đź“– Chapter 2.5- INTERLUDE
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🎤 Host: [Now Introduced]
🧠Guest: The Archivist
[The audio crackles gently. A flicker. Then silence.]
ARCHIVIST (almost a whisper)
"Tell me, student.
Do you remember ever waking up at exactly 3:29 AM,
not knowing why?"
[Beat. Then the host speaks — for the first time, not a question mark, but a name.]
HOST (narrating):
"My name is Aerin.
I'm a postgraduate student in Comparative Mythos and Semiotic Echoes at the Eltoren Institute — a name you won't find in public databases unless you know where to decrypt.
I didn't come here to chase stories. I came because I heard something that no one could explain.
And now I'm here… asking questions I was never supposed to."
[A faint tap — a journal opening. Pages turn.]
"February 2nd, 2003.
The Black Signal, as it's been called, marked the first time something heard us.
But what the Archivist just told me? That The Listeners… responded… not just to a signal, but to us speaking when we shouldn't?
That chills me more than any conspiracy."
HOST (continues):
"I've started tracing reports. Journal entries. Classified files that were meant to be ash.
And I've found something. Something new.
A recurring symbol found beneath the Ionian Sea chamber. It doesn't match any language — but when shown to a patient in deep sensory isolation, they recited something.
Not words. But a pulse. A rhythm.
The same one that plays in my ears at 3:29 AM."
[Low hum. The audio crackles like frost under a microscope. Aerin speaks — steady, thoughtful.]
> AERIN (host):
"After The Black Signal, I couldn't let it go.
I started tracing patterns, decoding archived pulse maps, tracking whispers buried in footnotes and forgotten research.
Some of it made sense — enough to make this podcast what it is.
But there are questions I still can't answer.
Not alone.
And that's why… today's episode is different."
[Beat. A gentle breath before the reveal.]
> "Our guest is someone I thought I'd never speak to again.
He was once a lecturer at the Eltoren Institute, teaching Parallel Semiotics and Forbidden Communication Models.
Back when I was sixteen, he was already in his twenties — young, brilliant, a little haunted.
He taught there for only two years.
Then he vanished."
[Static flickers, like memory.]
> "No resignation. No public report. Just… gone.
But last week, ten years later, I found him.
Not in the places people go. But somewhere time bends a little.
And he agreed to speak."
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> AERIN (continued):
"He's the one who warned us, back then, that not all echoes are meant to be heard.
He's the one who told me about the Chamber.
And now… he's here.
Welcome back, Dr. Elian Rhyne."
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[Pause. The sound of something ancient turning over. Then a low voice.]
> ARCHIVIST (Dr. Rhyne):
"It's… not good to be found, Aerin.
But I think it's time."
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> AERIN:
"This episode, we're talking about The Listeners.
Not just the ones who hear… but the ones who were always listening.
Even before we spoke.
Even before we knew how."
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