Neo stood where Thal had left him, the weight of the conversation settling in slow, uneven waves. The street felt different now too open, too watchful. He could still hear Valen's voice fading in the distance, Luken's quieter replies, Nyra's steady stride pulling them forward. Thal's presence vanished with them, and in its absence, Neo felt oddly untethered.
He didn't know what to think.
Hunted since you were a baby.
The words replayed whether he wanted them to or not. He'd known parts of it, fragments and half-truths danger, secrecy, the need to hide but not that. Not the certainty of it. Not the idea that the world had been reaching for him long before he'd ever learned how to run.
He rubbed his thumb against the edge of the gem beneath his clothes, grounding himself in the faint, familiar warmth. Tar stood beside him, massive and unmoving, a quiet assurance carved from muscle and horn. Neo didn't look up but he knew Tar was watching the street for him. Always.
A shadow passed overhead.
Then something landed with surprising lightness on Tar's shoulders.
Neo barely had time to register the shift in weight before a boot tapped lightly against the top of his head.
"Oi."
He flinched, blinking up just as Alinda balanced herself comfortably atop Tar, one foot braced on his shoulder, the other resting far too casually on Neo's hair. She leaned forward, peering down at him with an amused tilt of her head.
"You look gloomy," she said. "That won't do. Nyra won't date a depressed bastard."
Neo's face heated instantly. "That's what? That's not !"
She clicked her tongue. "Relax. I'm joking." Her lips curled. "Mostly."
Tar gave a low, disapproving rumble, shifting just enough that Alinda had to adjust her balance. She laughed and hopped down, landing smoothly on the stones between them.
Neo scowled, brushing his hair back into place. "That's not how it is with Nyra."
Alinda's brows lifted, mock-surprised. "Oh? Strictly professional, then?" She nodded sagely. "Of course. Completely. I'm convinced."
He groaned. "You're impossible."
"Mm," she agreed easily. "And yet, here I am, lifting your spirits."
Neo hesitated, then asked the question that had been sitting in his chest since Thal walked away. "Why weren't you with him?"
Alinda's expression shifted not sharply but enough to notice. She looked off down the street in the direction Thal had gone, then clicked her tongue in irritation.
"Because he's a fucking idiot," she said flatly.
Neo blinked. "That's… strong."
"Accurate," she replied. She folded her arms, shoulders tense for a heartbeat. "He's trying to carry the whole world again. Acting like if he just keeps walking, keeps shouldering it all, it won't spill onto anyone else."
"That sounds like him," Neo muttered.
Alinda snorted. "Exactly my point." She shook her head, irritation flickering behind her eyes. "I tried talking to him. Got stonewalls and 'it's fine.' You know classic."
Neo nodded slowly, then frowned. "So… you're mad at him?"
Alinda glanced at him, then smirked. "Don't get it twisted. I'm annoyed, not abandoning him." She waved a hand dismissively. "He'll come around. Or he won't. Either way, I'll still be there."
She leaned closer, eyes narrowing playfully. "And so will you. Hence why you don't get to mope."
Neo opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again. "I'm not moping."
"You absolutely are."
Tar huffed, a sound that somehow felt like agreement.
Alinda grinned at that, then nudged Neo lightly with her elbow. "Besides, if Thal's gone all broody and silent, someone has to keep you distracted. Can't have you spiraling before lunch."
Neo let out a quiet breath, some of the tightness in his chest easing despite himself. "You're really bad at comforting people."
"And yet," she said, already turning to walk, "you're standing up straighter."
He watched her for a moment, then followed, Tar falling into step beside them. The city still felt dangerous, still felt like it was watching but for the first time since Thal's warning, Neo didn't feel quite so alone in it.
Alinda glanced back over her shoulder, a familiar grin flashing. "Come on. Let's go find trouble before it finds us."
Neo shook his head but a faint smile tugged at his mouth as he matched her pace.
Alinda didn't slow as she turned down the next street, already changing course with the casual certainty of someone who'd made the decision five steps ago.
"Where are we going?" Neo asked, trying to keep up as she wove through morning foot traffic.
"To visit a friend," she said lightly.
Neo narrowed his eyes. "You don't have friends."
"I have contacts," she corrected. "Some of them even like me."
Tar followed close behind, his heavy steps drawing more than a few wary glances from passersby. People edged aside instinctively, unsure whether to stare or pretend not to notice the towering minotaur moving through the city like a patient stormcloud.
They turned onto the street where Merek and Joren's buildings stood shoulder to shoulder. The forge was already alive with the ring of metal, smoke rising in thin curls but Alinda didn't head there.
