"Some words burn the language. Others drown it in a calm that kills. »»
Veyra - Gray dawn, backwind
Heaven was no longer talking.
Even the crows were silent.
Ashen did his usual turn in the corridors, welcoming the carriers, noting the names recited, verifying the vibrations of the book.
But he knew.
Something… was taking off.
He stopped in front of the door of the Malen room.
She was ajar.
Person inside.
On the table: a cup of water.
Intact.
Lukewarm.
Without trace of lips.
As if Malen forgot to exist that morning.
In the forest - Malen at the edge
He knelt near the big white tree, the one where Ashen had once engraved their first shared name.
He opened the small paper.
The word was still there.
Not written clearly. Only suggested.
And yet it was enough to read it mentally so that he vibrates in his throat.
He began to cry.
No rage.
No sadness.
Shame.
And he whispered:
- "Ashen ... if you knew. If you knew that I am the one who will erase you for a few pieces and a found brother ... "
Then he closed his eyes.
And without realizing it, he almost pronounced the word.
But something held him back.
A child's song.
In the distance.
A carrier who repeated a name.
Clear. Happy.
And that ... broke her voice.
Ashen in the crypt
That night, he descended deeper than ever in the crypt of the book.
Where too old names are no longer words, but breaths frozen in stone.
A voice floated in the air.
Feminine. Gentle.
But heavy.
- "You no longer have time. A mouth already brings oblivion. He does not speak by hatred. He speaks because he was offered peace. »»
Ashen knee.
- " Who is it ? Show me. Say it. »»
The voice replied:
- "You can't read it, because you still love it. It's up to him to choose. or betray you. **
Malen returned late. Very late.
No one lives.
Except Ashen.
Since the tower, he looked at.
He saw Malen tripping.
Take an object out of your belt.
The black bottle.
He slipped. Fell on a stone.
But did not break.
Malen picked him up slowly.
Then looked up.
Ashen was no longer at his window.
In his room, Malen fell asleep without supper.
But he dreamed of a word stuck to his palate.
A word that pushed like a black root in its language.
When he wakes up ...
His voice no longer worked.
He tried to speak.
Nothing.
The word had decided:
He was going to get out ... or devour him from the inside.
Veyra - early morning without word
The day got up on the Echo school.
But a carrier did not recite anything.
Malen.
Usually, he recited at least two names. Even distracted.
But there he did not speak.
Not even a word to the cook.
Not a hello to children.
Nothing.
Ashen crossed him in the corridor.
- "Malen?" Are you sick? »»
Malen opened his mouth ...
But no sound came out.
Ashen frowned.
Then, with gentleness:
- "It's not a disease ... It's a word that stole your voice to you, huh? »»
Malen came back, trembling.
Ashen added, without anger:
- "And that word ... you have it in you. You didn't say it. But you let him come. **
Ashen descended alone into the crypt.
Opened the book.
And asked:
-"Is Malen the carrier of the anti -voix? »»
The vibra book. Strong. Very strong.
But refused to write.
A page opened itself.
And in red letters:
"This word is too close to you. You must hear it from your own mouth ... or by its betrayal."
Ashen closed the book.
- "So it's up to him to choose. Or to me ... to take him to the edge. **
Malen alone in the card room
He tried to scratch a message.
But even the ink refused to fix its letters.
The word in him ... gnawed everything.
He couldn't even think clearly.
And at the bottom of his mind, a voice woven.
Say it. Free yourself. He will understand. He will forgive you. You haven't been to wear words. You were only his reflection. The shadow of the real carrier ...
Malen curled up against the wall.
And cry.
Again.
But not by weakness.
For fear ... to become the one he didn't want to be.
Ashen addresses students
-"Listen to me all. One day it is possible that one of you will betray without wanting to. Not out of wickedness. But because it has been trapped. Because he wanted to protect, or flee. »»
- "So I tell you this: if one of you ever is silent ... don't punish it. Do not hunt him. But bear the name in its place. Again and again. Until he returns. Or that he fades himself without noise. »»
The children pointed out their heads.
But some already understood.
Malen's silence was not an absence.
It was a silent war.
That evening, the school sang one of the oldest names:
That of Caldor.
But Ashen did not ask Malen to recite it.
And Malen, sitting in the shadows ...
We cried once again.
But this time, without tears.
The word in him was too heavy.
"Some silences scream stronger than confessions. »»
Veyra - Inverted circle room
Ashen brings together seven carriers for a special ceremony.
Not a recitation.
An inverted call: each carrier had to sing a name ... then forget it voluntarily.
A dangerous exercise, intended to understand what those who forgot in constraint lived lived.
