Chapter 2: Bridge Sickness

After the bridge-light festival, Auri wakes to a city pretending nothing happened. Seyra checks Auri carefully, searching for the strange black-silver crack from Chapter 1, but it has vanished. Auri notices that Seyra is hiding fear behind care, and their relationship begins to strain under all the secrets. At the clinic, patients arrive with impossible symptoms. A Gravaran child begins floating. A Pyronian vendor burns too hot from within. A Neruvian quiet chamber leaks private memories. A Verdaxian healing garden reaches toward Auri like it recognizes them. Each symptom reflects one part of Auri’s strange fivefold nature. Auri tries to help quietly, but their hidden abilities keep echoing the sickness around them. Kess sees enough to realize something is happening, but chooses not to force Auri to explain before they are ready. As the sickness spreads beyond the clinic, Veyr Crossing itself begins to fail. Transit towers drift off-pattern, roots grow toward the bridge, memory-light leaks through the city, and public systems finally detect a pattern. The Accord begins watching. Seyra prepares an emergency bag, revealing that she has been ready to run with Auri before. Auri discovers part of a hidden document saying they were found after forbidden transit and that their symptoms should be recorded as Bridge Sickness to avoid Accord examination. By the end of the chapter, Auri’s gravity ring divides into five directions, all pulled toward the bridge. Auri whispers in their sleep: “Please stop calling me.” Chapter 2 reveals that Bridge Sickness is not random illness. Something in the bridge is reaching for Auri — and the city may be reading them back.

22 pages / 4 sample pages