She awoke the next morning, groggy and drained from the day before. Her sleep had been restless, filled with hazy dreams, images skittering at the edges of her memory. Had it all really happened? The fight, the power failing, the bracer…. She remembered the promise of death shining in the glow of the Behemoth’s eyes. Tides, it really had. She sighed, stretching out the stiffness in her limbs, then swung her legs over the bed and pulled on her clothes.
Walking into the workshop, she found her father hunched over his tablet, scribbling notes in his little book. At the sound of her footsteps, he glanced over his shoulder and gave her a warm smile.
“Morning, girl. Busy one today. I want us in the reactor to go over the readings. There’s got to be something in there that explains what happened, something I can take to the council to make them listen.”
He stood, crossing to his toolbag and packing away what he needed. “Grab something you can eat on the go. We’re leaving in ten.”
Apple in hand, Alyssa followed her father onto the tram bound for the reactor, buried deep within the mountain’s heart. Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at the tunnel entrance. As one would hope, security was tight. They passed through multiple checkpoints, scrutinising their clearance at each level.
Alric was well known among the staff, so these checks were really a formality, but as he often reminded her, protocols like these were what stopped disasters. Once cleared, they jumped aboard the transport that carried visitors from the tunnel’s mouth into the reactor.
Alyssa had always loved being in the reactor room. The moment she stepped inside, a sense of future washed over her, like catching a glimpse of humanity’s potential, science embodied in a single space. Every member of the team here was an expert in their field, their knowledge diligently pieced together over the past century. They had salvaged as much as was possible from the ruins of the surrounding ancient cities and filled in the gaps as best they could. That wasn’t to downplay their achievements. The Tesla towers, the walls, the intricate systems and contraptions that kept water flowing, waste moving, and food circulating throughout the city, they all began their lives here.
At the centre of the room the reactor stood in all its glory. It was always smaller than Alyssa expected, no bigger than a small water tower, yet incredibly it powered the entire city. Each time she entered this room, she couldn’t help but be awed by the sheer impossibility of it.
At its heart, a bright light pulsed, circling within the reactor’s core, almost seeming alive in the way it shifted and flowed around itself. Thick couplings lined its sides, feeding into thick cables that connected to towering transformers, each one responsible for regulating and distributing power throughout the city.
Excerpt from Understanding the Core: A Study of Ancient Power by Cassian Veldt
“The fusion reactor is an enigma wrapped in steel and science beyond our comprehension. At its heart lies an element unknown to any recorded periodic table, a substance with properties that defy replication. We do not know how it was harnessed, nor why its energy seems limitless—only that it is, and that without it, Torhelm would cease to exist.”
Nearby, a group of scientists and engineers were clustered at the reactor’s base, conversing in hushed tones. At their centre stood Florence Hall, the lead researcher, a pencil tucked behind one ear and another clutched absentmindedly in her hand. Her sharp eyes scanned the clipboard before her, utterly absorbed, as if she stood alone in the room. Alyssa had only met her a handful of times, but she liked her.
Alric strode toward her with an easy smile. “Morning, Flo. Any news?” He nodded at the frown creasing her brow. “I’m guessing not, given that look on your face.”
She raised her eyes, noticing him for the first time. “Alric, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you come in. News? No. Questions? Absolutely.”
She turned the clipboard towards him, tapping at a section of the readings. “We’ve compiled the past month’s power output. Completely stable, until two days ago.” She ran a finger along a sharp drop in the data. “See this? That evening, something pulled a huge amount of energy. At the time, we assumed that it was an anomaly.” she traced along to the next peak, “See how the reactor spiked, like it was trying to compensate for what was lost. It seemed like it had recovered. But it gets more interesting.”
She flipped the page and pointed to another point on the chart. “This was yesterday morning, just before the reactor shut down. No major dips, but look at these fluctuations. It’s as though the drop from the day before triggered some kind of failsafe.”
Alyssa stepped closer, frowning at the data. “A failsafe against what?” she asked. “Nothing attacked it, right?”
Florence blinked, as if only now realising Alyssa was there. “No, no, not an attack,” she said, absently adjusting the pencil nestled behind her ear. “But imagine the reaction is a fire. If you sucked away its fuel all at once, suddenly, instantaneously, the fire would go out. The same is true for our reaction here.”
She tapped the clipboard again for emphasis. “That significant drop in power forced the reactor to protect itself. It cut off all external drains to stop from being depleting beyond its ability to sustain itself, resulting in our power cut. Once it had built up enough energy to ensure the continuation of the fusion reaction, the reactor restarted.”
She shook her head in amazement. “It’s really quite clever and if we weren’t so dependent on the thing, I’d be impressed. But as it stands…” Her expression clouded. “If it happens again, for longer, one can only guess at the outcome. Just imagine the chaos if the reaction failed? We have no idea how to restart such a complicated reaction. We’d be fumbling about in the dark.” Her shoulders slumped as though the admission weighed heavily on her.
Alric patted her shoulder. “You’ve done all you can, Flo. All of you have.” He gestured to the wider group, who stood nearby looking melancholy, as if they had failed. He exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. “All we can do is find a solution, learn as much as we can, and be ready for whatever comes next.”
As Alyssa stood listening, she felt it.
At first, it was just a tickle, a tug at the edge of her awareness. A small distraction taking her focus. Then it grew stronger, insistent, pulling at something deep inside her.
A deep, resonating thrum vibrated through her bones, like a drum without noise. It reverberated through her body like an unstruck bell.
