Night had settled over the city, blanketing rooftops and cobbled streets in silver light. Ren lay on a narrow cot in the small inn Aeri had dragged him to, still vibrating from the day's events. His mark pulsed faintly, a soft blue glow against his skin.
"…So," he muttered to the ceiling, "dragged into danger, survived divine enforcers, accidentally froze half a city… and now I get nightmares. Fantastic."
Before he could drift into anything resembling sleep, a chill crept along his spine. The room seemed to stretch, the walls softening like wax. A distant hum, faint but insistent, echoed in his ears.
Ren sat up sharply. "…Not a dream, I swear. No… maybe a dream… maybe—"
The hum swelled into a voice, layered and ethereal, like a choir singing from another dimension. His eyes widened as the world around him dissolved.
He was no longer in the inn.
He stood in a vast hall of golden light. Towers stretched infinitely, oceans shimmered beneath floating continents, and beings taller than mountains moved with divine purpose.
A voice whispered: "Balance. Harmony. Betrayal."
Scenes flashed before his eyes: gods laughing in councils of light, then clashing in war; mortals bowing, building, and dying; creation itself bending and folding like paper.
And then—the betrayal.
A god, radiant and calm, reached into the heart of the pantheon and shattered it from within. Light splintered into darkness, and the other gods screamed as their names began to vanish. Entire histories unraveled, leaving only fragments.
Ren gasped. "…Wait… this… this is—"
"Not yours… yet," a whisper replied. "But you will inherit the silence."
The vision shifted. He saw himself—no, not himself, but a figure whose eyes mirrored his—standing in judgment over a pantheon of broken gods. Memories he couldn't fully recall stirred, fragments of lives not his own.
"Why… why am I seeing this?!" Ren shouted, clutching his head. "…I didn't do anything yet! I'm just a commoner! I—"
Aeri's voice cut through the chaos. "Ren! Focus!"
The hallucination collapsed. Ren was back in the inn, soaked in sweat, panting. Aeri leaned over him, face pale but calm.
"You're experiencing your first memory fragment," she said. "It's… intense. It shows what you were, and what you're becoming."
Ren shook his head. "…I'm not ready for this. I barely survive a normal day!"
"None of us are ready," Aeri replied softly. "But you've been chosen—or maybe you chose yourself. Either way, these visions will guide you. If you survive them."
Ren's mark pulsed again, and he flinched. "…Great. More visions. Maybe next time it'll be a horror movie instead of divine trauma."
Aeri sighed. "…You'll need to understand them. They're pieces of the pantheon's fall. And soon… you'll understand why they call you the Silent One."
Ren's stomach sank. "…Silent One? I can barely talk without sarcasm, and now I'm… a god whisperer? Fabulous."
Outside, the city slept, unaware that a fragment of the past was awakening inside a boy who wasn't entirely a boy. Somewhere, the echoes of fallen gods watched, curious, and perhaps a little afraid.
Ren curled into the blanket, shaking. "…I just want coffee and normal problems again."
But he knew, deep down, that normal didn't exist anymore.
To be continued…
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