Mahiko

The city's ears, some called them. Perched high where the stone temple met the roaring falls, Mahiko tuned out the merchants haggling over fish and the clang of boats below. They were listening for the subtle sounds, the whispers on the wind, the tremor of a boot where it shouldn't be. A loose rock skittering down the cliffside sent a jolt through them—not of fear, but of memory. It sounded too much like the snap of their own bones before the fall. They remembered waking in a quiet workshop, the hum of strange tools in the hands of Mekanikku, the legendary defector. Mekanikku gave them back their body, but Mahiko had to rebuild their nerve. The fury in their eyes is a promise to themself: they will hear the danger this time. They will hear it all.