Song of Serenity:
When silence whispers in ancient halls,
When time stands still in dreams so deep,
I seek you amidst echoes that call,
Where memory's a shadow, graves it does keep.
The darkness that swallowed the three travelers wasn't merely the absence of light — it felt alive. The sand underfoot gave way to cold stone, and every step resonated like heartbeats deep within a cavern. The ceiling above them, covered in ancient symbols, glowed with a faint yellow luminescence, as if the very words of Resonance were guiding them deeper.
Tarion walked ahead, holding a staff shard before him. The light emanating from it cautiously illuminated the path and drove away the shifting shadows lurking along the walls.
— "This place…" Laina whispered. — "It wasn't made by humans."
— "Because it was made by those humans who forgot," Greet replied, his sword already clenched in his hand.
On the third level of the underground hall, the space widened. Tall arches, covered in inscriptions, stretched upwards, and in the center, something resembling an altar faintly glimmered. Beside it stood a figure — in shadow but with a halo of light around its face.
— "Stop!" Tarion cried, raising his staff.
The figure turned. It was a person in dark clothing, with a silver sign of the Order of Serenity on their chest. A young face, slightly weary, but without fanaticism in its eyes.
— "I am not an enemy," he said. — "At least, not today."
— "The Order sends spies into sacred places?" Greet growled.
— "I am Lian, a junior acolyte of the Order. But I am not here by their will." He took a step forward, not reaching for a weapon. — "A different silence brought me here. A name I heard in a dream."
Tarion tensed. Lian looked too calm, too… familiar.
— "What are you doing here?"
— "I want to know the truth. About what was before us. And what awaits us. The Order is silent. I seek another source."
His voice didn't waver. But Laina approached Tarion and whispered softly:
— "He… is like those who believe not in truth, but in order. Not in meaning, but in control."
— "And yet he is here," Tarion replied. — "Meaning he either seeks the truth or fears it."
— "I heard a voice in the sand," Lian suddenly said. — "It called your name, Tarion. And another… Laina. But the third name was distorted. It sounded like… Sairea."
Laina flinched. Her eyes grew more serious.
— "Do you know her?"
— "No. But in that name… there's something dark."
Greet's gaze lingered on him. But he said nothing — for now.
— "And what do you want now, Lian?" Tarion asked.
— "I want to go with you. To see what is hidden deeper. If I lie, kill me. But I'm tired of being a cog."
Tarion nodded. The staff in his hand glowed again — and led them onward, downwards, to yet another set of gates waiting to be opened.
The first of many doors closed behind them. And no one yet knew that in the shadows of the next hall, a creature born from war memories already waited.
When the last echoes behind them faded, they stood before an arch inscribed with the dead language of Resonance. Each letter pulsed as if breathing its own life, and the passage led downward — down a staircase too perfectly preserved to be ancient.
— "How did these steps survive time?" Laina whispered. — "They look like new…"
— "It's Resonance," Tarion said. — "It doesn't obey the laws of time, if the place… still remembers."
Greet walked a little behind, watching Lian carefully. Though he didn't voice his suspicions, his eyes spoke louder than any words.
Finally, they descended into a hall where the walls were covered not just with symbols, but with bas-reliefs — scenes of battles between humans and faceless creatures. Among them — the figure of a hooded woman, extending her hands towards a black crystal from which shadows erupted.
— "This is…" Lian began, but then fell silent. His voice trembled.
— "I've seen her…" Laina whispered. — "In the dreams that come after battles. Her silhouette. She always stands behind Cael'Theron."At that moment, the hall trembled. Black lines erupted from the ground — like cracks, but they pulsed like veins. From them, a figure rose — of bronze and dust, with empty eyes.
It moved like a puppet on strings, and a fragment of a Resonance crystal blazed in its chest.
— "Is it a guardian?" Greet asked, drawing his sword.
— "No… It's a memory," Tarion replied. — "Hidden in the walls. A fragment of what was."
The figure did not attack. It stopped and, looking through them, spoke in a voice that echoed from all sides:
— "She entered. The one who should not have been. An echo of darkness touched the truth. If she is not stopped — the Cycle will be broken…"
— "Who is it talking about?" Laina asked, frightened.
But Tarion already knew. The name was on the tip of his consciousness, but something inside still prevented him from speaking it. He only said:
— "It's a warning."
Suddenly, the hall was engulfed in swirling dust. Outlines began to appear from it. As if another echo… the silhouette of a girl. She resembled Laina — so much so that Tarion's heart tightened.
But her eyes… had no sparkle.
It seemed she was about to say something. But instead of words, fragments of light scattered, and silence covered the hall.
— "What was that?" Lian whispered.
— "Someone wants us to see not everything, but just… an image," Laina said, her voice trembling. — "And that image has my face."
