The countdown on Cassian's phone screen kept ticking down.
00:28:17
Lyra stood in front of the apartment door, a tiny scrap of paper clutched in her hand.
DON'T COME.
Those two words kept circling through her mind.
“Lyra.”
Cassian's voice pulled her back to reality.
“We have to go.”
Lyra looked at the paper one more time.
“What if this really is from her?”
Cassian fell silent.
Seraphine stood behind them, her face filled with anxiety.
“If that's your sibling, then we have to be even more careful.”
Lyra turned around.
“Mom, are you sure she's still alive?”
The question made Seraphine freeze.
For several seconds, the woman couldn't answer.
Finally, she said softly, “I never stopped hoping.”
The answer was simple.
Yet such profound sorrow lay beneath it.
Lyra clasped her pendant.
All this time, she had always felt alone.
She'd grown up without a sibling. Without an extended family. Without knowing who her father was.
But somewhere out there, perhaps there was a woman living with the same hollow place in her heart.
Someone who should have grown up with her.
Someone who might have the same questions.
“If she's really there,” Lyra said, “I can't leave her behind.”
Cassian nodded slowly.
“I know.”
He opened the door.
“That's why we're going.”
The car sped through the city's nearly deserted streets.
Their destination was an old train station in northern Vesper.
The location sent in the message.
Cassian drove without saying much.
Seraphine sat in the back with Lyra.
No one was truly calm.
The countdown kept shrinking.
00:21:43
Lyra watched the buildings slide past.
Constellation symbols appeared everywhere.
On billboards.
On corporate buildings.
Even on the streetlights.
All this time, she had never known that such a simple symbol held so many secrets.
“Why does Astra use the star symbol?” she asked.
Cassian kept his eyes on the road.
“Because they believe people are like stars.”
Lyra turned toward him.
“What does that mean?”
“They believe every person has a predetermined place.”
Seraphine answered coldly, “And they think they have the right to decide what that place is.”
Lyra fell silent.
That was what she hated most about everything that had happened.
People were always choosing things for her.
Mara chose to hide her.
Seraphine chose to stay away from her.
Cassian chose to keep secrets.
And Edmund...
Lyra still didn't know what that man really wanted from her.
But one thing was certain.
This time, she didn't want to be someone who merely followed a path others had made for her.
“I won't let them control my life anymore,” she whispered.
Cassian heard her.
“Good.”
Lyra looked at him.
“That's all?”
One corner of Cassian's mouth lifted slightly.
“For the first time tonight, I agree with you.”
Lyra almost smiled.
Almost.
Then Cassian's phone rang.
A new message had come in.
Cassian glanced at the screen and immediately hit the brakes.
The car stopped abruptly.
“What happened?” Lyra asked.
Cassian didn't answer.
He handed her the phone.
A new photo had appeared.
Lyra froze.
The photo of the girl they'd seen earlier was clearer now.
She was sitting in a dark room.
Her hands were bound.
But her face...
Lyra felt as though she were staring into a mirror.
The same eyes.
The same face shape.
Only her expression was different.
The girl looked colder.
Harder.
More like someone who had learned not to trust the world.
Beneath the photo, it said:
SHE'S STILL ALIVE. FOR NOW.
Lyra sucked in a sharp breath.
“That’s her.”
Seraphine covered her mouth with one hand.
Tears immediately spilled down her cheeks.
“Oh, God...”
“Mom, you recognize her?”
Seraphine nodded through her tears.
“I never saw her again after that night.”
Lyra stared at her.
“So you're sure?”
Seraphine wiped away her tears.
“I’m a mother.”
The answer left Lyra speechless.
Cassian started the car again.
“We're almost there.”
The station had been abandoned for a long time.
Its building was old and dark.
Weeds filled the railroad tracks.
There wasn't a human sound anywhere.
Only the night wind blowing through the empty building.
Cassian parked some distance away.
“From here, you go alone.”
Lyra nodded.
Seraphine immediately took her hand.
“Don't.”
Lyra looked at her mother.
“I have to.”
“What if this is a trap...”
“I know.”
Seraphine tightened her grip on Lyra's hand.
For the first time since they'd met, Lyra felt something she couldn't explain.
Warmth.
Fear.
Affection.
Maybe Seraphine really had abandoned her.
Or maybe circumstances had truly separated them.
Lyra still didn't know.
But that night, she saw that the woman was genuinely afraid of losing her.
“Mom,” Lyra said softly, “I'll come back.”
Seraphine looked at her.
“Promise?”
Lyra gave her a small smile.
“Promise.”
She let go of her mother's hand.
Then she walked toward the station.
Cassian stayed behind.
Far away.
Out of sight.
Just as the message instructed.
But Lyra knew he was there.
For some reason, knowing that made her steps a little bolder.
Inside the station, the air felt colder.
Lyra's footsteps echoed across the cracked floor.
She followed the corridor toward the platform.
