The sun was already starting to drop behind the towers by the time Brad and Eli got back to the apartment.
Aurelion looked completely different at nighttime.
From the windows of Brad's living room the district stretched outward in every direction, a grid of light and glass stacked between towering buildings that seemed even taller once the sky turned dark behind them. Office floors still glowed high above the streets, while lower levels flashed with neon signs from restaurants and bars that were just beginning to fill up for the evening.
Traffic moved constantly through the wide avenues below. Headlights slid past one another in long streams while buses and black cars turned through intersections that looked impossibly small compared to the buildings surrounding them.
Eli stood near the window for a moment, watching it all.
The city had felt huge during the day. At night it looked alive in a completely different way.
Behind him Brad set his keys down on the counter and pulled out his familiar glass bottle and matching cup set.
"You're staring like you've never seen a city before," he said.
Eli glanced back over his shoulder.
"I haven't seen one like this."
Brad leaned against the counter with the half-filled glass in his hand.
"Give it about a week. You'll stop noticing it."
Eli wasn't so sure about that.
Even after everything that had happened over the last few days, the view outside still made him feel like he had been dropped into a completely different world.
He rested his hands on the back of one of the chairs near the table.
"Can I ask you something?" he said.
Brad took a sip of his whiskey.
"Go ahead."
Eli hesitated for a second before continuing.
"How long am I actually staying here?"
Brad didn't answer immediately.
He set the glass down and looked out the window beside Eli, following the same stretch of glowing buildings and traffic below.
"Honestly?" he said. "However long it takes for things to settle down."
Eli frowned slightly.
"That could mean anything."
"Yeah," Brad said. "It could."
Eli shifted his weight and tried a different question.
"What about my mom's case? Have you heard anything new?"
Brad shook his head.
"Still active," he said. "But there's nothing concrete yet."
Eli nodded slowly.
That was basically the same answer he had gotten every time he asked.
He rubbed the back of his neck.
"Am I ever going to go back to school?"
That question finally made Brad pause.
For the first time in the conversation he looked like he was thinking about how he wanted to answer.
"I'm working on that," he said.
Eli raised an eyebrow.
"Working on it how?"
Brad picked his glass back up.
"You'll see."
Which, Eli had realized by now, probably meant Brad wasn't going to explain it to him yet.
Brad nodded toward the door.
"Actually," he said, "you should go out for a while."
"Out?"
"Yeah," Brad said. "Walk around. Get some food. Do something normal for a few hours."
He tossed a couple folded bills across the table.
"Just stay nearby and keep your phone on."
Eli caught the money and looked at it for a second.
"You're letting me leave by myself?"
Brad shrugged.
"You're not a prisoner."
Eli slipped the cash and his phone into his pocket and glanced once more at the glowing city outside the window.
He stood there for another moment, watching the traffic slide between the towers.
Then he turned toward the door.
The hallway outside the apartment was quiet and bright, the polished floor reflecting the soft overhead lights as he walked toward the elevator. The building itself felt almost unnaturally clean.
The elevator arrived before he even had time to press the button a second time.
The doors slid open with a soft chime.
Eli stepped inside and leaned back against the wall as the car began its descent. Through the glass panel on the far side of the elevator, the district unfolded below him floor by floor.
For the past few days everything had happened with Brad nearby.
Now it was just him.
The elevator slowed and opened into the lobby.
The space was even more polished than the floors above. Smooth marble stretched across the room under warm lighting while tall glass walls framed the street outside. A security desk stood near the center of the lobby with a man seated behind it watching a wall of monitors.
The guard glanced up as Eli crossed the floor.
"Evening."
Eli gave a small nod as he passed.
"Evening," he replied.
The glass doors slid open as he approached.
The moment he stepped outside the city rushed in around him.
Cool evening air moved through the street, carrying the smell of restaurant kitchens and passing traffic. Music was coming in faintly from somewhere down the block while voices mixed together into the background noise of the city.
