Leo ran.
The crooked alleys of Black Hollow twisted around him like a bad dream, shadows pooling in every cracked doorway. He clutched the stolen box tighter under his coat, head down, feet pounding the broken stones.
He didn't stop until he slammed through the heavy door of the old smithy he called home a rusted, sagging thing wedged between two gutted towers. His breath came in ragged gasps as he threw the bolt across the door and leaned back against it, heart hammering like a war drum.
The box thudded to the floor.
Still there. Still his.
Leo slid down the door until he sat on the cold, cracked floor. For a moment, he just stared at the box, hands trembling.
He should sell it. Find some desperate mage or a black market rat up in Sunspire who'd pay enough to buy his way out of Black Hollow for good.
He *should.*
But he didn't move.
The old man's voice still echoed in his skull, rough and sharp:
*"See the world for what it truly is. But beware..."*
Leo swallowed hard. His mouth tasted like ash.
Slowly, almost without meaning to, he reached out and lifted the lid.
Inside, the lenses glowed faintly, pulsing like they were alive. Like they were waiting for him.
*Idiot,* he thought. *You're an idiot.*
But even as he thought it, he was reaching for one of them small, smooth, warm against his fingertips. His heart jackhammered in his chest.
Before he could talk himself out of it, he pressed the first lens to his eye.
The world shattered.
A scream ripped from his throat as white-hot pain stabbed through his skull. He collapsed onto the floor, clutching his head, breath coming in sharp, panicked bursts.
Then just as suddenly as it started the pain was gone.
Leo blinked up at the ceiling, heart pounding in his ears.
And everything was... different.
The walls of the smithy weren't just stone anymore they were *alive*, veins of cracks running through them, glowing faintly like old scars. The air itself shimmered with invisible currents, swirling around him, brushing his skin. He could *see* fingerprints, places where people had touched the door or leaned against the wall days ago.
He could see everything.
The second lens still lay in the box, humming softly, waiting.
Leo hesitated for half a second.
Then he grabbed it and shoved it against his other eye.
There was no pain this time. Just a low, thrumming vibration that sank into his bones.
The world exploded open.
Glowing words floated in the air in front of him, as real as the cracked floor beneath his feet:
> **Black Hollow**
> *Class: Degraded Slum*
> *Crime Index: Severe*
> *Warning: Contaminated Air Levels Detected*
Leo scrambled back, knocking over a broken crate with a crash.
The glowing words moved with him, hovering just at the edge of his vision no matter where he looked.
Panic clawed at his chest.
*What the hell is this? What did I do?*
He stumbled to the grimy window and peered out.
Far in the distance, across the jagged rooftops, the golden towers of Sunspire gleamed against the blood-red sunset bright, clean, untouched.
New lines etched themselves across the sky:
> **Sunspire**
> *Class: Elite District*
> *Security Level: Extreme*
> *Access: Restricted*
Leo let out a ragged laugh, half-hysterical.
The city wasn't just a place anymore. It was a map. A warning. A weapon.
He sagged against the wall, feeling the weight of the lenses burning faintly against his eyes.
Somewhere deep in his gut, he knew:
This was power.
The kind people would kill for.
The kind you didn't survive holding onto for long.
Leo closed his eyes, trying to steady his breathing.
*You have it now,* he thought. *No turning back.*
When he opened them again, the world was still there sharp and wild and filled with secrets he'd never seen before.
The only question was what he was going to do next.
And how long he could stay alive once people found out.