The streets above ground were dead quiet, but Kael could feel the hunt. Floodlights swept through alleys, the metallic whir of drones hummed over rooftops, and every shadow seemed to hold the sharp outline of a Quiet Guard's visor.
Mira gripped his wrist and pulled him down a narrow passage. Her breathing was quick but controlled, her eyes constantly scanning. "Keep low," she mouthed, barely audible.
Kael nodded, though his heart hammered like a drum. He could still hear the echo of the Broadcast Tower breaking those stolen seconds when voices filled the air, raw and beautiful. He hadn't even realized he was crying until Mira dragged him into the maze of side streets.
A spotlight flared behind them. A drone.
"Run," Mira whispered.
They sprinted through the dark. Kael's boots slapped against cracked pavement, his lungs burned, and yet the silence around them felt heavier than the sound of pursuit. A mechanical screech split the night—the drone had spotted them.
"Down here!" Mira yanked him toward a grate half-hidden beneath collapsed stone. She kicked it open and shoved him inside. The tunnel swallowed them whole, damp and stinking of rust. The grate slammed shut just as a beam of white light swept past above.
Kael fell to his knees, gasping. "How… how long until they...
"They won't follow us here," Mira said, though her voice wavered. "Not yet."
He forced himself to breathe, listening. In the distance, faintly, came a sound he hadn't heard in years: human voices. Whispering. Dozens of them.
Mira gave him a tired smile. "Welcome to the underground."
They moved deeper through the tunnels, lit only by dim lanterns rigged from scavenged parts. The walls were lined with scraps of old posters, fragments of words outlawed long ago. Kael touched one, a torn page with a single word scrawled in faded ink: Freedom.
At last, the tunnel opened into a cavernous chamber. It was alive with people. Men, women, even children. Some were scribbling words on salvaged paper, others humming softly, their voices weaving into a quiet tapestry of defiance.
Kael's throat tightened. He hadn't realized how starved he was for sound until this moment.
Mira placed a hand on his shoulder. "This is the Resonance. Not just rebels. Survivors. Keepers of what's left."
Kael's eyes swept over them, faces worn with exhaustion, but lit by a fire the Accord had never managed to extinguish. For the first time, the silence didn't feel like chains. It felt like the pause before a storm.