"Not all echoes fade. Some linger beneath the silence, waiting to be heard again.
Rain was still falling when dawn arrived a soft, silvery curtain that washed the academy in muted gray.
The Resonance Hall stood empty, save for the faint glow pulsing from the Aetherion Core. It hummed like a heart remembering how to beat.
Eryndor stood at the center of the platform, the smell of ozone sharp in the air. His hands trembled slightly as he adjusted the crystal conductor, its edges still warm from the previous night's surge.
He hadn't slept. Every time he closed his eyes, he could feel the frequency echoing in his veins soft, rhythmic, almost alive.
When the doors opened, a draft of cold air swept through the hall.
"Still here?" Luca's voice carried a mix of disbelief and concern. He leaned against the doorway, his uniform half undone, hair messy from the rain. "You do realize you almost collapsed last night?"
Eryndor didn't look up. "I'm fine."
"That's what people say before they faint again," Luca muttered, walking closer. The sound of his boots echoed faintly on the wet marble floor. "What are you trying to find?"
Eryndor hesitated, eyes fixed on the core. "It reacted to us. That shouldn't be possible."
"Maybe we just got lucky," Luca said, half-smiling.
"No," Eryndor replied softly. "Luck doesn't leave marks."
He turned his wrist slightly, revealing a faint shimmer beneath his skin silver lines, branching like veins of light. Luca's smile faded.
"You didn't tell anyone?"
"Would you?"
Their eyes met silence thickened between them, broken only by the steady drip of rain from the glass roof above.
Luca exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. "You're going to drive yourself insane chasing something you can't explain."
Eryndor allowed himself a small, tired smile. "You think I haven't already?"
For a brief moment, something like laughter escaped Luca, soft and genuine. It eased the tension, if only a little. He walked past Eryndor to the control console, glancing over the readings.
"No fluctuations since last night," he noted. "But the energy signature it's stabilizing."
"Stabilizing?"
"Yeah. Like it's waiting for another trigger."
Eryndor frowned. "A trigger…"
Their conversation was interrupted by the faint hum of machinery the Aetherion Core lighting up once again.
Neither of them had touched it.
The glow grew brighter, a deep cerulean spreading through the chamber walls like a heartbeat pulsing through stone.
Luca took a step back. "Did you?"
Eryndor shook his head. "No."
The light converged on the central platform, forming a spiral of symbols neither of them recognized. For a split second, the air grew heavy charged, alive.
Then the sound came.
A note.
Soft, pure, and impossibly beautiful.
It resonated not in their ears, but deep within their bones, vibrating through every nerve.
Eryndor gasped, clutching his chest as the sound grew louder.
Luca reached for him instinctively their fingers brushed, and the light flared.
A vision flashed before them: a city of glass suspended in the void, voices whispering in a language that felt ancient yet intimate.
Then darkness.
The next thing Eryndor knew, he was on the ground, rainwater dripping through the cracks of the roof. His vision blurred, his body trembling from the aftershock.
Luca was kneeling beside him, one hand on his shoulder.
"Hey. Stay with me. Eryn, look at me."
"I'm fine," Eryndor managed, voice hoarse.
"Fine?" Luca snapped. "You almost burned your resonance field! What the hell was that?"
Eryndor tried to focus, but his head spun. He could still hear it that note, faint but persistent, echoing at the edge of his consciousness.
"It wasn't random," he whispered. "It was calling to something."
Luca frowned. "Calling to what?"
Eryndor looked up slowly. His eyes reflected the faint blue light still glowing from the Core.
"To us."
Hours later, after the resonance storm had subsided, the academy resumed its quiet hum of daily life.
Students whispered about the lightning that had struck near the research wing, but no one dared to approach.
Eryndor sat alone on the steps outside the Resonance Hall, rain still dripping from the eaves. His uniform was damp, hair plastered against his forehead, but he didn't seem to care.
He was staring at his palm again the faint shimmer of silver that now pulsed in time with his heartbeat.
He couldn't deny it anymore. The frequency wasn't just energy. It was alive.
Footsteps approached behind him.
Luca sat down beside him, holding two cups of something steaming. "You really should eat," he said quietly. "Or at least drink this."
Eryndor took the cup without a word. The warmth seeped into his fingers, chasing away the cold that had settled deep in his bones.
