The Guards advanced cautiously, weapons drawn but hands trembling. The air around Kael pulsed with static, the shard alive in his grip. Every breath he took resonated, bending the world at its edges.
But his eyes weren't on the Guards. They were on the interrogator.
The figure hadn't moved since the alarms blared. Their visor reflected the chaos—sparks, shouting, the glow of the shard—but their body remained still, tense like a coil.
"Why didn't you stop me?" Kael demanded, his voice low but carrying. "You could have. You should have."
For the first time, the interrogator hesitated. Then, slowly, they raised a hand. With a subtle wave, the Guards froze in place, uncertain. The alarms dulled, replaced by the faint hum of the Resonance itself, wrapping the chamber in uneasy silence.
The interrogator stepped closer, visor tilted down as though weighing a choice. Their voice dropped, softer than before. "Because I've heard it too."
Kael's chest tightened. His grip on the shard steadied. "You—?"
The interrogator reached up with shaking hands. For a moment, Kael thought they would remove the visor. But they stopped just short, fingers brushing the mask as if afraid.
"I was taught it was madness," the figure whispered. "A sickness that devours. But the first time I heard it, I didn't feel broken. I felt… alive."
Kael's pulse thundered. This wasn't an enemy—this was someone standing on the same edge he'd once feared. "Then why stay with them? Why serve silence?"
The interrogator's head lowered. "Because the Accord owns everything. My name. My past. My future. To walk away is to vanish. And I wasn't ready to disappear."
The shard throbbed in Kael's palm, as though urging him to speak, to bind this fragile moment. "You don't have to disappear," he said. "You can join us. The Resonance isn't infection—it's connection. You know that."
The interrogator's visor angled up, reflecting the shard's glow. "Maybe. But connection makes you powerful. And power makes you dangerous. The Accord fears that. I fear that."
Before Kael could respond, the door behind them hissed open, and a new figure entered—an Accord commander, towering in plated armor. The fragile pause shattered instantly.
The interrogator stiffened. Whatever they were, whatever choice they might have made, it was swallowed by duty.
But Kael had seen the crack.
And he knew—behind that mask was someone who could turn the silence into a weapon against itself.