Episode 13: Alicia’s Secret

The cold fluorescent lights of the laboratory were as pale as a shroud, casting their sickly glow on Alicia’s trembling fingers.

Her hand gripping the glass dropper was sweating, the bone core sample inside glowing with a faint blue light, like melting stars. Under the microscope, millions of gene fragments wriggled frantically, each entangled in rings of black curse marks resembling tiny chains, twisting and deforming the fragments. When she increased the magnification, she saw the curses slowly contracting, silver-white droplets seeping from the indentations the marks left on the fragments—identical to the secretions stolen by Lu Chen and his group.

“This isn’t an energy source at all, it’s a living parasite,” Alicia murmured, her fingers tracing a line in her father’s diary: “Bone cores feed on bloodlines; royal bloodlines are the finest nourishment.” Her nails dug deeply into her palm, blood dripping onto the slide, instantly absorbed by the sample fluid. The gene fragments suddenly stirred excitedly, like sharks sensing blood, violently battering against the glass.

The laboratory door creaked open unexpectedly.

Startled as if scalded, Alicia hastily hid the sample in the dark compartment beneath the microscope’s base. As she turned, she knocked over a reagent bottle; purple liquid spread across the floor, reflecting the tall shadow at the doorway—Williams’ mechanical eye glowed red in the dark, like a venomous serpent concealed behind a curtain.

“What are you doing?” Williams’ voice was icy, his boots making a sizzling sound as they stepped on the liquid. His mechanical arm shimmered coldly; the knuckles whitened from gripping tightly. “Didn’t I say, without my permission, you’re not allowed to touch the bone core samples?”

Alicia’s back pressed against the lab table, the chill of the glass sending a shiver through her. She noticed the sand crystal powder clinging to Williams’ sleeve—a mark exclusive to the Sandblood warriors. Clearly, he had just come from the modification chamber—those injected with the Sandblood serum had likely already turned into heartless monsters.

“I’m organizing my father’s research notes,” she said, trembling as she grabbed the diary from the table. “I wanted to review his analysis of the bone core; maybe it could help you…”

“Help me?” Williams sneered, the red light of his mechanical eye sweeping over the microscope. “Your father’s research? That coward never had the courage to touch the bone core himself. His notes are nothing but screams and fear.” He suddenly seized Alicia’s wrist; the mechanical fingers pierced her flesh. “But you… you’ve inherited his hypocritical kindness—last night, when the Sandbone Serpents surrounded the X tribe, did you secretly alter the infrasonic frequency?”

Alicia’s heart stopped.

She had. Last night, in the monitoring room, she saw the attack frequency of the Sandbone Serpents resonating with the camp’s defensive totems. She had casually shifted it by 0.5 hertz, slowing the serpent swarm’s assault just enough for Lu Chen and his group to hold out until the sandstorm arrived. She had thought it was unnoticed—but Williams had already discovered it.

“I didn’t,” she forced herself to meet those cold mechanical eyes. “You know I hate the X tribe—they killed my mother.”

Those words struck a raw nerve in Williams. His mechanical arm trembled slightly, and his grip loosened. Alicia’s mother had been mistakenly killed by an extremist of the X tribe—an unhealed blood feud between the two clans, and a chain that bound Williams’ control over her.

“Better if you didn’t,” Williams said, flinging off her hand and turning toward a container in the center of the lab table. It was a half-meter-tall glass tank, housing something the size of a human head—a bluish-gray skull covered in spiderweb-like blood vessels, each filled with that eerie blue liquid: a complete bone core.

“At noon tomorrow, the bone core’s energy field will peak,” Williams’ voice softened with an eerie tenderness as he caressed the glass tank, as if stroking a lover’s skin. “By then, your blood will be needed to complete the final awakening.”

Alicia’s blood froze instantly.

“My blood?” She stepped back, hitting an iron rack against the wall. A test tube fell and shattered like stars. “Didn’t you say my father’s blood was enough to start the ritual?”

“His blood isn’t pure enough.” Williams turned, the red glow of his mechanical eye reflecting off the bone core. The blood vessels suddenly swelled, as if cheering. “His veins run with half commoner blood. Only you—the pure-blooded royal descendant—can fully awaken the bone core.” He stepped closer, his crimson eye inches from her face. “This is your destiny, Alicia. Like your mother, you will be sacrificed for the glory of the S tribe.”

Alicia suddenly recalled her mother’s dying gaze. That gentle woman had grasped her hand at the bedside, speaking not of hatred but of “Don’t let the sand consume your heart.” She hadn’t understood then. Now, staring at the pulsing blood vessels in the glass tank, she realized—the so-called sacrifice was nothing more than turning her into a vessel for the bone core, locked forever by the black curse marks, like those gene fragments.

“I… I need some time to prepare,” she lowered her head, hiding the terror in her eyes. Her fingers quietly pressed on the hidden compartment beneath the microscope base—the sample still burning hot inside.

Williams gave no sign of suspicion; his attention remained fixed on the bone core as he muttered, “When the bone core awakens, the entire desert will be ours. The remnants of the X tribe, the descendants of the desert guardians, will all become nourishment for the sand crystals…”

Seizing the moment, Alicia retreated, her skirt brushing against the lab table as she turned. A drop of clear liquid fell from the hem onto her ankle—the sample fluid she hadn’t wiped off in her panic. The icy touch made her shiver, but she paid it no mind and hurried out of the lab, her heart pounding wildly as if trying to break through her ribs.

Unbeknownst to her, that drop of sample fluid was seeping into the skin of her ankle.

Where the liquid penetrated, a faint black line appeared, like a small snake, slithering quickly up her pant leg, disappearing into the inner side of her thigh. Beneath the skin, something was quietly awakening—like a buried seed waiting to break through the earth.

In the lab, Williams watched Alicia’s retreating figure, the red glow of his mechanical eye flickering. Slowly, he raised his mechanical arm, palm facing the shards of broken glass on the floor. The shards began to gather, assembling into a small sand scorpion, its tail pointing toward Alicia’s direction, the stinger trembling slightly.

“Trying to play tricks?” he whispered with a rusty, grinding laugh. “Your father thought the same once.” He turned to the bone core in the glass tank; within the empty eye sockets of the skull, Alicia’s face slowly emerged, a sinister smile curling the lips.

Meanwhile, Alicia hid in the shadows of the corridor, pressing hard on the hidden compartment beneath the microscope base. A faint sting came from the inside of her thigh, like ants crawling. But she had no time to focus on it—the miniature communicator in her pocket vibrated, displaying an encrypted message from a temporary X tribe frequency:

“Coordinates received. Extraction before noon tomorrow. — Lu Chen”

Her finger hovered over the screen for a long moment. The sting in her thigh grew more distinct, as if something was trying to break free. From afar came the footsteps of Sandblood warriors, drawing nearer, the soft rustling sound of sand crystals scraping.

Alicia took a deep breath, deleted the message, and turned toward her tent. She knew that at tomorrow’s sacrifice ceremony, more than just the bone core awaited awakening.

The black line on her leg had already crept to her waist, increasingly resembling a miniature sand scorpion totem.