Tarion turned to the bas-relief. Now he noticed more. Next to the hooded woman — another figure, previously invisible. And she had the same features.
— "Someone was playing with the memory of this place," he said. — "And someone… wants us to lose the line between reality and shadow."
— "Or so that we don't trust her," Greet threw in, glancing at Laina.
Their gazes met. But in Laina's eyes, there was only confusion and fear.
— "I don't know what that was. But it wasn't me."
— "We know that," Tarion replied softly. — "And that's why we'll go further."
And as they headed towards the doors at the end of the hall, none of them saw how, in the shadows behind the arch, deeper in the wall, familiar green eyes flickered for a moment. And then disappeared.
The passage ahead was narrower than the previous hall. The ceiling hung low, and every sound — a breath, a step, even a thought — echoed as if inside a skull. It grew cold, and even the magical lights blazing in Laina's palms trembled like candles in the wind.
— "Something here… isn't right," Lian muttered, these being his first words in a long time.
He walked last, but with every step, his breathing seemed to grow louder, as if reflecting not off the walls, but off something standing nearby… invisible.
Greet stopped and crouched. Touching the floor, he raised his palm — dark moisture was on his fingers.
— "It's not water," he said. — "And not blood. It's… alive."
And suddenly… the light went out.
In an instant — no sound, no color, no touch. The silence became deafening. The lights extinguished, and the heroes found themselves in complete darkness.
— "Tarion?…" Laina's voice drifted. But it sounded as if from afar. As if her cry was passing through a thick layer of water.
— "I'm here!" Tarion called back. But he himself was no longer sure.
He walked, but his feet did not touch the floor. The world had changed.
Ahead — a figure. Small. Huddled.
He saw himself.
A boy. Alone. In the dirt. With screams in his ears.
This was a memory.
— "No… This isn't now… This was…" he mumbled.
And he heard — breathing behind him. Heavy. Raspy. Wet.
He turned — and nothing. But the breathing continued.
Then, suddenly — light flared again. But not from their hands — from the eyes of the bas-reliefs on the walls.
There were hundreds of them. Faces. Children's. Elderly. Distorted. They watched.
— "It's a trap," Greet said, his voice rough and dry like gravel. — "This isn't a physical place. It's a Resonance illusion."
— "A mental labyrinth," Laina added. — "They're making us see our own fear."
— "What if I don't remember fear?" Lian whispered.In response… something laughed. Prolonged, childish, hoarse. The laughter poured from all sides.
Figures began to crawl from around the bend — dark, distorted, with faces half-familiar, half-twisted. Among them — one, with Laina's face, but with empty eyes like coal.
— "Don't look into her eyes!" Tarion shouted, but it was too late.
Lian froze. And the figure approached him, whispering:
— "You will never leave. Because you've already stayed here…"
Then Tarion grabbed Lian and pushed him back towards the others. Laina created a barrier that trembled under the weight of the darkness.
— "This can't be real…" she gasped.
— "It doesn't have to be real to destroy," Greet replied.
Tarion, looking at Laina's distorted reflection, suddenly understood: this wasn't a created shadow. It was an imprint from someone else's memory.
— "These aren't my fears… And not ours… It's someone else's soul left here. She sees us — through her own wounds."
And then… all the shadows vanished.
The hall emptied.
Before them — a stone arch with an inscription: "Who passes this, passes through themselves."
Silence.
— "We need to go on," Greet said.
— "But not as who we were," Laina added.
And as they stepped into the next corridor, whispers remained behind them — and eyes that watched from the walls. Eyes that couldn't close.
Beyond the arch, the tunnel gradually widened, and a massive hall appeared before them — quiet, dark, yet filled with a strange electrical tension in the air. The floor surface glowed with a lace of thin lines, like living veins pulsating beneath the stone's skin.
— "This is… the Node," Laina whispered. — "It's still active…"
In the center of the hall stood a stone construct — resembling a heart suspended in the air. It pulsed with a soft greenish light, and with each beat, something akin to a moan echoed in the air.
— "Stop," Greet halted everyone. — "Something's changing…"
At that very moment, the light around them vanished, leaving the heroes in semi-darkness. And again… a vision appeared. But this time, not a projection, not an illusion of fear.
It was a memory. Living, painful, rooted in the very heart of the Node.
The Vision
A young man, clad in the white robes of a Keeper, stands on the edge of a cliff in a mountain temple. His hair is light, his gaze — full of determination, yet sorrow. Beside him — another figure, female, with a soft smile and a serene look. Her name was Maevaria.
— "We have no right to do this, Cael," she says. — "If you break the Resonance, even partially — the consequences are unpredictable."
— "The consequences have already arrived," Cael'Theron replies. — "Look around. People don't understand magic. They fear it or use it for war. And the spirits… they die because of it. Suffering. Always suffering."
