Astral shrugged. She debated if she should make an excuse to cover up her blunder but opted to ignore it. No sense in drawing attention to herself if Seth was willing to make excuses for her. She had learned from Mathias that some of the best ways to hide were through other people's assumptions. They were often wrong, which in her case was better than the truth.

Seth didn't press the issue. He gestured down the flooded passage. "This access route goes up a ways before splitting off. It's roughly a forty-five-minute walk if we keep a decent pace." He paused while staring down the path. At a guess, she'd say that something was weighing on the captain's mind. "There's no sense heading to the program chamber, but I assume that you'll want to see it anyway."

"There's no timeframe to achieve victory in the game, right?" Astral asked Seth, knowing full well that she could keep him in the lower levels for days without losing. She could take her time and do a thorough inspection of the area, assess what needed to be done, and devise a way to shut down the ghost before it became a problem.

Seth's shoulders sagged. "That's not it. We can waste our time if you want, but there's a barrier that will stop us from reaching the chamber."

"Why does that bother you?" Defensive measures were good in her book. It suggested that someone knew that the demon existed in the first place. Trapping the demon suggested that a Hunter had chosen to contain the beast, likely because it was too strong to destroy outright. Preventing the demon from feeding meant a long slow death through self-cannibalism. Assuming that no one breached the barrier to give the demon the opportunity to feed.

"It's nothing. It's a gut feeling." Seth had breached the sanctity of wards. He had been feeding the demon for at least two years before he decided to lead Astral to the monster's cage. Who else did the captain lead to the beast? Was it using Seth to fetch food for it? If he was under its influence, then the fight ahead of her was going to get messy.

She never had the opportunity to witness a normal human soul suffer corruption of demonic influence. His soul shone so brightly; it was difficult for her to accept the idea that perhaps Seth was in the midst of a dark transformation. He wouldn't even have to swear allegiance to the ghost to risk infection. Returning to that damned chamber, day after day might just be enough to trick his mind to accept a different reality; the version whispered to him, posing as his own thoughts.

Astral followed Seth deeper into the darkness of the tunnels. Arms barely outstretched, she brushed her fingers against the narrow stone walls. "When did you realize that you didn't see the world the same way as everyone else?" His abilities might be a side effect of his infection. He might not be as special as the Chief Warrant Officer had suggested. She dreaded his answer, but for the sake of her mission, she needed to know.

"Always..." Seth hesitated, slowing his pace. He glanced over his shoulder, gauging how much she wanted know. "I spent most of my childhood in one hospital or another. I was seven when they sent me home to die. There was nothing the doctors could do for me. But then I got better, coincidentally about the same time I stopped telling my father about the things I saw."

"You think he was making you sick?" Astral regretted how quickly those words tumbled from her lips. She didn't need to know. In wasn't uncommon for humans to react negatively to gifted children, particularly if those gifts were of the supernatural variety.

"Definitely." The strength in his affirmation stirred her rage. She chose to remain silent, nothing she could say or do would help him. "My mother died before I was born. Her body was kept alive long enough to carry me through to term. I guess I'm a lot like those spawn you told me about."

She smirked; the analogy was accurate. "I feel like I've forgotten something very important. There are nights I wake in a cold sweat, convinced that I messed up my part in some grand cosmic plan. Sometimes, I feel like I could almost remember bits and pieces." He reached out to a distant memory. "I feel that way when I'm around you; like I could almost remember. Like a word that's on the tip of your tongue." His tone turn bitter, "but I can't remember."

"I died when I was seven. My body tore itself apart cell by cell. My dad revived me and kept me comatose for over a year while he worked to stabilize my body." He snorted. "I should be grateful. But I know... I know he was behind every injection, every surgery, every implant. He watched as I suffered. Not with the eyes of a concerned parent, but with the eyes of man who was watching his ambition die piece by piece. He resented me for my weak body. He loathes me now that he thinks I'm just like everyone else."

His confession made Astral's skin crawled. Seth's soul didn't shift in color or intensity.

"Your father was Dr. Mallack Wright." His name may have come up once or twice in her circle. He had been on her grandfather's watch list for years.

"That's the one," Seth grumbled. "He's been trying to work on a cure for the infected. But given what you've told me, that's not possible."

A bitter laugh escaped her throat as she shook her head. "He travels to the quarantine zones often?"

Seth nodded. "Makes sense wouldn't it? To be where the patients are."

Plenty of test subjects for the madman. Astral nodded. Mallack and his research had nothing to do with her mission to protect the school or ridding the ghost from the campus. She had learned what needed from Seth. His abilities had nothing to do with exposure to the demon. She wasn't sure if she felt relieved by the revelation.

Under her light touch, the structure of the passage changed from the machine chiseled stone to a smooth rounded tunnel. Her fingertips nuzzled a set of holes set around the opening. She removed her glove and pressed her hand to the holes, checking for the coolness of an old ventilation system.

It felt warm. She rubbed her fingers together; it was almost sticky. Something was coming through. Short of the thickening of the gold haze and Seth's brilliant soul, she couldn't make out much of anything.

Astral stroke the surface of the stone searching for more ventilation holes. She wasn't disappointed with her findings. A line of index sized gaps were space evenly along the top left of the circular tunnel. She frowned.

Circles. Everything was contained in massive rings. Each of the three gaming zones was contained in their own ring to the North, North-East, and North-West of the educational center. The main campus was made up of multiple circular routes, surrounded by carefully groomed vegetation. She couldn't tell for sure, but guessed that the passage that they were following must have run a similar course. Now that she knew where to find the access route, she didn't need a game to gain the opportunity to analyze her theory. She could return after curfew with the tools she needed.

What if they were inside a ring? It would have taken years to fabricate such an elaborate ward. There was no way she was seeing the work of a single Hunter. Even Clearwater's wards took three people who knew exactly what they were building, and it wasn't a large scale project. Why hide it? Never mind. She knew why the wards were hidden. All it took was one ignorant fool with the right motivation, and the bindings that kept the beast trapped could crumble.

"What about you? Could you always see demons?" Astral returned her focus to the squad captain. Was he hoping for her life story?

"Yes."

"That's not fair," Seth countered, catching on that she had no intention of sharing more about herself.

"I don't know what to tell you. I suppose unlike you, my father was supportive of my talents. Mostly. I think he just wanted a normal little girl. He was a good father. He read me stories," About the old lore, which was probably not normal. "Tucked me in at night," technically it was night. Though if she were honest it was closer to dawn because he couldn't leave her home alone while he hunted. "Made me eat my food cubes," especially after she asked why they didn't just eat the souls of the some of the weaker humans; one of the slow, sickly ones. Of course she wouldn't eat any of the stronger ones, they might make more strong souls.

Astral licked her lips. She was getting hungry. She glanced to Seth while fishing a soggy food cube from her pocket and unwrapped it. The former solid fell to pieces in her hand like a milk soaked cookie. She separated the mess into two piles and offered half to Seth, who frowned. "Seriously, you're going to stop for food."

Astral licked her palm and shuddered. God, it tasted awful!