Malen was invited.
He refused.
Not out of fear.
But because he was already carrying a word that he was not allowed to pronounce.
A word that forbade him of singing.
Ashen looked at him for a long time.
Then said to him:
- "The absence begins to devour you, Malen. You can no longer stay within the walls of speechless echo. You become a ghost. **
Malen looked down.
And did not answer.
Overnight
Malen went to the forest in silence.
A silhouette was waiting for him. Low cap. Cross hands.
She spoke in a calm voice:
- "You held thirty days. It's respectable. But the time comes. Day 80 is approaching. You have two choices: pronounce the word ... or wear it until it devours you. »»
Malen hugged his teeth.
- "What if I go to you?" If I refuse? »»
- "You can't anymore. This is not an object. It's you. You have become this word. He's the one who lives when you sleep. He was the one who stole your voice to you. And if you don't say it, he will say it without you. **
Silence.
Then Malen asked:
-"What will you do with Ashen?" »»
- " Nothing. You will only deprive him of a name. Of a friend. And a chance to save Caldor. He will only have his faith to survive. And it will be too little. **
Ashen, in the tower - a letter never sent
He writes:
*"Malen,
I don't know if it's you. Maybe I'm wrong.
But if you are the carrier, if you were who gave me as a fracture ... I don't hold it against you.
I just want you to tell me. In silence if necessary. By a gesture. by a look. By your absence, even.
But say it, before it is the world that shouts it to me. »*
He folded the letter.
Then didn't send it.
Malen, alone in his room, looks in a split mirror.
He whispers without voice, reading on his lips:
I'm going to betray him.
Then, stronger:
I'll say the word.
And he repeats, again and again.
Without sound.
Until his throat starts to vibrate again.
The word is prepared.
"There is a time when you stop resisting. Not by weakness, but because the resistance becomes more painful than the act. »»
Veyra - Preparations for the event
The echo school was in full swing.
Ashen had announced to the bearers:
- "In twenty days, we will be there, on the place of the seven voices. Not to shout, but to bear a name where everyone wants to suffocate him. »»
He held a map of the imperial center.
Logistics were complex:
- Voice of voice,
- sound masks,
- Concentration of carriers,
- And above all ... the central carrier.
Ashen put his hand on a black circle, traced in the middle of the card.
Where Malen was to speak.
He didn't look up.
But his voice barely treated:
-"That voice ... will have to hold the whole memory. Even if she is alone. **
Malen - Complete acceptance
That night, he sank into the forest, further than ever.
He found a flat stone.
There was his own name: Malen Nor.
Then ... erased it.
With its nails.
With his saliva.
With rage.
He cried.
For the first time in days, his voice came out.
And with it, the word forbidden was in him.
He knelt.
- "I'm ready. I will say it. The day comes. And it will be over. I will no longer be the witness. Nor the brother. Nor forgotten it. I will be… the one who ended the book. **
A shadow came out of the trees.
The woman with a silver mask.
She knelt in turn.
- "You're not a traitor, Malen. You are a correction. **
She deposited a full scholarship at her feet.
And a new name, sealed.
- "When everything is finished, it will be yours. **
Ashen no longer wrote.
He spoke to the book, like an old friend.
-"You feel the word, right? You know he's in motion. **
The vibra book.
"He has been swallowed. He only asks to be offered."
Ashen closed his eyes.
- "And I don't have the right to know who he comes from? »»
"You will know ... in the moment it is said. Not before. Because it is a betrayal, not a choice."
Ashen clenched his fists.
- "So I will prepare myself. I will speak anyway. Even if silence engulfs me. **
Malen returned to school that night.
He passed the sleeping carriers.
Stopped in front of Ashen, who was sleeping, the book on hand.
He approached.
Too close.
And in a breath, so low that no one could hear it:
He says the word.
Not strong.
Not officially.
But he says it.
And the book ...
closed suddenly.
"Sometimes you just have a breath, a whisper ... and the world no longer knows how to remember. »»
Veyra - Broken night
When the word was pronounced ...
Nothing changed.
No flash.
No cry.
Just…
A false calm.
And the book, at the foot of Ashen sleeping, turned slowly, as if someone had closed him from the inside.
Malen took a step back.
Looked Ashen.
And murmured:
- "You won't have time to understand. And I will not have the right to apologize. It's better. »»
He turned away.
left noise.
But behind him ...
The vibra book. One last time.
Then he didn't do anything.
The day after
Ashen woke up with a deaf migraine.
He went directly to the book.
Unable to open it.
He forced.
Nothing.
Not even a magic resistance.