— "So what do you want? To destroy everything to start anew?"
— "I want… to free everyone from memory. From pain. From the legacy of mistakes. If Resonance connects hearts, then I want to — disconnect them. To give humanity a chance to be pure, without the burden of the past."
— "Is that your belief? That emotions are a curse?"
— "They are shackles."
— "And love?" — her voice softens.
Cael'Theron falls silent. His eyes — empty.
— "Love…" he says. — "It was the first betrayal."
Everything dims.
Return
Tarion felt something sear his chest — a faint tremor from his own Resonance crystal. He stood in the same hall, but could no longer breathe as easily. The weight of what had been said and seen hung in the air.
— "Cael'Theron… was a Keeper," Laina murmured softly. — "And he wanted to stop the pain. But at the cost of everything."
— "He believes that feelings are evil," Greet added. — "That Resonance only multiplies suffering."
— "And… maybe he once loved someone," Tarion added. — "But he lost them. And that loss changed him forever."
Lian remained silent. His face was pale, his eyes — attentive.
— "He doesn't seek power," he said. — "He seeks… correction. He wants to rewrite the essence of the world."
— "But by erasing feelings, he erases life," Laina whispered.Silence. The Node pulsed.
And in its rhythm beat not only the heart of ancient magic, but also the echo of Cael'Theron's broken heart.
The Node's light dimmed again, leaving only a soft flicker in the heart of the hall. The air grew heavy, as if the very stones absorbed every sound, every thought. But in this silence, one of their breaths grew louder and louder.
He stood silently, but his hands trembled. Fingers clenched into fists, so tightly that his knuckles whitened. His gaze was directed into the void, but his eyes saw something else — betrayal, pain, loneliness.
— "He… was like me," Tarion whispered.
Greet looked back at him.
— "What did you say?"
— "I… I understand him," the young man's voice trembled. — "That look. That… feeling, when you lose… everything you hoped for. When your heart burns so fiercely that only ash remains. And then it seems — it would be better if nothing existed. No memories. No feelings."
He inhaled deeply, as if trying to tear himself away from the poisonous embrace of that memory, but he couldn't.
— "I also thought that if I stopped feeling — it would be easier. After… father. After the loss. I wanted to tear the pain out of myself. But…"
His gaze fell on Laina. Her eyes gleamed — not with magic, but with understanding.
— "But if I had done that, I wouldn't have met you. Wouldn't have met all of you. And I wouldn't be myself."
He moved closer to the Node — to the place where the pulsating "heart" hung.
— "Cael'Theron… He's not a monster. He's — a broken heart searching for silence instead of healing. He believes that destroying Resonance is salvation."
— "But that's just an escape," Laina added. — "And escape always leaves even more pain in its wake."
Lian watched silently, for the first time without his usual cold detachment. Something new appeared in his eyes — perhaps doubt.
— "If we want to stop him," Tarion said, — "we need not only to defeat him… We need to understand why he couldn't cope with the pain. Otherwise, we ourselves will become like him."
The echo of his words hung in the air — and even the Node, it seemed, froze.
Tarion's words hung in the air, as if the very air refused to accept them.
And suddenly — a tremor. Barely audible at first, like the echo of distant thunder, and then — growing stronger. The stones beneath their feet shook, and a low, drawn-out hum erupted from the Node — not just a sound, but an almost living groan, full of pain and anger.
The Node's light began to flicker. Its colors changed from warm amber to dark blue, and then — to swampy green with black streaks twitching in a chaotic dance.
— "Stand back!" Greet shouted, grabbing Tarion by the shoulder and pushing him back.
But Tarion didn't move. He stared directly at the pulsating "heart" of the Node, in which… facial contours began to appear. Blurred. Burning. As if those devoured by memory. They screamed — silently, but all the more terrifyingly.
— "What is this?" Laina whispered, her voice lost in the hum.
— "The Node… wasn't just showing a memory," Lian said, stepping back in disbelief. — "It… connected with what Cael'Theron was. And something remained here. Something dark."
From the "heart" of the Node, threads of black dust suddenly erupted, hanging in the air and beginning to stretch towards Tarion.
— "Get away!" Laina cried, throwing a magical barrier in front of him.
But the black threads weren't attacking — they were reaching for him, as if familiar. As if to an heir.
— "The Node… recognizes something similar in me," Tarion whispered. — "It… is either warning… or inviting."
For a moment, silence fell. And then the stone floor beneath their feet cracked — a small fissure, but black light pulsed within it, like a reverse pulsation of Resonance itself.
— "Something… is sleeping here," Greet said. — "And we woke it up."
Vision
This is the moment when the heroes realize that even memories have power if touched too deeply. The Node is not just an archive. It is a living structure that preserves pain the way a body preserves scars.