Instead, she moved to the smaller shop tucked beside them the one with the modest sign and the curtained windows.
Neo slowed as she pushed the door open. "This is…?"
"Alchemy," Alinda said. "The quiet kind."
Tar stopped at the threshold, ducking his head to peer inside. The doorway was nowhere near large enough for him to fit. He exhaled through his nose and folded his arms, settling in beside the entrance like an oversized, extremely intimidating statue.
Inside, the shop smelled of dried herbs, oils, and faintly sweet smoke. Shelves lined the walls, stacked with jars of powders and preserved roots. Bundles of plants hung from the ceiling beams, turning gently in the draft from the door.
Behind the counter, Sera looked up.
Recognition hit her immediately. "You," she said, blinking behind her round glasses.
Alinda gave a small wave. "Miss me?"
Sera stepped closer, lowering her voice instinctively. "I wasn't sure you'd actually come back."
"I said I would." Alinda gestured vaguely behind her. "Brought company. Don't worry he's harmless."
Neo shifted awkwardly under Sera's measuring look.
"And the…?" she started, glancing past him toward the doorway where Tar's massive silhouette blocked half the light.
"Door's too small," Alinda said. "He'll stay out there. He's polite."
Tar gave a low grunt, as if to confirm it.
Sera hesitated, then nodded, still visibly unsettled by the sheer size of him. Her gaze returned to Neo, studying him more carefully now. Something in her expression flickered curiosity, maybe even recognition of difference, though she didn't press it.
"You said you made that potion yourself," Sera said quietly to Alinda. "I've been thinking about that."
"Good," Alinda replied. "Thinking's healthy."
Neo looked between them. "What potion?"
Alinda shot him a sideways look. "One that worked too well."
Sera swallowed. "If you're here about the other shop… Black Hollow Remedies…"
"I am," Alinda said.
Sera glanced toward the door, then back at the street-facing windows before stepping around the counter to pull the curtains a little tighter. The shop dimmed.
Neo felt the shift in tone immediately.
Sera turned back, voice low. "You weren't wrong. More people have been asking about them. Not just the undercity. Surface folk too. Word spreads fast when something promises miracles."
Alinda leaned a hip against the counter. "And you still don't know what's in their stuff."
"No," Sera admitted. "But I know this nothing that forces the body to heal that fast comes without a cost."
Neo shifted uneasily. "You think it's connected to the sickness?"
Sera hesitated. "I don't know but I've seen enough strange remedies turn into curses later."
Alinda's eyes narrowed slightly, thoughtful. "We'll pay them a visit soon."
Sera looked alarmed. "That place isn't normal. The demonstrations alone "
"I'm counting on it," Alinda said calmly.
Outside, Tar shifted his weight, keeping silent watch over the street.
Inside, the air felt tighter, heavier with the sense that the city's problems were threading together in ways none of them liked.
And Neo had the growing feeling that he'd just stepped into another secret he didn't fully understand yet.
Alinda's attention shifted to Neo, her gaze dropping briefly to the faint outline beneath his shirt where the gem rested against his chest.
She stepped closer without warning and tapped two fingers lightly over it. "You can rest now, Rin."
The gem's glow flickered.
Neo felt it before he saw it the subtle unravelling of the illusion like a veil lifting from his skin. His breath hitched as the magic loosened its hold. Black hair faded strand by strand into pale white. The pressure he hadn't realized he'd grown used to around his scalp eased as his horns emerged, curving back naturally. His skin deepened, the false warmth of human tone bleeding away into dark obsidian. A faint ripple ran down his spine as his tail slipped free from where the spell had hidden it. His sclera darkened, and his eyes brightened into that unmistakable, luminous purple.
"Alinda what are you doing?" he hissed, panic flashing across his face as he looked toward the windows.
She waved him off casually. "Relax. Sera's fine."
Neo didn't look relaxed.
"She helps the Kruul in the undercity," Alinda added. "You're not some horror to her."
Sera, meanwhile, had gone very still.
Her hands gripped the edge of the counter, knuckles whitening as she stared at Neo not with disgust, not with fear exactly but with stunned awe. Her round glasses slipped slightly down her nose as she leaned forward, eyes wide as if trying to take in every detail at once.
"I've… never seen…" she murmured, voice barely above a whisper.
Neo shifted awkwardly under the scrutiny, tail curling slightly behind his leg. "Seen what?"
"A Kruul like you," Sera said honestly. "The ones who come through… they're Strata. Scarred, worn, trying to survive but you…" She shook her head faintly. "Your eyes… that glow…"
"Kruu'Voth," Alinda supplied lightly.
