All Chapters of Aria: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Darius was halfway through a conversation when the door opened.No knock. Just opened.That alone was enough to shift the room.The man who entered didn’t speak immediately. He walked forward, stopped at a respectful distance, and waited.Darius glanced at him once, then looked back at the person in front of him.“We’ll continue this later,” he said.No one argued.They left quickly.The door closed behind them, and silence settled into the room.Darius leaned back slightly in his chair. “Well?”The man stepped forward.“We found her.”Darius didn’t react outwardly.“Define ‘found.’”“Visual confirmation. Direct encounter.”That was faster than expected.“And?” Darius asked.The man hesitated, just slightly.“She’s unstable.”Darius nodded once. “That part we already knew.”The man continued. “She didn’t attack first. But when pressured, her control slipped.”That was more useful.“How bad?” Darius asked.The man took a breath. “Environmental impact. Ground fractures. Wind displacemen

Aria woke before sunrise, not because she was rested, but because something felt wrong.Her eyes opened slowly. She didn’t move at first, didn’t sit up. She just listened.Nothing.No footsteps. No voices.A few feet away, Kael was resting, but not fully asleep. She could tell. He was too still, too aware, like someone waiting for a reason to get up.Everything looked normal.But it didn’t feel normal.That pressure was back.Only this time, it was different.Heavier. Wider.It didn’t feel close anymore. It felt like it was everywhere.Aria pushed herself up slowly, her body already tense. Kael’s eyes opened almost immediately.“You feel it too,” he said.It wasn’t a question.She nodded. “It’s not like before.”“No,” he agreed, already sitting up.That was all it took. They were both fully awake now.Aria stood, brushing dirt from her hands. Her muscles felt tight, not panicked yet, but ready.“What is that?” she asked.Kael didn’t answer right away. He scanned the area first, his ex

Aria woke slowly, not because she was rested, but because her body didn’t have the strength to do it any faster.Her eyes opened halfway, closed again, then forced themselves open fully. For a moment, she didn’t move. She didn’t even try. Something felt wrong.It wasn’t pain. It wasn’t even discomfort. It was absence.Her body felt too light, as if something that should have been there was missing.Then it hit her.Her power.It wasn’t gone, but it was quiet, too quiet.Aria pushed herself up too quickly, and the sudden movement made her head spin. The world tilted slightly, forcing her to steady herself with a hand against the surface beneath her. The bed was unfamiliar, firmer than anything she was used to, almost clinical in its simplicity.“Easy.”The voice came from in front of her, calm and controlled.She froze before turning toward it.The room was unfamiliar. There were no windows and no visible doors, just smooth, seamless walls and nothing else. The air felt still, controll

Aria didn’t know how long she had been in the room.There was no way to tell. There were no windows, no sound from outside, and no change in light. The air remained still, unchanged, as if time itself had stopped moving.At first, she had tried counting. Breaths, steps, anything that might give her some sense of control or measure. Eventually, she stopped because it didn’t matter. Nothing in the room responded, and nothing shifted.The pressure never left.It wasn’t heavy or painful, but it was constant, like something resting just above her power, keeping it from rising no matter how hard she pushed.Aria sat on the edge of the bed with her elbows resting on her knees and her hands clasped together. She wasn’t panicking anymore. That had passed. Now she was thinking, and that was worse.The more she thought, the clearer everything became. This wasn’t temporary. This was planned. Someone knew exactly what they were doing, and that meant she wasn’t just captured.She had been expected.

Aria knew something was wrong before she even opened her eyes.It wasn’t the pressure on her power. That had been there when she fell asleep, a constant weight pressing it down, keeping it quiet beneath the surface. She had almost gotten used to that.No, this was different.The air felt… emptier.She opened her eyes slowly, blinking against the dim light as her senses adjusted. For a moment, she stayed still, letting her awareness stretch outward before she moved.Then she sat up.The bed was gone.Her gaze sharpened immediately as she took in the room. The walls hadn’t just changed—they had been repositioned. The space was larger now, wider, stripped of anything unnecessary.There was nothing left inside.No furniture. No objects. No distractions.Just smooth flooring and bare walls.A controlled space.A deliberate one.Her jaw tightened slightly as the realization settled in.“Of course,” she muttered under her breath.Footsteps echoed softly behind her.She didn’t turn.“You rede