Eli paused just outside the entrance.
The towers around him stretched high into the night sky. The street below was wide and perfectly clean, lined with metal railings, trimmed trees, and long rows of glowing signs.
Cars moved steadily through the avenues, their headlights sliding across the pavement like streams of white light.
People were everywhere.
Some hurried down the sidewalks with bags or briefcases while others lingered outside restaurants where tables were already filling up for the night. Different groups of friends laughed as they walked past, and a pair of suited men argued quietly near the corner while checking something on a tablet.
Eli started walking.
The sidewalks felt much wider than the narrow streets he was used to at home. Glass storefronts lined along the block beside him, each one reflecting the moving lights of traffic across the road. One restaurant had its front windows fully open to the street where people sat eating under soft hanging lights. Another place farther down glowed with bright purple neon while a short line of customers waited near the door.
He slowed when he reached the crosswalk near the corner.
Across the street another tower rose even taller than the one his uncle lived in, its lower floors filled with shops while the upper levels disappeared into rows of dark windows high above.
The green walking symbol flashed.
The crowd beside him stepped forward together and Eli moved with them.
No one paid him any attention.
Back in Port Virel people looked at strangers. A new face in town usually meant some tourists standing out or some random person other people started asking questions about.
Here he was just another person in the crowd.
That felt strange in a good way.
He crossed the street and he continued along the next block, letting the flow of the city traffic carry him forward. The lights growing brighter the farther he kept walking. A couple food stands had been set up along one section of the sidewalk where the smell of grilled meat and different spices drifted through the air.
Eli checked his pocket.
Brad's cash was still there.
He stepped toward one of the stands and ordered something simple, the vendor handing him a wrapped sandwich before turning immediately to the next customer in line.
Eli leaned against a metal railing at the edge of a small park and started eating while watching the city move around him.
For the first time in days nothing strange was happening.
No shades, or training drills.
No pressure building in his chest ready to burst at any moment.
Just him and the city.
He glanced up again at the glowing towers surrounding the park.
A few hours ago he had been stopping steel pipes in midair. Standing here now that felt like it happened to someone else.
Eli shook his head slightly and took another bite.
A voice beside him spoke suddenly.
"You're definitely not from around here."
Eli turned.
A girl stood a few feet away near the railing, watching him with an amused expression.
She was shorter than him by a decent amount, with blonde hair that was pulled back into a messy braid that looked like it was done in a rush. She had a few strands escaping and resting near the sides of her face. She had on an oversized hoodie and casual jeans, with one shoulder leaning casually against the railing like she had been standing there a while.
Eli could feel his face start to get warm, "Is it that obvious?"
"You've been standing here for the last couple minutes just watching everything," she said. "People who've lived here long stop gawking at all this stuff after a while."
Eli glanced up at the towers again and then back at her.
"Guess I'm still figuring the place out."
She smiled.
"Yeah," she said. "That was my guess."
Eli looked back at her.
"So you've lived here a long time?"
"Pretty much my whole life," she replied.
She gestured loosely toward the towers around them.
"Same neighborhood too. My parents never wanted to move anywhere else."
Eli nodded.
"Seems like a pretty good place to stay."
"It's not bad," she said with a small shrug. "Pretty expensive, though."
He laughed quietly.
"Yeah, I got that impression."
Her eyes drifted down to the wrapped sandwich in his hand.
"You grab that from the stand over there?"
"Yeah," he replied.
She rolled her eyes at his response.
"You picked the grilled chicken one, right?"
Eli raised an eyebrow.
"You can tell?"
"Everyone picks that one the first time," she said. "Though it does smell better than the rest."
"Is it a bad choice?"
"No," she said. "It's fine. Just not the best thing around here."
Eli took another bite.
"I'm open to recommendations."
"Good," she said.
They stood there for another moment watching the street before she looked back at him.
"So what's your name?"
"Eli."
Her eyebrows lifted slightly.
