Chapter 68: The Second Attempt

Kai did not move.

He remained on the floor of the registration hall, staring at the man in the dark uniform. The silver badge on the man’s chest was whole again. The blue lamps were burning. The wooden village outside was quiet.

Mira was gone.

The man looked down at him with the same calm smile.

"You’re awake."

Kai touched his stomach.

No wound.

He moved his fingers to his ribs. No broken bones. His body had returned to the moment before he had followed Mira through the corridor.

But his mind remembered everything.

The villagers.

The axe.

The silver staircase.

The blade beneath his ribs.

The man’s voice whispering that his second death would take him closer.

Kai slowly sat up.

"Where is Mira?"

The man’s smile did not change. "Who?"

"The girl who was standing beside me."

"There is no girl here."

Kai glanced toward the side door. The bowl of water was still on the table. A small drop had spilled onto the floor, forming a dark circle in the dust.

Mira had been here.

The man noticed his eyes moving toward the bowl.

"You are confused," he said. "That is normal after waking from a deep sleep."

Kai looked at him. "How long was I asleep?"

"Two days."

"Where is my family?"

"Waiting for you at the palace."

"And my friends?"

"Waiting there too."

Kai lowered his eyes.

The answers were identical.

The words were not meant to inform him. They were meant to guide him.

The man stepped closer. "Stand up."

Kai remained seated.

The man’s expression hardened slightly. "I said stand up."

Kai lifted his head.

"You did."

For the first time, the man looked uncertain.

Kai remembered the first attempt. He had asked too many questions. He had followed Mira too quickly. He had attacked the guard before understanding the building.

This time, he would not repeat himself.

Kai stood slowly, allowing his knees to tremble. He let his shoulders sink and kept his breathing uneven.

The man watched him with satisfaction.

"Better."

Kai looked toward the silver plates on the walls.

The names were still there.

Kai, Porter.

Kai, Traitor.

Kai, Failed Vessel.

The clean plate was still polished.

He walked toward it.

The man caught his arm. "Do not touch that."

Kai looked at the hand around his wrist.

"Why?"

"It is not yours."

The words were different this time.

In the first attempt, the man had told him to keep moving. He had not explained anything. The question had forced him to reveal a rule.

Kai pulled his arm free.

"What does it belong to?"

The man stepped between Kai and the plate.

"A person who has not arrived yet."

Kai stared at him.

The answer sent a chill through his body.

Someone else was expected to enter the village. Someone else would receive the identity of Kai.

The body was not the only thing being reused.

The role was too.

"Take me to the palace," Kai said.

The man turned toward the exit. "That is what I intended to do."

Kai followed him through the corridor.

This time, he counted the lamps.

Seven on the left.

Six on the right.

A broken one above the registration hall.

The side door where Mira had escaped was closed, but a thin scratch marked its lower edge. She had dragged something through it, or someone had tried to force it open from the other side.

Kai passed the corridor windows without looking inside.

The faces behind the glass began whispering.

"Kai."

"Kai."

"Kai."

The man continued walking.

Kai stopped.

"What are they saying?"

The man did not turn. "They are welcoming you."

"No. They are warning me."

The man’s hand moved toward his silver badge.

Kai noticed.

He took one step toward the nearest window and smashed it with his elbow.

The glass shattered.

A pale hand shot out and grabbed his coat.

The man in the uniform shouted, "Stop!"

Kai seized the hand and pulled.

A woman fell through the broken window. She landed on the corridor floor, coughing and clutching her throat. A red mark surrounded her neck.

The man drew his silver pistol.

Kai placed himself between them.

"She needs help."

"She is not part of your assignment."

"She is a person."

"She is property."

The woman reached for Kai’s leg.

"Please," she whispered. "Don’t let them put me back."

The man raised the pistol.

Kai moved first.

He kicked the weapon aside and struck the man’s wrist. The pistol slid across the floor. The man responded with a punch that caught Kai beneath the jaw.

Kai stumbled into the wall.

