Chapter 28: Distraction
Varrik's version of "distraction" wasn't insults or loud noise.
It was temptation.
She placed a small black case on the table in the threshold room and opened it just enough for Kairo to see what was inside.
A bracelet.
Not a clinic tag. Not a cheap Wrought band.
Slim, matte, with a faint Etched pattern that looked like a constellation wound into a knot.
Kairo's breath caught before he could stop it.
He hated that his body reacted.
Varrik watched him, expression flat. "Recognize it?"
Kairo swallowed. "Storage."
Selene's gaze sharpened, but she didn't move.
Varrik nodded once. "Stowbrand. Etched. Scion-tier."
Kairo forced his eyes away. "Why are you showing me this."
Varrik closed the case with a soft click. "Because you're starting to think like a thief. That will get you killed."
Kairo's jaw tightened. He didn't deny it. A part of him had looked at the bracelet and thought: easier than the bag. Safer. Cleaner.
Varrik pointed at the ring in the floor. "Three minutes."
Kairo's stomach dropped. "You said tomorrow."
"It is tomorrow," Varrik said, like time obeyed her.
Kairo stepped into the ring anyway.
Selene leaned against the wall, arms folded, quiet. Her eyes tracked Kairo's breathing more than his posture. She'd learned what his panic looked like before it became leakage.
Varrik stuck the sensor pad to Kairo's forearm.
Target: 180 seconds.
Kairo stared at the number and felt the fragment press against his sternum like it enjoyed watching him struggle.
He breathed in.
Held.
Out.
The thread slid through his channels. Thin. Cold. Controlled.
At first, it was easy. The first minute always was. The Veil still felt like a tool then, not a weight.
Varrik spoke calmly.
"While you hold Thread," she said, "tell me what you saw behind that seam."
Kairo's thread twitched.
He didn't want to replay it. Replaying it made it sharper, and sharp things cut.
But he answered, because refusing would spike emotion.
"A lattice," Kairo said, voice steady. "Like a corridor map. Constellations."
Varrik nodded once. "And the warning cut."
Kairo's throat tightened. "Permission-based defense."
Selene's eyes narrowed slightly, as if filing it away.
Varrik continued. "And the silhouette."
Kairo's breath almost broke.
He caught it.
In. Hold. Out.
"I saw a reflection," he said carefully. "Someone standing too far back. Eyes like… holes."
Selene didn't react outwardly, but Kairo felt her presence sharpen. A small shift in weight. A silent promise to be ready.
Varrik's voice stayed flat. "Good. Now hold Thread and answer this."
She tapped the case on the table.
"Do you want the bracelet?" she asked.
Kairo's mouth went dry.
Yes, his body wanted to say. Yes, because it means capacity, it means safety, it means not being caught with a full pouch and a cold seam, it means not dying because your storage spits.
But wanting was dangerous.
Wanting created leaks.
And leaks were invitations.
Kairo forced his breath steady. "I want to live."
Varrik's gaze sharpened. "That's not what I asked."
Kairo's thread wobbled.
The Veil inside him tried to surge, like Northbind wanted to seize control and make the conversation into a path problem.
He held it back.
"I want it," he admitted, voice low. "But I won't reach for it."
Varrik nodded once, like that answer mattered.
Selene's voice came softly, the smallest blade. "Good."
Kairo didn't know if she meant good as in proud, or good as in don't be stupid.
Probably both.
Two minutes in, his channels began to itch again. The old crawling sensation. His muscles wanted to tighten. His mind wanted to run away from the discomfort.
Varrik made it worse.
She opened the case again.
Not wide.
Just enough for the Etched pattern to catch the light.
Kairo's eyes flicked to it before he could stop them.
His breath hitched.
His thread surged a fraction.
The sensor pad chirped once, warning.
Leak spike: minor.
Selene's fingers lifted slightly, ready to apply Still Seal if Kairo slipped.
Varrik watched without moving. "You see? Wanting is a leak."
Kairo swallowed hard, eyes fixed on the floor ring.
In. Hold. Out.
He pictured the market. The crowd. One minute. Two minutes. The way he'd held himself while the world pressed in.
He forced that memory into his lungs.
The itch eased.
The thread steadied.
Selene lowered her hand again, calm.
Varrik closed the case.
"Last thirty seconds," she said.
Kairo's vision fuzzed at the edges.
His jaw ached from clenching.
The fragment pressed heavier, like gravity.
One hundred and sixty.
One seventy.
The room felt too small.
One seventy-five.
The thought came, sharp and ugly.
If I die, nobody will know what I carried.
It wasn't heroic. It wasn't noble. It was just… true.
Kairo held his breath a fraction too long.
His thread trembled.
Selene's voice cut in, soft and immediate. "Kairo. Breathe."
He obeyed.
In.
Hold.
Out.
One eighty.
The sensor pad chimed clean.
Target achieved.
Kairo released the thread and swayed slightly, catching himself. His hands were shaking now, but he hated that less than he used to.
Shaking meant he didn't spill the Veil.
Varrik peeled the pad off and checked the reading.
Sustained circulation: 183 seconds.
Leak spikes: minimal.
Clarity: stable under stimulus.
She nodded once. "Good."
Kairo swallowed, voice rough. "So what was the point."
Varrik looked at him, eyes cold. "The point is that power isn't your enemy."
She tapped the closed case.
"Desire is."
Selene watched Kairo quietly, then said, almost to herself, "And people who know how to use it."
Varrik's mouth twitched faintly. Agreement.
Kairo stared at the case and felt something settle in him, slow and uncomfortable.
He didn't just need to grow.
He needed to grow without reaching.
Because in this world, reaching was how you got your hand cut off.