"Ooh, Cool!" she said. "Like the old General Elias."
Eli raised an eyebrow.
"Who?"
She stared at him for a second.
"You're kidding."
"No," he said. "Should I know who that is?"
She laughed under her breath and shook her head.
"They still teach about him in school."
Eli shrugged.
"Guess my school skipped that part, my teacher was more interested in teaching his own beliefs."
She laughed again, a bit harder this time.
"That's actually kind of impressive," she said. "I didn't think it was possible to get through school without hearing about at least him once."
Eli gave a small shrug.
"Small town," he said. "History class wasn't exactly a priority for us."
She studied him for a second like she was trying to decide whether he was joking.
"You're serious."
"Completely."
"Well," she said, pushing herself off the railing, "now I kind of feel obligated to fix that."
Eli took another bite of his sandwich.
"Fix what exactly?"
"The fact that you somehow missed out on knowing one of the most famous people in Somatic history."
She gestured vaguely down the street behind them.
"There's a history museum a few blocks from here. They've got an entire section about him."
Eli raised an eyebrow.
"You're really serious about this, huh?"
She gave a big grin.
"I just like history, that's all."
"Really, that much?"
"Yeah," she said. "My friends say I treat the museum like a second home sometimes."
Eli laughed.
"Good to know."
She glanced at the sky for a moment. The last strip of orange sunlight had almost disappeared behind the towers now, leaving the district lit mostly by streetlights and neon.
"Though they're probably closing soon anyway," she said. "But luckily it stays open late tomorrow."
Eli nodded along slowly.
She pointed at him.
"You show up tomorrow and I'll give you the five-minute version of the General story."
"Be honest, really five minutes," Eli repeated.
"Okay maybe ten."
He smiled.
"Fair enough."
They stood there quietly for a moment while a bus rolled through the intersection and the lights from its windows swept across the plaza.
Then she looked back at him.
"So what are you doing out here all by yourself anyway?"
"Just walking around a little, trying my best to get a little grip on this place. And my uncle said I should get out of the apartment for a while."
"That explains the sightseeing," she said.
Eli rolled his eyes a little.
"If you can call it that"
They stood there quietly for a moment while a bus rolled through the intersection and washed the plaza in pale light from its windows.
Then Eli looked back at her.
"You got a name?"
She blinked.
"Oh. Right."
She held out her hand.
"Lila."
Eli shifted the sandwich to his other hand and shook it.
"Eli."
"Well," Lila said, stepping away from the railing, "if you wanted to in the morning, I'll show you the museum."
"Here take my number too, ill let you know where you can meet me," she added.
"Sure," he said pulling his phone out of his pocket.
She took it from him and added a new contact with her phone number. Lila Arden.
She handed it back to him and started backing toward the sidewalk before turning toward the street.
"See ya around!"
Eli watched her head down the sidewalk.
He watched the crowd slowly fade her away as she moved between different people and restaurant lights.
The messy braid down her back caught the streetlights every time she passed beneath one. A few loose strands had slipped free near the top, pale gold under the neon glow.
For some reason he kept watching longer than he meant to.
Something about the color of her hair reminded him of Corrine.
The way Corrine's hair looked in the sun back home when the light caught it just right.
The thought made him shift slightly against the railing.
Corrine had told him to text her later.
And his phone was still in his pocket.
For a moment he considered pulling it out. It would be easy enough. Just a quick message or a simple check in.
But the city around him kept moving.
Cars rolled through the intersection in long ribbons of light while music drifted faintly from somewhere down the block. Conversations overlapped across the sidewalk as people moved between restaurants and storefronts.
Everything here felt bigger than the life he had left behind.
Not better.
Just different.
Eli slipped his hands into his pockets and pushed himself away from the railing.
Corrine would still be there.
He could text her later.
For now he decided he would keep walking and see a little more of the city before the night was over.
He kept walking, hands in his pockets, letting the city do whatever it was going to do around him.