His body was weak, but the attack was familiar. He knew how the man moved now. The first strike was always a distraction. The second aimed for the throat. The third was meant to force the target toward the silver staircase.

The man struck again.

Kai ducked beneath the blow and grabbed his coat. Instead of pulling him forward, Kai twisted sideways and drove the man into the broken window.

The man’s shoulder struck the frame.

Kai reached for the silver badge.

The man caught his hand.

"You remember," he said.

Kai’s eyes narrowed. "You remember too."

The man smiled.

The badge flashed red.

Pain exploded inside Kai’s chest. He fell to one knee as the red needle appeared beneath his skin again, burning through his nerves.

The woman screamed.

The man kicked Kai in the ribs and stepped toward the fallen pistol.

Kai rolled away from the next shot. The bullet struck the wall and opened a black hole in the stone.

The woman crawled toward the side door.

"Run!" Kai shouted.

She reached the handle.

The door opened before she touched it.

A red line wrapped around her throat and pulled her backward.

Kai grabbed her waist, but the force dragged both of them across the floor. His fingers slipped against her coat.

The man stood over them with the pistol raised.

"You cannot save everyone," he said.

Kai looked at the woman’s terrified face.

In the first attempt, he had focused on reaching the palace. He had accepted that he could not save every villager.

But this woman was not the key to the next room.

She was the test.

The village was measuring what he would sacrifice when he knew the cost.

Kai looked at the red line around her neck.

It was connected to the silver badge on the man’s chest.

He did not attack the man.

He attacked the badge.

Kai threw the axe he had taken from outside. The weapon spun through the corridor and struck the silver badge with its blunt side.

The badge cracked.

The red line around the woman’s neck loosened.

Kai pulled her toward the side door.

The man fired.

The bullet passed through Kai’s shoulder.

He felt the heat tear into his flesh, but he did not stop. He shoved the woman through the doorway and followed her.

They entered a narrow passage between the buildings.

The woman collapsed against the wall.

Kai pressed his hand over his shoulder. Blood ran between his fingers.

"You’re hurt," she whispered.

"I noticed."

"What is your name?"

"Kai."

The woman flinched. "Don’t use that name."

"Why?"

"Because it belongs to him."

She pointed toward the registration hall.

Kai looked back.

The man in the uniform stood in the broken window. The cracked badge still hung from his chest, but the silver plate behind him had begun to glow.

The clean plate.

The name on it was changing.

Letters appeared across its surface.

Kai.

The man smiled from the window.

The woman grabbed Kai’s sleeve. "We have to go before he calls the others."

"Who are you?"

"My name is Lysa."

"Were you in the capital?"

"No. I was born here."

"Then how do you know about the resets?"

Lysa looked toward the registration hall.

"Because I have lived through them."

"How many?"

She swallowed. "I don’t know. I stopped counting after the hundredth time."

Kai’s wound throbbed.

The first attempt had lasted less than an hour. He had died before reaching the palace. If Lysa had lived through a hundred cycles, then the village was older and more dangerous than he understood.

"Why can you remember?" he asked.

"Because I refused to accept my role."

"What role?"

Lysa looked at him.

"The person who kills you."

Kai heard footsteps behind them.

The man in the uniform had left the registration hall.

He was coming through the alley.

Lysa pulled Kai toward a row of wooden houses. "Move."

They ran through narrow passages, crossing between buildings and under hanging sheets. Kai’s shoulder burned with every step, but he forced himself to continue.

Behind them, the man did not run.

He walked.

His footsteps remained steady, never growing distant.

"He’s following us," Kai said.

"He always does."

"Where can we hide?"

"Nowhere."

"Then why are we running?"

"Because the first time he catches me, he takes me back to the hall."

"And the second time?"

"He kills me."

Kai stopped.

Lysa turned toward him. "What?"

"How many times have you died?"

"Enough."

"Did you return?"

Lysa’s face became empty.

"No."

Kai looked toward the approaching footsteps.

