CHAPTER 8: SILENCE

Caedrion spent a brief time preparing himself for the day ahead before descending the spiral staircase from his room at the Scion’s tower to the library buried in the catacombs beneath the castle’s surface.

It was a long journey, longer than he had suspected it would be. And yet the moment he dipped beneath the ground, the light was purer than he ever could have imagined.

Not a single shadow danced across the walls, or even the corridors where darkness usually hid.

The lanterns on the wall glowed with perpetual light. Pure, without the slightest unnatural tint. Powered by what he assumed were enchanted stones.

It was a curious device from the perspective of a man who had half the soul of an engineer.

Thoughts and formulas flooded Caedrion’s mind in the moment as he continued walking forward aimlessly.

Thinking of how it must function, how he could replicate the process.

And then his attention was forced to the front by the woman who sat at the desk in the grand estate’s private library.

She placed her book down and glared at Caedrion with an inquisitive eye.

"You’re late.... I wonder... just what have you done to anger my daughter so? I advised that girl to wake you three hours ago, and yet here you are. The scent of fresh lilacs is overwhelming. Did you enjoy your bath?"

Caedrion rubbed the back of his neck, ashamed. Aelindria had been rather perturbed, and he couldn’t exactly explain why.

"Apologies, mother... I must have fallen back to sleep in the bath, please don’t blame big sister for my error."

Sylene’s eyes narrowed as she shut her book abruptly. Her gaze lingered intensely for quite some time before she finally sighed and shook her head.

"You really shouldn’t cover for her failings like this... Sure she is a bit older than you, and has a habit of bullying you like an elder sibling. But the two of you will be wed soon enough, and as a man you should know how to properly tame your women, even if she is as fierce as my daughter...."

Caedrion could only scoff as he sat down at the table. Gazing over at his aunt, who appeared to be immune to the passage of time. Looking little older than her own daughter.

Evidently, he was so entranced with the idea of how that was even possible that his thoughts carelessly left his lips.

"She overestimates herself... It should be easy enough to put the girl in her place after I’ve gotten accustomed to her wiles...."

Caedrion’s words hung in the air longer than he realized.

His aunt’s expression didn’t shift, but something behind her eyes sharpened.

Slowly, she shut her book and tilted her head.

"Who are you... and what have you done with my nephew?"

This was ultimately the remark that pulled Caedrion’s attention back to reality as he returned his focus back to his aunt, who was staring at him as if he were a total stranger.

Immediately he tried to defend himself, forcing himself to remain calm as he tried to laugh the comment off altogether.

"Aunt Sylene, you have known me all my life; do I really appear so different to you?"

Her gesture was not reassuring as Cadrion finally took a deep breath, and sighed. Rubbing the bridge of his nose with his fingers as he did so.

"Alright, fine... I’ll be frank with you... Ever since I fell ill, I... think.... Well, honestly, I don’t really know how to explain it to you..."

Sylene only narrowed her eyes further, if that was somehow possible, her voice becoming cold, sucking the very heat out of the air as it hissed through her teeth.

"Go on...."

Having thought about his predicament for a moment, Cadrion managed to force together a coherent argument.

One that he was perhaps trying to convince himself of more than his inquisitive aunt.

"It’s just that, while I slept... When I was poisoned that is... I dreamt of another life... In another world... I was someone else entirely.... And I guess I’m having a bit of trouble after living that second life; coming back to reality is all...."

Caedrion thought nothing would come of his remark, but the expression on the woman’s face proved the contrary.

Her mouth was so far agape he thought her jaw would fall off entirely. And then, she got up without a word, frantically searching the library’s bookshelves for something.

What precisely? Only she knew.

Just when Caedrion was about to call out to her aunt to see if she was okay, she slammed a dusty and ancient looking tome onto the desk, opening up its aging pages tracing her fingers along glowing script until finally she found what she was looking for.

And when she did, she looked up at him, then down at the text again, before once more staring at him.

"You underwent a Synthesis didn’t you?"

Synthesis...

In truth, he had referred to his state as thus in half jest.

But the word had hovered in the back of his mind since he’d woken.

As if his soul had been spliced together from mismatched code.

"How... how did you know that? And what exactly is this synthesis?"

Sylene smiled, perhaps genuinely for the first time Caedrion could remember.

And then she leaned over, staring at him intensely with her rust-colored eyes.

But it was not his own pair of eyes she was looking at; rather it was the leylines that glowed across his body.

"How curious? I never actually believed such a thing could be true. But it would explain why your ley lines are so different... yet still the same... My son... Tell me of this dream of yours... More specifically tell me of your death."

Death? How... How did she know he had died at the end of his dream?

There were so many questions he wanted to ask. But it would appear he would be the one answering them for the time being.

Caedrion was just about to reveal the full extent of his dream, and how he had perished at the end of it, when he heard the same whisper that had spoken to him in the mural, and in his quarters the night before.

"Silence...."

Sylene tried to press forward, getting even closer to him as she demanded an answer if not simply to satisfy her curiosity.

"Well? I’m waiting!"

Yet, the moment Caedrion opened his mouth to speak, he saw a figure appear behind his aunt.

It was a young woman, an entity composed of pure energy.

Glowing light, which was the same color that his own flesh bore markings of.

The woman looked furious but did not take a step forward.

She didn’t speak aloud.

A single word, ancient and commanding, thundered through Caedrion’s soul.

"Silence."

And then, darkness.