Yuna found her on the rooftop.
The Academy had towers that reached toward the violet sky, and Silence had climbed the tallest one. Not walked. Climbed. Hand over hand up ancient stone, phasing through locked doors when needed.
Yuna had followed the pull of the CHORD. Something was wrong. Something ached in the emotional fabric of the team, and when she'd focused on it, the thread led here.
To a girl sitting on the edge of a hundred-foot drop, watching stars that burned in colors Earth had never seen.
"Hey," Yuna said softly, stepping onto the rooftop.
Silence didn't turn. Her form flickered, phasing between solid and translucent like a candle in wind.
Yuna approached slowly. Sat down beside her, leaving space between them. The stone was cold. The wind bit through her training clothes.
They sat in silence for a long time.
Finally, Silence's hand moved. Found her notebook. Scratched words in the dim light of three moons:
YOU FOLLOWED ME.
"I felt something was wrong."
Silence's lips moved. No sound, but Yuna could read them now: The CHORD. You felt me.
"Yeah." Yuna hugged her knees to her chest. "You don't have to talk about it. I just didn't want you to be alone."
Silence stared at her. Those silver-gray eyes, ancient with pain, studying Yuna like she was something impossible.
Then she started writing.
I SEE TOO MUCH.
Yuna waited. Didn't push.
THE FUTURES. ALL OF THEM. EVERY POSSIBLE WAY THINGS COULD GO.
"That sounds overwhelming."
Silence laughed. No sound, but her shoulders shook.
OVERWHELMING. YES.
She wrote more, hand trembling:
BEFORE THE PORTAL. BEFORE VALDRIS. I SAW SOMETHING WORSE.
Yuna's chest tightened. The CHORD pulsed between them, and she could feel Silence's pain building. Old pain. Deep pain. The kind that never fully healed.
"What did you see?"
Silence's hand stopped moving. Her form flickered violently, nearly becoming transparent.
Then she wrote:
ECLARA.
The name meant nothing to Yuna. But the way Silence wrote it, the weight behind those six letters, made her throat tight.
MY CITY. WHERE I LIVED. BEFORE.
"On Earth?"
NO. HERE. VALDRIS.
Yuna blinked. "You were born in Valdris? But you're a summon. You came through the portal like..."
Silence shook her head. Wrote faster:
I DONT KNOW WHAT I AM. THE PORTAL TOOK ME FROM SOMEWHERE. MAYBE EARTH. MAYBE NOT. MY MEMORIES FROM BEFORE ARE BROKEN.
BUT I REMEMBER ECLARA.
I REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED.
Her hand stopped. Started again:
100,000 PEOPLE LIVED THERE.
Yuna's breath caught.
I SAW IT COMING. THE UNRAVELING. TWO DAYS BEFORE IT HIT.
"You saw it? Like a vision?"
ECHO ATTUNEMENT. I DIDNT KNOW WHAT IT WAS THEN. I JUST SAW.
Silence's form solidified with the intensity of memory:
THE CITY BURNING. PEOPLE RUNNING. CREATURES POURING THROUGH TEARS IN REALITY. CHILDREN SCREAMING. MOTHERS DYING. EVERYTHING ENDING.
I SAW IT ALL. TWO DAYS BEFORE IT HAPPENED.
Yuna reached out. Touched Silence's hand gently.
The girl flinched. Then, slowly, let the contact stay.
"Did you try to warn them?"
Silence's face twisted. Pain so raw it hurt to look at.
I TRIED.
Her writing became jagged:
I TOLD EVERYONE. MY FAMILY. THE GUARDS. THE COUNCIL. ANYONE WHO WOULD LISTEN.
NOBODY BELIEVED ME.
"Why not?"
BECAUSE I WAS ALREADY BROKEN. THE VISIONS STARTED MONTHS BEFORE. SMALL THINGS. ACCIDENTS I SAW BEFORE THEY HAPPENED. DEATHS I PREDICTED.
PEOPLE THOUGHT I WAS CURSED. OR MAD. OR BOTH.
WHEN I SAID ECLARA WOULD BURN, THEY LOCKED ME IN MY ROOM. FOR MY OWN SAFETY.
Yuna's chest ached. She could feel Silence's guilt through the CHORD, crushing and infinite.
"What happened?"
TWO DAYS LATER. EXACTLY LIKE I SAW.
THE UNRAVELING CAME.
100,000 PEOPLE DIED.
I WATCHED FROM MY WINDOW. COULDN'T LOOK AWAY.
COULDNT DO ANYTHING.
The three moons hung overhead, casting silver-gold light across the rooftop.
Silence wrote slower now. Exhausted:
AFTER. WHEN THE SURVIVORS FOUND ME. THEY ASKED WHY I DIDNT WARN THEM.
