Location:The Tower of Silence, inner resonance core Time:Immediately after the encounter with A. Dea
Echo (alone):
The air smells metallic.
Not like iron.
More like the memory of something that once was alive – and now remains only as sparks.
Echo (careful):
Her steps are soft. Perhaps too soft.
The floor beneath her shimmers in wave-like pulses – not like light, but like something that recognizes her. Or scans her.
No sound.
Not even the sound of her own movements is audible.
Even her breathing is swallowed by the structure of the tower.
As if this world no longer tolerates voices.
Echo (counting):
She breathes slowly. Deliberately.
Not because she has to – but to be sure that she still can.
Because A. Dea has shown her:
To live is not the same as to exist.
Echo (looking around):
The chamber is lined with closed mechanisms.
Strange projectors. Built into an architecture neither human nor functional.
Silent. Encrusted. Forgotten.
And yet – one begins to glow.
Only a trace.
A line of light, barely visible, pushes into the air like a strand.
Echo (hesitant):
She steps closer. Ready to retreat if the tower demands a price again.
But no judgment comes.
No pressure.
Only a hum – faint and high, more structure than sound.
Then – it begins.
Echo (frozen):
An image forms.
Not sharp. Not complete.
A hologram – assembling itself from vibrating fragments, like shattered glass reorganizing.
No visible projector.
No source.
Only a whisper made of light.
A man appears.
Tall.
Clad in a robe made of strands of light.
His face – distorted.
The image cannot fully hold him. Time does not allow it.
Unknown voice (fragmented):
"…the Nexus… unstable… she must not…"
Silence.
Then – another image.
Fast. Impossible to catch.
A silhouette. Female.
Half light. Half metal.
Echo (unmoving):
She doesn't move.
And yet… she looks directly at Echo.
Without eyes. Or with too many.
Overlay voice (layered):
"He was too human… she sent him away…"
The voice comes from everywhere.
Or from nowhere.
Echo (focused):
It sounds like A. Dea.
But different.
Too much emotion.
Too much… regret?
Then – a third fragment.
Second voice (clear, soft, female):
"He was the only thing I could not calculate."
The light trembles.
Echo (raising her hand):
She wants to touch it.
Not to control.
Just to know that it's real.
But the projector shuts down.
Suddenly.
The resonance lines on the floor go dark – as if the tower has decided:
Enough.
Echo (standing):
She remains.
Empty.
Awake.
But without direction.
What she saw –
It was not made for her.
Not now.
Not here.
No knowledge. No understanding.
Only fragments.
Answers encoded in a language beyond time.
Echo (hand to chest):
Her heart beats.
Uneven.
But it beats.
And it is hers.
Final scene – Echo in the center of the tower
Echo (sits slowly):
She lowers herself to the center of the room.
The floor is cool.
But not hostile.
No more voices.
No more lights.
Only her – and what remains.
Echo (closing her eyes):
A voice.
A will.
Without a reason.
Echo (thinking):
Maybe she doesn't live.
Maybe she just… hasn't disappeared yet.
But she is here.
And maybe – as silence settles over her like a blanket –
maybe that is enough.
END of the flashback