Her eyes darted upward, scanning for something, anything, that could be the source. She couldn’t see anything, but she could feel it. It was as if there were a flicker at the edges of her vision that she just couldn’t catch, something hovering just beyond her reach.
The voices around her faded into a distant hum. Just as before in her workshop when facing the bracer, she stretched out, not physically, but with something else, a part of her, but new.
And the pull answered.
The bracer in her pocket seemed to be responding, radiating warmth, as if resonating with something, but it wasn’t the source. This was bigger. Deeper.
She was close. So close. She didn’t know how she knew, only that the pull was stronger, like an invisible thread winding tighter and tighter.
The buzz around her suddenly wailed, a sharp noise piercing the veil of her reverie. The world snapped back into focus.
The alarm.
Shouts erupted around her. Scientists and engineers scrambled to stations, their hurried movements frantic but practiced. The air was thick with clipped commands, shoes pounding against the metal flooring.
“Da, what’s going on?” Alyssa yelled over the siren’s blare.
“The reactor!” Alric shouted back. “It’s shutting down again. If we don’t stabilise the reaction, we’re in real trouble.”
He was already at a console, fingers flying across the keyboard. Beside him, Flo’s eyes darted over lines of data. A knot tightened in Alyssa’s chest. Had she done this? When she reached out, she had almost touched something, felt it reaching back for her. Had she somehow triggered the failsafe? No, it was impossible. And yet, the reactor had been fine until she had touched it. A sick feeling churned in her stomach. She wanted to dismiss the thought, but it lodged in her mind like a splinter.
“There’s no reason for this!” Flo cried. “Nothing in the city is drawing that much power, there’s no active system pulling from the grid.”
Alric’s jaw tightened. “There must be something. This thing has lasted generations. It wouldn’t just fail now, not without a reason. Find it.”
Alyssa was already moving, instinct overriding reason. The Tesla tower. The bracer. The impossible power readings. Maybe it would work again, maybe it wouldn’t, but she had to try.
She darted to the base of the reactor, pulling away the cover that allowed access to the power couplings. Her hands moved before she could second-guess herself, pulling free two cables meant for small-scale power transfers. She began to connect them to the bracer, just as she had done before.
She hesitated.
A voice in the back of her mind screamed at her, this was insane. She didn’t know what she was doing. What if she made it worse?
She connected the last cable.
A blinding light flared at the edge of the bracer, its glow changing to a bright emerald green, pulsing as though it were alive. Last time, she had felt something just beyond her reach, like fingertips brushing against an unseen force, but now? Now she was standing at the edge of an abyss, power roaring around her, crackling, blazing. And it reached for her, like a magnet, drawn to her.
She grabbed hold.
A shockwave of unimaginable power tore through her body, like every nerve in her body was on fire, not with pain, but raw sensation, a flood of awareness. She could feel the city. Not just see it, feel it, veins of energy threading outward from the reactor like a vast, living network. She could sense every conduit, every wire, every street light and circuit, all thrumming beneath her fingertips.
At the heart of it all sat the reactor and it was dying.
The reaction flickered, sputtering like a candle in the wind, the spark at its core draining away. Alyssa didn’t have time to think, she could feel it dwindling as though it were a part of her. She just acted.
She pushed.
Power surged through her, the bracer acting like a conduit, straight into the connection. She felt the reactor shudder, resist, then ignite. The spark flared back to life, energy flooding outward, stable, strong. A deep rightness settled in her bones.
It had worked.
She staggered back, breath unsteady, allowing the connection to fade. The all-consuming link snapped, dropping away like a weight cut loose. She expected the power to dissipate along with the connection, but it didn’t. It was still there. Humming beneath her skin, pulsing through her veins. Not fading. Not slipping away. Just… there. She felt a sense of wholeness, of something settling into place.
“Alyssa!”
A sharp, breathless shout shattered her focus.
She turned, and the whole world was staring at her. Faces frozen in shock. Mouths slightly open. Eyes wide in disbelief. Her father stood at the front, his expression not just stunned but horrified.
“Alyssa, you’re bloody glowing.”
She blinked. Glowing? What in the Core was he talking about?
She raised her hands in front of her, confused, expecting them to be as they always were. Slightly wrinkly, dry, and a little chipped around the nails.
Her mouth gaped open. Light streamed off her skin, wisps of bright, smoking luminescence curling around her fingers.
Gasping, she raced over to the reflective steel panels at the base of the reactor. She stood there gawking at the figure looking back at her.
Her whole body was leaking light.
Not just her hands, her entire form steamed, an ethereal glow beneath her skin. This was impossible. She had taken the test, it had been negative. It just….couldn’t be. She leaned closer, the final piece of incriminating evidence slamming into place.
Her irises burned with a golden radiance, incandescent, a searing, unnatural brightness.
She felt numb as the truth settled over her. Now, she understood the look of horror she had seen plastered on her father’s face.
There was no denying it.
She was Coreborn.
Excerpt from The Coreborn Doctrine by Magnus Veyne
“The glow of a Coreborn’s eyes is the mark of their strength, a beacon of the power that defines them. Titans blaze with crimson fire, their ember-like gaze a reflection of raw, unyielding might. Phantoms shimmer with electric blue, their irises flickering like lightning, swift and untouchable. Aegis Coreborn radiate deep emerald green, steady and unwavering, the very embodiment of resilience. Ascendants burn with violet light, a pulse of ethereal energy, their power reaching beyond themselves.”
The Coreborn 