The man in the uniform was not the one controlling the village.

He was trapped inside it too.

The Company had made him a guard, but every reset forced him to repeat the same work. He did not remember the previous cycles consciously, but some part of him did. That was why he had reacted when Kai broke the badge.

He remembered pain.

He remembered failure.

And he hated Kai for making him experience it again.

Kai turned to Lysa. "Where is the palace?"

She pointed toward the hills. "Beyond the graveyard."

"Is that where my family is?"

"Yes."

"And my friends?"

Lysa shook her head. "They are under the palace."

"What is the difference?"

"The people above are kept alive."

"And the people below?"

"They are used."

The footsteps entered the passage behind them.

The man in the uniform appeared at the far end.

His cracked silver badge glowed red.

"Lysa," he called. "Come back."

Lysa’s face twisted with fear.

Kai stepped in front of her.

The man raised his pistol.

Kai knew what would happen next.

The first bullet would force him toward the wall.

The second would strike his leg.

The man would then drag Lysa back to the registration hall.

Kai had already lived through it once.

This time, he would change the order.

He picked up a loose stone and threw it at the nearest roof lamp.

The lamp shattered.

The alley went dark.

The man fired.

Kai moved left before the shot was released. The bullet struck the wall. He charged through the darkness and slammed his shoulder into the man’s chest.

The impact reopened his wound, but the man lost his balance.

Lysa ran toward the graveyard.

The man grabbed Kai by the throat.

"You should have gone to the palace," he whispered.

Kai struggled against his grip.

"You keep saying that."

The man’s fingers tightened.

Kai’s vision darkened.

He could not break the grip. His body was too weak. His injured shoulder was useless. The red needle burned through his stomach, and the pressure on his throat made it impossible to breathe.

The man leaned closer.

"You do not belong in this body."

Kai’s hands searched the man’s coat.

His fingers found the cracked badge.

The man froze.

Kai tore it from his chest.

The red mark around his wrist transferred onto the badge.

The man screamed and released him.

Kai fell to the ground, coughing.

The badge pulsed in his hand.

Inside the silver metal, a tiny image appeared.

A boy sat in a white room with his knees against his chest.

The boy had Kai’s face.

He was crying.

A younger version of the man in the uniform stood outside the glass and watched him.

The boy looked directly at Kai.

"Please," he whispered. "Tell them I’m still here."

The image vanished.

Kai stared at the broken badge.

The original Kai had not disappeared completely.

Part of him had been sealed inside the Company’s mark.

The man in the uniform lunged toward him.

Kai raised the badge between them.

The man stopped.

"What did you see?" he asked.

Kai stood slowly.

"The truth."

The man’s face twisted with fear.

The graveyard bell began to ring.

Lysa shouted from the hill, "Kai! They’re coming!"

Kai looked past her.

The graves were opening.

Pale hands reached through the soil. One by one, dead villagers climbed from the ground, each carrying a red line around the throat.

The man in the uniform stepped backward.

"No," he whispered.

Kai looked at him. "You said the palace was waiting for me."

The man’s eyes remained fixed on the rising dead.

"It is."

"Then why are you afraid?"

The man looked at Kai for the first time without pretending to be calm.

"Because the palace is where the dead go to remember."

The graveyard erupted.

The dead turned toward Kai.

Lysa ran down the hill.

"Kai, we have to reach the palace before they surround us!"

Kai closed his fingers around the broken badge.

The face of the original Kai remained trapped in his mind.

He had died twice now.

The first death had shown him the hidden city.

The second had shown him the village and the body’s forgotten owner.

The third attempt would take him to the palace.

But before that, he had to survive the dead who remembered him.

Kai lifted the axe.

His hands were shaking again.

He was afraid.

He was angry.

He wanted to run.

Instead, he stepped toward the graveyard.

Lysa stared at him. "What are you doing?"

Kai watched the dead climb from the earth.

"I’m going to ask them what happened to Kai."

The first corpse charged.

Kai swung the axe.