Rendezvous Novels & Stories

MIA'S POV “I need the ring back” I heard Matt say as we both sat inside our favorite coffee shop enjoying coffee and delicious jam stuffed doughnuts. We had decided to meet up for lunch finally after being apart for about two whole weeks. ‘Work was tedious’, Matt had said with other weird excuses as to why he couldn’t meet up with me. This was weird and downright suspicious as we were the kind of couple who couldn’t stay apart from each other for just a day and now he suddenly became fine with not seeing me for almost two weeks! . It took a lot of bugging for him to agree to a mini date today.

“Maybe it’s what’s supposed to happen.” Kalen’s smile softens. “Then let’s make it count.” He starts to walk toward the riverbank again, the mist curling around his boots. I follow beside him, the air between us finally feeling less awkward, even if trust is still a long way off. “I’ll reach out when it’s ready,” he says. “Same signal as before, three marks on a birch near the ridge.” “You still remember that?” I ask. He smirks faintly. “Hard to forget the code that got us both grounded for a month.”

She passed the first data relay panel without stopping. Didn’t touch it. Didn’t gesture. Didn’t glance twice. The screen, halfway through a rotation, paused mid-scroll. Held still until she turned the corner. Then resumed. No voice log activated. No environmental trigger registered. But a new code tag appeared in the system’s backend: :: NONVERBAL PRESENCE SIGNAL – TYPE: VALE :: COMMENT: **PAUSE INITIATED BY USER STILLNESS INTERPRETED AS HOLD.

A vase with white orchids sways delicately despite the stillness. It doesn’t smell of fuel in here—it smells… intentional. Like a suite meant for the sky. A crew member steps forward with a practiced smile. “Welcome aboard, Mr. Ricci. Miss Violette. We’ll be departing in approximately ten minutes. Please, make yourselves comfortable.” Renzo answers with the kind of nod that carries authority without arrogance.

“I swear it.” My phone buzzed again. This time it was Rhett: Received. Convene in one hour. We strike tonight.

On the road outside the city where the entire operation would take place, there was a dirt turnoff that branched off the highway into the woods. That would be the spot where they would wait for the truck’s arrival and the signal to move in. From the turnoff, they couldn’t be seen before the truck passed, and by the time it did, it would already be too late.

Ezekiel was coming through the doors with his jacket over one arm, his car keys in his hand and the expression of a man who has had a full day and was ready for it to be over. He saw her and slowed almost imperceptibly. 'That's it.' She thought and crossed the distance between them. "Mr Ezekiel." He looked at her, nodding as a form of acknowledgment. "Miss Vespera." "My driver cancelled and the replacement is forty minutes away. It's about to rain. Are you needing back to the apartment? Maybe I can go along with you." He looked at the sky briefly and then back at her after holding back for a minute. "I am."

The notation contact, running through the record office and the threshold library relay simultaneously, carrying the network's full frequency for the first time in a coordinated way — not the crisis urgency of the Aldren contact, not the careful first-reach of the Mireth connection. A gathering. Deliberate. Called for. At the amber hour — Caldenveil's amber, which has become the network's reference time the way the record office has become the network's reference point — the formation assembles in the frequency register. All of them. --- I am at the threshold library. This is where the gathering convenes — in the building that holds the relay, the building at the threshold between the city a

Third Person POV At the Smith Group's charity banquet, Jason held Susan's hand and stood under the spotlight, basking in flattery. Suddenly, the screen went black, and a statement appeared on a red background. It was a divorce notice—Charlotte's request to formally sever all ties, issued through her lawyer. Next, a clear ultrasound scan was shown, accompanied by an audio recording. "Take her blood. She's tough, so she won't die from donating some blood." Jason's cold voice echoed through the speakers to every corner of the banquet hall.

The text came at eleven o'clock at night. Raven was sitting on her couch, her laptop open, the memory card still plugged in. She had been staring at the same spreadsheet for an hour, tracing numbers that led nowhere, names that meant nothing. Her eyes burned. Her head ached. She was about to close the screen when her phone buzzed. Come over. Now. Four words. No greeting. No explanation. Just Fenris, demanding, as if the world revolved around his needs.