The machine's pulse echoed in Kael's skull, each beat pressing deeper, blurring the line between fear and revelation. His breath came shallow, the cuffs around his wrists digging into bone.
The interrogator stood perfectly still, visor reflecting Kael's pale face. "You feel it, don't you? The pull. The Accord can silence it, Kael. All you have to do is choose."
A panel slid open on the table. Two objects rose from beneath—one, a black shard of tech pulsing faintly, the other, a small steel band etched with Accord markings.
The interrogator's voice was smooth, patient. "The shard amplifies the infection. Accept it, and you give yourself to chaos. The band, however—" They tapped it lightly. "The band restores order. Silence. You'll be free from the Resonance forever."
Kael's throat tightened. Freedom. Silence. It sounded like relief, yet his gut twisted at the thought.
"What happens if I refuse both?" His voice cracked but held firm.
The interrogator leaned closer, their mask almost brushing his. "Then you'll be erased. Not killed, Kael. Forgotten. Every trace of you dissolved into nothing. You'll have never existed."
The words sent a chill through him. For someone who had spent his life unseen, the idea of being unmade carried a sharper terror than death.
But then he remembered Mira's hand pulling him through the streets. Daren's booming commands that carried more hope than fear. The voices etched into stone walls deep underground. The Resonance wasn't infection—it was memory. Defiance. Life.
Kael's gaze shifted to the shard. Its faint hum matched the rhythm he'd felt since the day it first stirred in him. Not infection. Not flaw. Something older, deeper.
He lifted his eyes to the interrogator. "What if the Resonance isn't chaos?" he said softly. "What if it's truth?"
The figure froze. For the first time, the perfect calm cracked. A tremor in their breath, a hesitation in their stance.
Kael's choice had already been made.
He stretched his bound hands toward the shard. The cuffs bit into his skin, but the hum surged, filling the room with a vibration that made the walls shiver. The interrogator stepped back, hand twitching as though to stop him—yet they didn't.
Kael's fingers brushed the shard.
And in that instant, the Resonance roared through him like fire.