It was worse than that:
The book no longer wanted to be read.
He tried to speak out loud:
-"Name of Mirian El-Lov. Worn by Elen three times this week. Confirmed. Stable echo. »»
No vibration.
No answer.
Silence.
Ashen gathered the students.
- "Today, a serious event has taken place. The book ... closed. This means that we must now speak without support. We are alone. »»
The children panicked.
A boy sobbed:
- "But if he no longer confirms ... How do we know if the names hold? »»
Ashen lowered his head.
- "We don't know. We believe. And we repeat, stronger. »»
Malen - locked in the word
In his room, Malen vomits.
Blood.
And a little black ink.
The word ... had been said.
But it was not over.
He thought he was free.
He thought he had only "disabled" the book.
But now that the word had left its throat ...
He resounded in a loop.
In his head.
In his bones.
He whispered:
- "You didn't say to me ... that the word remained. That I would keep it even after having pronounced it. **
He tried to write.
Nothing held on paper.
Even his own name faded a few seconds after being registered.
He ran to the river.
Soak his arms.
Looked at his reflection.
And for the first time ...
He doesn't live his face.
Ashen - Crisis Council
Gathered in the crypt, Ashen and the seniors were trying to understand.
-"Maybe the book protected itself, feeling an attack? Proposed an archivist.
- "Or ... he was contaminated. By a voice that we let in. "Replied another.
Ashen remained silent.
Then, finally:
- " No. The book does not defend itself. He goes out when he binds him betrays. Someone among us ... pronounced the word closing. An unnamed word. A black word. **
All frozen.
- "Who do you know?" Asked one of them.
Ashen did not answer.
But his eyes, they were already looking at a single room.
That evening, Ashen posted in front of Malen's door.
He struck. gently.
- "Can you talk to me?" »»
No answer.
- "You can say nothing, but be there. I'm still there. As long as you breathe, you can still come back. **
Silence.
Then…
A noise.
Malen ... locked the door from the inside.
Ashen remained frozen.
Then murmured:
- "So it's you. It's you. »»
And behind the door ...
Malen fell on his knees.
Without more words.
Without more name.
"A name only needs silence to disappear. A school, with a single silence to collapse. »»
Veyra - D+2 after the book closed
For the past two days, the book has not been opening.
For two days, names have not held.
One by one, the children were starting to forget the echoes they have been reciting for weeks.
Elen, 11, cried in silence by holding the name of the name of Mirian El-Lov.
- "I said it every morning. But this morning ... I just said "Mian ... or ...Mirom ... "And it was gone. Party for good."
Ashen knelt near her.
He tried to correct the pace.
Breath.
The exact tone.
But nothing was coming back.
The memory had gone.
- "It's not your fault. It is not a forgetfulness. It's a fracture. Someone broke the rhythm of memory. **
The children began to panic.
Some recited in a loop, out of fear.
Others ... were already silent.
Ashen - Wake up bitter
He dreamed of Caldor, locked in a hanging cage.
Around, masked faces sang names upside down.
Then, one of them ... was silent.
And the ground collapsed under Caldor.
Ashen woke up in sweat.
He looked at the book.
Always closed.
Cold.
He knew.
The word had been said.
And he knew by whom.
But he was not going to punish Malen.
He was going to save what he could, despite himself.
In his room, Malen no longer ate.
No longer slept.
Whenever he tried to speak, he heard another voice than his own.
That of the word.
It was no longer a simple betrayal.
It was a transformation.
He tried to write to Ashen.
But as soon as the ink touched the paper, the words disappeared.
He tried to engrave a sentence on the wood of the ground.
But his hands trembled.
And what he engraved unwittingly was:
"It was I who turned off the world."
In a neglected room, Ashen gathered the students.
He drew on the ground a crude memory circle: an old rite, prohibited at the Academy, but which could still contain names without the help of the book.
- "Today we are going to try to preserve what silence is trying to take us. What betrayal has not yet erased. »»
Children sit, trembling.
Ashen took a stone.
- "I'm going to engrave a name. And you will keep it inside you. Not in mind. Not on the palate. Breath. »»
He traced:
"Caldor."
A thrill passed in the air.
- "Even if the echo falls. Even if I fall. You should not let him die speechless. **
Malen looked out the window from his room.
He lives the children, in a circle.
Ashen in the center.
A quiet force, which did not fold.
And Malen ...
felt that his betrayal had not even broken him.
She only made him stronger.
And that was, more than anything ...
who made him crack.
He hit the table.
Howled in his throat.
No sound.
And fell, curled up, in tears.