I TRIED TO EXPLAIN. THE WORDS WOULDNT COME.
HAVENT BEEN ABLE TO SPEAK SINCE.
"The trauma locked your voice."
YES. OR THE GUILT. OR BOTH.
THESS SAYS IT WILL COME BACK EVENTUALLY. WHEN IM READY.
"Are you ready?"
Silence's lips moved. Silent words that Yuna couldn't read. Then she shook her head.
NOT YET.
They sat together in the quiet. Wind pulling at their clothes. Stars burning in impossible colors overhead.
After a long time, Yuna spoke:
"It wasn't your fault."
Silence's hand clenched around the notebook.
"You tried to warn them. They didn't listen. That's not your failure. It's theirs."
100,000 PEOPLE.
"And you were one person. A child, probably. With a power nobody understood."
Silence looked at her. Eyes bright with tears that didn't fall.
"You didn't kill them. The Unraveling did. Blaming yourself for their deaths is like blaming the messenger for the message."
I COULD HAVE DONE MORE.
"Could you? What more could a locked-in child with no support do against an Unraveling?"
Silence's form flickered. Solid. Transparent. Solid again.
I DONT KNOW.
"Neither do I. But I know guilt doesn't bring people back. And I know carrying 100,000 deaths isn't something anyone should do alone."
The wind shifted. Warmer now, carrying scents from the Academy gardens below.
Silence wrote slowly:
MY NAME. BEFORE. IT WAS ASHA.
"Asha," Yuna repeated softly.
I FORGOT IT FOR A LONG TIME. THE TRAUMA. BUT IT CAME BACK RECENTLY.
"Do you want me to call you Asha?"
Silence considered. Then:
NOT YET. SILENCE FITS BETTER. FOR NOW.
BUT THANK YOU FOR ASKING.
Yuna nodded. "When you're ready. No pressure."
Silence almost smiled. It was the first time Yuna had seen anything close to happiness on her face.
YOU REMIND ME OF SOMEONE. FROM ECLARA.
"Who?"
MY SISTER. SHE BELIEVED ME. TRIED TO HELP ME WARN PEOPLE.
"What happened to her?"
Silence's face went blank. The pain underneath was so vast Yuna could barely breathe.
SHE DIED TRYING TO SAVE OTHERS. WHEN THE UNRAVELING HIT.
"I'm sorry."
I SEE HER SOMETIMES. IN THE FUTURES. DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF HOW THINGS COULD HAVE GONE.
"Is that comforting?"
NO. ITS TORTURE.
BUT I KEEP LOOKING ANYWAY.
They stayed on the rooftop until dawn.
Not talking much. Just existing together. Two broken people sharing space and silence.
When the violet sky began to lighten, Silence wrote one final message:
THE FUTURES I SEE NOW ARE DIFFERENT. SINCE THE SYSTEM ACTIVATED.
"Different how?"
FEWER OF THEM END WITH EVERYONE DEAD.
SOME OF THEM. WE ACTUALLY WIN.
"That's good. Right?"
Silence nodded slowly.
BETTER THAN BEFORE.
BUT STILL SO MANY WHERE WE DONT.
"Then we change the odds. That's what we're training for."
Silence looked at her. Those silver eyes, ancient with grief, held something new.
Hope. Fragile and uncertain. But there.
YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT.
"I have to. My mother told me I was enough. If I give up, I'm saying she was wrong."
Silence reached out. Touched Yuna's hand. Ice-cold fingers on warm skin.
YOUR MOTHER SOUNDS WISE.
"She was." Yuna's throat tightened. "She really was."
They climbed down together. Silence phased through the locked doors, then opened them from inside for Yuna. Small kindness. Practical trust.
At the bottom, they found Marcus waiting.
"Breakfast," he said simply. "You both missed it."
"We were talking," Yuna said.
Marcus looked at Silence. The girl who never spoke, never shared, never let anyone close.
"Good," he said. "That's good."
Training that day was harder than before.
But Silence was different. More present. Less likely to phase out accidentally. She fought alongside the team instead of at the edges, and when Aria called formations, she responded without hesitation.
Yuna felt the change through the CHORD. The guilt was still there. 100,000 deaths didn't disappear overnight. But something had shifted.
Asha wasn't carrying it alone anymore.
And that made all the difference.
That evening, at dinner, Silence slid her notebook across the table to Yuna.
A single line:
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING.
Yuna wrote back:
THANK YOU FOR TRUSTING ME.
Silence almost smiled again. Twice in one day.
Progress.
One hundred seventeen days remained.
And for the first time, Yuna understood what the CHORD was really for.
Not just feeling others' pain.
Sharing it.
Carrying it together.
Making it bearable.
[END CHAPTER 12]