Inside & Out Ch 10: Search For The Chosen!

(A Day After)

(Kael)

I woke up feeling like someone had dragged my face across a gravel path and then asked me to smile about it. My eyes were heavy, baggy, and dry. I don't even remember falling asleep—I just remember trying to sleep, over and over again. But how could I, with all the noise?

The whole body was alive last night—like literally alive. You'd think the end of the world had been canceled and replaced with an all-night rave. Every district, every artery, every soft-pulsing corner of the goddess's vast form was packed with celebration. Word had gotten out—a Munari has awakened.

And that meant one thing: everything was about to change.

I sat up, groaned, and rubbed my temples. The image of that blue light glowing from my hand flickered in my mind again, but I shoved it down like I had all night. Hallucination. Delirium. Maybe it was Veyna playing a prank—I don't know. I'm not a Munari. I'm a Blue. We're sturdy, not special.

I pulled on my uniform—clean, grey, patched near the shoulders where it always tore from friction against the inner lining of the goddess's body tunnels. My third job starts in an hour. Yay.

I shuffled out of my room and into the dining chamber, which like most of the living quarters here, was a warm shade of pulsing pink. The floor had that soft give of bio-flesh, like walking across a really well-heated trampoline. And the walls? Always subtly moving. You get used to it, but not really.

Dad was already at the table, sipping a steaming mug of Kyronbrew—a bitter, dark drink we Zeyvari like to pretend makes us smarter. Really, it just makes us more awake and more irritable.

"Morning," I muttered, trying not to sound like the dead.

"Morning, sweetie," Mom called from the kitchen, practically glowing as she flipped something in a pan.

I waved at her and moved to grab my plate. Fried gylvine strips with eggweed curls and a chunk of chewy mossbread. Standard Blue family breakfast. Comforting, in that "same thing every day" sort of way.

I sat down beside Dad, trying not to collapse into the seat. He gave me a grunt of acknowledgment, then sipped his Kyronbrew with that slow, judging slurp he always did when he was annoyed at something.

I decided to poke the skavemaw.

"So... what do you think about all this Munari stuff?"

He didn't answer at first. Just stared into his cup like it held the meaning of life, or at least a decent argument against it.

Then he spoke. "Don't like it."

I blinked. "You don't like that a Munari has awakened? Isn't this like... a once-in-a-generation thing?"

He turned to look at me, his face weathered and lined with years of work and disappointment. "Kael, do you know what the giants call the awakened ones? The ones who bond with the Munari?"

I shrugged. "Sentinels?"

He nodded. "That's right. Sentinels. Champions. Protectors. And you know what that means? The goddess has been chosen. Which means she will be used. Sent out. Exposed. Put in danger."

I frowned. "But isn't that her purpose?"

His voice dropped low. "Her purpose is to live. Just like ours. Not to be thrown into chaos so the outer world can cheer and marvel at how bright she shines."

That made me pause. He wasn't yelling, but his words hit harder than if he had.

"With a goddess awakened," he continued, "our lives change too. More work. More hours. More risks. The tunnels'll get tighter, the patrols longer, and the Reds will start acting like they own the place. It's not a good thing, Kael. Mark my words—this is where things start getting harder."

I stared at my plate, suddenly less hungry. The eggweed curls twisted like little question marks. Dad wasn't usually wrong about this kind of thing. He worked near the central digestive valve—dangerous stuff—and he saw how policies changed every time something "big" happened.

I took a slow bite of mossbread, chewing it over with his words.

He didn't even know what happened to me yesterday. And maybe I should just keep it that way. I mean, he's right. This isn't the kind of thing you wish for.

Still... I couldn't stop thinking about that glow. That warmth. The feeling that something inside me had clicked.

What if I'm not just a Blue anymore?

What if he's right, and everything is about to get harder?

What if he's wrong... and things are about to change for the better?

I kept eating. I didn't have any answers yet. But my hand still tingled every now and then. And deep down, I wasn't sure if I wanted it to stop.

***

(Some where else in the Goddesses Body)

High above the glowing arterial chambers of the goddess's interior, nestled in a sanctum carved from living flesh and bone, the Hall of Luminescence pulsed with a tense, golden light. Its ceiling—domed and rippling with soft radiant veins—gave off a steady hum, like the breath of the divine herself. In the center, towering over all who dared to enter, stood the Emperor of the Yellows, His Radiance Galor Verant.

Clad in layers of gleaming robes stitched with actual threads of lumina silk—a rare fiber woven by the worshipful caste—Galor was the very image of royal authority. His golden hair was slicked back and braided into a crown-shaped coil, his eyes sharp as carved obsidian. He stood atop the dais overlooking the assembled soldiers below—his most elite Reds, the Crimson Vow.

They knelt with fists to the floor, armored in bio-reactive plating that shimmered faintly with every movement, waiting for his judgment.

"You come before me," Galor began, voice echoing through the chamber like thunder muffled in velvet, "and still—still—you tell me the Munari has not been found?"

The lead Red, Commander Vask, kept his head bowed. His voice was steady, but tense. "Your Radiance, the aura appeared only briefly. We have confirmation that the goddess's body lit up with the signal, but the precise origin—"

"Do not tell me what I already know!" Galor roared, his voice cracking like a whip across the chamber. The very walls of the Hall seemed to tremble. "Do you think this is a game? That the rebirth of a Munari is a trivial occurrence to be met with hesitation and guesswork?"

A shudder passed through the ranks. Not even the Crimson Vow, hardened as they were, could look their emperor in the eyes when he entered such a fury.

"The goddess has chosen. A Awakens walks among us. And yet—" he slammed a gloved fist against the railing, "you let them vanish like mist!"

Commander Vask dared a glance upward. "We've interrogated every reported witness. The activation was brief. Possibly incomplete. It's likely the awakened one does not yet understand what they are."

Galor's expression darkened. He stepped down from the dais, boots echoing on the fleshy floor as he descended. The chamber dimmed as his rage drew more power from the ambient energies of the goddess.

"You will find them," he growled, stopping inches from Vask. "You will tear open every noble household if you must. Every estate. Every chamber. I want eyes in the lungs, the stomach, the heart sectors. I don't care if they're Yellow-blooded or royal-born—strip away their pedigree and find the one who shines with her light."

The silence that followed was suffocating.

"Yes, Your Radiance," Vask responded, rising and slamming a fist to his chest. "We will not rest."

Galor nodded slowly, eyes still burning with fury. "Good. Because if you fail me again... the blood spilled will not be red."

As the Crimson Vow turned and filed out, urgency in their stride, Galor turned back toward the massive heart-wall that pulsed in steady rhythm with the goddess's own. He stared into its light, eyes searching.

One of you... one of you now holds her soul.

And he would not rest until that soul was in his control.