For a while, they just sat there, listening to the rain.
"You ever think," Luca said after a moment, "that maybe some things aren't meant to be studied?"
Eryndor tilted his head. "You mean things like this?"
"Things that change us," Luca replied, his voice unusually soft.
Eryndor looked at him really looked. There was a flicker of something behind Luca's usual smirk: exhaustion, curiosity, maybe even fear.
He smiled faintly. "You sound like someone who's afraid of answers."
Luca let out a quiet laugh. "Maybe I am. You make answers feel dangerous."
The rain fell harder, the sound steady and rhythmic like the heartbeat of the world around them.
Eryndor leaned back slightly, eyes half-closed. "You know what's strange?"
"What?"
"When the Core resonated with us for a moment, I didn't feel alone."
Luca's gaze softened. "Maybe you weren't."
The clouds shifted above them, a brief break in the storm revealing a sliver of moonlight.
Eryndor turned his hand over, watching the faint glow fade again beneath his skin.
"Tomorrow," he said quietly, "I'll run another test."
Luca sighed. "Of course you will."
"I have to understand this."
"I know." Luca rose to his feet, brushing rain from his sleeve. "Just don't break yourself trying to."
Eryndor looked up. "You sound worried."
Luca smiled, a hint of mischief returning to his tone. "I'm always worried when my lab partner starts glowing."
Eryndor laughed softly the sound small but real.
As Luca walked away, Eryndor stayed seated, his thoughts drifting back to the light, the hum, the connection that still lingered between them like an echo that refused to fade.
He could still feel it that pull, gentle but constant, as if somewhere beneath the noise of the world, their frequencies still intertwined.
And he couldn't help but wonder
If the resonance wasn't just science then what was it?
The storm lingered through the night.
Thunder rolled softly across the distant hills, and flashes of light occasionally split the sky, illuminating the academy's spires like ghostly fingers.
Inside the Resonance Wing, the air was dense with silence.
Eryndor stood in front of the Core again the same shimmering prism that had pulled him into that strange, vivid vision.
He'd told himself he wouldn't come back tonight. And yet, his feet had led him here as if drawn by gravity.
He reached out, tracing his fingers along the surface of the control panel. "Show me," he whispered, though he didn't know who he was asking.
The Core pulsed faintly once, twice before releasing a quiet hum.
It was answering.
He inhaled sharply. The lights in the chamber flickered, shadows stretching long across the floor. Data projections shimmered to life, displaying unfamiliar wave patterns frequencies that defied all recorded resonance laws.
And right at the center of it, two waveforms danced in perfect synchronization.
Eryndor froze.
The first was his own.
The second was Luca's.
"Should've known you'd be here."
The voice broke through the silence, calm but sharp.
Eryndor turned. Luca stood at the entrance, rain dripping from his cloak. He didn't look angry more resigned, as though he'd expected this.
"You're impossible to predict," Luca said, stepping closer. "I left you for five hours, and you've already broken half the safety protocols."
Eryndor smiled faintly. "Then maybe you should stop leaving me alone."
Luca blinked caught off guard. Then he smirked, but there was warmth beneath it. "You're getting bold."
Eryndor didn't answer. The Core's light reflected in his eyes, painting his expression with shifting shades of blue. "I saw something earlier a place made of light. I think it's connected to the Aetherion field."
Luca frowned. "A hallucination?"
"Maybe. But it felt too real."
He hesitated, then continued quietly, "And I heard a voice."
"What did it say?"
Eryndor's gaze flicked to him. "That I already knew who it was."
The silence that followed was heavy, charged.
Luca's jaw tightened. "And do you?"
Eryndor didn't respond because deep down, some part of him feared the answer.
They worked in silence for a while, scanning the Core's new readings. Occasionally, their hands brushed as they reached for the same console. Every contact sent a faint spark through Eryndor's pulse, as if the frequency were reminding him it still lived between them.
When Luca leaned closer to check a display, Eryndor caught a glimpse of the faint shimmer beneath his collar a mark, faintly glowing like his own.
"Luca…"
"Yeah?"
Eryndor's throat felt dry. "Your neck. There's light."
Luca's fingers brushed the spot instinctively and froze when he felt the warmth beneath his skin. He met Eryndor's eyes. "You too?"