"There are days when we speak speechless, and when we live without name. These are the days that history forgets ... and that the silence buries. »»
Veyra - in the morning without song
That day, nobody recited.
Not a name.
Not a breath.
Even the most faithful children were killed.
Elen got up ... then sat down without saying a word.
Lior looked for his name book ... then put it back without opening it.
Ashen entered the common room.
He understood right away.
It had happened.
The nameless day.
He remained standing, frozen.
Then asked:
- " For what ? »»
No one answered.
He whispered:
- "It's not your fault. You only felt what I still refuse to accept. The book will not come back. Not as before. Someone ... killed him. **
Malen - disappear
He no longer ate.
His reflection had ceased to follow him.
The children who passed in the corridor no longer really saw him.
A pupil jostled his door inadvertently, and did not even apologize.
As if Malen no longer existed.
He looked at himself in the split mirror.
And this time, he only lives the word.
Not written.
Just ... present.
Engraved in his flesh.
He understood:
- "I am not a traitor. I became an anti -avoix. An inverted carrier. I do not destroy ... I have Dew. **
Ashen - the last call
That evening, he lit a big fire in the center of the school.
He asked the remaining bearers to sit in a circle.
He said to them:
- "Tonight, I'm not asking you to recite. I ask you to shout. Not names. Not words. Just ... your voices. To prove that we still exist. »»
One by one, the children howled.
No fear.
Of despair.
And Ashen, in the end, howl too.
Long, hoarse, heartbreaking.
The book… did not vibrate.
But the sky seemed to listen.
Malen - erasure begins
In his room, objects lost their name.
He touched a table: no longer remembered the word.
He tried to write "window" on a wall. The letters were blurred.
Then ... he forgot his own first name.
He tried to say it.
But it was ... emptiness.
He whispered:
- "I became what I was supposed to give. Forgotten incarnate. **
He went out in the cold.
And march towards the forest.
Alone. Invisible. Disady of any name.
Faced with almost extinct fire, Ashen was standing.
He raised the closed book.
And declared:
- "Even if you are silent. Even if memory collapses. Me, Ashen, I will walk to the place of Caldor. And I will say his name. Even alone. Even without echo. Even if nothing answers. **
The children listened to him.
Some were sobbing.
But all ... believed it.
And at this precise moment, a page of the book Vibra.
Nothing written.
Just ... a breath.
"When there is no longer any pounds, no more voices, no more schools ... There is the legs left to walk. »»
Veyra - Last morning
The day got up on a silent school.
The children had not left.
But they had stopped talking.
To believe, a little.
Ashen, he was preparing his bag.
He had neither protection, authorization, nor escort.
Only the book closed, and a handful of nom-noms.
Seven.
One for each voice he had promised to save.
He went out.
Children were waiting for him, forming a human hedge, tightened against each other.
No one was talking.
But a little girl, Elen, handed her a cord.
- "You had lost it. This is the one you wore when you got here. She has your first name engraved in it. »»
Ashen took it.
- " THANKS. Have you kept it all this time? »»
She nodded.
Then asked, whispering:
- "Are you going to come back?" »»
He hesitated.
- " No. But maybe my voice will come back without me. **
Malen - in the deep forest
He no longer knew where he was going.
But he was walking.
He met stones, streams, trees he should have recognized.
But everything had lost his name.
He fell once, twice.
In the third, he remained on the ground.
And there, in the mud, he whispered without believing it:
- "Ashen ... I just wanted to be shadow. I wanted to exist differently. But I swallowed everything. I became a hole. **
A silhouette appeared.
White mask. Ink cape.
She was. Silent.
- "You are not yet empty. But soon you won't even be able to regret. So stay here. The world will do the rest. »»
She turned her heels.
And Malen, on his knees, no longer protested.
Ashen - Road to the Imperial Center
He was advancing alone.
Behind him, Veyra disappeared in the fog.
In front of him, the roads became harder.
More monitored bridges.
More frequent patrols.
But no one noticed it.
Because he no longer brought a visible name.
No more emblem.
No more books.
Just ... walking.
He stopped in an inn, refused to speak.
He just looked "silent passer" on a piece of wood.
And the tenant nodded.
- "Still one of those who want to save what is already lost. »»
Ashen smiles.
And still walked.
In the evening, at the top of a hill, Ashen lit a fire.
He took the first stone-name:
Caldor.
He put it in his hands, closed his eyes.
And said, in the wind:
- "Caldor. I no longer have a school. I have no more voices around me. But I'm here. And as long as I'm here, your name ... will not fall. »»
A light breeze blew.
And a dead leaf wraps around the stone.
Ashen barely smiled.
Even alone, a name can resonate.