The campfire burned low, embers snapping in the cool night. Most of the mercenaries were asleep, scattered around in bedrolls. Lyra was curled under her cloak, harp resting against her side, while Brann snored like a thunderstorm. Only Selene sat awake, hood drawn, her gaze fixed on Kael from across the flames.
Kael sat apart from them, flute in his lap. The weight of Darius's words clung to him like chains. A curse. A burden.
He lifted the flute to his lips, but instead of blowing, he closed his eyes. Selene's words lingered. He drowns in noise. He needs silence.
He listened.
The crackle of fire.
The soft rhythm of Brann's snores.
The faint rustle of night creatures in the trees.
And beneath it all… something quieter. A stillness, waiting.
"What if," he whispered to himself, "silence isn't just absence? What if I can make silence?"
The thought rang inside him like a bell.
He breathed in slowly, then blew a single note. It was soft, barely audible, but he forced himself not to push, not to flood it with the wild echoes that had betrayed him before. Instead, he reached inward, pulling at that stillness he had touched.
The world around him shifted.
The crackling fire dulled. The night insects went quiet. Even Brann's thunderous snore faded to nothing.
A circle of silence wrapped around Kael, swallowing all sound. His note didn't vanish, it grew. The echo expanded outward, sharp and clear, vibrating with a focus he had never achieved before. The flute's resonance carried power, amplified by the silence itself.
For a moment, Kael sat frozen, stunned by what he had done.
Then the silence broke like glass. The fire crackled back to life, the forest sounds returned, Brann snorted awake with a confused grunt.
Selene's voice came quietly from across the fire.
"You found it."
Kael jerked his head toward her. She hadn't moved, but her gaze pinned him like a blade.
"I… I think so," Kael said, his voice shaking. "If I silence everything around me, even the resonance of others, then my own echoes… they become louder. Clearer."
Selene tilted her head, studying him. "Dangerous. But effective."
Brann sat up, rubbing his eyes. "What's this? The boy finally made music without blowing us all to bits?" He grinned, then clapped Kael on the back so hard he nearly dropped his flute. "About time! I was starting to think you were just here for decoration."
Kael flushed, caught between pride and embarrassment.
From the shadows, Darius's voice cut through. He hadn't been asleep after all.
"Control one moment does not erase failure in the last. Do not grow arrogant, boy."
Kael's small smile faltered, but Lyra stirred awake and yawned. When she saw Kael, her eyes widened. "You did it, didn't you?"
Kael met her gaze. For the first time, he didn't feel like lying. He nodded.
Lyra's smile was quiet, but it warmed him more than the fire. "I knew you could."
For the rest of the night, Kael couldn't sleep. He sat with the flute in his hands, thinking about what he had just discovered.
Silence wasn't absence.
It was power.
And maybe, just maybe, it wasn't a curse after all.