There was no one there.
“Hey?” she called.
No answer.
Her phone vibrated.
A new message.
ALONE?
Lyra typed a reply.
YES.
A few seconds later:
WALK TO PLATFORM THREE.
Lyra followed the instruction.
The farther she walked, the stronger the strange feeling in her chest became.
As if something were pulling her forward.
Not fear.
Not mere curiosity.
Something deeper.
When she reached platform three, she stopped.
A woman stood at the far end.
Her back was to Lyra.
Her long hair blew in the wind.
She had a slender figure.
She looked so much like Lyra.
Lyra held her breath.
“Hey.”
The woman didn't move.
Lyra took one step.
“Are you...”
The words caught in her throat.
The woman slowly turned around.
For several seconds, Lyra's world fell silent.
They stared at each other.
As if time had stopped.
As if every sound had vanished.
Lyra saw her own face.
Not exactly the same.
But similar enough that her heart knew at once.
The woman's eyes began to glisten.
Lyra couldn't hold back her tears either.
“What’s your name?” Lyra asked.
The woman parted her lips.
But before she could answer—
A gunshot rang out.
Bang!
Lyra screamed.
The woman fell.
“Don't!”
Lyra ran.
But someone pulled her back.
Cassian emerged from the shadows.
“Don't go over there!”
“That's her!”
“I know!”
“She’s hurt!”
Cassian looked around.
“This is a trap!”
Lyra struggled to free herself.
“I don't care!”
The woman at the end of the platform slowly rose.
Lyra stopped.
There was no blood.
No wound.
The woman looked at her.
Then she smiled.
A terribly sad smile.
“I'm sorry.”
Lyra froze.
“Who are you?”
The woman took a step back.
“My name is...”
A second gunshot rang out.
But this time, it wasn't aimed at the woman.
The bullet struck the wall beside Lyra.
Cassian immediately pulled Lyra into cover.
“Shooter!”
Footsteps rang out from every direction.
Armed people began emerging from the station's doorways.
Lyra looked at the woman.
“What’s happening?”
The woman shouted, “I was trying to warn you!”
“So the message was from you?”
She nodded.
“Don't come, Lyra!”
Lyra froze when she heard her name leave the stranger's lips.
“You know my name.”
The woman laughed bitterly.
“Of course I do.”
She backed away even farther.
“I've known a lot about you this whole time.”
“Who are you?”
For the first time, the woman smiled sincerely.
“Your sibling.”
Lyra's tears fell.
But before she could move, the station lights blazed on.
A voice came through the loudspeakers.
“What a touching reunion.”
Everyone froze.
Lyra knew that voice all too well.
Edmund Vesper.
Lyra looked up.
“Grandfather!”
“Don’t call me that if you’re still not sure who I am.”
Cassian raised his gun.
“Edmund, show yourself!”
The old man chuckled.
“Always in such a hurry, Cassian.”
Then the large screen above the platform flickered on.
Edmund's face appeared.
Behind him was an unfamiliar room.
“Lyra,” he said, “I only want my family whole again.”
Lyra glared at the screen.
“Then why is someone trying to kill us?”
Edmund gave a thin smile.
“Because your family has never been that simple.”
The woman at the end of the platform stared at the screen with hatred.
Lyra looked at her.
“You know him?”
The woman answered softly,
“Better than you think.”
Edmund looked into the camera.
“Ah, of course. You’ve already met her.”
Lyra clenched her fists.
“Who is she?”
The old man was silent for a moment.
Then he said,
“Allow me to introduce your twin sister.”
The woman looked at Lyra.
“My name is Elara.”
Lyra repeated the name silently in her mind.
Elara.
Beautiful.
Unfamiliar.
And yet it felt like a name that had been missing from her life all along.
“Elara...” Lyra whispered.
Her twin sister smiled.
But then her face grew serious again.
“Lyra, listen to me. We have to go.”
“Why?”
Elara looked at the screen.
“Because Edmund didn't come to reunite the family.”
She pointed around them.
“He came to choose which one of us deserves to stay alive.”
The countdown on Cassian's phone blared.
00:00:30
Lyra stared at the screen.
Thirty seconds.
Beneath it, a final message appeared.
ONE STAR WILL GO DARK.
Cassian looked at the two sisters.
His expression changed.
“Lyra...”
“What?”
Cassian whispered,
“Don't move.”
Lyra looked down.
Between the railroad tracks, a small red light began to blink.
One.
Two.
Three.
Not just one.
Dozens.
Elara looked around.
Her face went pale.
“Bombs.”
Lyra felt her entire body freeze.
Cassian shouted,
“RUN!”
And for the first time in their twenty-three years of living apart, Lyra and Elara ran toward each other.
Not to get to know each other.
Not to embrace.
But to save each other.
Because that night, they finally found the sibling who had been missing for so long.
And maybe...
they would lose everything thirty seconds later.
To be continued...