Please note that Tapas no longer supports Internet Explorer.
We recommend upgrading to the latest Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, or Firefox.
Home
Comics
Novels
Community
Mature
More
Help Discord Forums Newsfeed Contact Merch Shop
Publish
Home
Comics
Novels
Community
Mature
More
Help Discord Forums Newsfeed Contact Merch Shop
__anonymous__
__anonymous__
0
  • Publish
  • Ink shop
  • Redeem code
  • Settings
  • Log out

Digital Shadows: Book 1 – Virtual Exile

Chapter 2: Echoes in the Ledger

Chapter 2: Echoes in the Ledger

Jan 23, 2026

Elara Nyx didn't sleep that night. The Hong Kong skyline bled neon into the darkness outside her Mid-Levels window, but inside, the glow came only from her screens. The glitch had been too precise—too deliberate—to be random code drift.She ran the wallet addresses through every tool she had: Chainalysis tracers, Elliptic analytics, even a custom script she'd written years ago for sniffing dark-pool transactions. The trail was faint, deliberately muddied by mixers, but it didn't vanish. It looped back to a single point of origin: a Cayman Islands trust registered under Elara Holdings.Her own ghost.She had created Elara Holdings in 2018 as a digital smokescreen—a shell entity with no real assets, just enough blockchain breadcrumbs to confuse trackers if anyone ever came looking for Adira Miller. It was supposed to be dead code. Forgotten. Instead, someone had resurrected it and parked billions in seized Venezuelan Bitcoin inside.She leaned back, rubbing her eyes. The time stamp on the last transfer: three days ago. Three days after she’d last spoken to Logan about Cherri’s pregnancy scan.Coincidence? She didn’t believe in those anymore.Her secure line pinged. Logan. She answered on the second ring.His face appeared, shadowed in the Johannesburg safe house. “You’re up late.”“So are you.” She kept her voice steady. “Tell me you’re not staring at the same ledger I am.”Logan’s jaw tightened. “I got a tip from Anonymous. Same addresses. They’re calling it the ‘reset seed.’ Billions in clean crypto, ready to flood markets when the dollar tanks.”Elara’s pulse kicked. “And the shell is my old decoy. Someone knows who I was.”“Or who you are.” He paused. “Cherri’s been having nightmares. Says she feels eyes on her. I’ve doubled the perimeter sensors, but…”“But it’s not enough.” Elara finished for him. “Mia called me earlier. Connor’s asking why everything feels ‘weird.’ He’s seven, Logan. He shouldn’t know what weird feels like.”Silence stretched between them.“I’m pulling Jake in,” Logan said finally. “He’s got the security firm’s resources. If anyone can lock down Mia and Connor without drawing attention, it’s him.”Elara nodded. Jake—her oldest, the one who’d always been more soldier than son. His private security company was legitimate on paper. The black-ops contracts he took on the side… those were the ones that worried her.“Tell him to stay ghost,” she said. “No chatter. No patterns. If they’re watching the family, they’re watching him too.”Logan rubbed his face. “And you? What’s your next move?”Elara stared at the screen, at the glowing trail of Elara Holdings. “I’m going to follow the money. All the way to the source.”“Don’t go alone,” he warned. “If Viktor’s involved—”“If Viktor’s involved,” she cut in, voice cold, “then this isn’t just about money. It’s about control. And I taught him everything he knows about staying hidden.”She ended the call before he could argue.Then she opened a fresh terminal, fingers already moving. The reset seed wasn’t just a stash. It was bait. Someone wanted her to bite.She would. But not the way they expected.Outside, Hong Kong never slept. Inside, the shadows were starting to move.

custom banner
arisfox
Aris Fox

Creator

The family started whispering to me here. Logan’s paranoia, Cherri’s quiet fear, Connor’s innocent questions—they’re not just characters. They’re the heartbeat of this story. When the trail loops back to Elara’s own past… that’s when the real dread settles in.

Comments (0)

See all
Add a comment

Recommendation for you

  • Silence | book 2

    Recommendation

    Silence | book 2

    LGBTQ+ 32.4k likes

  • What Makes a Monster

    Recommendation

    What Makes a Monster

    BL 76.8k likes

  • Silence | book 1

    Recommendation

    Silence | book 1

    LGBTQ+ 27.4k likes

  • Secunda

    Recommendation

    Secunda

    Romance Fantasy 43.4k likes

  • Frej Rising

    Recommendation

    Frej Rising

    LGBTQ+ 2.9k likes

  • Touch

    Recommendation

    Touch

    BL 15.6k likes

  • feeling lucky

    Feeling lucky

    Random series you may like

Digital Shadows: Book 1 – Virtual Exile
Digital Shadows: Book 1 – Virtual Exile

270 views1 subscriber

Digital Shadows: Book 1 – Virtual Exile
One glitch in a virtual classroom.
One mother.
One global reset. Elara Nyx (Adira Miller), an ordinary teacher and single mother living in Hong Kong’s neon shadows, never meant to become the enemy of the world’s most powerful cabal.
A single anomaly in her NexusLearn platform exposes billions in laundered Bitcoin tied to her long-dead digital alias — and the Curators: a shadow elite who believe the dollar is too chaotic, too free. Their solution? The Reset — a deliberate, engineered global crash to force mandatory digital IDs, total surveillance, and an unbreakable new world order under their control.They’ve marked their leverage: her family.
Her oldest son, Jake, is a black-ops operative hiding behind a security firm.
Her daughter Mia is shielding her seven-year-old grandson Connor in California.
Her youngest son, Logan, a former Black Hawk Army pilot in Johannesburg, is nearing the end of his service and guarding his pregnant wife, Cherri.
The Curators know every name, every weakness, every child. Hunted across encrypted channels and bustling streets, Elara allies with Kai Reyes — a charismatic, dangerous operative whose loyalty is as volatile as the markets they’re trying to save. Together they race to steal proof of the Reset before banks fail and the world burns.But every step deeper reveals betrayal closer to home.
Trust is currency.
Betrayal is inevitable.
And the shadows are everywhere. One mother will risk everything to keep her family from disappearing into the dark. The first shadow has fallen.
The Reset is live.
And the only way out… is through. The broadcast is spreading.
The Curators are closing in.
Who survives when the system crashes — for real?

Subscribe

7 episodes

Chapter 2: Echoes in the Ledger

Chapter 2: Echoes in the Ledger

30 views 0 likes 0 comments


Style
More
Like
List
Comment

Prev
Next

Full
Exit
0
0
Prev
Next