words died in my throat. A grim silence gripped the room.
Nico broke it. "What if I called someone strong enough to cut the parasite out entirely?"
Nomi shook her head slowly.
"The Soul Tick does not sit within the mana stream," she said. "It weaves through it. Every current, every channel. Attempting to extract it would require unravelling the stream in its entirety." She met Nico's eyes. "He would not survive that."
I looked at the display on the wall. The harbour's depth readings moved in calm, patient green lines, indifferent to all of it.
"Then we need to find the source," I said. "A Soul Tick doesn't originate from an Argyle. Something introduced it into this city. Something brought it here, and if there's one infected host in that harbour, there are definitely more."