CHAPTER TEN: THREADS OF THE UNHEARD (Part one)
Night at the Lyceum wasn't quiet.
It was full—
of unspoken thoughts,
unfinished training drills,
footsteps just shy of courage.
This wasn't peace.
It was the pause before pressure.
The Resonant Trial was less than a day away.
And across the Veil, every squad felt it.
Even the walls.
In the Echo dorm,
no one slept.
Kaelen sat at his desk, a flickering glyph lantern burning low beside him.
Yolti paced near the window, tracing light in the air with her fingers—
not casting,
just remembering.
Selka knelt by her cot,
her journal open but unread.
Zephryn stood by the door,
not guarding—
just grounded.
No one spoke.
Not because they had nothing to say.
But because the air felt like it would tear if they did.
The Trial is tomorrow.
The phrase had passed through every mouth that day.
But here, in the dorm?
It didn't need to be said again.
The hum beneath the floor said it for them.