That night, Kael couldn't sleep.
The underground chamber hummed softly with life—whispers carried in coded taps, the scratch of pencils on scavenged paper, the steady drip of water echoing through the tunnels. Around him, rebels slept curled in blankets stitched from scraps, their faces etched with exhaustion yet softened in rest.
But Kael lay awake, staring at the cracked ceiling. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the Tower exploding in sparks, the Accord's drones swooping low, Halden's pale, calculating eyes.
Part of him wanted to run. To crawl back to the silence of his assigned district, pretend he had never met Mira, never seen the Resonance. Maybe then the Accord would forget him. But another part burned hotter than fear. That fleeting five seconds of sound—the people's voices breaking free—still throbbed in his memory. He'd never felt anything so alive.
"Can't sleep?" Mira's whisper floated from the shadows. She sat a few steps away, knees pulled to her chest.
Kael shook his head. "I don't belong here. I'm not like you."
"You lit the Tower," Mira said simply. "You belong."
"That was an accident," Kael muttered. "I panicked. I don't even know what I'm doing."
Mira's eyes gleamed in the dim lantern light. "None of us did, at first. But silence… silence teaches you what matters. You either endure it, or you fight it."
Kael looked at her, then away. "And if I don't want either?"
"Then you'll break," she said, voice quiet but sharp. "And the Accord will own you forever."
The words sank into him like iron weights.
The next morning, Daren summoned Kael. The leader's broad frame filled the narrow tunnel as he handed Kael a small, palm-sized device—an emitter cobbled together from wires and broken VoxTags.
"This is your choice," Daren said. "Stay, learn, and fight with us—or leave now. But if you stay, the Accord will never stop hunting you."
Kael stared at the device, his heart pounding. His mind screamed for escape, for the safety of silence. But his hands… his hands tightened around the little machine, as though they had already chosen.
Mira's voice echoed in his memory: You either endure it, or you fight it.
For the first time, Kael wondered which was worse.