Sera swallowed. "I've heard the word. Never thought I'd stand in the same room as one."
Neo rubbed the back of his neck, self-conscious. "Yeah, well… surprise."
Outside, Tar glanced in through the doorway, nostrils flaring as if confirming the familiar scent now that the illusion had dropped. He relaxed slightly, recognizing Neo fully again.
Sera tore her gaze away with effort. "You're safe here," she said quietly. "No one I serve would betray you."
Neo nodded, though the tension in his shoulders didn't fully leave. Being seen truly seen was still something he hadn't learned how to be comfortable with.
Alinda leaned back against the counter, satisfied. "Good. Now we can talk without him itching like a nervous cat the whole time."
Neo shot her a look. "You could have warned me."
"And miss that expression?" she grinned. "Never."
Alinda reached out and tapped Neo lightly on the cheek, just once more grounding than playful. "Breathe," she said. "You're fine."
Neo exhaled, slow and shaky, shoulders easing a fraction.
She turned back to Sera. "It's alright if you close up for a bit."
Sera blinked, still staring at Neo like her world had quietly tilted on its axis. Then she seemed to remember herself all at once. "Y–yes. Yes, of course." She moved quickly, almost tripping over her own feet as she hurried to the door and flipped the sign. Closed. The blinds followed, drawn carefully, each one muffling the street noise until the shop felt smaller, safer, insulated from the city beyond.
Alinda cracked the door just enough to lean out and glance at Tar. "No one comes in, okay, big guy."
Tar gave a low, solemn grunt and shifted his bulk to block the doorway more fully, an immovable wall of horn and muscle.
When Alinda stepped back inside, the door closed softly behind her. She folded her arms and fixed Sera with a steady look. "Alright. Tell me what else you've found."
Sera swallowed, pushing her glasses up her nose with one finger. The awe in her expression had faded, replaced by something closer to worry. "Most people who take it… nothing happens. That's the frightening part. They look fine. Act fine. No lingering sickness, no obvious backlash."
"And the rest?" Alinda asked.
"A rare few vanish," Sera said quietly. "Not nobles. Not merchants anyone would miss too loudly. Commoners. Laborers. Undercity folk. People whose absence can be explained away." She hesitated. "I don't know what happens to them. Only that they stop coming back. No bodies. No screams. Just… gone."
Neo's tail twitched uneasily. "You think it's the remedies?"
"I think," Sera said carefully, "that if something forces healing faster than the body understands, it may demand payment later and if what you said before is true about these concoctions not being meant for normal blood then the effects might not always show themselves immediately."
Alinda's gaze sharpened. "They wouldn't want people knowing that."
"No," Sera agreed. "And that's not all." She drew in a breath. "All four Houses are investing in it. Quietly. Some through shell merchants, some through alchemic proxies but the coin traces back to them all the same."
Neo frowned. "All four?"
"Yes." Sera nodded. "But not the royal family. Not that I can see. At least not publicly."
"That's interesting," Alinda murmured. "Either the crown knows better… or they don't know at all."
Neo looked between them, confusion plain on his face. "You're talking like this is bigger than just bad potions."
Alinda glanced at him, her expression softening just a touch. "It is but you don't need it explained yet."
He bristled slightly. "You just said you don't hide things from me."
"I don't," she said calmly. "Which is why I'm telling you to listen. Everything will make sense soon enough."
Neo didn't like that answer but he nodded anyway.
Sera folded her hands together, voice dropping further. "Whatever this is, it's being protected. Funded. Watched and if the Houses are involved, they'll burn anyone who threatens it."
Alinda smiled faintly, not with humour but with intent. "Then we'll have to be careful who we threaten."
The shop settled into silence again, thick with unanswered questions. Outside, the city went on as if nothing were wrong.
Inside, every instinct Alinda had was telling her that whatever Black Hollow Remedies truly was, it wasn't just selling miracles.
It was buying something back.
And sooner or later, the city would be forced to pay.
Sera hesitated, then spoke again, quieter than before.
"There's one more thing," she said.
Alinda's eyes lifted. "Go on."
"The ones who vanished… every case I could trace?" Sera swallowed. "Each of them had taken something from Black Hollow Remedies. Every single one."
Neo's breath caught.
"And not just disappeared," Sera added. "Some of those names later appeared in the guard reports. The Rupture killings. Same people."
The room seemed to shrink.
Neo stared at Alinda, pieces snapping together in his mind too fast to ignore. "The potions," he said slowly. "When Fall hurt me… you gave me one and when Thal when he was almost torn apart his arm, his leg "
"They reattached," Alinda finished quietly.