Eryndor nodded slowly.
The realization hit them both at once.
The resonance hadn't just connected them in that experiment.
It had marked them.
A sudden voice echoed through the room.
"Step away from the Core."
Both of them turned sharply.
Standing by the doorway was a tall man in a dark gray coat, his expression unreadable, his eyes sharp as cut glass. His hair was streaked with silver, and a faint insignia shimmered on the clasp of his collar the seal of the Aetherion Research Council.
"Professor Soren," Luca murmured under his breath.
Eryndor's pulse spiked. He hadn't heard the man enter.
"I was told there was an unauthorized experiment last night," Soren said, his tone calm but heavy. "Imagine my surprise when the sensors picked up not one, but two resonance signatures spiking far above safe levels."
Luca straightened, his usual confidence faltering. "Sir, it was an accident"
"Was it?" Soren interrupted. He walked toward them slowly, his gaze shifting between the two of them. "Strange, isn't it? Two students synchronizing perfectly with an Aetherion Core. I've seen that happen only once before… and it didn't end well."
Eryndor swallowed. "What do you mean?"
Soren's expression softened, but only slightly. "It means the Core doesn't choose randomly. It resonates with bond with emotion. You may think you're studying energy, Mr. Eryndor, but what you're really touching is each other."
The words hit harder than thunder.
Eryndor's breath caught. Luca's shoulders tensed beside him.
Soren studied them for a moment longer before turning away. "I'll be monitoring your readings closely from now on. I suggest you rest. The Aetherion has a way of taking more than it gives."
He left without another word, his footsteps fading into the echoing halls.
For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Luca exhaled slowly, half laughing under his breath. "Well, that wasn't ominous at all."
Eryndor glanced down at his hand. The silver glow had dimmed but not disappeared. "He's right, though. Whatever this is… it's not just science."
Luca stepped closer, his tone quiet. "Then what is it?"
Eryndor met his gaze. The air between them seemed to hum, alive again.
"I don't know yet," he said softly. "But it feels like it's changing us."
That night, sleep refused to come.
Eryndor lay in bed, staring at the ceiling as rain tapped against the window. Every sound reminded him of the hum that had burrowed into his heartbeat.
When he closed his eyes, he could feel it that faint rhythm, like an echo from somewhere far away.
And with it, fragments of something else.
A voice.
A touch of warmth.
A name that felt like his, though it wasn't.
He sat up abruptly, breath catching in his throat.
His reflection in the mirror shimmered faintly the mark on his chest glowing like a constellation beneath his skin.
He reached out to touch it, and the hum flared louder this time, a pulse that shook the air.
A knock came at the door.
"Eryn?"
Luca.
Eryndor hesitated, then opened it.
Luca stood there, hair messy, still in his academy jacket. "Couldn't sleep either?"
Eryndor shook his head. "It's the resonance. It's louder."
Luca frowned. "Same here." He lifted his hand and Eryndor saw it. The faint shimmer beneath his wrist, glowing in perfect rhythm with Eryndor's.
They looked at each other. Neither spoke.
Then, slowly, Luca reached out, fingers stopping just short of touching Eryndor's.
The hum between them grew stronger.
The world seemed to hold its breath.
The mark on Eryndor's chest flared light spilling across the room, wrapping around them in a soft blue glow. For a moment, it felt as if they were standing within the Core itself, their heartbeats syncing, the boundary between self and other dissolving.
Then silence.
The glow faded.
Eryndor stumbled slightly, catching the edge of the table for balance. Luca caught his arm instinctively, steadying him.
"Hey," Luca murmured, voice low. "You with me?"
Eryndor nodded, breathing hard. "I think… it linked again."
Luca's gaze held his, steady but unreadable. "Then maybe we should stop running from it."
Eryndor froze. "What do you mean?"
"Maybe it's not something we're supposed to control," Luca said quietly. "Maybe it's something we have to understand."
Outside, the storm finally broke. The first quiet drizzle began to fall soft, cleansing, endless.
Eryndor looked out the window, silver light dancing faintly across his reflection.
He wasn't sure what awaited them discovery or disaster but for the first time, he didn't feel afraid.
Because whatever the resonance truly was…
He knew he wasn't facing it alone.