They hadn't even had a chance to take a step back when one of the black threads suddenly struck Tarion in the chest. He didn't have time to scream — only his eyes widened, and the whole world around him disappeared.
A dark hall, similar to this one, but empty, like an abandoned temple. Only faint light seeps through cracks in the ceiling.
In the center stands a figure — tall, in a black cloak, but without a mask. A younger Cael'Theron — not yet a traitor, not yet an enemy. His eyes are full of determination… and despair.
— "You don't hear them," he whispers into the void. — "You all teach harmony, Resonance, consonance… But no one listens to those who are lost."
Next to him — a female figure. Her outlines are blurred, like a dream, but she holds Cael'Theron's hand in hers.
— "You must stay. If you abandon the path… you will lose yourself."
— "I have already lost everything," he says. — "And if this world doesn't want to remember pain, I will make it."
He raises his hand. And from his fingers unfolds the first contour of something… new. Dark magic, resembling black geometry. Resonance, broken and rewritten.
— "To forget is to kill a second time," he says. — "I will give them the unforgettable."
The world flashes. The vision changes. Now Tarion sees a field, scorched by black energy. And among the shadows — the silhouette of Cael'Theron. But in this shadow — an echo of pain, not malice.
He stands, holding the woman's body in his arms. The same blurred figure as before.
— "If only you had given me a chance…"
And then Cael'Theron's shadow looks directly at Tarion.
— "You can still choose otherwise. But will you be able to, when you lose everything?"
End of Vision
— "Tarion!" Laina shook him by the shoulders.
He opened his eyes, his vision blurred. The Node no longer glowed — as if it had fallen asleep. But within it remained an echo — not just of memories, but of emotions.
— "He wasn't seeking destruction," Tarion whispered. — "He was seeking… memory. And he couldn't preserve it. So he decided to break everything."
Greet remained silent. Lian only nodded grimly.
— "If that's true…" he began. — "Then our enemy isn't a demon. But someone we lost too soon."
The silence hung heavy until Greet spoke — his voice muffled but resolute:
— "Let's go. If this node showed you something like that… then worse awaits us ahead."
They moved on. The Node, as if sensing their determination, no longer tried to stop them. On the contrary — the darkness slowly receded, revealing a long, twisted corridor before them, resembling an organic vein pulsating with faint light from its inner walls. The floor disappeared — now every step they took echoed as if in an abyss, as if they were walking on a surface of echo-memory.
Laina tried to suppress her apprehension:
— "Tarion, this vision… do you think the woman in it is…"
— "I don't know," he replied. — "But something about it… felt too real. The word 'oblivion' sounded like a curse. And like a promise."
A rustling sound came from ahead. Greet instinctively drew his sword, but even he couldn't precisely pinpoint the source of the sound. In the next moment, another hall emerged from the shadows, filled with dark-grey obelisks.
— "What is this?" Lian asked, frowning.
— "Memories," Laina whispered, touching one of the obelisks.
Her fingers touched the stone, and immediately a wave of shadows erupted from it, rippling in a circle, activating the others. All the halls filled with sighs, whispers… memories.
From each obelisk, scenes from the past began to emerge, but all of them were distorted. Children who didn't remember their mothers. Warriors who forgot what they fought for. Mages who sought Resonance — and found emptiness.
— "It's… like an echo of losses," Tarion whispered.
But among the distorted images, one figure stood out. Tall, with elegant gestures, in a silver-grey cloak. His eyes — full of serenity.
— "Lian?" Laina whispered, surprised. — "Is that… you?"
And indeed, the figure was his. But he didn't answer. He himself looked stunned.— "I… don't remember this moment," Lian said. — "But I was here. I was in this node. With the Order…"
The vision in the hall with the obelisks began to intensify. From fragments of shadows, another image appeared — Cael'Theron in white robes, saying something to Lian. The words were inaudible, only a tense gaze.
Lian stepped forward, seemingly not understanding why. His touch to his shadowy self activated a new wave of memories, which expanded and drew everyone into the space between reality and memory.
They all suddenly found themselves in a hall full of arches, each showing a different moment — but all related to loss. To erased history. To moments when something was torn from the soul.
In the center of the hall stood Cael'Theron. But this time — in full form, not distorted, not shadowy. His gaze was not evil, not filled with hatred.
He was emotionless.
— "You're still here," he said. — "The Node hasn't broken you. Perhaps that's the problem."
— "Tell us the truth," Tarion said. — "If you want us to understand you — show us."
Cael'Theron inclined his head.
— "Do you truly want to know why I do this?"
They nodded.
— "Then… go further."
He vanished. And another passage opened before them — deeper into the heart of the node, where, as they already sensed, the truth awaited.