The air still held the echoes of screams.
Luma stood among the charred remnants of the coliseum, the sky above overcast as if mourning with them. The once-grand banners fluttered limply in the wind. Rubble crunched beneath her boots as she wandered, dazed, trying to make sense of what had just happened. The Spire Games—meant to be a celebration of strength and knowledge—had ended in chaos.
Dozens were injured. A few… gone.
Her gauntlet, cracked and buzzing faintly, sparked against her wrist. She could barely feel it. Ion had told her it was a "resonance overload." Too much vibration—too many overlapping waves of sound and energy. She had pushed it too hard in the final moments before the attack. He had warned her.
But there hadn't been time for caution.
Ion knelt beside a collapsed wall, helping healers carry out the wounded. His eyes were sunken, guilt-ridden. Across the field, Nico paced silently. Leo sat with his head in his hands.
Miles… was nowhere to be found.
Luma walked to the center of the ruin, where she'd last stood during her final round. The marble tiles beneath her were cracked, but she could still see the outlines of her footprints scorched in the dust.
Kira, the librarian, found her there.
"It's not your fault," she said softly.
Luma didn't reply.
Kira continued, "Did you know sound waves can leave permanent imprints in certain materials? Especially when mixed with intense heat or electromagnetic interference. Like what happened here."
Luma blinked. "So it's like… echoes, but burned into the world?"
"Exactly," Kira nodded. "It's called resonance scarring. The energy you and the others used during the Games—before and during the attack—it vibrated the entire coliseum."
Luma sat slowly, tracing the scars in the stone.
"Is that what this is now?" she whispered. "A scar?"
Kira looked around. "Yes. And a warning. Resonance—waves—are powerful. They can sing a glass into shattering, or a city into ruin."
Ion joined them then, overhearing. "And they can also rebuild," he said gently. "If we understand how."
He knelt beside Luma, placing a palm over her gauntlet. A soft hum passed between them. "You'll need to learn about harmonics, standing waves, and constructive interference now," he said. "The Masters are using resonance in ways the world isn't ready for."
Luma finally looked at him. "Then teach me."
Ion nodded solemnly. "Tomorrow. Tonight, we mourn."
Later, the four remaining friends sat together in the ruins of the coliseum's garden. Leo sharpened his blade methodically. Nico drew wave diagrams in the dirt with a stick. Kira had brought tea.
Luma stared into the embers of a small campfire.
"I want to understand this… all of this," she said. "The waves, the energy, why everything went dark and then loud and then…"
Nico pointed to his sketch. "You ever hear of destructive interference? When waves cancel each other out?"
She nodded faintly.
"That's what the Masters did. They used wave collisions—silent at first, then BOOM. Like smashing music against silence hard enough to break the world."
Leo grunted. "That was no physics trick. That was sabotage."
Miles finally returned at dusk, claiming he'd been helping the healers.
No one questioned him.
But behind the shadows of the trees, far from the light of the campfire, a faint pulse echoed near the Bridge of Laws—like a heartbeat in the stone.