Chapter 6 Where Silence and Song Collide

The moon hung crooked that night, like it had been pulled slightly out of tune.

Ileno's streets were quieter than usual - not peaceful, but paused.

A stillness with teeth.

Ariella walked alone.

The man with amber eyes had sent her home with warnings stitched into every word:

> "You'll feel him before you see him.

The Quiet Ones don't knock.

They arrive when the music falters."

She hadn't meant to leave the Guild, not yet -

But something inside her had begun to burn since touching the First Note.

A warmth. A need.

A vibration beneath her ribs that begged for air.

So she wandered.

To her rooftop. To the river. To the place where the mirror first shattered.

And there he was.

Standing in the middle of the cracked pavement, head tilted slightly to the side like he was listening to something she could not hear.

Calem.

He wore no robe. No mask. Just a long black coat that didn't sway in the wind and gloves too clean to belong in a city like Ileno.

His hair was white as silence.

His eyes were...

nothing.

No color. No reflection. Just stillness, like the surface of a pond that remembers drowning.

"Ariella Dawn," he said softly. His voice was warm - wrongfully warm.

"Your name is beautiful. Pity what it's bound to."

Her spine tensed. "Who are you?"

"A listener," he said, stepping forward, hands behind his back.

"One who stopped listening. For good reason."

The wind shifted. Pigeons exploded from the rooftops in a single panicked blur.

"I don't want to fight," she said, her voice a whisper.

Calem smiled.

"Neither do I."

Then he vanished.

Not a blink. Not a blur.

Gone.

Then behind her -

A hiss of silence, loud as thunder.

She turned just in time to raise her hand - a reflex - and sing.

Not words.

Just a note.

High and breaking - like glass under heat.

The sound struck him mid-step.

Calem flinched.

Only for a second.

But it was enough.

---

The sidewalk beneath her bloomed with ancient sigils - glowing gold from the note she sang.

Her pendant thrummed. Her chest ached.

He stared at her now, eyes unreadable.

"You resonate like her," he murmured. "Like the First Note."

Ariella backed away. "You're one of us."

"I was." His fingers curled into fists. "Before they taught me the price of harmony."

He raised one hand - not to strike, but to still.

Ariella's voice caught in her throat.

Literally.

Like a hand clamping her vocal cords from the inside. She gasped.

> He was silencing her.

Calem stepped forward. "You can't sing what you don't understand. Your voice will break you."

Her eyes watered. She fought to scream - but nothing came.

Then she remembered:

The feather. Still in her pocket.

She clutched it.

And hummed - through her teeth.

The feather ignited - not in flame, but in soundlight, a golden blaze that poured from her mouth in rippling pulses.

Calem reeled.

She fell to her knees, coughing - voice returned.

And in that moment, her pendant burst open - revealing a tiny folded note inside.

A song.

Not hers.

Her mother's.

Calem hissed, covering his ears. "No-not that-!"

The air cracked.

The ground split.

And Ariella blacked out.

---

When she awoke, she was back at the Guild.

Wrapped in a warm cloak. Her throat sore.

The man with amber eyes sat beside her.

"You survived him," he said softly.

She croaked, "He knew my mother's voice."

He closed his eyes.

"Then it's worse than we thought."

---

In the corner of the chamber, the First Note trembled in her chains.

And somewhere in the city, Calem pressed a trembling hand to his chest -

Where a heartbeat he had long forgotten had returned,

and in it, a name:

"Ariella