To not clog up my blurb, I'll do it here. Quick disclaimers and stuff and for the peeps who like skipping through things like this, joke's on you.

This is a stand-alone work, but it is under a series of standalone installments called The Pavilion Series. You can read this without reading all my other works or books in the series. However, I would greatly appreciate it if you checked them out as well. They're found at the end of this story, in a part called More From Exequinne, so watch out for that list!

These are the released works under the series:

The Pavilion Series
01: GHOST BORN

The Manila International Book Fair is an annual event in the Philippines, famous for the gathering of readers and writers. In September 2026, Wattpad had lended its presence in it, and with that came the launch of the Wattpad Pavilion, a strictly-by-invite event featuring Filipino writers from all over the country. Shoutout to WattpadFilipino for reaching out.

Now, I still have no idea why I was invited to that, but when the event concluded, they gave us a bingo card with a 5x5 grid of tropes, genres, and other story details. Then they told us to write stories based on 5 boxes on the grid, whether by vertical, horizontal, or diagonal.

That, friends, is the beginning of the Pavilion Series (named aptly from its lovely source), and this work is part of such conception. The series engine is therefore this: a collection of standalone novellas or novels based on the magical bingo card. In a 5x5 grid with no repetition, we are entitled to 12 combinations, so expect a similar number of installments as I do plan on pursuing this series in its entirety.

Therefore, according to the bingo card, this work's combination is: Crime - Police & Detective - FREE - Transgender - Cyberpunk. You, more or less, have some idea on what this story is about.

This is an unedited draft. This is not line-edited so you'll see a lot of possible typos, some unflowy sentences, and most likely, some degree of bad phrasing. I see them all the time so don't worry, I'm way ahead of you there. No need to scream about it in my comments section.

I would advise you to avoid skipping anything in this story and that includes epilogues and the likes. Remember: everything is important in the Arcane Universes.

This story is set in a fictional world. Everything comes from my imagination and should be treated as such. I do my research and take inspiration from anything and everything but if there's something you feel iffy about, some detail that you think should not be there, please tell me so we can sort things out immediately. I will appreciate it. <3

So, here we are, in this totally unplanned series and standalone work.

Blink, and the next thing you know, you are not the only one who owns yourself.