UNBOUND

The knock came just before daylight.
Three short taps no rhythm. No warning. Arayah froze mid fold, a half dried toddler shirt clenched in her hands.

She already knew.

Not who, but what.

She opened the door slowly. A courier in a charcoal cloak handed her a folded summons, the seal glinting with all six Domain symbols. Not just one. Not two.

All of them.

"Reclassification Review: Immediate Attendance Required."

Her father's voice called out from the kitchen.
"You still dreaming in there, Arayah?"

She tucked the envelope into the waistband of her pants and forced her voice even. "Just catching my breath."

Later, at the Authority Hall
The room was colder than it looked wide screens glowed along the walls with shifting symbols, one for each Domain: Ground. Core. Surge. Edge. Sharp. Dreamers.

Arayah sat alone in the center of the panel ring. Twelve officials looked down on her from darkened tiers above, their faces lit only by the blue flicker of her test results.

One leaned forward, her voice sharp and clipped.
"You tested positive for all six alignments. Do you know what that makes you?"

Arayah stared at the glowing symbols pulsing in sync on the screen. "Human?"

A low chuckle rolled across the panel. Another official the one from The Ground spoke next.
"No. It makes you a problem."

They didn't shout. They didn't argue. They deconstructed her, piece by piece, like she was a problem on a board they were trained to solve.

The woman from Sharp tilted her head slightly, eyes cold behind thin lenses. "She's a system flaw. A miscalculation. An error with legs."

The man from Surge let out a low chuckle, not even trying to hide his amusement. "Untrainable chaos," he muttered. "No discipline. No focus. Just drift."

And then the Core official buttoned, polished, emotionless leaned forward with that calm, cutting tone Arayah already hated.

"If you can't commit to a Domain, how can you raise a child who'll ever feel safe in one?"

Each word was measured.
Each sentence, designed to break her.

But she didn't fold. Not yet.

"What example are you setting for a child? A mother who cannot choose where she belongs?"

Each word hit like a quiet slap. But she said nothing.

Then came the final voice from the Dreamers' tier.
A younger woman. Slight accent. Calm.

"You're Unbound. We haven't seen your kind in nearly twenty years."

That silenced the room.

"If you walk out of here today, you will choose: one Domain, or none. We will not allow a child to be raised under six codes and no loyalty."

Arayah took a slow breath. Her hand brushed the folded drawing in her pocket her son's latest scribble of her with blue and red wings stretching behind her.

"I didn't ask to be everything," she said softly. "But I'm not about to be nothing."

The room stirred.

She stood.

"You want me to belong to one piece of myself. I belong to all of me. And you're scared of that."

Security stepped forward.

A cold voice echoed: "Remove her for observation. Now."