Chapter 25: The Navigator's Traces and the Weight of Conscience
Himeko, after brief contact with Pom-Pom, began to move. Her exploratory probe was well camouflaged in the pasture area, and she set off on foot, following her tablet's readings that indicated a concentration of energy anomalies in the direction of the city.
Her gait was elegant and purposeful, that of someone accustomed to exploring the unknown with a mixture of scientific curiosity and a calm inherent to her experience. She was not a warrior seeking confrontation, but a scientist and adventurer, driven by the desire to understand. Her primary goal was to collect data, observe, and, if possible, understand the nature of these strange dimensional disturbances.
At his home, Joey felt a growing restlessness. His father's words about the substation incident and the mention of "strange tools" echoed in his mind, fueling his concern for Pip. At the same time, the memory of the silent encounter with Lyra the night before spurred him on. He needed to know if she was okay, especially with the threat of the "vigils" Léo had mentioned.
Despite Roberto's bad mood, as he continued to grumble about reports and others' incompetence, and Clara's palpable worry, Joey made a decision. He would invent some excuse, perhaps the need to go to a pharmacy or borrow a book from a distant classmate – anything to get him out of the house and towards the city center. The fear of social interactions still followed him like a shadow, but the urgency of his new and secret commitments was beginning to override it.
Kael, the Tracker, was already on the move. Himeko's arrival energy signature was unlike anything he had registered so far in this city: controlled, technologically advanced, and deliberate. It wasn't an accident. He needed to identify the origin and nature of this new presence. His instincts and sensor readings guided him to the same rural area where Himeko had landed her probe. He moved with the agility and discretion of a predator, avoiding roads and using the natural cover of the terrain, his eyes scanning the horizon for any sign.
Meanwhile, Léo, Joey's brother, couldn't stay put at home. The story of the substation and Joey's uncharacteristically passionate reaction the previous night about protecting "lost people" had piqued his curiosity even further. He convinced some friends to "take a walk around town, see if they could find out anything new about the mysteries of your city." His main destination: the central library area, where the "elf" supposedly appeared and where he had seen Joey acting suspiciously.
In the abandoned cinema, Lyra had consumed the cereal bars. The relief from hunger was temporary, but the repeated kindness of the young human (Joey) was beginning to open a small crack in her wall of distrust. She spent the morning cautiously exploring the dark corners of the old cinema, finding faded movie posters and forgotten objects from an era that was completely alien to her. Loneliness was her constant companion, but hope, however fragile, was beginning to sprout.
Pip, after an exhausting and risky but successful night obtaining energy, was in her hideout in the industrial area, working on her portal locator. The parts recovered thanks to Joey's anonymous action had been crucial. Her camouflage device now worked more stably. She needed a few more hours to calibrate the coordinates of a safe escape portal, far from this primitive and noisy planet. The news of an investigation at the substation, which she had picked up in fragments of local security radio transmissions, made her tense, but she couldn't stop now.
Zylar, in the detention center, was under increased surveillance after his escape attempt. However, the small data tablet he had managed to snatch contained valuable information about the facility's security protocols and, more importantly, basic schematics of the local power grid. His engineering mind worked feverishly, searching for a new vulnerability, a new chance.
Himeko, approaching the more remote outskirts, paused for a moment, consulting her tablet. "The energy readings are diversifying," she murmured. "There's a stable, yet fluctuating signature coming from what appears to be an abandoned structure near the civic center."
Her eyes turned in that direction. "And another, more erratic, with intermittent spikes, located in an industrial zone."
She pondered for an instant. The scientist in her wanted to investigate both.
"One step at a time," she decided, with her characteristic realistic optimism. "Let's start with the closest and apparently most stable anomaly. Perhaps we'll find someone for a chat and, who knows, a good cup of coffee."
She adjusted the strap of the bag she carried, where her analysis kit and thermal mug were stored, and continued her walk, an elegant and curious figure against the backdrop of the city countryside, oblivious to the fact that her actions were already being tracked by Kael and that, soon, she might cross paths with other equally displaced beings, or with the young human who had become the unlikely nexus of so many mysteries. Saturday morning still held many surprises.
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