Sera looked between them, confused and unsettled.
Neo's voice dropped. "If those remedies are made from "
"Berserker blood," Alinda said flatly.
The words settled heavy.
Sera stepped back, hand covering her mouth. "You mean… the demonstrations… the instant healing…"
"They weren't tricks," Alinda said. "They were diluted forms of something very real."
Neo's thoughts spiraled. "Then the Rupture… it's targeting people who drank it?"
"Looks that way," Alinda said.
"But why?" Sera whispered.
Neo's eyes flicked to Alinda again, worry creeping in. "If that's true… would it sense me? Or Thal? We drank it too."
"No," Alinda said immediately. Firm. Certain.
Neo blinked at the force in her tone.
"What you drank was mine," she continued. "My blood. Direct. Controlled. There's no lineage connection for anything to trace."
She said it like fact but there was an edge to it, something personal buried under the certainty.
"Unless," she added after a moment, quieter, "it were my descendants but that's impossible." Her jaw tightened. "My bloodline is dead and I can't bear children."
Sera didn't speak. She didn't know how to.
Neo shifted uneasily. "Then why is it killing them?"
Alinda stared at the shelves, mind turning. "Could be many reasons. It might not want others carrying the same blood. Might see them as theft. Might be killing what it thinks doesn't belong." Her eyes darkened. "Or revenge. Or instinct."
She paused.
"…or lineage."
Sera's voice trembled. "You think the killer is connected to that blood?"
"I think," Alinda said slowly, "whoever or whatever it is might be hunting people who carry its family's blood."
Neo felt a chill run through him.
"Not mine," Alinda added, almost to herself. "There are other berserker strains. Other bloodlines. Not all of them extinct."
Her gaze shifted, distant now.
"One does concern me," she murmured.
Neo followed her line of thought. "Nyra."
Alinda didn't answer right away.
"I don't know where her bloodline comes from," she admitted. "I know what she is but not the root of it and if this Rupture is hunting based on origin…"
Sera whispered, "Then she's in danger."
Alinda exhaled slowly. "Maybe but she's a full berserker. If it's preying on diluted blood, she might not even register the same way."
"Might," Neo echoed, tension tightening his voice.
Alinda didn't argue that.
Instead, she straightened. The uncertainty in her expression hardened into resolve.
"Which means we need to move faster," she said. "Find out what Black Hollow really is. Find out what the Rupture is and make sure Nyra isn't walking blind into something hunting her blood."
Outside, the forge rang in the distance. Life in Lion's Gate continued, unaware that beneath its streets, a predator might be following a trail written in blood older than memory.
And now, for the first time, Neo felt like the hunt wasn't just happening around them.
It might be circling someone he cared about next.
Alinda rolled her shoulders once, decision settling into place.
"Either way," she said, "we're going to Black Hollow Remedies. If they're still doing public demonstrations, I want to see one up close."
Neo tensed slightly at that but nodded.
Alinda reached out again and tapped the gem lightly through his shirt. "Back to work, Rin."
The crystal gave a soft pulse.
Neo felt the illusion settle back over him like a second skin. His white hair darkened strand by strand into black. The faint weight at his temples vanished as his horns dissolved into nothing. His skin lightened, the deep obsidian softening back into something human and forgettable. His tail faded, the pressure along his spine easing as it disappeared. The dark sclera of his eyes lightened to white, and the purple glow dimmed into ordinary human brown.
He exhaled quietly, shoulders dipping as he adjusted to the smaller shape of himself again.
Sera watched the entire shift with open fascination, her mouth slightly parted. "I've never seen illusion magic like that," she breathed. "Not that seamless. Not that… alive."
Alinda gave her a sidelong look. "Save your amazement for Rin." She tapped the gem once more. "That's doing the heavy lifting."
Sera blinked. "Rin?"
Neo cleared his throat, embarrassed. "Long story."
Sera nodded quickly. "Right. Of course. I won't ask."
But her eyes lingered on him with a new kind of wonder, not fear, not suspicion. Respect.
Alinda moved toward the door. "Lock up behind us when you're done and don't mention we were here."
Sera gave a firm nod. "I never do."
She headed for the door and opened it just enough to peer out. Tar turned his head toward her, waiting.
"Change of plans," she told him. "We're going shopping."
Tar blinked slowly.
Neo sighed. "I'm starting to think you enjoy saying things like that right before something dangerous happens."
Alinda smirked. "You're learning." she stretched once, scanning the direction of the market district. "Let's go see a miracle," she said dryly.
Neo didn't like the way she said that but he followed anyway.