Chapter Four: The Broken Chord (Part Six)
Date: May 22, Year 204 PCR (Maelis 22)
Location: Harmonic Lyceum – Recovery Quarters / Veil Tower Overlook
Time: Nightfall
Kaelen carried him.
One arm beneath Zephryn's shoulders, the other braced beneath his knees. His weight wasn't much—but the silence was. It clung to Kaelen's back like guilt that wouldn't name itself.
Selka walked close behind, her hand never leaving Zephryn's wrist. Yolti followed, light-thread glyphs trailing gently between her fingers as she stabilized his breathing. Behind them, the corridor echoed with quiet steps—none of them running, but none of them speaking either.
They were afraid of what it meant that he'd survived.
And more afraid of what it meant if he hadn't.
Above the corridor, deep in the outer crown of the Lyceum's spire, King Vaelen Tiramis stood beneath a broken pane of memoryglass.
He was not alone.
Behind him, a figure waited inside the dark—a shape built from stillness and bone-colored robes, faceless under a mask of smoothed silence.
A Choir agent.
The King's voice was low.
"That glyph… did it originate from Caelis?"
The figure did not move. But when it spoke, the words were slow, measured.
"It is not from this Veil."
"We have searched every tone archive. That pattern does not appear in the authorized lattice."
Vaelen's eyes narrowed.
"Then what was it?"
"A memory that survived your fire."
The silence between them crackled like old stone beneath frost.
The agent's voice dropped lower.
"He is remembering more with each breath."
"If it continues, the fracture may reverse. And if that happens…"
"We will not be able to hide it."
Vaelen didn't turn.
"That won't happen. He is under strict watch. Even now—unconscious, shattered—he poses no threat."
The Choir figure tilted its head, faintly.
"Threat is not born in the scream."
"It is born in the one who remembers what silence sounded like before it was broken."
The King said nothing.
But the wind through the glass hummed slightly—off-pitch.
The Choir agent stepped backward into the shadow.
"If he becomes the voice that was unsung…"
"Even Celestis Veil will forget what it once was."
And then they were gone.
Zephryn woke to the hum of resonance glass settling.
Not loud.
Not sharp.
Just there—like an old voice humming a lullaby it never meant to share.
The room was dim. Vines of pulse filament curved around the ceiling, dimming in and out with his heartbeat. No one else stirred—until he moved his fingers.
Selka sat beside him.
She hadn't slept. Her eyes were swollen, not from tears, but from staying open too long.
He tried to speak, but his throat cracked. She reached for a cup—offering it without a word. He drank.
"How long was I out?"
Her voice came, softer than usual—but firmer.
"Just one day. But you scared us."
He coughed. Laughed once.
"I scared myself."
She looked at him.
"You used something the Choir couldn't predict."
He stilled.
"You know about them?"
Selka nodded.
"I've heard the higher-ups talk. Whispers, mostly. About memory. About erasure. About people like you."
Zephryn turned his head.
"People like me?"
She took his hand, tight.
"People who survive what they weren't meant to remember."
"People who burn with something no one taught them."
For the first time since they'd met, her voice sharpened—not cold, not distant, but raw.
"Please don't overdo it again."
"Don't leave me like that. I can't… I just can't."
Zephryn sat up slowly, breaking her grip—not to escape it, but to sit upright and feel the weight of what was now inside him.
He nearly collapsed again.
She caught his shoulder.
And slipped something into his palm.
The necklace.
His.
The one that didn't glow. The one that never sang.
But still remembered.
"Tomorrow starts our first day as Resonants," Selka said quietly.
He looked at her.
"What is it?"
She shook her head—not with ignorance, but with something deeper.
"I think it's a unit. Or a type of training. I don't know."
"But it's ours now."
Zephryn held the necklace tighter.
Let it wrap against his skin.
The weight of it wasn't heavy. It was familiar.
He leaned back. His voice was almost a whisper.
"Whatever a Resonant is… whatever they do…"
His eyes closed.
"No matter what I become…"
"I swear…"
"I will bring the memory back to this world."
"I will remember who I am."
TO BE CONTINUED….